Help Me Get The Best Setup For Me.. Thanks Options

[shaneblyth]

I am totally new to Macs so new I have not bought one yet but want to in the next little while purely for Music.
I have a really good Keyboard Midi Synth, and a proffessional Mixer, PA, and Mics as well as an electric guitar and base.
I am a one man band who wants to record on this equipment using a MAC.. I dont expect to be selling my stuff but who knows one day

Can people suggest what is a good system to buy ?
and what about additional hardware ? I intend to be recoding only 1 audio track at a time so what should I use to interface with my external gear and MIDI . what spec of MAC would you suggest ?
and what would you recommend for software and why..

I know it is a big ask but you would be helping a soon to be EX PC user get into some good gear and systems finally where i can hopefully create some good quality Music.

Cheers I appreciate your time and input

Shane

[shaneblyth]

Here is my 2 cents worth.
First you will need to come up with just how much money your are willing to spend.
For example, expect to spend about $3000 on the mac. That will get you a decent G5 with moniter and 1 gig of ram. Jam it with ram, that is important.

Any external hardware should be MOTU. Trust me on this... No fuss, no problems, rock on.

Guessing on your expectations here is what I would do..

Hook the mixer directly into the mac... Depending on your mixer, direct audio in, or optical audio in (optimal). Some folks will claim that the stock sound card in the mac aint gonna cut it, but I have no complaints.

Get a MOTU fast lane midi interface for the Keyboard Midi Synth (unless the keyboard is USB already).

Personally I like Metro 6 for multi track audio and midi recording. This program will do it all. Simple or complicated.. Plus the support is insurpassible.. There are several different levels that can be had, and you can demo them..

Trust me on this.. This setup will give you the least amount of headaches!

I am going to buy new and will get at least a G4 I may wait for the G5 Imacs as I dont like the laptops too much also it seems that it is a good idea to use an external firewire hard drive ?

My mixer is a Behringer Eurorack MX802A and has no optical things on it but is a good quality low noise unit I have some Shure Mics the best ones and want to do an audio track at a time.
So you think I can simply plug the mixer straight into the MAC audio in and it is OK sounds good to me as I was a little worried about using a device that was USB and audio as I think there would be Latency issues surely.
I am not familiar with the Motu device is this a midi only device? the Keyboard is a Yamaha unit with midi ins and outs and no USB but a single floppy disc as well..
I have been reading like mad and like the look of Tracktion but will check out Maestro I want a nice not to complicated software that I can convert the midi to audio easy enough... Basically I want something that doesnt get in the way as I want to create rather than spend hours setting the software up and I am more likley to use Live instruments mixed with a few midi sounds

Thanks for your input

Shane