[bigsmoke07]

Hey all,

i'm looking for some informed opinions on what platform to use to run my home 16 track studio.

I've been given a G3 running 9.2 and its giving me a lot of problems. before that I used a PC but heard so much about macs for audio professionals.

This is what I'm using:
G3 350 blue&white mac (128) upgraded to 512 mb ram ....5400 speed ata hard drive...pci slots: video card, scsi card (Glyph drive), motu 24i card (24i)....OS 9.2..

my company will buy me a g4 but I'm nervous....

Any audio professional advice will be appreciated... i do hate windows, but I need a system that works!

[NeoMac]

Since it is an older system and there is probably a ton of crap on the drive, you'll want to erase the drive and reinstall the system. That'll clear up whatever system problems you are having.

[tr]

if your company is willing to buy you a G4 to do audio, then i say go for it! if you do get a new system, i'd say max out the RAM and put in a couple hd's in; have at least one just for your audio, which you probably already do with the scsi drive on your G3.

as NeoMac stated, your system would probably perform better if you clean-installed everything on your drive.

also, what software are you using or are planning to use? can i assume you are using AudioDesk on your G3?


tr

No one should be nervous about buying a Mac for audio. Audio is one of the areas where developers prioritize the Mac platform. If you are running a MOTU 24i, you will be best served as far as integration with MOTU software (which is Mac only). I have run Cubase on a MOTU 2408, but when I switched to Digital Performer my performance has skyrocketed. MOTU's integrated drivers preform much better in terms of latency and track count than the ASIO drivers that are used with other platforms. However if Cubase or Logic is your program of choice, if you can use those programs with your blue and white, they will work on a G4.

You are probably looking at a combination of an older system which is not optimized for audio (as the above posters stated), and a system that simply lacks the speed in which to run 16 tracks fluidly. A new G4 will solve both problems. Follow the above advice, The Glyph should be a fast scsi (not technical descript, I don't know what flavor it is) with at least 7200 to 10,000 rpm. Use that only for audio file playback and record. Partition it into a number of volumes to reduce fragmentation and to organize better. The 5400 ATA will be a good system disk with your programs, but will be too slow to run any serious audio. If it is a large drive, partition it, and use a big partition to back up projects that you are not working on to free space on the SCSI; you want to use the SCSI on in progress sessions.

If you are using Audiodesk, I strongly recommend upgrading to Digital Performer, the lastest version is 3.02 and it has vastly expanded audio and midi features. Including multiprocessor awareness. The new version upcoming will support ACID style audio manipulation such as automatic time stretching and looping, as well as advanced editing.

Keep the system optimized by using a separate extension set in 9.2 and keep the third party extensions out of it. You don't need your Palm sync, etc to do audio and it will reduce extension conflicts. Just use the OS 9 set with audio extensions.

Whether you own a PC or a Mac you will need to keep your system in good shape to get the most out of it for audio. With a Mac it is much easier and allows you to concentrate on making music. Add that to better program support on the Mac side. You won't be disappointed with an up to date G4 dual (1gig or 800) and it will integrate with the software and hardware you already have with your blue and white.

I hope this can help in your descision.

[Spheric Harlot]

Also to keep in mind is future possibilities. http://www.apple.com/macosx/technologies/audio.html
Rock'n'roll.
OS X isn't quite ready yet, and there's no serious multi-track software out yet, but Emagic is only waiting on Apple bugfixes to release Logic 5.

So, by winter or so, you'll have the realistic option of switching to OS X as well - only on Mac hardware.

-spheric*

[ 02-18-2002: Message edited by: Spheric Harlot ]

[bigsmoke07]

so you think the processor was too slow, but audiodesk kept crashing on me using this b&w g3.... i did do a clean install, but I can try again.

I wiped the hard drive, then installed from 9.04 disc, then upgraded to 9.1... were there any steps I was missing to do a thorough clean install?