M
mikeshep
New member
Hi, a little out of touch with the current generation of Macs and looking for some direction. I self-engineer as a long-time voiceover guy who's gone from the early days of Mac G3/G4 through numerous IMacs (currently) - which are now 4-5 years old. I have a control room/voice-booth set-up so I'm going back and forth between computer desk and booth - which has gotten old.
I was going to run an external monitor off the Imac into my booth - along with wireless or bluetooth keyboard/mouse to give me dual control so i could monitor - and edit without having to leave the voice booth. I ran into issues trying to do this with an external monitor on my main IMac - problems with the slaved monitor not matching the resolution of the IMac (distorted). But, i wouldn't mind a newer higher-power processor Mac - and i think a Mac Mini would be ideal. It's so quiet that it seems a solid choice for my purposes..quieter than the Imacs to my ear. Plus whether it's software or HW based, i find the IMac has gotten very buggy with finder and app crashes and instability - esp when working with a lot of files at once on a given project.
It looks to be logistically easier to route two monitors off a Mini than an IMac is, and that'd allow me to voice either in the control room area OR booth - with a little more outer room acoustic treatment - though the C.R. still will not be as dead as the booth which is fully treated. Looking at the i7 quad core with 500gb internal. One question is about the value/advantage if any in going for a solid state vs. conventional internal drive. I would also ultimately be attaching an external (probably FW) HD as my "record-To" disk with apps residing on the internal HD.
Would be happy to get any advice and specific recommendations - this is my summer project and i'm looking to get it all together (and probably sell off an IMac or two) very soon... Any ideas on how to cut cost without compromising speed/performance ... or suggestions for good quiet external drives as well -- greatly appreciated. Thanks for tolerating some of the generic questions here. Just helps to get rolling when i get some input from fellow studio folks who are more in touch with the latest Mac incarnations - quirks, known issues, et.al. BTW i would likely be running the latest OSX version -- however things are reasonably stable right now with Snow Leopard...and with an app like Bias Peak - that i use regularly i don't know about stability beyond 10.7 - the point at which they abandoned development - tho i can always revert to older OSX if needed even on the latest or recent Mac Minis without any issue AFAIK.
THANKS! Happy 4th,
I was going to run an external monitor off the Imac into my booth - along with wireless or bluetooth keyboard/mouse to give me dual control so i could monitor - and edit without having to leave the voice booth. I ran into issues trying to do this with an external monitor on my main IMac - problems with the slaved monitor not matching the resolution of the IMac (distorted). But, i wouldn't mind a newer higher-power processor Mac - and i think a Mac Mini would be ideal. It's so quiet that it seems a solid choice for my purposes..quieter than the Imacs to my ear. Plus whether it's software or HW based, i find the IMac has gotten very buggy with finder and app crashes and instability - esp when working with a lot of files at once on a given project.
It looks to be logistically easier to route two monitors off a Mini than an IMac is, and that'd allow me to voice either in the control room area OR booth - with a little more outer room acoustic treatment - though the C.R. still will not be as dead as the booth which is fully treated. Looking at the i7 quad core with 500gb internal. One question is about the value/advantage if any in going for a solid state vs. conventional internal drive. I would also ultimately be attaching an external (probably FW) HD as my "record-To" disk with apps residing on the internal HD.
Would be happy to get any advice and specific recommendations - this is my summer project and i'm looking to get it all together (and probably sell off an IMac or two) very soon... Any ideas on how to cut cost without compromising speed/performance ... or suggestions for good quiet external drives as well -- greatly appreciated. Thanks for tolerating some of the generic questions here. Just helps to get rolling when i get some input from fellow studio folks who are more in touch with the latest Mac incarnations - quirks, known issues, et.al. BTW i would likely be running the latest OSX version -- however things are reasonably stable right now with Snow Leopard...and with an app like Bias Peak - that i use regularly i don't know about stability beyond 10.7 - the point at which they abandoned development - tho i can always revert to older OSX if needed even on the latest or recent Mac Minis without any issue AFAIK.
THANKS! Happy 4th,