What Will Work With My System?, I'm shopping and I need advice! Options

[Roneon]

I want to set up a home studio and I'm not sure which software and sound card to buy. I have a G4 Quicksilver 733mh with 384 mb of ram. It's running OS X 10.1.5 right now and it seems that I will have to upgrade to either Jaguar or Panther. Will Mackie, MOTU, EMagic, CU Base or anything else work on my system? Basically I will only be recording vocals, acoustic and the occasional electric (one at a time). I know I need to get an extra hard drive too but I'm not sure what kind or speed I need.
Any suggestion will be appreciate!

[Synthetic]

this is kinda a vauge question with so many options... it all depends on what features you want, how much quality are you willing to pay for and how much do you have to spend. Thus reason for no one has tackled this question yet I think.

I would seriously do some research into the different audio programs and see if any of them seem to fit what you would like to do. Almost any of the major audio apps should work on your system.

Then after you have found a program that fits your needs... research it more and see what interfaces work well with it and decide what fits your pocket as prices vary on these quite a bit.

Some programs work better with certain audio interfaces than others... usually audio interfaces made by same company of the DAW program are a sure bet to compliment each other well and some interfaces like Mbox Digi001 002 etc. come bundled together.

[Roneon]

Thanks Synthetic,
I picked up panther 10.3.5 last night. I need another hard drive before I load it as I'm down to 3.5 gig. I'm seriously thinking of buying the Spike package from Makie. I was worried about my processor speed (733) being too slow for MOTU and CuBase but Traction sounds just right.
Anyone heard anything good about Makie's Spike/Tracktion combo?

Thanks for your input!
Roneon

[rickenbacker]

Spike/Traction is an OK bundle, but I'd recommend Logic as your sequencer, probably the Express version. Depends how much money you've got, but Logic's track Freeze function will help you get more mileage out of your 733.

Cubase SX will kill it stone dead - the stated minimum spec for SX3 is a 1GHz, preferably a dual processor model.

Tracktion is OK, but kind of ugly. It works, but I didn't really like it. My two penneth. Try it yourself and see, if you can get a demo.

As for audio interfaces, USB is OK for recording one or two tracks at a time and playing back maybe up to 16 tracks, FireWire is better. And consequently more expensive. Edirol do a nice range of both, M-Audio as well but their drivers are well-known to be flaky. My constant studio companion is the MOTU 828.

Actually, there are dozens of interfaces on the market, including things like Novation's MIDI control keyboards with audio I/O on board. Check everything out and see what you can afford - you're already going to be laying out a tidy sum!

Firewire 400 hard drive, 7,200rpm disk speed, Oxford chipset - that's a pretty standard list of features for music making.

I'm glad you upgraded to Panther - you must be finding the difference from 10.1.5 pretty striking!

You'll need more RAM, too. Preferably as much as your Mac can take.

Good luck - do some research, then ask again!

[Kiowa11]

Well all you glad about Panther types, as well you know doubt know, the new big cat is coming TIGER!
I have a friend over at Disney graphics here in LA that some how got an advanced view.
Get your $ ready.
I guess SABRE TOOTH will be next.

Standing by...

[Roneon]

Thanks for your input Rickenbaker , I am seriously thinking of getting the Spike package (Traction and XD-2 Interface}. I downloaded the demo of Traction and I like the one window world. I have a copy of Micro Logic AV 4.0 and I do not like having floating windows hovering above what I want to see. It also can 'freeze' tracks to free up the cpu.
The XD-2 interface seems like just what I need too!
Though....Reason looks pretty cool but out of my range for now. Maybe some royalty income could fix that.
I think this site rocks! My brother has a recording studio (he uses a PC running Cakewalk though0 so he could not offer much advice for Mac's and suggested for me to find a Mac only forum. The depth of knowledge of the members is incredible!
Ron

[Roneon]

just incase anyone is wondering, I bought a Tascam US-122 audio interface and Tracktion . I had a bit of a problem getting the Tascam to work. I downloaded the Panther driver update 3.2.3 and now it works great, the same as Tracktion. I never got use to other programs and I really like having everything on one page. My 733 Quicksilver hardly even notices I'm recording.

Thanks for everyone's input,
Roneon