Purchase Opinions, system set-up Options

[miaba]

hello, everyone i am new to the forum and the mac/digital recording world in general and have a few quick questions regarding the use of a 1.67ghz powerbook, logic pro, and presonus firepod in recording live bands. This seems like a reasonable set-up from what i have gathered
but i'm wondering if there is anything in particular i need to do as far as optimizing my computer to handle latencey, plug-ins, and multi-tracking.
I'm sorry if this seems vague but I'm just looking to get the most out of this potential set-up. Any opinions are welcome. thanks!

[lepetitmartien]

There's already quite some threads on the powerbook setup for audio. Not that far away

[miaba]

thanks for the reply, I have found several threads regarding my question
as you suggested. What i haven't found are answers regarding drive partitioning. Is this necessary to get the most out of a powerbook thats also running a word program?

[lepetitmartien]

Partitioning on a powerbook may help a bit for the virtual memory, as the drive is slow, to have a dedicated partition (5-6 GB, I've given my G5 a 10 GB partition, it uses about 4,5 of them usually) can smooth things a bit (easier for the OS to find the bits it needs, faster access). Also, in doubt, you can always reformat the VM partition after a major problem.

I use Swap Cop myself to tell the system where the MV is, but you'll have to delete the old MV files on the regular system partition to bring the space back.

Note, it's NOT mandatory, just some real fine tuning. i'd like some inpt from powerbook users who are laptoping like mad on this issue.

About the word program, no problemo.

[Synthetic]

ideally... I would suggest getting a second external firewire drive for recording... better than partitioning

I have a 30gig Glyph firewire drive devoted just for audio recording that sits in an ATA rack case for portability. Not so great because its like carrying a suitcase but I also carry an Emagic AMT8 in it too.

[miaba]

Thanks for the info, always food for thought. For now I have some purchasing to do but i'll return soon. Who knows maybe i'll even have some answers to others' questions. Thanks again!

[lepetitmartien]

Synthetic is right, but I'm sure everyone in this thread will read the other laptops config threads

[dwwave]

I would not partion unless you have too

and are experienced doing it.

a external firewire hardrive is a good bet and safer

you don't want to wipe out your hard drive data

a risk with partioning

I have one computer thats partioned (half OS9.2.2 half 10.3.9)

I had to get a External HD to do it anyway

though there are programs out there that claim they can partion without backing up first (to a external HD)

but I do not think that is best as you need to reformat to properly

get the computer HD ready for a clean install

hope this makes sense

good luck!