Recording with a G4 powerbook (1ghz)

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Tom_B

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Hello all... Someone just gave me their old (2003) powerbook g4 with a 1 ghz processor and 1 gig ram. I've been using my <gasp> tascam 488 mkII for many many years and have held off on making the digital leap for financial reasons. I was wondering if any of you old timers used to use this computer for recording and what sort of performance I can expect... or any suggestions for optimizing/what software might run best, etc. Thanks!
 
Reformat the drive and reinstall a clean OS. Get rid of all the un-needed crap. As for performance it depends on the recording software/hardware you intend to use.
 
I do live tracking with an iBook with a 1.33GHz processor and 1GB RAM. I don't have any problems tracking, but adding effects really puts a burden on the slow (by today's standards) G4 processor. You should be ok until you start layering on effects.
 
Thanks for the responses. So, it should work fine for recording and mixing down as long as I don't use many plugins, etc., yes?

Well, I actually bought one of those cheapy presonus inspire boxes (presonus.com/products/Detail.aspx?ProductId=7[/url]) a while ago for a different laptop (long story, didn't work, but I kept it anyways). So I was thinking of starting with that and cubase to see how it goes.

I was thinking of doing a clean install of the OS... always seems like a good idea. But what unneeded stuff are you talking about, stealthtech? just programs you don't use for recording, etc.?

I was also wondering if I should change the memory setting, etc. Perhaps there's a faq somewhere for recording with a mac that I've missed... What I've found has only said to not run any other programs (duh). Oh, and use an external firewire hard drive.
 
yeah you could probably pull it off, but it might be a little slow. It depends what kind of music you are doing. if you limit the amount of tracks your recording at once and use little to no effects it will probably be fine. 1 gig of ram is pretty good! that's how much my up to date macbook (not the very newest model) has and it works fine with logic. Cubase is good too

on another note, let me know how the presonus inspire works. I'd like to know more about it. do you know how many inputs you can record simutaneously?
 
My recording projects are usually live drums (3-4 simultaneous tracks), plus 2-3 guitar overdubs, bass, and 2 vox tracks. I'm used to limiting myself to 8 tracks, so I'd probably be doing 8-10 total. I'm also used to do all the effects, etc. on the front end, so, aside from some eqing, I probably won't do much during mix down. I guess it'd be really nice to compress during the mix instead of doing it 'to tape'...

The inspire has two ok preamps (xlr and phantom power) and two rca inputs (phono or line). Its supposed to do four tracks at once, but I've only ever done two at a time when mixing down from the tascam. You can also piggy back units, though I've never tried that either. What little I've done with it I've been happy with. The headphone preamp, though, is total crap. I wouldn't even use it for monitoring while recording.
 
ah i see. So what software do you plan on using for recording?

as for the inspire... to record 4 inputs at once, could you do that by using the 2 xlr on the front and the two instrument jacks (also on the front) at the same time? or is it 1 or the other input on the front and the line in jacks at the back count at the other 2 inputs?
 
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For now I'll just use cubase LE that came with the inspire.

The two preamp inputs are either xlr or instrument (1/4 inch), but not both at the same time. You also can't bypass those preamps if you wanted to use upgraded preamps. Inputs 3 and 4 are the rca jacks in the back (which you do need external pres for). Another thing about the inspire that may turn some folks off is that there aren't any physical knobs... all gain/volume adjustment, phantom power on/off, etc. is done through the software that comes with it.
 
That laptop should be great for recording.

What you need to do is get an external firewire hard drive and record to that. When recording, track count has more to do with the hard drive than the CPU, so no drive slower than 7200rpm. The internal drive on that laptop is most likely spinning at 5400rpm, too slow for high track counts.

When mixing, CPU power comes into play along with the hard drive speed.
 
someone gave u one?...damn i wanna be their friend...sounds like a great laptop to record with...
 
Thanks for your input everyone. Now I just need to get an external drive. I'll report back on my progress with the inspire.

yeah, I was pretty happy about getting the laptop. He recently bought a new mac for recording on the go (he has a desktop at home, too) and wanted to give the powerbook to someone who'd use it... and he knew I wanted to move on to digital but couldn't afford a computer. It was very nice of him.
 
I had a friend give me a couple of laptops a while back as well. He'd upgrade to the new generation and hand me his old one, which was usually maxed out with all the accessories. I used those two laptops for years before I finally took the plunge and bought one of my own. He really helped me out big time with that.
 
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