hardware requirements confusion - help!

[Park Seward]

The Mac computers today have four PCI slots as well as a AGP slot for a graphic card. IMHO, your computer is fully compatible with PT. Digi has not yet fully completed testing.

You will get OS X as well as 9.1 or 9.2. They will be on different partitions of your hard drive. Use the 9.X operating system. Digi recommends not installing OS X.

You should have a second hard drive for your music files. Easy to install if you didn't order one. Get a 7200 RMP IDE drive.

From Digi:
Mac OS X and Pro Tools Compatibility
July 17, 2001
Installing OS X on the same computer that you run OS 9.x with Pro Tools can cause serious file corruption and permanent damage to Pro Tools-related disk directories.
We have received reports that some users have installed Mac OS X on the same computer with their Pro Tools system. Pro Tools will not run at all on OS X, but more importantly OS X should not be installed on the same computer with your Pro Tools system. Even when using Pro Tools with the approved OS 9.0.4 or 9.1, there have been reports of unrecoverable Pro Tools errors on computers after users have installed OS X in addition to OS 9.x. Digidesign is currently investigating these reports along with our development partners, including Pace Anti-Piracy and Apple Computer.
Digidesign has been actively working with Apple for over a year towards supporting OS X with Digidesign products, but please be strongly advised that Pro Tools is currently not compatible with OS X.

-------------------------------

Digidesign Qualification Plan for 2001 G4 Models
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Status Report — In Progress, July 18, 2001

July 18, 2001 — At MacWorld New York today, Apple Computer announced three new computer models:

* 733 MHz Power Mac G4 (2nd generation, does not have level 3 cache)
* 867 MHz Power Mac G4
* Dual 800 MHz Power Mac G4


Digidesign compatibility testing with these 3 new models is currently in progress. We will announce product and component compatibility with these newest models in stages as results become available. The 733 MHz model is the first that will be available for testing, followed by the 867 MHz model, then the Dual 800 MHz. Information on how to differentiate between G4 models can be found on Apple's website here: http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n58418

Full compatibility testing will be performed with Pro Tools® 5.1.1 and higher.

Status Report — Previously Completed

Digidesign® currently supports the following Apple 4 PCI slot 2001 G4 Models. Full compatibility testing was performed with Pro Tools® 5.1 and higher.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Testing Completed With the Following Computers:
466MHz PowerPC G4 533MHz PowerPC G4 Dual 533MHz PowerPC G4
667MHz PowerPC G4 733MHz PowerPC G4
(1st generation, with 1 MB backside level 3 cache)

[imp]

Thanks for the info Park. I ordered a new 867 with a 60 gb 7200 rpm hard-drive, an additional internal IBM 75 gb Deskstar ATA-100 hard-drive to use for the audio (8.5 ms average seek time), and an EZQuest external firewire hard-drive just for back-up and transportation only... and an extra 512 Mb of Ram for good luck. I plan on installing the OS 9.1 and PTLE ONLY... and nothing else. My goal is to have a system that will give me a minimal amount of trouble... this is very important to me. When I read the seemingly thousands of posts here from people who are experiencing troubles, conflicts, bugs, etc, it makes me very unhappy. I have completely avoided DAWs since the beginning because of this, but I finally gave in after actually trying a friend's PTLE and understanidg how incredibly powerful it is for the money. Since I am a musician with a demanding schedule however, I am very fearful of bugs and problems that will cause downtime... which is why I hope I have made a good choice in terms of hardware to run PTLE.

Any other tips from anyone on how to set up and maintain a 001 / PTLE system for minimum troubles? I'd love to hear them!

A colleague recommends that I fully format my 867 as soon as I get it, and then install the OS and PTLE from scratch. Anything else I should be paying attention to?

Thanks. -imp

[imp]

...oh yeah, OS 9.1 is recommended by Digidesign, but how about 9.2 ? Is there any trouble using 9.2, or should I specifically stick to 9.1 ? I only ask because my new computer may come with 9.2 and not 9.1... but if it safer to use 9.1, I'll do what it takes to get 9.1.

Thanks - imp

[accession]

Although I haven't updated yet, there was a recent thread claiming sucess with 9.2.

Maybe check the apple site for the latest OS, before using the one that comes with the Mac, just in case it has been updated in the meantime.

Phil

[Park Seward]

Follow the recommendations from Digi and you should habe a trouble free system. I have had no trouble with mine.

Best of luck!

