[(>-]

hi there, as you can see from my post count i'm new here and i was wondering would the 12 inch 1.2 ghz ibook be good to be used for nothing more then beats sequencing and recording?

I already have alot of the other equipment needed for music production (such as a mixer, midi controller, etc) and i would of course upgrade the RAM right off the bat to above 512.

This would also be my first mac, but my recording college only uses macs right now for everything so i know it has to be the best for music and i'd just like to hear your feedback.

(>-

[jamil5454]

For light and short stuff the iBook is fine, but for heavier stuff you'll want the PB. I purchased the 12" 1.2 thinking I could do some hard core stuff, but that's what the pro machines are for. Mine is loaded with 1.25gb of RAM and I still see slowdowns in GarageBand with more than 6-8 or so tracks. Also, I can't record at 16bit 44.1khz quality for more than about 30 minutes at a time, because GarageBand was giving me errors something to effect of "Disk access too slow." I even tried Audacity and it was giving me errors on long recordings too. I had to record at 16bit 11khz to keep from getting errors on my 2hr recordings.

The iBook would be a great choice if you put a 60gb 7200rpm disk and 1.25gb of RAM in it. Those are the main bottlenecks in music work IMO.

[jokell82]

Originally Posted by jamil5454

For light and short stuff the iBook is fine, but for heavier stuff you'll want the PB. I purchased the 12" 1.2 thinking I could do some hard core stuff, but that's what the pro machines are for. Mine is loaded with 1.25gb of RAM and I still see slowdowns in GarageBand with more than 6-8 or so tracks. Also, I can't record at 16bit 44.1khz quality for more than about 30 minutes at a time, because GarageBand was giving me errors something to effect of "Disk access too slow." I even tried Audacity and it was giving me errors on long recordings too. I had to record at 16bit 11khz to keep from getting errors on my 2hr recordings.

The iBook would be a great choice if you put a 60gb 7200rpm disk and 1.25gb of RAM in it. Those are the main bottlenecks in music work IMO.

You're doing something wrong then. I've used my iBook in the field for years and have never had a problem recording for 5+ hours in 16/44.1 and higher. I've done 3.5 hours in 24/96 with no problems as well, and I only have a 700 Mhz G3.

Originally Posted by (>-

hi there, as you can see from my post count i'm new here and i was wondering would the 12 inch 1.2 ghz ibook be good to be used for nothing more then beats sequencing and recording?

For recording the iBook is more than capable. If all you're going to do editing wise is beats sequencing you'll be just fine. Some of the more complicated editing processes will take a while on the G4, but eventually it will finish.

[(>-]

thank you

[smileydub]

Originally Posted by jokell82

You're doing something wrong then. I've used my iBook in the field for years and have never had a problem recording for 5+ hours in 16/44.1 and higher. I've done 3.5 hours in 24/96 with no problems as well, and I only have a 700 Mhz G3.



For recording the iBook is more than capable. If all you're going to do editing wise is beats sequencing you'll be just fine. Some of the more complicated editing processes will take a while on the G4, but eventually it will finish.

Joke1182: What size of RAM and HDD rpm do you have in your G3 ?

[Mojo]

If the slower drive is part of the bottleneck, wouldn't a 7200 RPM external drive be an alternative to the PB?

[jamil5454]

Originally Posted by jokell82

You're doing something wrong then. I've used my iBook in the field for years and have never had a problem recording for 5+ hours in 16/44.1 and higher. I've done 3.5 hours in 24/96 with no problems as well, and I only have a 700 Mhz G3.



For recording the iBook is more than capable. If all you're going to do editing wise is beats sequencing you'll be just fine. Some of the more complicated editing processes will take a while on the G4, but eventually it will finish.

Hmm. Which program did you use?

[jokell82]

Sorry, didn't have internet access over the weekend.

Originally Posted by smileydub

Joke1182: What size of RAM and HDD rpm do you have in your G3 ?

384 megs of RAM and an 80 gig 4200rpm hard drive.

Originally Posted by jamil5454

Hmm. Which program did you use?

I've used many programs. The majority of my 24/96 recordings were done in Spark XL, as it did not have the 2 gigabyte limit that plagued other programs (through use of the wav64 and SDII extended formats). I also used Digital Performer 4, Peak (which I hate), Sound Studio, Amadeus, and Audacity. My favorite was by far Spark, however it was discontinued by TC Works. One of the authors has started another project, though, called Quattro DSP. Looks interesting, and I may purchase it soon.