About To Switch To Mac...general Questions, Multitrack recording & mastering on Mac Options

[EletrikGutar182]

I currently am, and have been, a PC user. I am making the switch to Mac this week. I am ordering a 14" iBook G4 (933 MHz, 40 Gig HDD, etc...)

I currently have a pretty basic setup involving a digital 8-track recorder that I record onto and then connect to my PC for mastering (SoundForge). I am thinking of downloading ProTools free to start off with, after I buy either the iMic or the Mobile Pre.

Will ProTools FREE work with OS X?

Would Garage Band be a good idea?

Will I be able to use the USB interface (probably the Griffin iMic...) easily with ProTools or any other software?

Does anybody have any other reccomendations besides ProTools?

As a fallback option, If I wanted to do mastering on the Mac as I did with soundforge, what is a good freeware or inexpensive mastering program I should use?

P.S., I am not a newbie when it comes to music and recording, so if there are any suggestions of good programs that aren't necessarily meant for beginners, That is fine.

Thanks in advance,
Alex

[lepetitmartien]

Welcome

forget PT free in OSX, there is no version for OSX yet, and we don't know if there will be one one day…

Comments on GB are still in the make up… the few comments I've read at the moment are yes it's ok but what a CPU hog. Now it's a bit too soon to be definitive, it'll clear in the next weeks.

You can use the iMic but be aware it's the entry level (can't be lower) and if you can (make a search on imic in the forum to get the general idea…) something a little more expensive would be better. definetly. (quality and latency issues)

You can use other USB interfaces. Now on the PT/other than Digi interfaces issue i've got to make some reading…

Now i've got to go to sleep so others will follow else I'll start writing stupidities