Too many Macs

[Mojo Cracker]

How do I decide which Mac to use? I have no idea, and there are so many. I've got chance to use Digital Performer 5 with a MOTU 896 , but it requires a newer version Mac (last few years version I guess), and I have no clue which one to get, for one, because I don't know what DP will require of me as I'm new to Computer based recording also. What are the advantages to tower vs. Macbook vs. iMac?

Thanks in advance,

Mac

 

[M10K]

Any of them should work for you...although I don't suggest the Macbook Air (lack of firewire ports, only one usb port, no disk drive, etc...) It really depends on if you need portability and what your budget is.

 

[giraffe]

How do I decide which Mac to use? I have no idea, and there are so many. I've got chance to use Digital Performer 5 with a MOTU 896 , but it requires a newer version Mac (last few years version I guess), and I have no clue which one to get, for one, because I don't know what DP will require of me as I'm new to Computer based recording also. What are the advantages to tower vs. Macbook vs. iMac?

Thanks in advance,

Mac

no macbook air, but aside from that, the more expensive the better

 

[dgatwood]

How do I decide which Mac to use? I have no idea, and there are so many. I've got chance to use Digital Performer 5 with a MOTU 896 , but it requires a newer version Mac (last few years version I guess), and I have no clue which one to get, for one, because I don't know what DP will require of me as I'm new to Computer based recording also. What are the advantages to tower vs. Macbook vs. iMac?

896HD is just FireWire 400. If your Mac is old enough not to not have FireWire (the Air notwithstanding)... well... it's also too old to run Mac OS X past about 10.2. Not that I'd recommend something as big as the 896 HD on a PowerBook G3 Pismo (2000) or something, but... it would probably work as long as you didn't record too many channels.

What you buy depends on what you plan to do with the machine. If you plan to take it around gigging, get a MacBook or MacBook Pro. If you plan to use it primarily in your studio, go with a Mac Pro for maximum expandability (extra SATA connectors for additional hard drives). It's a pain in the ass to gig with (I used to do field recording with a quad G5---same basic problem), but it should be the ideal machine for studio work.

 

[sonnylarsen]

There are many things to consider when buying any computer. In particular, you should consider that a Mac Pro (the tower) has the most power and is the most upgradeable, and the notebooks and the iMac have decent power, but have extremely limited upgrade potential. However, both the notebooks and the iMac are much more portable than the Mac pro. Most people don't need to move their DAW's much, but if you do, I would consider the 15" or 17" high-end MacBook Pros. If you don't think you need to have portability and have the budget for it, a Mac Pro is the way to go. Not only is it very powerful, but the sheer ability to easily upgrade most of its components makes it attractive. In truth it will give you easily enough power for tons of effects and tracks.

All that being said, I have run DP5 on my iBook G4 1.2 ghz with no problems. I can't pull as many effects as I could on a newer mac, but it does work fine.

 

[Mojo Cracker]

Thanks for the responses so far. You all are making me use my head and I appreciate that. Sorry I'm such a newbie at this..

Just to clarify a few things:

The 896 is not 'HD'. Just 896. Does that matter concerning O/S on the Mac OR with DP5?

I guess price is a concern, I should have mentioned that. Mac Pros start at around $2800 and the Macbook Pros start at around $2000. Refurbs are cheaper (anyone have an opinion about refurbs?).

I don't have complex needs I don't think, but I don't want to be caught unawares hitting brick walls right in the middle (or the beginning or end!) of what should be fairly simple projects. I just don't know what those brick walls would be, that's how new I am to this. I've heard you should have an external drive but I thought you could with the the MBPro?

I don't see me using a lot of plugin effects.. I was hoping to use as much outboard stuff as possible.

I don't think I absolutely NEED to be portable, but I do like the portable price. Obviously. I would like to keep things as simple as possible with the ability to achieve the best audio (like everybody else I'm guessing!).

Question - does "power" equate to faster speeds with fewer crashes? And what other expandability issues should I be considering?

 

[dgatwood]

The 896 is not 'HD'. Just 896. Does that matter concerning O/S on the Mac OR with DP5?

I didn't even know there was such a beast. Looking at the specs, though, it appears to be basically the same as the 896HD except that it only goes up to 96 kHz and they moved the FireWire ports away from the channel 8 input... maybe to reduce crosstalk. Dunno. Same drivers work for both pieces of gear (and for all the other MOTU FireWire devices---they do drivers right, IMHO).

I guess price is a concern, I should have mentioned that. Mac Pros start at around $2800 and the Macbook Pros start at around $2000. Refurbs are cheaper (anyone have an opinion about refurbs?).

All my machines at work are refurb Macs. Generally, my experience has been that they either work perfectly and last just as long as a new one, or there's something colossally wrong and you almost immediately notice it (e.g. won't power on, doesn't boot, FireWire ports don't work---big, easy-to-notice stuff) and you send it back and they send you another one....

I don't think I absolutely NEED to be portable, but I do like the portable price. Obviously. I would like to keep things as simple as possible with the ability to achieve the best audio (like everybody else I'm guessing!).

The only negative about laptops is heat. Laptops are in a small enclosure, and thus when you tax the CPU heavily, the fans run faster and are much more audible than on a desktop machine under similar load. Whether that's a problem or not depends on how heavily you tax the CPU, what your recording environment is like, etc. That's basically the nature of the form factor. Other than that, though, I would think even the low end MacBook would be a decent recording machine. If you run into drive performance problems, as you noted you can always throw on an external desktop-sized drive.

 

[SonicAlbert]

If you don't need to be portable, you don't need all the power of a Mac Pro tower, and you will be using firewire, how about an iMac?

 

[Mojo Cracker]

Some very good food for thought, good helpful posts.

For some reason, I had thought the iMac was the red-headed hiccupping stepchild of Mr. Mac. After doing some research this morning, it looks like those days are all but over with the advent of Mr. Intel Core 2 Duo. I will investigate further..

Thanks again for passing on the knowledge and advice!