MAC people...possible convert here

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Can I interupet for one second; can someone tell me what OS means >*<
 
If you have the money for pro tools mix plus and a farm card or 2 thats the way to go....

Otherwise digital performers great....

As for soundscape. why spend all that cash on a dsp based system and then be left with jack shit for plug ins?

As for the best audio quality I think high end analog systems still are the most forgiving.I think A lot of big studios track to tape and dump into pro tools to edit.

If you want speed get a mac:
http://www.barefeats.com/pentium.html

Camn, you can post benchmarks of software not oiptimised for g4 and show a p.c. outperform, but when utilising altivec and mp the mac seems to be the fastest.And these are the older macs, the new ones are even faster....If you want to compare the 733 g4 to an athlon or p4 be my guest...

g4= p.c. crushing power(when running a program utilising altivec)

and when os 10 is here in march a mac will be doing 128 floating point calculations compared to pc's 32 bit floating point, hmmmmm.....

Os 10 is revolutionary because its a graphic interface for unix wich means true multitasking and no crashes...

While windows nt allows multitasking the x86 architecture of p.c.'s is multi task impaired. To truly be effective at multi- tasking you need a g4 and os 10;)

lets not even get into the x86 cisc vs. g4's risk arcxhitecture......(apple all the way)

If you want to help camn install windows 2000 get a p.c., and while you guys chat about configuration I'll be getting work done;)

If you wanna go pro,
http://www.apple.com
 
Re: 733 or dual 533?

Jerry Kahn said:
Hey, now that were on the topic, does anyone know which is better for pro tools and/or digital performer-- 733mhz or a dual processor machine? I understand the 733 will let you burn a DVD inside... must be handy!?! --jk


From What I understand, The dual Processor Macs were developed for Mac OS10 which has yet to be released. So the dual processor wasn't selling very well. Now they have the 733. You can burn cd's and dvd's with it. The fact that you can run windows apps on the Mac has always been a mac benefit, but everybody has always been so dead set against macs they overlook the benefits of the platform. I think the only reason windows is everywhere and macs aren't is mainly the price. The lack of software like games and such is because they were always more for professional use rather than personal computing. Now that has changed. There is still not as much software as for windows, but new software is made for the mac everyday. I'm not scared to say I'm a mac fanatic. Although I have not had much experience with windows, I am open to it for various apps.:cool:

Mac on, T.J.Hooker

[Edited by T.J.Hooker on 01-21-2001 at 11:11]
 
bv.. Its kinda like the kid who was Junior Class President. Thats Protools. Popular? Yes. Needed for industry success? Probly. The Best Audio Solution? Probly not. My 2 cents. I, however, am part of the HUGE chunk of the music biz who has had to deal with studios over and over... and all I want to do is make enough dough to get MY OWN, so that I don't have to deal with studios anymore. Because studios remind me of High Schools. "what are the downtown guys using??" I still dont care. Thats why Im yanking chains. Popular never has meant quality to me.

I dont think Mac's are the problem, seriously. They're just another hyped up computer that charges more for the same deal. If you wanna go pro, go Silicon Graphics, dudes.

robert.. http://soundscape-digital.com/Products/Soft/index.html I hate that prologic plug in.;) oh, and if you wanna go pro... http://www.gibson.com

xoox
 
Beware any advice from any evangelist. Objectivity goes out the window.
 
thanks, T.J. (how's priceline?)

Before I say anything else, I just want to thank everyone for a very interesting, informative and stimulating thread. Especially camn.. you really stimulate me.

robert jaybird said:
If you have the money for pro tools mix plus and a farm card or 2 thats the way to go....Otherwise digital performers great....As for soundscape. why spend all that cash on a dsp based system and then be left with jack shit for plug ins? As for the best audio quality I think high end analog systems still are the most forgiving.I think A lot of big studios track to tape and dump into pro tools to edit.

camn (on the another Mac hatred thread) said:
If you ignore the people who use other things...like tape, or, Soundscape's shit, than, sure, its the most popular product in a crooked industry. I can dig it.
xoox


Now I'm very curious about this tape thing, and I have never used it (except as a kid-- my Dad had a big reel to reel and a whole bunch of tube analog gear -- tuner amp etc. that I remember was real cool and which would probably be worth a bundle today). I hear quite often these days (now please don't slap your forehead too hard now) that the sound quality on a really good tape machine can be better than 24 bit digital recording, unless you are using the absolute best A/D converters (i.e. Apogee, Prism). I am now wondering if it might be worth it for me to buy a used high end tape setup, save a few sheckles/still get killer sound. I want to seriously consider tape as an alternative for what I want to do, with the following justifications...

