Man... Oh, man... Girlfriend problems...

[K-Man]

Hey everyone,

Here's a good one for those that understand...

My girlfriend and I are separating. I'm moving to Los Angeles and she's staying here in Vancouver, WA for a while. Where it gets fun is that she has most (nearly all) ownership of the G5 I've been working off of for my Pro Tools LE sessions. She also owns the monitors, Motif 8 and such. The Digi 002R is mine though. And it's my MBox. Plus hoards of other various types of gear. Yeah, I guess I am the mooching boyfriend, you could say in so many words. She had the necessary gear for me to record, mix & edit, so why did I need to run off and buy my own, right?

Now, I'm faced with having to buy my first Mac in a long time (last Mac officially owned was a Performa 600CD in 1990/91). I was groomed on Pro Tools using nothing but a Mac. I was certified on a Mac. I know Macs now very well. However, I'm trying to break into the sound biz in Los Angeles. I just took a trip down there, and had some surprisingly good luck. I even helped do the Hard Effects on a chase scene in the new Dukes Of Hazzard movie. And yes, Jessica Simpson looked really hot. But, I established quite the good rapport with a lot of post houses in the area. But they did tell me that they hire freelance workers generally before they hire anyone as a permenent employee.

So, my question to those experienced in freelance work, is which kind of Apple should I get? I want an AiPowerbook with a 17" display & at least 1GB RAM. However, is this going to hold up OK with lots of tracks & plugins? The other option is a iMac G5. Same thing with faster CPU speeds & 64 bit processing. Still kind of portable. Obviously, not something you can work on while on an jetliner. But you can move it from station to station without strain. The next option is to get another G5 tower, which I love. But the portability of that monster sucks. I know this for a fact due to 3 days ago when my girlfriend wanted her G5 moved over to her parents house for the next week to do some graphic design for her mom's business.

Do I need to move around? Should I be portable? Will a 17" 1.67GHz AiPowerbook w/ 1GB RAM do the trick? I've also heard of a new Powerbook G4 dual core processor coming out soon. Should I hold out for that? I have everything else needed to get rolling. Just not a computer (besides my 4 year old, dumpy Dell Dimension 4300).

Just looking for some advice. Nothing too serious. But I value the opinions of the DUC members.

Thanks for your time!

-K

[Gkyaun]

Maybe Jessica Simpson owns a Mac? ;-) I doubt she could run a PC !

She has a 12" PowerBook.

[The Mink]

I tried to score a film on a 17" Powerbook 1GHz, and it choked so fast I went running to the guy who bought my old mix system. Laptops are great for running a few tracks and recording on the go, but for any kind of polished work... we're just not there yet.

Now I have a dual 2.5 G5 with gobs of memory and I'm having zero problems. It's just better for doing serious work... so the best thing to do is to get a used iBook or something, which you can use for light weight and mobile work (not to mention your non-PT computer needs)... and get a big monster G5 for the real deep stuff.

[just_sounds]

What about a fw hd? or a mac mini?
easy to bring with you you only have to have a sort of dock on the places you work.

[Blue Ridge]

She had the gear, and I bought the beer

Til the day that she told me, "get outta here!"

I'm down on my luck, but glad i'm alive

I'd save up my buck(s) and buy a G-5.


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