From Answerbase:

What are the optimum settings for Pro Tools on a Mac?
Appearance Control Panel:
Under Fonts, change all fonts to Chicago & Disable "Smooth all fonts on screen."
Under Sound, set Soundtrack to "none."
Energy Saver Control Panel:
Set sleep time to "Never."
Memory Control Panel:
Select "Custom" twice under Disk Cache and set it to 512k. You will see a warning regarding system performance. Do Not Panic! This warning does not affect Pro Tools' performance. 512k is the optimum setting.
Set Virtual Memory and Ram Disk to "Off."
Monitors Control Panel:
If using a 9500 or 9600 (or lower) Mac, set colors to 256.
If using a G3 or G4, setting the color to "thousands" should be adequate.
AV users should set the monitor attatched to the ABVB card to "millions."
Extensions Manager:
Under "Selected Set," select the OS Base Set (Listed by OS version...ex. OS 9.1 Base Set)
Select "Duplicate Set" and name the set "Pro Tools."
Add/enable:
OMS Preferrred Device (control panel)
Digidesign DSP Manager (ext)
Digisystem INIT (ext)
Open Music system (ext)
Digidesign Stream Manager (ext) (if applicable/needed)
Digidesign Output Drivers (ext (if applicable/needed)
Digidesign Direct I/O (ext) (if applicable/needed - v5.01 and higher)
Digidesign Sound (control panel) (if applicable/needed - v5.01/OS9 and higher)
Pro Tools/DAE
Memory Allocation (Basic settings, based on 128-196 mb of RAM):
In Digidesign folder>ProTools, 'get info' (Cmd-I)* on the Pro Tools application.
Set the Preferred Memory to 30-50 mb (30000k-50000k)
Minimum Memory should be left at the default (Enter a '0' if in doubt)
In System Folder>DAE Folder, 'get info' (Cmd-I)* on the DAE application.
Set the Preferred Memory to 40-60 mb (40000-60000k)
Minimum Memory should be left at the default (Enter a '0' if in doubt)
*NEVER 'lock' these "Get Info" windows
DAE Playback Buffer setting (DAE > File menu > Set Playback Buffer). Buffer size is dependent on your hardware. Use the following settings:
Mix System - 2
D24 System - 2
Pro Tools III System - 0
PowerMix Engine - 8

[imp]

To get right to the point, I just ordered a new 001, and ordered a new 867 Mac, stock. Awaiting arrival. But after the fact, I looked at the requirements page for the 001, and noticed at the Digi site something about Mac "PCI slot" versions, and "AGP" versions, etc... in sum, after reading various documents at the digi site and Apple site, it is still unclear to me whether or not the new 867 computer I just ordered is fully compatible with the 001 / PTLE 5.1.1.

Then there's the issue about operating systems... as I understand it, OS 9.1 must be used, and not OSX. I wonder what operating system I will get with my new Mac... I did not specificy when I bought it. If I need to get my hands on an OS 9.1 installation disk, is that hard to do? Expensive?

Any other notes or tips? Thanks. -imp

[The Con-Artist]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by accession:
Although I haven't updated yet, there was a recent thread claiming sucess with 9.2.

Maybe check the apple site for the latest OS, before using the one that comes with the Mac, just in case it has been updated in the meantime.

Phil<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

[The Con-Artist]

Sorry about that last post, my browser got confused for a second. Anyways, to all headz who are considering on upgrading to 9.2.1, I highly advise against it. I am actually a 9.2.1 user, and troubleshooter extraordinaire. However the only reason why 9.2.1 was made, was so that headz who purchase OS X aren't left hanging when software developers haven't caught up to the technology. If you use "Software Updater" for your Mac, you'll know that the only thing that you need from OS 9.2.1 that OS 9.1 doesn't have, is the Carbon Lib, and anyone can get that off the Appple site. If you don't beleive my words go to the apple discussion on 9.2.1 and you'll find everyone in there is hating life right now, because all their stuff no longer works. I did a clean install of it, and run Norton Utilities every week on my MAC and there's still problems. Beleive me OS 9.2.1 is not worth the trouble. Just ask the 24 kids who can't get their Diablo II running properly because of 9.2.1, they seem to be having a field day because of it. And I just shrug off stuck mice in mid session as I reboot for a type 2 error when I have more RAM than I need. So figure.

[Park Seward]

You will have no advantage using anything beyond 9.1. And it does seem 9.2 has some problems.

[ear2ear]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by imp:
I plan on installing the OS 9.1 and PTLE ONLY... and nothing else. My goal is to have a system that will give me a minimal amount of trouble... this is very important to me. When I read the seemingly thousands of posts here from people who are experiencing troubles, conflicts, bugs, etc, it makes me very unhappy. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Don't worry. I was fearful of having to deal with all these strange errors that I had seen people post about especially since I was completely new to the Mac too but I got my G3 and digi set-up and running with no problems to date. Just follow all those setup recommendations is all I can say. And make sure the monitor mode button is disengaged while you install the software (this little more-than-obvious button had me going "what the ...." for a half hour!)

peace