i am looking at going from PC setup to straight Mac,
current setup,
P4 3.0Ghz, 1G Ram, XP SP3, yada yada
M-audio Fast Track Pro
software: Sonar PE7, Reason 3
eventual setup,
iMac 24 inch, 2.8 Ghz Intel core 2 duo
???????????
so i'm getting an iMac, I want to ditch the fast track pro even though testing on my wife's macbook it seems to work much better on the mac side versus windows, big surprise....
The Fast Track Pro has several features i DO NOT NEED, i don't need sends, inserts, SPDIF ins and outs, or even MIDI ins and outs as i use the M-Audio Oxygen 8 USB midi controller, so all i really need is 2 ins for mics/guitar, nice pres, a set of master outs for my powered monitors and a headphone out. That's pretty limited need wise on the interface, but i still want excellent quality. Every thing i look for it seems the price is ramped up for the ins and outs and extra stuff that i don't need, i want to pay for the sound quality only, not a bunch of stuff i'll never use. SOOO, I was looking at the Apogee Duet....has 2 XLR ins, 2 1/4" ins, 2 1/4 " outs, it's firewire, which i would prefer over usb, and i've heard nothing but great reviews about the sound. To me this seems to be the thing i've been searching for forever.
Now, on to the software, I only do my tracking of vocals and some guitar work with Sonar. I do hip hop and create all of my beats in Reason and import them as a wav file into Sonar or by using ReWire. So I do not require a bunch of synths and all that business, but i am very particular about the quality of the effects, such as for vocals and such. Instrument effects and plugins i can prolly do without, cuz my peoples got all the necessary pedals and stomp boxes i would ever need. I like that Logic seems to go hand in hand with Duet, from a control standpoint as i've read, but i fear i'm spending money on a bunch of loops, and samples, and synths and etc. that i would never use because of my using Reason for that sort of thing. Also the fact that Logic is Apple made and i'm using it with an iMac seems to be a big plus. Oh, and I would rather spend the 200 for Logic Express than the 500 for Logic Pro 8, if this is the setup that would work best for what i'm describing. If I could have found a Logic demo this would answer a lot of questions, but i don't have the Duet anyways and wouldn't really know the diff, between that and FT Pro. Any suggestions, sorry so winded, but I think that should prevent others from asking ME ?'s. Much thanks in advance.
current setup,
P4 3.0Ghz, 1G Ram, XP SP3, yada yada
M-audio Fast Track Pro
software: Sonar PE7, Reason 3
eventual setup,
iMac 24 inch, 2.8 Ghz Intel core 2 duo
???????????
so i'm getting an iMac, I want to ditch the fast track pro even though testing on my wife's macbook it seems to work much better on the mac side versus windows, big surprise....
The Fast Track Pro has several features i DO NOT NEED, i don't need sends, inserts, SPDIF ins and outs, or even MIDI ins and outs as i use the M-Audio Oxygen 8 USB midi controller, so all i really need is 2 ins for mics/guitar, nice pres, a set of master outs for my powered monitors and a headphone out. That's pretty limited need wise on the interface, but i still want excellent quality. Every thing i look for it seems the price is ramped up for the ins and outs and extra stuff that i don't need, i want to pay for the sound quality only, not a bunch of stuff i'll never use. SOOO, I was looking at the Apogee Duet....has 2 XLR ins, 2 1/4" ins, 2 1/4 " outs, it's firewire, which i would prefer over usb, and i've heard nothing but great reviews about the sound. To me this seems to be the thing i've been searching for forever.
Now, on to the software, I only do my tracking of vocals and some guitar work with Sonar. I do hip hop and create all of my beats in Reason and import them as a wav file into Sonar or by using ReWire. So I do not require a bunch of synths and all that business, but i am very particular about the quality of the effects, such as for vocals and such. Instrument effects and plugins i can prolly do without, cuz my peoples got all the necessary pedals and stomp boxes i would ever need. I like that Logic seems to go hand in hand with Duet, from a control standpoint as i've read, but i fear i'm spending money on a bunch of loops, and samples, and synths and etc. that i would never use because of my using Reason for that sort of thing. Also the fact that Logic is Apple made and i'm using it with an iMac seems to be a big plus. Oh, and I would rather spend the 200 for Logic Express than the 500 for Logic Pro 8, if this is the setup that would work best for what i'm describing. If I could have found a Logic demo this would answer a lot of questions, but i don't have the Duet anyways and wouldn't really know the diff, between that and FT Pro. Any suggestions, sorry so winded, but I think that should prevent others from asking ME ?'s. Much thanks in advance.