Thoughts about computer upgrade

[aphexus]

Hi there,

This is my first of probably many posts on this forum.

And so to kick things off:

I currently record on an old dual 1.25 Ghz mirror door drive Mac G4 with 2 GB RAM. I use a Digi 002 with Pro Tools and have recently started using Ableton Live 7 a lot, often rewired into PT.

I mainly do rock/folk/electronicy stuff with pretty high track counts (20-30 plus), a handful of soft synths (4 or 5 instruments in SampleTank, the occasional Absynth 4 or Operator/Impulse insert, an instance of drums in Ableton) plus a few Amplitubes, reverbs, compressions, eqs, PSP vintage warmers etc.

As it stands now, I routinely max out my system while recording and have begun yearning for a new rig as I can no longer get the sound I want (i.e. more realistic-sounding drums, better quality instrument inserts, more control over post-recording tone tweaking).

As for an upgrade, I'm sorely, sorely, sorely tempted to go portable with a new macbook pro. I would love, LOVE the portability of a laptop (plus the absence of a loud fan when recording).

-BUT-

I am looking for a big processing boost relative to what I have as I feel hampered at nearly every turn when recording these days.

-SO-

What do you recommend? Based on what I've laid out do you think I'd be happy with a new MacBook Pro or would I ultimately be disappointed with a minimal speed boost over my current system?

I basically don't know what to expect with these newfangled systems as I haven't paid much attention to the hardware end of things since I got my current rig in 2002.

Thanks a lot for any suggestions you might have!

Glad to be a part of this community and look forward to contributing...

[MessianicDreams]

Originally Posted by aphexus

What do you recommend? Based on what I've laid out do you think I'd be happy with a new MacBook Pro or would I ultimately be disappointed with a minimal speed boost over my current system?.

A new MBP is going to me night and day compared to you G4. Literally. There has been SO MANY advances since you bought your G4 that they're not even comparable. My girlfriend has a MBP and I've been working on it using Logic, and holy shit that thing is powerful.

Interestingly, I actually tried running one of her sessions on my flatmate's G4 powerbook (not sure of processor speed). The PowerBook wouldn't play the session at all. The CPU meter on her MBP, whilst playing back the exact same session, was barely tickling 50% of ONE core!

I run the first generation of Intel MacMini, a fair bit less powerfull than her MBP, and it packs a real punch when mixing in PT - it's only when the mix gets real big that I start to have CPU overloads.

[aphexus]

Thanks for the reply!

This is what I was hoping to hear. I'd really welcome the portability and absence of fan bleed when recording in a small environment (i.e. my home office) and it's nice knowing that I won't have to give up on power to get that.