Considering A Change::Need Advice

[fikafer]

greetings, happy holidays, and thanks in advance for any advice!!!

i'm still kicking pro-tools old school... a mix+ system on a G4 running OS10.3.9 and PTv6.4.1.

of course i have dreamt of upgrading to HD for a long time but have not had the budget to do it. SO, i am seriously considering switching to a Pro Tools LE system (the 003). there are so many great things that i am missing out on, plus without any more development/support on 6.4 i feel like i'm stranded out there in the wilderness. i would really like to be current with pro tools software and be running on the latest and greatest system.

MY FEAR (and here's where some advice or feedback will really come in handy): i'm concerned that running an LE system will be sluggish and that i won't be able to have all the tracks and/or plugs that i will need. i just purchase the 'Universal Audio Flexi-Pac (which for those of you who don't know provides a PCI card and works within pro tools as a vst wrapped plug and shows up as rtas), so that is going to provide me with some extra plugin juice.

i know most of these issues depend on my computer... so here is what i'm dealing with:

Apple G4 / 1.42ghz dual processor / 2gig RAM

obviously i'll update the OS to the most current

i know that there's no way for anyone to answer any of these questions with exact precision but i would love to hear what other users are getting out of LE with a similar computer set up.

thanks everyone so much. i would really appreciate feedback, encouragement (or discouragement), etc.

best,
fik

[barstool719]

that's a sorta dicey situation.

You could run le 7.4 on a G4, but you'd need to update OS X to Tiger, 7.4.2 or 8.0 would need leopard. You can run leopard on a 1.4 dual. Id upgrade the memory in the machine at least 4GB.... if you can.

The UAD cards have a lot of fans, but Im not one of them. The latency on the plugs suck and IMO, the VST wrapper is kinda shakey. Some folks use them and love them though.

Im sure it's not what you want to hear, but save some cash for a new Mac. The first gen Mac Pros run LE very very well, even at high track counts with lots of plugins.

[bvcreative]

Hi Fik,

I was in the exact same situation about a year ago. I had a G4 running 6.4, and although it was good, I wanted to get into PT7. Unfortunately my G4 didn't even have a DVD drive, so I couldn't upgrade to OSX. Finally I just decided to jump in and get a new system.

So about a year ago I bought a Mac Mini with 1GHz RAM upgraded to 2Ghz. It worked great, although I ended up getting a Macbook Pro a few weeks ago and now I'm using it with 4Ghz of RAM and Intel Duo Core 2.5 GHz speed. I just loaded PT8 onto it and absolutely love it so far!

If you need to upgrade really cheaply you could look at the Mac Mini, just remember that 2GHz limitation. Otherwise just look at the latest Macs and Macbooks. Also remember on Macbooks that only the previous generation of Macbooks have two firewire ports.

[fikafer]

thanks for the replies.

anyone else???

[BRH]

I just gave away a G4 933MHZ running PT 6.4.1 on OSX 10.3.9......Core and Farm card... and it was SOLID!

People didn't want to use it because not up to date.

New interfaces sound better.

You will need a new computer..... you are looking at buying everything.
People like the Mac Book Pros... I can't stand them...

Look for a refurbished Mac Pro.... any one of them will do.