::scratches his head::

[brandon.w]

I need a new computer...badly...I have a celeron 333mhz with 64megs of ram (that's all the motherboard can handle)...SO...after thinking about it for a while, I decided to on getting a new iMac...because it's the best mac in my price range, and I want to get aquinated with the system because I'm also very into graphics...and it's sort of an industry standard...and I should know it...and of course I'm into home recording, otherwise I wouldn't be here...but the only thing that's really hanging me up is the lack of software I'm familior with...I use ACID and Fruityloops right now...and niether are available for mac...I was going to upgrade to cubase anyway once I got a new computer...but there's no fruityloops! are there any programs for mac that are similar to fruityloops? and what do they do and whatnot...thanks alot.

 

[brandon.w]

I forgot to add...I"m looking into USB/firewire recording systems...right now I'm looking mainly at the bigger of the two tascam usb units. I'm ammusing I could do some decent recordings with just the imac, cubase, the tascam and a mic...am I right...or will I have to buy a preamp/compressor/equalizer and all that jazz.

 

[Barometer]

No trying to talk you out of it or anything, but I have to disagree about "industry standards" here. It may have been true a few years ago, but PCs are the leading graphics technology out there. I'm a 3D graphics professional and NEVER use a Mac anymore. I also just built my first PC DAW and it's kicking ass. Also for the price of an iMac you can build yourself a pretty killer PC that will probably wipe the floor with the iMac. And IMHO there are more various audio interface choices out there for PCs. BTW I would stick with Firewire over USB. Just my $.02, good luck!

 

[christiaan]

One thing you should keep in mind is that the preamps on the Tascam devices don't have phantom power. So if you want to use a condenser mic, you either need an extra preamp or a separate phantom power supply.

 

[brzilian]

No trying to talk you out of it or anything, but I have to disagree about "industry standards" here. It may have been true a few years ago, but PCs are the leading graphics technology out there. I'm a 3D graphics professional and NEVER use a Mac anymore. I also just built my first PC DAW and it's kicking ass. Also for the price of an iMac you can build yourself a pretty killer PC that will probably wipe the floor with the iMac. And IMHO there are more various audio interface choices out there for PCs. BTW I would stick with Firewire over USB. Just my $.02, good luck!

Ditto on the 3D graphics thing. I've been working in that industry for 5 years now and never felt the need for a Mac.

For less than the price of the iMac you could get yourself the system I just bought:

P4-2.26 on a intel846EBT motherboard
512Mb RAM
6 USB ports, 2 Firewire
DVD
40x CD-RW
80Gb HD with RAID controller if I ever wanted to go that route
2nd 20Gb HD
Audiophile 2496
GeForce 4 MX 440 video card with dual VGA outputs
2 17" monitors
XP Home

I'd take this over an iMac anyday.

 

[Track Rat]

My friend, I'd have to go with a PC. I had a G4 with ProTools and sold it. Everthing was way more expensive or not available for the MAC. I agree you'll probably find more MACs in pro studios but that's a carry over from the olden days when it was true that to do computer audio you needed a MAC. You can do exactly the same job at exactly the same level of quality cheaper with a PC.