Making The Digital Leap

G

GTRNSAX

New member
Hi..

I just tried to post this but then I remembered that I have a new email address so am posting again because I'm not sure it made it after I updated my profile. I've been an analog guy for many years and am now considering adding digital capability to my studio. I'm looking at Mac G4's on ebay and need to know what processor speed I will need to run a protools LE system. (MBox or maybe an 002). Do I need the dual 1.25 MGHz or will 400 do? Something in the middle? How about hard drive size? Is 80 Gig enough? Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks...

MM
 
A dual processor powermac will let you run more plug-ins, tracks, etc., and it would help to have at least a gig of ram. If you don't use lots of plugs and higher track counts you can get away with a single 1.8 imac or even a mac mini, ,maybe given that you add more ram. You would need at least an 80 gig in addition to your internal, especially with the mini if you go that route. Personally I'd go with a dual processor if you think you're gonna build your digital setup further.
 
Thanks

RHYTHMRMIXED...

Thanks for responding. How about the G4 route? You can find dual processor G4 Powermacs that are a couple of years old pretty reasonably on ebay. The problem is that there seems to be quite a bit of difference in price between the different speeds. Would I need like a dual 1.25? I really don't want to have to think about having to limit the number of plug-ins and trackcounts. Also...would I need an external drive in addition to an internal 80gig?
 
A dual 1.25ghz G4 machine would work fine, and you could still run a good number of plugs and tracks. I'd buy the best that you can afford with your budget, just keep in mind that you need sufficient ram to run a project with lots of plug-ins, tracks so consider that when you decide if you'll need to add anything to the computer you get. I use a dual G5 that came with a 160 gig HD, and I still bought an external firewire 160 gig HD, not only for the added space, but as a good backup to archive all my project audio files, etc.
 
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I will echo what the others have said about the Mac and storage end of things.

As far as the ProTools LE end of things, if you will never need to record more than two tracks at a time, then an MBox is a fine deal at approximately $550.00 for the factory bundle. If you need more tracks then go with either the Digi002 rack (about $1,300) , or the Digi 002 with control surface (about $2,100).

I have the Digi002 Rack with a 2 channel Aphex 207D Microphone Preamp with S/PDIF digital out, and a Behringer ADA8000 with light pipe into the Digi002R giving me a total of 18 channels. All rack mounted and portable.

I run mine on Windows, and in studio I have a P4 3.2 w/ 2 GBs RAM and 2x80 GB drives and a 200 GB FireWire drive. On the road I use my AlienWare mobile workstation (friggin big laptop) featuring a P4 3.4 CPU, and a GIG of RAM, and enough drive space to bring the project back to the studio and transfer it to larger storage..

I record our 7 peice band with drums and percussion live and always have enough ports now. I also offer my services to other bands to record them live.

Hope this helps.
 
It seems like everyone here is tryin' to be helpful and that's cool however......there is some less than accurate info floating around.

First. Pro-Tools as an application is not dual threaded. It can not in, and of itself, take advantage of dual processing. Pro Tools LE on a dual 1.25 Mac will NOT run more plug ins than it's single processor brethren.

Second. Where it is absolutely true that a second dedicated "audio" hard drive is wise the reasons have changed over the last 10 years. In the early days of PT the speed of internal drives was simply not enough to keep up. Many experts preached the benefits of separate external 10,000 rpm SCSI drives and hence the race was on for external audio and video drives. The advent of 7200 rpm ATA drives proved to be enough for most if not all audio projects so now one "could" record to an internal drive if so inclined. Certainly the performance is there. Some myths began to arise out of these new drives such as higher track count or more plug-ins ect, ect. Truth be told any properly maintained drive will give you about the same performance.

Why external then? The primary reasons are the fragmentary nature of audio files and the ease of which a separate drive can be maintained. The process of de-fragging an internal(application drive) in Mac's can be well....curious, at least. I'd much rather leave the application drive to do it thing...run the application leaving the task of de-fragging to the audio drive only.

There are some significant differences between the M-Box and the 002. The biggest difference being the way audio is monitored. The M-Box monitors directly from the hardware box itself where the 002 monitors from the software thru the hardware. The other issue of course is the simultaneous in's and out's. The 002 has 18, the M-Box 2.

Finally a G-4 800 (randomly picked processor speed) will run Pro-Tools LE just fine. Track count on a G-4 will be no different than on a G-5. G-5's will offer some performance increases primarily due to the ability to load up on ram which in turn will significantly improve plug in count. It should be noted however that Digi is fairly quick on discontinuing support on all things third party hardware. You'll have several years with a G-4 but someday soon....

Hope that helps

JH
 
Joseph Hanna said:
First. Pro-Tools as an application is not dual threaded. It can not in, and of itself, take advantage of dual processing. Pro Tools LE on a dual 1.25 Mac will NOT run more plug ins than it's single processor brethren.
Click to expand...

My fault. I incorrectly assumed Pro Tools LE was similar to Digital Performer in that it utilized dual processor Macs and that track voices and plug-ins were directly dependant on CPU resources.
 
Jahme...

Jeez you read my mind.....I was just sitting here thinking...ain't (aint) gonna be dat good.

That's ummm.. thoughtful.
 
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