New to macbook with protools le 002

[simonb6752]

After lots of faffing about it seems that I will never get my dell studio 1535 to work with my le setup so am thinking of getting the mac book 2.4Ghz. No longer made I think but seen one second hand. Am I likely to run into ANY issues or will my problems all be behing me when I'm floating on a sea of mac?

Thanks for any replies

[getz76]

Are you talking about the black, polycarbonate Macbook? Works fine. 13.3" is not ideal for editing, but it is manageable.

Snow Leopard (the latest OS X, 10.6) is not currently certified for Pro Tools LE 8.0.1. What version of Pro Tools do you have? Older version of Pro Tools (pre-7.4) will not run on Leopard (10.5) or Snow Leopard (10.6) at all.

I have both a white Macbook and a Macbook Pro. Both are quite capable of handling Pro Tools, and in fact there is little difference between the two. In order to get a big performance jump (for lots of plug-ins and virtual instruments), you would need to get more processing power. The difference between an Intel Core 2 Duo 2.1gHz, 2.4gHz, and 2.66gHz is not that significant... getting up to a quad-core or two quad-cores gets you more power, but that only comes in a desktop.

Just realize, with the 002 and a Macbook, you need to run your Firewire to your hard drive first and then to the 002, so basically it is Macbook FW400 -> FW400 Drive In -> FW400 Drive Thru -> Digi002. Your external hard drive will need to have two Firewire ports to make this happen.

[simonb6752]

Thanks getz!

What OS are mac users using with le then? I'm running 7.3 at the mo but would be prepared to upgrade if needed.

I'm only really gonna use the mac for portable recording with protools. Got a quad core pc for editing and mixing :0)

[getz76]

I cloned my drive and upgraded to Snow Leopard. So I am now on 10.6.1 on my Macbook Pro and running Pro Tools LE 8.0.1. The only issue I have is the jumpy playback cursor. Others are not as lucky.

You will need at least 7.4.2 to run on 10.5 (Leopard) or 10.6 (Snow Leopard).

From the sound of it, I don't think Snow Leopard fixes will be long in coming.

Pro Tools LE 8.0.1 runs like a charm on my Macbook with 10.5.8. No issues whatsoever.

Unless you can get the black Macbook cheap, I would look for a white model. The black models demand a premium on the used market. The new Macbooks have much better integrated video (nVidia 9400), and brandy new they are running $999. You can get a refurbished model cheaper. The 2.1gHz versus 2.4gHz is insignificant, and the newer ones have a faster bus to make it even less so...

[simonb6752]

Thanks again

It's the white one I'm looking at actually! Think I'll be upgrading my protools as well then :0)

[simonb6752]

Sorry last question (I hope!)

Any recommendations for external drives with 2xfirewire? I've had a little look and it doesn't seem common.

[getz76]

For a notebook with FW400, I recommend Oyen Digital's drive enclosure. There are others, but I have experience with this one and it works. I have a 320gB Fujitsu drive in it.

[Obsidian Dragon]

You can also check out OWC drives at www.macsales.com. A lot of folks here favor these drives.

[albee1952]

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firew...b/eliteclassic
look down the right-hand column for drives with 2xFW400 ports.

[simonb6752]

oh god oh god oh god!!!!

I was seconds away from buying a mac book that had no sodding firewire!!

Apologies for my newbie shock but man, I thought that crap came as standard