I dont get it????

[Theheat]

Ok so our church is wanting to record Live worship we are going to purchase pro tools and i dont know what we would need to do it. we are planning on getting 2 Ibook G4 's and i know we need firewire but what is the best one to get so we can record 15 channels and still edit??? please help...J

[Cloneboy Studio]

Why 2 laptops? You only need one. Look into something like the Tascam 1804--it has 18 inputs/outputs and is only 600 bucks. Also, ProTools isn't the way to go unless you are dropping 20-30k on a HD system; maybe look into something like Cubase or Sonar.

Make sure to save some money for good plugins. Digital recording is pretty worthless without the best plugins you can find... at the worst Waves plugs.

[dgatwood]

Originally Posted by Cloneboy Studio

Why 2 laptops? You only need one. Look into something like the Tascam 1804--it has 18 inputs/outputs and is only 600 bucks. Also, ProTools isn't the way to go unless you are dropping 20-30k on a HD system; maybe look into something like Cubase or Sonar.

Make sure to save some money for good plugins. Digital recording is pretty worthless without the best plugins you can find... at the worst Waves plugs.

I wouldn't even get -one- laptop unless you're planning to record something like a church choir that tours other churches in the area or something. For a permanent setup, you'd be much better off with a desktop machine---either a G5 tower or an iMac G5.

An iMac G5 would give you much more CPU power, much better hard drive performance, and a bigger screen (better for editing). It would also be less likely to walk away on you and less likely to be carried around in a damaging way (like being sat on somebody's back seat and sliding off on the floor... or left on the roof of someone's car). Get yourself a cart or something if you need to move it around a little bit.

If you really do need a laptop, though, consider adding an external FireWire hard drive. Besides being much faster than a laptop's internal drive, it's much cheaper to get bigger capacity that way. And again, anywhere you'll be recording, you'll probably have access to 110VAC.

Oh, and I'd go with a FireWire audio interface, too. They tend to be more reliable than USB. It's worth the extra few bucks.

[silentman]

I agree with what dgatwood said, go with a desktop. Get a cart to roll the setup around on; that way you can do your mixdowns and (ahem) "mastering" in another room. I will say that you don't have to go with a Mac to get good results (gasp!). You could go with a Dell and tweak it out to minimize the monetary damage. Get a dual head card and run two 17" flat panel monitors and you'll still get out for less money than an G5 and have just as good of a machine (if you tweak Windows XP properly). I prefer USB just because my PC doesn't support firewire, but most of the interfaces that will offer up 16 channels are your firewire interfaces. Waves bundles are going to be your best bet as far as plugins go. Also, like dgatwood said, you'll want an external firewire harddrive. I don't suggest writing your audio straight to the drive, but you can use it to back up your recordings after each service. It'll also be nice to have if you get close to a finished product and you want to take it out for some real mastering. Good luck!

-JV