Sure it is certainly possible, but there are a few issues at play- first of
all, on a PC, if you are recording ASIO, you need a *really* powerful CPU.
I would recommend a P4 Extreme chip on at least a 800MHz FSB. You'll also
want a couple gigs of memory. Second, you want fast drives.. If you are
using IDE, run a RAID-0 array. If you are going SATA, any drive will likely
be fine, but the 10K RPM Raptors are pretty sweet.

The way things work, you are more likely to have issues with CPU while
recording because of ASIO's need to reserve a certain amount of CPU for
recording.

--Ben

--
Benjamin Maas
Fifth Circle Audio
Los Angeles, CA
http://www.fifthcircle.com

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"William Krick" wrote in message
oups.com...
I have a friend who has a home studio. He's enlisted my help in
building a new PC to use for recording.

He needs to record 12 or more _analog_ channels simultaneously on a PC
at 192KHz/24-bit.

I've been researching the current PC based recording hardware
technology and I'm not sure that this is even possible.

12+ analog channels at 192/24 produces a huge volume of data. This
data has to come into the PC over the PCI bus, and at the same time, be
moved stored on the hard drive. It seems to me that the PCI bus and/or
the IDE bus would present an insurmountable bottleneck.

Is anyone out there doing this? If so, what exact hardware are you
using, both PC hardware and recording hardware. I'd really like to
know.

I'm confused about external A/D converter units (like the FireFace) vs.
internal units like the Hammerfall series.
Which are people using, and why?

Are people using Windows XP?

What actual recording/editing software is up to this task?