[heresiarh]

Hi, I own the 15' Al 1ghz Pbook with 768MBRAM. I was wondering if anybody has done some serious audio production on their pbooks. What system runs best, I plan on getting Reason or Logic.

[heresiarh]

No one?

[Stradlater]

I use some pro audio software on my 800mhz iMac G4, namely Reason, and it works perfectly acceptably. What are you planning on running?

[heresiarh]

I plan on running Reason myself along with Cubase VST and Logic. All hooked up to an external USB interface. I just want to plug in my guitar and keyboard.

[MM-o4]

I don't do any serious audio on my PB but I have seen a guy on a 867mhz PB record 64 uncompressed audio channels at live 4hr show. He was using some audio modules of some sort, 2 of them that went two firewire into PCIM(how ever you spell it?) and then out to a big firewire drive using the back firewire.
I was very impressed.

Also notice he called his PB Bender the same as me from Futurama, cause it's made of Titanium of course. On a side not I called my XP box 'Flexo' which I thought was appropriate. Futurama fans will get that

Anywayz thats some serious audio, not production as such but the PB definitely got the power you just need to get your hands on the apps


MM-o4

[heresiarh]

I will definitely look into it.

[waxcrash]

Originally posted by heresiarh:
Hi, I own the 15' Al 1ghz Pbook with 768MBRAM. I was wondering if anybody has done some serious audio production on their pbooks. What system runs best, I plan on getting Reason or Logic.

I use Reason and Pro Tools. I hope you realize that Reason only has a sequencer. If you want to record live audio, then you'll need something like Pro Tools, Logic, MOTU (Mark of the Unicorn), or Cubase.

If you're new to audio production, then get your feet wet with GarageBand first. The programs I mentioned above are not cheap and have a definite learning curve.

[php]

I use Reason ReWired to Ableton Live. I also have NI Absynth and NI Reaktor Session connected to Live via Cycling '74's Soundflower. I can run Reason (mixer, 2 Malstroms and 1 Subtractor synth, an NNXT sampler and two RV 7000 reverbs), the two NI softsynths I mentioned, and the highest quality reverb in Live before my PB 1.5Ghz chokes. I was using the Arturia CS-80V and Modular Moog V but the Arturia stuff is really processor intensive.

[heresiarh]

Good to know all that, but I've worked at numerous studios with pro tools. currently i own cubase vst and want to get hold of reason for sequencing. hopefully i should do fine. wish me luck.

[chris v]

I've got Logic 6 on my AI 1.25. Due to the 5400 RPM hard drive, it maxes out at about 16 tracks of AIFF audio. When I connect a 7200 RPM Firewire drive, I can get up to about 20 tracks before I start getting the occasional processor overload. All 20 of those tracks had compression, and some mix of effects, and I think I had 3 or 4 reverb busses going, too. I froze a couple tracks, and kept on working. (only got a few hours in on the thing so far, but it generally runs pretty well.)

CV

[yin7yang64]

Originally posted by heresiarh:
Hi, I own the 15' Al 1ghz Pbook with 768MBRAM. I was wondering if anybody has done some serious audio production on their pbooks. What system runs best, I plan on getting Reason or Logic.

Not sure what you mean by "audio production". I run Pro Tools LE via Mbox and the Digi 002 on my Al PowerBook to edit, mix, and produce audio projects for my radio station clients, and it always gets me where I need to go. Obviously my digital workstation usage is a different sort of production than the music creation direction the other people in this thread have mentioned. From what I've read around the internet, people are generally satisfied with the recent PowerBooks' performance. I know people who turn to it for video work as well.

[dialo]

I've been using powerbooks for audio for years and they have always been fine.

[PacHead]

I use Protools on my powerbook for when I'm away from my main Macs, or need something portable, works just fine.

[heresiarh]

great, maybe i should jump into buying it then .....

[Sudogenic]

Hi there,

This won't help you much with advice or answers to any specific audio production questions you may have, but my cousin teaches Music at Oxford university here in the UK, and he uses a rev A 17" Powerbook for his work.

[heresiarh]

ive asked around, and people say my 15'' should be just fine. but they suggest to max it out with ram.

[RayX]

See here, M-Powered Artist Videos

1. The Crystal Method (14.4 MB) - Reason
2. BT (14.6 MB) - Live

[darnnit2]

I just want to do some very casual playing around with audio. I've got the 15in Al 1Ghz. It's got the default speed HD (4600rpm?) and 768MB RAM. This a sufficient set up?

Will Garageband be enough to lay down some guitar/bass tracks? I'll probably add some of the loops to fill it out.

[heresiarh]

Garage band should be more than enough. Once you get used to producing audio on your sweet pbook, you can take the next step of upgrading.