Does PT Free Work W/ OS-X ?

[BlackOctopus]

My Yamaha Motif has 1/4" L & R line outs..i am very confused at this point! I need a USB soundcard . What exactly is my solution? I only want to capture 1 stereo channel of audio at any one time...it seems there is no audio card for the iMac that pro tools likes...is this a cunning plan to make me buy the MBox? mmm..

[dg44]

Black Octopus,

Not to help you spend even more money, but I think you'll find the Edirol UA-1A would work fine, especially if you were to incorporate a small mixer into the scenario. Then you could plug your synth into the mixer and your mixer out into the Edirol. Edirol out into the Mac. The RCA outs from the Edirol go back into the mixer for monitoring with whatever monitors you use.

As D.B. said, the Edirol can be had for around $70-$80. A little Behringer 602A mixer is about $60.

Even without the mixer, you could probably hook up your Yamaha to the Edirol with 1/4" to RCA adapters. Then just use the RCA outs of the Edirol into your monitors. Just be careful of your levels as the Edirol has no input or output controls.

[BlackOctopus]

Thanks alot! I am still deciding what to go for..what you suggest would be ideal IF it works of course..i wonder what most people use PT Free for? is there a big difference between LE and FREE other than the audio track availability? That Mbox seems to be getting cheaper so i may go for that...i guess my main questions here is: Why doesn't everyone here USE Mbox?? [img]images/icons/confused.gif[/img]

[M.Brane]

Originally posted by The Black Octopus:
...i guess my main questions here is: Why doesn't everyone here USE Mbox?? [img]images/icons/confused.gif[/img]

Because it's $400 and my Mac doesn't have USB....

....yet. [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

[BlackOctopus]

OK. Makes sense. I did a search for Edirol on this forum and as expected read many varying accounts of success.
I reckon Mbox may be easier than dealing with an edirol simply because at least i know it will be compatible with my mac. Of course. this will leave me tapped out financially, but if it gets me making music again!..one other related question that popped up was whether or not PTools FREE or LE will record onto the hard drive of the MAC. I have a new IMac G4 and don't really want to spend MORE money on an external HDrive when i have a 40GB drive just sitting there...any ideas to guarantee things run smoothly between PTools and the Mac? (I have no idea how to partition a drive!)

[M.Brane]

It's really best to record to a separate drive. The next best thing would be to partition your drive so it has a volume dedicated to your session/audio files. You could have issues with track count though depending on how fast the drive is. If you just record onto the same volume as your system it could screw things up.

To partition your drive first back up everything you want to keep (you do backup anyway, right? [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img] ) then boot from your system install disk, go to drive setup, choose your HD and initialize. Poof! There goes everything on the drive. [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] Then create however many volumes you want and the size. Remember the first partition will be the fastest. Re-install your system and after you boot from that you can copy the other stuff back from your backup copy.

Buying an external FW drive to record to is probably looking a bit more attractive at this point, eh? [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[Brineybose]

Originally posted by M.Brane:
If you just record onto the same volume as your system it could screw things up. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Right. I'm running an iMac G3, and I was originally using PTF on the same unpartitioned drive with the OSX startup system. That seemed to work fine, until my computer started losing the File Directories, and they would come up corrupted. Worst crash of my life. Now I've partitioned the disk, and really hope I don't run into the same crap.

You mentioned FW Hard Drives being a better solution, and I was wondering if there were any recommendations as to . . . well, whatever?

[M.Brane]

Originally posted by Brineybose:
Right. I'm running an iMac G3, and I was originally using PTF on the same unpartitioned drive with the OSX startup system. That seemed to work fine, until my computer started losing the File Directories, and they would come up corrupted. Worst crash of my life. Now I've partitioned the disk, and really hope I don't run into the same crap.

Directory maintenence is still important. I rebuild mine at least once a week with TechToolPro. Diskwarrior is good also. Directory corruption is one of those thing that you won't notice until it's really bad. Better to not let it get out of control.

You mentioned FW Hard Drives being a better solution, and I was wondering if there were any recommendations as to . . . well, whatever?[/QB]

I would do a search of the DUC to see what drives are compatible. Remember there is no such thing as an actual FW HD. It's just an IDE/ATA drive in a special case with bridge chips and a FW interface.

[sdc]

...hey... complete and utter newbie here (as in, to these forums, macs, AND pt free...) so be gentle with me if i cover old smelly ground, or ask stupid questions/comments.

i got an emac g4 with x.2/9.2.2 classic, and eventually, after a mighty tussle, managed to get the damn thing running under OS 9.2.2, rather than OS X with classic.

here's what i had to do (don't know if this will help someone else or not, it may, or it just may make me look stupid [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img] ):
1) boot up in 9.2
2) turn OFF appletalk
3) turn OFF virtual memory
4) configure OMS driver (will check what i did when i get home - after work today, it's all a foggy haze)

now that i've done that, i still need to get the audio inputs talking to PTF. i've been told by a colleague (who i believe has a g3 imac) that i may need an ASIO driver (not the australian spy organisation) to run it. any recommendations etc?

also, i've noticed the course of this thread has veered from getting the damn thing to run, to hard disks. i've only got one HDD, 30gig free, which i noticed is feared. but i don't wanna partition ('cause i couldn't be arsed backing up all my crap [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] ), i noticed faking a FW HDD is recommended, but what about the easier (read:lazy) option of USB?

ta, and please, be gentle. it is true, i am ignorant for a living

[sdc]

an update on my boring misadventures, i found this thread on the USB hard disk question.

one word: bugger. what a hassle.