Making the leap of faith

[Theron Day]

I'm doing it, the jump to PT and MAC, finally after 6 years of audio recording with Steinberg and home built PC's. The blue screen I've had enough! It's especially embarrassing with clients around - Murphys law always strikes me. Researching and reading forums like a madman lately. Any words of wisdom or hatemail much appreicated, here is what I plan to buy....

1. Digi002r with Factory Bundle.

2. I need a MAC that is both mobile and powerful as a central DAW....concensus a 1.67GHz 15" or 17" Powerbook, upgraded to 1-2 Gig RAM (some plugsin will be used but nothing crazy, I will mostly be recording bands/solo artists, with a total of mixing 16-24 tracks, also nothing outrageous with virtual instruments)

3. Get an additional flatscreen monitor for my workstation 17" or 19"

4. An external harddrive ?

Anything to look out for?

Many thanks in advance!

(exPC user)

Theron D

[magicm]

Hi Theron,
I have the 17" powerbook with two gigs of ram. (Factory aproved but not bought from Apple, it's a lot cheaper)
The 002
and a Lacie 250 gig external drive.
As well as the command 8.
It has been working very well for me, I am stepping up to the Dual 2.7 or the Quad if it gets approved, but only because I do use a lot of plugins that are very CPU intensive, Native Instruments, Reason, Live, Waves, Bombfactory etc. As well as a lot of music to picture.
It should work well for you.
Good luck and welcome aboard!
Peace.
M

[Theron Day]

thank you for your input, much appreciated.

Theron D

[globaleric]

I have a very similar jump just behind me

A few hopefully helpful hints:

Beware of the following potential problem with the latest HR 15" PB's http://discussions.apple.com/message...&ft=y&#1134211 which has been also confirmed by my dealer. The HR 17" display is not affected, oh, and apart from that simply great!

Mind the 7200RPM/100GB option for the internal PB disk! A faster disk is never wrong, and at least mine is the quietest notebook drive I've ever worked with. Total 1.5G RAM should do the trick.

Yes, an external monitor comes very handy: Edit windows on the PB display, Mix window and plugins on the external.

Regarding mobility: Keep in mind that with the external drive you'll carry lots of cables and power supplies around. My approach: I bought this bag http://www.hama.de/portal/articleId*...wd.jpg#picture
and am always keeping the LaCie disk, power strip, power supplies and the cable mess in the upper compartment actually designed for the computer. Even when the system is running, then just the necessary cables are sticking out. The Powerbook is very thin and fits nicely in the separate document compartment at the bottom of the bag. Another plus is that the padded bag is damping most of the LaCie's operating noises and especially vibrations. However, the drive should be placed upright in the bag (keeping the lid open) when operated for longer than about 1.5 hours, as it would probably overheat with the lid almost closed over a longer period.
Hama seems not available in the US, but I guess something similar should be found there too.

My Powerbook has freezed only once so far (after replacing NeoOffice/J with MS Office) - but ProTools wasn't running then.
So no more bluescreens, but OTOH (without wanting to start another flamewar here) the Mac and OS X are actually not THAT intuitive in every respect as some others may claim...

[RussUK]

It depends what you mean by mobile, but I got an iMac g5 because it is an all in one machine which I can use both as a desktop and also pick it up and walk.

Some people don't take laptops seriously when coming to use a studio, I know it may be just stupidity, but even if it is you need to take into account people's perceptions, especially those who are paying for your time.

So a G5 is another option if you meant portable but not necessarily laptop.

[globaleric]

Honestly, I've been seriously considering the iMac G5 as well, but finally decided for the slower and much more expensive(!) PB G4 option for the following reasons:

- the iMac model I've "listened" was too noisy, especially when the fans were kicking in!
- no dual monitor support without applying obscure / unsupported hacks, no DVI
- I don't trust that tiny stand at all and would expect the system knocked over "by design" sooner or later anywhere outside the safe studio environment

Also I didn't own a private notebook before, which is very convenient for accessing the Internet within seconds from just anywhere in the house (WLAN).

BTW I'm not quite sure if the same people disregarding laptops in studio environments would take design-oriented "lifestyle" hardware à la iMac so much more seriously...
Especially when considering what's more common nowadays in harsh but demanding environments like i.e. Formula 1 pits.