Just making sure this will work (Mac laptop)

pdadda

pdadda

Captain Sea Boots
I need to be able to make my recording gig more mobile. Fortunately, I already have a MOTU828mkii as my interface. But I need to get a laptop, one that I will use strictly for recording/mixing and nothing else. I am leaning towards getting a Powebook G4 right now. The base model that costs $1500 is what I have my eye on:
http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APP...hif85WmI/1.0.11.1.0.6.17.1.0.27.3.1.1.0?45,13

Does anyone use this same laptop for recording? Is the screen too small? I use the program Tracktion, which uses a one window interface. I mostly record audio tracks, although I hope to start doing a bit more MIDI work as well.
 
pdadda said:
Whoa crap. I was just looking at the Mac website and noticed the Mac Mini's. Since I already have an extra monitor, this also seems like it might be a cheaper option, albeit a bit less portable. One thing I noticed is that the monitor port on the back looks odd. Can you only connect a Mac monitor to it?

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APP...S7BHAsum/1.0.11.1.0.6.29.1.1.21.3.1.1.0?23,11
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No, it comes with an adapter. You can connect whatever you want to it. Just beware of the lack of connectivity.
 
What do you mean by lack of connectivity? Are you talking about monitors or about the small number of USB and firewire ports?
 
pdadda said:
What do you mean by lack of connectivity? Are you talking about monitors or about the small number of USB and firewire ports?
Click to expand...

He probably talking about the limited number of ports (one firewire) so you might have to jump through some hoops to connect a second hard drive. The other issue is RAM. As I noted in the other post, you probably would want more than the 256 mb that comes with the computer. It's not a big deal but it adds to your bottom line cost.
 
pdadda said:
What do you mean by lack of connectivity? Are you talking about monitors or about the small number of USB and firewire ports?
Click to expand...

One FW port. Once you hook up your FW hard drive (which you'll need) where are you going to hook up your FW audio interface (which you'll need, as there's not many decent USB2 devices out there)?

Sure, I guess you could get a hub, but I hate dealing with that mess.
 
Why would you need a a firewire hard drive? Do you mean for tracking? Or do you mean for space reasons?
 
The mini comes with either a 40 GB or 80 GB hard drive. That's a little small for storage purposes these days. The other reason for an external drive would be to access audio files from a different drive than the drive holding the OS and applications files. Some hard drives can function as a hub if they have additional firewire ports. My old Mac setup uses a Glyph external hard drive connected to a flat panel i-mac. My interface is not connected directly to the computer but to the Glyph. I have two firewire ports in the i-Mac but I needed to access the other port with a DV video setup.

As you can see, the simplicty and low cost of the mini get lost pretty quickly when you start adding external hard drives, extra RAM, etc. Makes you want to bite the bullet an just grab one of those dual G5's doesn't it!
 
Yup. I have a P'book 1.25 with an 80gig drive and frequently track to the internal drive. Since the Mini is essentially the same thing I'm sure it will work. You'll run out of space soon enough, though, so that's where the external drive comes in. I think the 80Gig mini also comes with a DVD burner- quite the handy session archiving device.

If you don't need to portablity of the Powerbook, the Mini is a good option from all the reports I've heard.

Take care,
Chris
 
The Mini comes with a 4200rpm drive, too slow for all but the smallest of jobs. Hence the external FW drive.

I wouldn't recommend tracking to the internal 4200rpm drive.
 
pdadda said:
Where did you see that it comes with a 4200 rpm drive?
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I didn't see it on their site; someone popped one open. Regardless, even 5400rpm isn't enough for anything extravagant either.
 
I use my ibook G4 to record and it works well as long as I use my external firewire drive with it. I generally run all samples and loops from the firewire drive as well as recording to it. The internal drive is 4200rpm and is not useful at all for recording purposes.
 
I went to an Apple store today and messed around with Logic Pro 7 on the lower scale version of the Mini (1.25 GHz, 256 MB RAM). It seemed to have no problems playing back 6 tracks that had a bunch of samples on them simultaneously. Since most of what I record is straight audio, would this thing be reasonable to use when mixing?
WIth regards to the one firewire port, is there any sort of splitter you can buy to plug in an interface and a firewire HD simultaneously? My interface is a MOTU 828mkii.
 
pdadda said:
I went to an Apple store today and messed around with Logic Pro 7 on the lower scale version of the Mini (1.25 GHz, 256 MB RAM). It seemed to have no problems playing back 6 tracks that had a bunch of samples on them simultaneously. Since most of what I record is straight audio, would this thing be reasonable to use when mixing?
WIth regards to the one firewire port, is there any sort of splitter you can buy to plug in an interface and a firewire HD simultaneously? My interface is a MOTU 828mkii.
Click to expand...

The 1.25Ghz w/ more RAM would be fine. But no, I would not recommend just going at with with the internal drive, because you're either going to hit a brick wall very soon after 6 tracks, or you're going to be freezing everything, which is nice to have but gets to be a pain in the ass.

You have two more FW ports on the back of the 828mkII. Try using a hard drive off of that first, then if it is skipping, popping, or anything get a high quality powered FW hub.

I'd get the bluetooth option, followed by the BT keyboard and mouse. It'll free up a USB2 port.
 
I have a feeling anything will be a drastic improvement over what I have been using: 500MHz PC, 128 MB RAM, 4 GB HD (slow speed). But I've been able to record 6 tracks simultaneously without any problems. I record with Tracktion 1.
 
pdadda said:
I have a feeling anything will be a drastic improvement over what I have been using: 500MHz PC, 128 MB RAM, 4 GB HD (slow speed). But I've been able to record 6 tracks simultaneously without any problems. I record with Tracktion 1.
Click to expand...

well yeah, definitely. :D
 
So, pdadda, what's it gonna be? The suspense is killing me! Have you tossed the idea of a powerbook in favor of the Mini? Have to considered a third option like the imac G5? The 1.6 gHz with combo drive is going for $1,299 and while it's not as portable as a power book, it's far more portable than a traditional computer. Plus, unlike the mini, it's all one piece--sort of a laptop on steroids! It works well and plays well with MOTU products and it's hands down the coolest looking computer on the block! Plus you can mess with Garageband for free since it's included with the machine. Just a thought if your sure you want to make the switch to Apple.

(PS: I checked out your web site. I like the music section--especially the practice sessions with the room mic. )
 
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