Some Advice For A Mac Newbie :), Not sure if this system will work well.. Options

[Tophicles]

Greetings all!

I've been a PC user for decades, and have always been curious about the mac Audio scene (since everything seems to have spawned there).

In the past I had not been able to afford to buy the hardware necessary to setup a mac in my home studio, this, it seems has changed.

I have recently acquired a dual G4-5ooMhz, 512Mb RAM. My ST-Audio C-2000 card will transplant into it for audio.

My question is, will this system be sufficient for multtrack recording? Please excuse my ignorance, I really have no idea.

Any help would be appreciated....

-Me.

[PristineRec]

I've been running Pro Tools on a G4 466 for a few years with no problems. I've recorded sessions with better than 16 tracks and a few plug-ins.

I would upgrade to OSX so that you can take advantage of the second processor. Under OS9, the applications had to be coded differently to be able to use the second processor. Not all apps were coded to do that. Under OSX, the OS itself doles out processor duties to both processors.

I would recommend dropping in another RAM chip, though. It will help your system a lot. And don't buy cheap RAM, it can cause tons of problems for your system. try RAMJET.com

[Tophicles]

Ahh, I forgot to post that it's got OS 10.3.2 on it.
So that should be sufficient?

Yes, more ram is always a good idea
I can use regualr PC-100 ram in it, no?

[lepetitmartien]

Beware of PC RAM (PC computer), Macs don't like underrated RAM and will behave badly or not even start up if the RAM is not 100% compatible. If the mac is PC-100, you can use PC-100 or PC-133 but look forward it is Mac certified. It'll save you headaches

there is no such thing as "regular" RAM, there's a lot of types under the generic SDRAM PC-xxx (parity, bits, voltage etc. And 2 RAM boards with the same technical data available may be not exactly rated the same in fact… Always use MAC certified RAM (available from most vendors, and look at their return policies before just in case

Now, especially in OSX, the more RAM, the better!

[Tophicles]

Ok, all good advice so far, but my main question remains unanswered.... is the machine good enough for HD recording?

cheers,

tophicles

[dixiechicken]

It will certainly get quite a ways, depending on your needs and growth.
Check out Big Daddys DP-4 site for tips and tricks.


http://bigdaddybubba.20m.com/

Dont know if you're a DP-user really, but there's other tips & tricks for running a smoth system as well, that may be useful.

Cheers: Dixiechicken

[rickenbacker]

Being a dual-processor Mac, it should fare better at multitracking audio than a single processor Mac would. Don't get carried away with the thought of recording 72-piece orchestras live or anything, but I'd say you can definitely put together some full mixes on there.

Get Logic and use the Freeze function on tracks as you go along (this slashes the CPU load) and you'll get a lot of life out of that Mac. 1 Giant Leap used that exact same Mac to mix the audio for their world-music project. If you hear the CD, you'll realise what can be achieved. On a G4 DP 500MHz Mac, everything was mixed in Logic, using Logic's internal plugs and nothing else - and that was only version 5. You'll want to max that Mac out on RAM, though.