I don't feel right sqandering ALL my money, plus going into hock, for another computer-- a new G4 will run me $3,000, add Mix Plus another $10,000, or even Motu for an additional $3,000. Even then I know I still won't be done buying digital equipment -- next digital mixers, extra hard drives, then I'll want an Apogee PSX 100 because I am so anal about sound quality-- more and more gear, for what ... I'm not opening a professional recording studio and I figure that for anything that I want to actually FINISH on a CD (i.e. master) I will probably end up needing to pay a professional studio to help me with anyway, no matter what gear I end up buying.

I currently own a Mac 7500 + 16 bit Pro Tools and Digital Performer (16 bit) with an audiomedia III card. I farted around with this setup for about six years, 'til about 3 years ago. It worked fine, and I had written a lot of sequenced Midi stuff on it with Performer which I GREATLY dug. It has a 2gig drive, which is not big enough for anything at all, even 16 bit audio. I ended up putting individual songs/music on a zip drive cartrige just to manage storage-- a nauseatingly slow process!!!

When I first heard 24 bit audio around 3 years ago, on a Pro Tools setup at Sam Ash, I became really dissatisfied with my setup. I didn't do anything about it because of other priorities--I had been working hard on singing for the last 3 years (to the neglect of music writing/recording), but now things have finally gotten better, so I started revisiting the recording thing, and buying stuff that I felt I absolutely wanted to own NO MATTER WHAT, partially based on some of your recommendations:

I got a good mic (TLM103), a good pre(Vintech), a great reverb (LexPCM91), some analog effects boxes
and a Space Echo. I also just bought a POD, which gives me a boner every time I plug it in. I also have a sans amp which I love too.

I DEFINITELY, ABSOLUTELY HAVE to get Gigastudio-- for orchestral sounds.

I am interested mainly in writing original music for the theater (fringe stuff, I guess you'd call it) and maybe music for my own original videos. I also might want to make some demo CDs for my friends interested in legit singing careers/Broadway/Opera. I am not interested in being a rock star, nor getting anything played on the radio. I am in a semi-professional theater in NYC as an actor/singer and that is the medium I wish to pursue for creating music i.e. write shows sort of like 'Rent', I guess-- I am thinking of doing something like a musical adaptation of "The Matrix" (I know, commit me now). I am not really interested in being a killer recording engineer, as much as having fun creating new music. I would rather save my money and buy some more quality instruments -- i.e. a sax or two, a nice acoustic guitar, maybe a fiddle. In addition to guitar (I play single reed instruments actually my strongest suit-- recorder, tin whistle and jew's harp). The only catch is I have become anal about sound quality (so I guess I do want to be an engineer then, by default).

Anyway, now that I have sickened you to the point of your considering the various benifits of the use of pipe bombs and/or blow torches (and thanks for reading this far by the way), I am NOW wondering about the following setup:

(a) buy Gigastudio along with a dedicated PC (which I absolutely must have or I'll stomp and have a tantrum) and
drop 3K for that.
(b) Do all my recording to a really good tape machine which I will buy (another 3K?), hopefully getting
excellent sound quality in the analog domain, and it seems like it would be fun too.
(c) Continue using my old Mac for sequencing
(d) Bloat up the old Mac with additional hard disk storage space somehow (a glyph perhaps or some other type of hard disk recorder?).
(d)Continue to use the old 16 bit Pro Tools on my Mac, but this time without the storage problem, but only as a scratch pad editor/arranging mechanism-- i.e. I'll xfer the taped stuff to the Mac, edit it, then, after I have decided how the final product should sound, bring the original tapes to a professional studio and do it all over again there in a high end digital environment, and then master a CD or DVD there.

What do you think of this odd plan? Is it very bizarre? Am I fooling myself thinking I can get quality with an excellent used tape machine and not go broke? Is recording to tape fraught with such technical peril as to render me sexually impotent for the rest of my adult life? If it's not that far-fetched to do all this, which tape recorder would you recommend? I have seen such units, I think, advertised on ebay and the sweetwater trading post-- any comments on any/ all of these thoughts? What other gear will I need, and what will it cost if its good?

