[mattsgotredhair]

How many of you guys use Powerbooks to record? What kinda rig have you used? I've used plenty of desktops, but never a book for anything, so I'm sorta curious how it all works out.

[mattsgotredhair]

i guess this post wasnt worthy of any response...

[spiky_dog]

i use a ghetto but functional system: shure sm-57, m-audio audio buddy preamp, roland ua-30 usb audio interface. it plugs into my desktop at the moment since my laptop has been dead for a while.

the hot ticket when i was in the market about a year ago was the metric halo uln-2. hotness.

[Freeflyer]

I think a lot of people use them to record now, given that garageband is out. The problem is only being able to record one thing at a time. If there were affordable multi-channel input boards that allowed you to actually mix on the mac you'd see a lot more.

I'd love to be able to use the mac as a substitute for the desk, but haven't seen anything remotely affordable for the home musician.

J.

[ideasculptor]

Define affordable. I see plenty of multi channel input options for well under $1000. Here's a whole slew of multi-channel interfaces with midi, many of which have control surfaces built in.

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/category/c784

[mattsgotredhair]

well i dont really think of Garageband as being something I'd use to record anything. seems pretty cheesy to me, but hey, I guess everyone does their own stuff. I was really wanting to see what people thought about using Logic, ProTools, or Nuendo. I've never used any of these on a Powerbook, and I was wondering about the lag, trackcount, stuff like that.

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally posted by Freeflyer:
I think a lot of people use them to record now, given that garageband is out. The problem is only being able to record one thing at a time. If there were affordable multi-channel input boards that allowed you to actually mix on the mac you'd see a lot more.

He's an audio engineer, not a hobbyist loop-jockey.

[PacHead]

Originally posted by Spheric Harlot:
He's an audio engineer, not a hobbyist loop-jockey.

Hehe, that's funny, and I agree.

Garageband is alright, but nobody who just copies/pastes a few bars here and there are going to convince me that they actually composed a real song, or that they are real musicians. Somebody can put a song together without even having played a note. Of course for any one person who is using a "cool" garageband loop, there's probably 10,000 other people using that exact same "cool" loop. Unless of course they are making their own loops, which I doubt many do.

[mattsgotredhair]

hey, some of those loops are cool to using for basic writing purposes though.

[DeathMan]

Originally posted by PacHead:
Hehe, that's funny, and I agree.

Garageband is alright, but nobody who just copies/pastes a few bars here and there are going to convince me that they actually composed a real song, or that they are real musicians. Somebody can put a song together without even having played a note. Of course for any one person who is using a "cool" garageband loop, there's probably 10,000 other people using that exact same "cool" loop. Unless of course they are making their own loops, which I doubt many do.

You can be a real musician and use garageband. Just like you can be a real film maker and use imovie. It all depends on how deep into the tech you want to get. A lot of musicians use garageband for demos and stuff, but probably don't produce their own records.

Not all musicians are engineers. And not all engineers are musicians.

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally posted by DeathMan:
You can be a real musician and use garageband. Just like you can be a real film maker and use imovie. It all depends on how deep into the tech you want to get. A lot of musicians use garageband for demos and stuff, but probably don't produce their own records.

Not all musicians are engineers. And not all engineers are musicians.

Oh, absolutely.

GarageBand is absolutely an excellent tool for professional musicians as a sketchpad and for rough pre-production.

However, nobody's going to pretend that it's *really* capable of a professional, modern music production.

Hence Logic, ProTools, and Nuendo.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Logic has a pretty high overhead, so that reduces what it can do on the Powerbook. Friends are using a 15" alubook with Metric Halo Mobile I/Os, and I believe the max they've done was simultaneous 48 tracks recording, though using the MH recording Console software (which I believe is still officially in beta, not sure), and running the Mobile I/Os and the firewire disk on separate busses (one of them via a PCMCIA card).

They do all post-production on a dual-2GHz G5 in Nuendo.


I run Logic Pro 6.4 on an 867 12" Powerbook. Opening up a single Space Designer with a loooong reverb will max out my machine.

I don't know how Logic 7 will affect processor usage, though Logic is supposedly less hungry than Cubase.

No experience with ProTools, sorry.

-s*

[mattsgotredhair]

have you tried using any of the TDM or HD process cards from protools in a logic setup on your book?

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally posted by mattsgotredhair:
have you tried using any of the TDM or HD process cards from protools in a logic setup on your book?

No.

Digidesign is the devil.

[mattsgotredhair]

oh come on! thats silly, they might be overlords of overcharging, but theyre not the devil.

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally posted by mattsgotredhair:
oh come on! thats silly, they might be overlords of overcharging, but theyre not the devil.

Of course it was silly, you twit.

"overlords of overcharging" coupled with hardware lock-ins and an upgrade policy that are on par with Microsoft's = "teh dev!l".

At any rate, I won't be using ProTools for my work, and the people I know who use digidesign stuff are Digi001 and Digi002 users.

I'll be getting a Mobile I/O in a few weeks, hopefully.

[mattsgotredhair]

by all means, digidesign is a bunch of assholes, but i still like their product, i just havent gotten my hands on logic.