Is PTLE problematic on a G5 under Panther?

[Simonize]

Hi,

I need to purchase a new PC and am considering ditching wintel in favour of a dual G5 Powermac. My other main PC activites are digital photo editing (Photoshop), office apps, a little digital video editing and I want to get back into recording.

I used to own a copy of Logic Audio Silver for PC a few years ago and found that piece of software to be really difficult...I never got my head around the environment! So I thought an MBox with PTLE 6.4 would be a good, cost effective solution for me if I go the Mac route.

However, I have read on a couple of forums that PTLE doesn't run well on G5 Macs under OSX 10.3.3. I have heard complaints about speed, limited number of tracks/plug-ins and bugginess/reliability issues. Are these complaints justified? Does PTLE really run better on a PC?

What I'm after is a software package that will let me record vocals and guitar, and create backing tracks using either loops or midi instruments/midi sequencer. Are there any other software options I should consider? (I hesitate with Logic, given my past experience!)

Cheers,
Simon

[staggerlee]

I’ve seen a couple of these posts about difficulties with the G5. I have been running PTLE 6.4 on a new “second generation” G5 1.8 dual for a month or so now and I’ve had absolutely no problems. Rock solid. I’m using Panther 10.3.4.

I’d be curious to hear from more people who are having success or problems with these.

I bought a G4 1.42 a few months ago that would not run PT at all. Constant crashing. Totally useless machine - and I tried every possible angle to fix it. But the problem wasn’t G4’s as a whole or even the 1.42 dual, just that one. My guess is that there are a few bad machines out there and that’s what we’re hearing about.

If my G4 had just done what it was supposed to I doubt I would have been posting here about it.

[mpark9000]

Does PTLE really run better on a PC?

Yes. I have a dual 2ghz G5, and PTLE is adaquate. Not a ringing endorsement for the flagship (until recently) computer! I switched from PTLE 6.4 back to 6.2.3 which helped quite a bit.

I also built an AMD 64 3200+ PC and PTLE absolutely rocks on it. Full track count, higher sampling rates and plugins galore. And this isn't even the fastest cpu I could have bought (it was a MB/CPU combo deal). Rock solid, I have yet to have it crash or fail.

PTLE Mac hasn't been optimised and runs slow. I imagine, and am hoping that when they rewrite it for modern Macs it will surpass the PC version. But for right now that isn't the case.

[Simonize]

Your comments are consistent with what I have herd elsewhere. Thanks for the replies.

Cheers,
Simon