What recording software should a church use with iBook?

[Chris]

A friend recently emailed a request for advice on purchasing software for her church. She is a very good singer and pianist (in fact the best church keyboardist I have ever heard)(I recorded her album using Protools TDM about 5 years ago) This is her email:
We don’t have a PC or Mac … though I plan to purchase an iBook for this. I figured it needed lots of memory and fast processing. We have mics for use on Sundays, but no recording mics. Currently we’ve done all of our projects on direct plug instruments, so we haven’t needed one. I know we will need some kind of feeder board to the PC. That’s all I know currently.
Any advice would be appreciated. Chris

[Chris]

Bounce

[Tone]

Chris. Of course the budget available affects every decision but what about suggesting a 02 Rack. It should have enough I/O for what she needs and it runs via firewire for a laptop.

[tvent]

Chris, I think I would be inclined to agree with Tone. A 002 Rack would be a great solution and is not too pricey. Since this is going to be in a church - if budget allows - you may want to go with the full 002 and get the added benefits of a small control surface, infact now that I think about it that would probably be best, especially if the system is going to stay at the church.

I think I would also take a look at the powerbooks over the ibook (imho). Since the 002's are firewire you could even get one of those 12" powerbooks and save some desktop real estate while not have to worry about it's lack of a pcmcia slot.

The 002 would even run on the windows side if you decided to go that route (I think the LE systems get more plugin instances on fast windows systems than on MAC's - I would still stay with the MAC for the ease of hardware setup, but at least you would have the option)

I think your original question asked about software, we are suggesting hardware/software solutions. My advice on software is stay with ProTools, be it LE or TDM because it is the most simple to operate and use. I know you can probably get a solution cheaper than a 002 or 002 rack, but do consider that the 002 and the LE software were designed around one another and from what I have seen at most churches, ease of use is a major consideration. It is not fun to start having tech isssues and computer problems in the middle of a service because someone wanted to save a few hundred bucks - my $.02