Considering Imac, Teacher needs advice! Options

[ardutson]

I am considering installing a suite of imacs (700Mhz) in my school and have a few questions:

Does Sibelius and Cubasis work well on these machines?
What is their 'shelf life' going to be?
If I buy controller keyboards will I need to buy any other sound hardware/software?

Any advice much appreciated

[ghess]

iMacs will work fine in your lab with any notation and sequencing package. The iMacs can be expected to work well for you from 3-5 years and perhaps longer. You can use USB controller keyboards using Quicktime Musical Instruments as the sound source, however I don't think you will be very satisfied with the sound quality. So you will probably want some sort of software synthesizer. One inexpensive option is the Roland Virtual Sound Canvas. You can get it for $20 US from PGMusic when you purchase their Band in a Box program which runs about $60 for educators.

If anybody else knows of inexpensive (under $100) soft synth options with GM and decent sound quality, I 'd like to hear your opinion. Reason, Unity and the stuff from Native Instruments is out of the price range for most schools.