Mac Audio Newbie - Intro, Questions & Comments, New Mac Digital Audio User Options

[Technopop]

Good morning, everyone!

First, I want to say thank you for giving me a space in this community.

I just signed up yesterday after checking out the site for a couple of weeks.

Like most young Americans my age, I grew up learning how to use computers by being exposed to the Mac.

I have fond memories of playing the Oregon Trail at my school's computer lab stocked with Apple IIe monochrome systems.

Then I began using the Mac SE II in sixth grade all the way through high school where I was first introduced to MIDI, Master Tracks Pro, and the joys of the Roland Juno-01 and Ensoniq EPS-16 synths.

Then I went to the dark side of Windows, taking in the black rituals of blue screen crashes, FAT32 drive partitions, registry hacks, and the devilish doctrine of a guy named Bill.

My once carefree computing spirit was now in turmoil. "Everyone's using PC's. You can't go anywhere in business without them. You're just outdating yourself by having a Mac and you won't be able to find any software for them anyway."

These were some of the brainwashing phrases that I used to hear trying to steer me further away from a blissful Apple paradise.

Well, I finally found my way back home where I belong.

After years of being frustrated that Macs were too expensive, the MacMini finally arrives, and I also find a plethora of used Mac dealers with sacreligious prices. lol

So, I just purchased a classic iMac DV G3 400 MHz system.

It's one of the base models with just 64 MB of RAM, and a 6GB drive. No DVD, just the original CD-ROM.

It was a sweet price at just $269 US (plus tax) from DV Warehouse out of Los Angeles, CA. Power Max is also a great place to look at as well. I paid extra for overnight shipping, although it still hasn't arrived yet

Anyways, I know that there are separate froums for each of these questions that I'm about to ask, but right now, I don't have time to sift through all of them. I apologize that this may seem a bit redundant.

I did read the article on buying a system.

All I want to know is, where can I find older programs for digital audio and MIDI that will work well with the iMac.
I know most of the different brands already, but I'm having a hard time actually finding where I can purchase used music software at a good price.

I really want to find a program that is similar to Fruity Loops for the PC. What would be the closest equivalent on the Mac ????

I do plan on buying a G4 laptop soon, but this is just getting me by for now. I know that the programs that are optimized for OS X are probably far better for what I'm looking at.

Also, would most of the new FireWire audio interfaces work well with my system too ? I've seen a lot of the old USB devices, but I read everywhere that they don't work good.

One last thing; since this system that I bought is used, none of the original software except for OS 9.22 is installed.

Where can I find a used copy of Apple Works and all of the other goodies that I should have ?

Thank you for taking the time to read all of this.

By the way, the French kick ass; I don't care what all of these other overly political idiots that live in my country say about you all and you're lucky as hell that you'll be seeing Kraftwerk again for the third time in a row coming later this year !!!!!



Ce message a été modifié par Technopop - dim. 20 mars 2005, 21:32.

[designlord]

Hey Technopop,

First I'm a PC guy ( TRS80, Atari and Commador & hopefully soon to be apple guy also) and I'll try to help you out.

Second, "the devilish doctrine of a guy named Bill" is the sort of immature ideas that has everyone thinking there is a large gap or should be between Wintel and Mac people, when in realtiy I'm pretty sure these guys are decent friends, as much as can be expected when your competting. Also Gates has brains enough for MIT and as such his OS was likely function over form, where as Jobs is more a creative type and likely picked up a lot of that culture with Wozniak at Atari (Later Started Pixar) and when he saw The Alto GUI he saw the form over function benefits.

Here are a few things that devilish doctrine of Bill Gates has done for computing.

"Altair BASIC, The first programming language for the world's first truly personal computer, the MITS Altair 8800, Written by Bill Gates, Paul Allen, and Monte Davidoff, without access to an actual Altair computer or even an 8080 CPU (they used a self made 8080 simulator running on a PDP-10 minicomputer), it fit nicely into 4 KB of memory leaving enough room — several hundred bytes — for BASIC programs"

Here is something he did for Apple, which without, Jobs wouldn't have came back to Apple and without all that Apple probably wouldn't be around given how much money they were losing each year.

http://student.bvsd.k12.co.us/schools/cent...s/microsof.html

So my point is that even these two large rivals kept the spirit of helping each other out in ways alive and by talking trash about either side all you do is help destroy something great, something I love, hence the reason I chim in each time about it.

You'll likely need that new Mac OSX before you can get into most of what your talking about or you'll buy stuff you'll just replace once you have a new machine. You might find older versions, but if your really upgrading you'll be shooting yourself in the foot. Here are some places to start.

Reason is a very good switch point that I was looking at as a replacement for FLPs. Get and old version and save your money for a new MacMini.
http://www.propellerheads.se/index.cfm

For system software
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/software/

Firewire card... um ProTools MBox, after you upgrade.

Too bad you didn't come here first since as far as newer stuff goes you are pretty well boxed out, a lot of new great Mac stuff is going on with OS X.

Here is an idea... do a search you lazy American =) You'll find all this info online using the questions you asked here. Kissing the French ass didn't help so as an American myself I thought I would put in, hehe. Though you really should do a basic search since that pisses a lot of people when your too lazy to do even a little work. I just didn't realize until I was done writing, otherwise you would still have no help..haha

BTW The French v American thing is so PC V Mac. Neither of our countries would be around without the help of the other at times, just like PC v Mac.

Viva la Pac.... the best of both worlds, a great computer that makes a lot of money and has a lot of programes!

Cheers,

[cushy]

The app you are looking for is simple. It comes bundled in iLife 05.

Garageband 2 with fruity loop support.

Ghost Notes

[simmac]

Hey Designlord

I don't like this Pc vs Mac stuff.
I agree,they are working together and the computer world is a big comunity.
I worked with Pc for 10 years,I started with the 286.
The Pc is great if you know how to deal with the operation system,I mean you have to know everything about the windows.
Why am I a happy mac user?Because I'm a musician and not a programmer.I learned a lot about the windows but after a while it was enough.Again,the Pc is a great system but because everyone can wright program for that this is the reason why a lot of shit is on it also.
The mac for me is a much more clean system,easier to use and I can concentrate just for my music.
This is my opignion.
I don't want to attack anyone,everything is so personale.

Good luck

[kevinr]

Dear Technopop,

I use a set of these machines at school in the UK, running OS9. First of all, you'll need to buy some RAM - the bare minimum is 128, but preferably get the 1Gb max. If you don't you'll crash constantly - if you DO, you can also run OSX without any problem.

As for software, until Apple took over eMagic, you could easily obtain Logic Fun (a free version of MicroLogic AV), but now it's MUCH harder.

Dorling Kindersley also sell a package called Hit Squad based on Logic AV, which is now available for peanuts in the UK from discount bookshops. It's also online and I think there's a US site.

As far as software like Fruity Loops/Ejay, if you max out the RAM and get OSX you can try Garage Band as long as you go easy on the green samples. There isn't really anything else (as far as I know).

I also use Virtual Drummer for OS9 (also now hard to get, but try Google!)

Hope that helps a bit.

[kevinr]

Sorry - I meant Hit Kit, not Hit Squad!

[designlord]

Hey simmac,

I totally agree and when I see blantanly wrong statements I try to help teach the person something, be it here or on a window site, it does none of us any good. I'm actually listening to stuff I did with FruityLoops and the music is a lot different then some of my other stuff using logic or cubase and it got me excited about using a Mac to help bring that new approch aspect to it. I'll be ready since I have a OSX interface over windows xp right now so the trans. should be pure delight!