PC to Mac, but I still have questions - pls help

[Sean-NJ]

First I would like to just say hello to everyone on the forums. I have been reading through them trying to gather my answers and I guess I'm still just not clear on everything I’m questioning.

I am a college student majoring in Music Recording. I just finished my first semester but I would like to start recording now. My plan as of now is a PowerBook and a DigiDesign 002. I was originally going to get the 002 rack but my professor talked to me and said that he had just got 10 002's in for next semester, so I figured it would be best to just get one of those. I’m going to be doing some full band stuff because I have been drumming for 10 years, playing guitar for 3, and singing for about 2. I plan to be recording a lot whether it is scheduled or just spur of the moment hit record and just goof around for an hour. The reason for PowerBook is also because if need be I would like the ability to easily move the setup to another location or a live performance of some kind.

My Concerns:

1. I have always been a PC person, but, due to me getting into music and going to be doing recording I figured it's time to go Mac. Are PC Processors comparable to the G4 found in the PowerBooks? If so, how?

2. What kind of PowerBook (iBook?) do you guys suggest for this project? From what I know of PC's my configuration so far goes something like this:

- 15" PowerBooks
- 8X SuperDrive
- 1 GB DDR333 - (1 DIMM)
- 1.67GHz PowerPC G4 w/128MB VRAM dual
- 80GB Drive
- Apple Car Protection Plan

Cost with EDU discount - $2743

Is this over kill? (I just don’t know the power of Mac over PC)

3. I read a lot about problems with PowerBooks being fairly unsturdy and dent and bend easily...how bad is this problem? Do you have to treat it likes it’s a million dollar piece of equipment or are people exaggerating a little bit?

4. Is it time to buy soon or is there a new revision of the Powerbook coming out? Is it worth it to go on a first generation system from Apple?

5. Anything else you guys can inform me of before purchasing that I might want to check out, or alternatives to my current thoughts on what to purchase?


Thanks in advance for all your help (from what i have read so far and what i am soon to read)

Sean
[email protected]

[cheekypaul]

1. I have always been a PC person, but, due to me getting into music and going to be doing recording I figured it's time to go Mac. Are PC Processors comparable to the G4 found in the PowerBooks? If so, how?

I don't know how the PC processors compare to the G$.

2. What kind of PowerBook (iBook?) do you guys suggest for this project?

Get the most powerful you can afford, but make sure it's been approved by Digidesign in the compatibility Link. Get Applecare.

3. I read a lot about problems with PowerBooks being fairly unsturdy and dent and bend easily...how bad is this problem? Do you have to treat it likes it’s a million dollar piece of equipment or are people exaggerating a little bit?

Some exaggeration here, get a sleeve/soft case to lug it around in. the old Titaniums were prone to switch off when moved or picked up in a certain way. the new ones don't. they feel very sturdy.

4. Is it time to buy soon or is there a new revision of the Powerbook coming out? Is it worth it to go on a first generation system from Apple?

a tricky question, but basically you should buy technology at the time you need it, ie., you could wait forever for the newest models. you will always be disapointed if you buy just before a new model, that's inevitable. With apple the choices are a lot simpler than with PCs because there aren't so many options. consider the 17" too.

5. Anything else you guys can inform me of before purchasing that I might want to check out, or alternatives to my current thoughts on what to purchase?

Dead pixels are a Pain in the Butt. perhaps if you buy from a store you can check out the screen before you buy. a lot have only 1 dead pixel but if it's a bright one in the centre of your screen it will drive you insane. New powerbooks come with Tiger installed, Pro tools is yet to be approved on tiger, but it will be in the next few weeks.

enjoy.

[Randirainbow]

You may also need to buy a second hard drive as PT will not run, or run problematically when using the boot drive for audio.

[Sean-NJ]

bump

[maccool]

Any and all PC's will beat any and all Mac's hands down, and if you don't believe me ask over on the Dark Side and you'll see that I'm right.

The PowerBook you described is a good deal. If you can't make good recordings with that and a 002 then pick another major. When it runs out of puff get yourself a Dual G5, or an Allenstein. You'll know by then whether or not you want to stay on the Mac platform.

The PB is cool, you know you want it, so go for it.

[C52382P]

My first Mac rig for protools was my 1.33ghz G4 17 inch powerbook. I could run pretty decent sessions on it...smaller sessions even with an instance of altiverb. YOU WILL DEFINITELY NEED TO BUY A FIREWIRE CARD ADAPTER. Recording to the internal drive is a big no no and protools will simply not run well with the 002 and the external hard drive daisy chained on the same firewire bus. Its my earnest belief that you will be happier with the mac. It may not have the clockspeed of a PC but the time you save in ease of use and the simple elegance of OSX will make it well worth it. id reccomend keeping your powerbook as light on extra software as you can too. I constantly see tons of posts about how 10.3.9 and 6.9le are unstable together. Probably because people have systems that are full of a ton of crap. Treat your PowerBook like the piece of pro gear that it is and it will treat you kindly with rock solid sessions that rarely so much as studder. 10.3.9 and 6.9 le work fine on both of my mac systems and my sessions are usually large. I have no problem tracking 12 or more inputs at once on my powerbook...which is great for portability. Id reccomend having a more powerfull desktop system to do your mixing on though.

[C52382P]

My first Mac rig for protools was my 1.33ghz G4 17 inch powerbook. I could run pretty decent sessions on it...smaller sessions even with an instance of altiverb. YOU WILL DEFINITELY NEED TO BUY A FIREWIRE CARD ADAPTER. Recording to the internal drive is a big no no and protools will simply not run well with the 002 and the external hard drive daisy chained on the same firewire bus. Its my earnest belief that you will be happier with the mac. It may not have the clockspeed of a PC but the time you save in ease of use and the simple elegance of OSX will make it well worth it. id reccomend keeping your powerbook as light on extra software as you can too. I constantly see tons of posts about how 10.3.9 and 6.9le are unstable together. Probably because people have systems that are full of a ton of crap. Treat your PowerBook like the piece of pro gear that it is and it will treat you kindly with rock solid sessions that rarely so much as studder. 10.3.9 and 6.9 le work fine on both of my mac systems and my sessions are usually large. I have no problem tracking 12 or more inputs at once on my powerbook...which is great for portability. Id reccomend having a more powerfull desktop system to do your mixing on though.

[ben_johnson]

1.

For a PC to come close to a G4, it needs to be mighty powerful. You need about twice as fast a processor in the PC. Check the apple website and go to hardware, and it should say somewhere.

2.

I've got an iBook, 1.33GHz, 768MB RAM, 80GB drive. Its fine for what I want at the moment, but as soon as I get a bit more cash I will max out the RAM. I recommend you do that too, it just makes ProTools' life a bit easier. The PowerBook is the better model, so get that if you have the money.

3.

Can't really help you on this one I'm afraid.

4.

Don't worry, the PowerBook won't be upgraded to G5 any time soon. The G5 is too hot for the PowerBook, so thats going to take a while to sort out. Next year I would guess.

5.

An extra firewire drive is probably a good idea. I can't say about the daisy chaining idea because I have an Mbox.