Thanks again...

peace,
-jk

PS I also have a decent (I think) compressor-- an Aphex Compellor 320, and a shitty old Yamaha 8 channel mixer.
 
oops

Sorry, that probably should have been posted in the Analog area-- but I felt compelled to stick it here, since tape was mentioned in comparison to computer based recording systems. Guess I'll be shot.
 
Camn that soundscape plug ins list is lame..

No bombfactory?
no waves?
no mc dsp?
no line 6 amp farm?

As for your guitar link, thats more my style;)
but i prefer prs, my custom 24 is my baby( though i put in the most hours on my semi hollow guild starfire 3)

what you might want to do is upgrade your mac to a g4 for $350 like I did-www.xlr8yourmac.com, Im using a joecard g4/400
http://www.outpost.com

Pro tools is good when you have lots of $$$ and can afford a few mix cards the you can use a shitload of plug ins(100 +) no sweat, and they sound better.

If thats not in your budget your budget dp, or nuendo is cool.The thing is youll want something for digital editing thats better then your current pro tools set up. So even if you get a tape machine youll want to have something like a delta 44 soundcar, or a gina 24..

If you want multiple i/o's then theres the motu 2408 unless your an apogee kinda guy....(wich you seem to be)

the thing is even if you get a great sound on tape, what would happen to it in your 16 bit soundcard?- so you need a 24 bit soundcard...

Id reccomend you use an atari then give up music to nurse a life of indulgance and addiction;)

And if your gonna get pro tools you dont need anything more then then a g4/400 cause the dsp cards do all the processing..

And, if you can do with ouit the best plug ins that are the only justification for a dsp based systems get soundscape...

But if you like the pod, line 6 amp farm wont just give you a boner it will add inches.There are things you can do in digital that are impossible with tape.having both is great, but having to choose one or the other id take a mix+++ in a heartbeat...(though im using neither presently.

I think your gonna have to find your own answers to this.
 
Hmmmm .... that a lot of questions. I'll just give you this comment. Do NOT go with a tape machine. I say this as someone who started with tape, who still has a tape deck (albeit a crummy little 8 channel Fostex), and who still has some affection for those big boat anchors. A good analog deck may sound more "natural" to your ears than digital. This is simply because slight analog distortion (a.k.a. "warmth") is more pleaseing to your ears than digital "harshness". However the huge hassle of tape editing, the expense of tape, plus the general maintnence bitchiness of keeping one of these guys in good shape is just not worth it. Random-access 24 bit hard disk recording is the way to go. I don't think I would even use an ADAT now if someone gave one to me...
 
jaybird...


So even if you get a tape machine youll want to have something like a delta 44 soundcar, or a gina 24...
the thing is even if you get a great sound on tape, what would happen to it in your 16 bit soundcard?- so you need a 24 bit soundcard...

What I was thinking of doing was, after recording to tape, to do a low quality conversion at home from tape myself to my current old Mac, edit that stuff in ProTools 16 bit-- but only for the purpose of figuring out what the edits will be. I would be using PT16 like a 16 bit "scratch pad", but not actually doing anything with the resulting output other than taking notes on what the edits were. Then I'd actually go out to a professional studio, bringing the original tapes with me, and then REDO the whole thing-- conversion and editing and all, but this time in a 24 bit pro studio environment. Then mix/master there as well. So essentially I would be renting the 24 bit equipment... i.e. Mix+, instead of buying it myself. But I will have planned all the edits out in advance at home with my shitty mac so I'll save time and $ in the studio. This is just a fantasy, mind you-- a way that I will have the best of all worlds, satisfy all my anal cravings, and keep myself out of debt house. I have no idea if it will work. Do you?
 
thanks RWhite

missed your post while posting my last one-- thanks for the feedback on tape machines. I guess I just gotta think about all this stuff!

PS Doesn't Bill Gates kind of talk like Kermit the Frog, or is that just me? In a recent infomercial (countering, Im sure some of the Fed actions against him) I could swear he was actually trying to look like Kermit. What's up with that? I guess no one would ever suspect Kermit of trying to fuck them upside their rump!

yuckers,
jk
 
Jerry

My two cents on going analog. Don't do it. What you are proposing to do (just for yucks) is too much work, only to end up trashing it and starting all over. Go with a home set up you are comfortable with. You can record your raw tracks at home, then have them mastered professionaly without losing any of your original work. Going digital gives you that many more possibilities.


Jerry Kahn said:
AlinMV:

I just spoke at length to a guy named Brad from Sweetwater who was selling me on MOTU--they don't do Pro Tools, at sweetwater, it seems.

-jk


BTW, Sweetwater does sell protools.

Albert
 
Seriously, Tape machines have NO upgrade Path.

This is what Id do:

Get a Digital Mixer. With TDIF outs (I hate light pipe...). Get as nice as you want.. this is the easiest part to upgrade.

Get a TDIF interface. Soundscape Mixtreme for PC, Tascam PCI 822 for Mac... the Mixtreme is 24/96.. I think the Tascam is only 24/48..but im not sure.

Get some software that supports 24/96.. Like whatever. Learn to use it.

Beef up your computer... big HD, CDR, lots of RAM.

You will be happy with the quality.

All rivalries aside, you can do extremely high quality work on a number of platforms... no need to resort to tape.

xoxo
 
thanks all

gotta thank you all, and digest all this... I guess its a consensus then about my brilliant tape idea -- good God, what's happening here-- y'all actually agree on something! Oh no! Heaven Help Us! ITS AN OMEN! The Apocalypse is Surely at Hand! ...

peace
--jk
 
I think The only tape machine to use these days would be a big 24 track. Ya know with the big 2" tape. Ya ever see one of those suckers? aside from big price tags, the things have wheels. The're still used in the big houses(not prisons). Just remember the wider the tape the better. That tape gets spendy though.
T.J.Hooker
 
when i said tape i meant 2 in. not some reel to real thingy.

Now i can help you as i understand that both a good tape machine (waaaay out of your budget) and pro tools(slightly out of your budget) are overkill...

You can get an good high quality multi i/o 24/96 soundcard easily for under $1000 the ones I'd call the highest quality are the motu 2408, m-audio midiman 1010, and echo layla 24...While these units arent of the caliber as an apogee unit with the 2408 for instance you could hook up a apogee rosetta to it via spdif.

As for a computer get whatever. A p.c. will give more bang for the buck, and you can probably get a lot of power for around $1,000. A mac will ghive you 0 headache's, and will allow you to use excellent software such as digital performer.For audio I'd reccomend a dual cpu mac, you can get their new 533mhz as dual cpu's on special order.

When a g4 400 is running a program with altivec code its like a p3 800, without altivec code its like a p3 600
Cubase and logic both implement altivec, but very few plug ins do.

Now, as for software it depends what you will want.I get the impression youll do both audio and midi.For audio the best choice is probably pro tools, but with the digi 001 its a limited version(if you can live with that), then theres nuendo wich is steinbergs answer to pro tools.

So really theres digital performer, nuendo , cubase, and logic audio....take your pick

Nuendo has limited midi features, and the best audio editing features of the 4.Digital performers midi is great and its audio is better then cubase or logic.

Cubase has some cool ideas in 5.o with their 32 bit true tape, and vsti.

Logic's strong point is definetaly midi.It has the strongest midi but weakest audio of all mentioned products.

Amd all these programs can use vst plugs in some way or another wich is useful. I say this because this year t.c. works is putting out their power core dsp card for a revised vst format wich will use the vst card freeing up the cpu.this dsp card sup[posedly is equal to the power of 4 g4 400's and will cost under $1,500

So, if you want the best mix of midi and audio its digital performer.for just audio its pro tools, soundscape, or nuendo. Cubase and logic themselves have unique strengths that you may dig etc...
 
jaybird

Alright, I've just had my mental-oscopy, and I'm feeling very refreshed, thank you. I think I am with you now.

All I have left to do is just bite the bullet and cough up a few sheckles to get:either:

1 g4/533x2 or 733 + Digi001 (or Motu)
-OR-
2 pc + soundcard + R.ed or Mixstream
-AND-
3 a digital mixer
and...

But WAIT.. uh-oh, I can't .. not.. just... now...I'm feeling way too jewish again! Guess I needed that SECOND mental-oscopy after all!

Seriously, Thank you all once again. I will be re-reading this all, I'm sure, quite a number of times, before receiving my third mental-oscopy of the evening. I think I take that one straight up.

peace,
jk
 
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