New Mac or keep old

[bassman]

My old Mac G5 1.8 ghz dual power pc has just gone down and so I need an alternative.

I already have an intel Mac laptop 2.1 ghz dual core and I am trying to decide whether to get a bit more RAM, update harddrive and use it for recording or buy a new or second hand computer.

My work is mainly library music but no real big string libraries as such. I use a fair amount of plugins. Lots of audio tracks. Lots of live instruments.
I also do a fair amount of session work producing artists, recording vocals, live instruments etc.

I found my old G5 just fine for that. What about my laptop? Any downsides, overheating or anything else?

I'll try it on a small session tomorrow which isn't too demanding.

What about new macs. I'd rather not spend the money but if I had to what would be a good choice?

If you don't know, alternatively you could let me know what Mac you use and what sort of workload you have.

Best

[bassman]

Think that was a bit of a confusing post

Let me try again:

What computer do you use for composing and recording?

Best

[Kolstad]

I just got a MAC mini, quad core i7, 2,6ghz with 16gigs of ram. Works like a horse. Quiet as a mouse. Smaller than my soundcard! Flies like an eagle Honestly, I love it. Came from a pc with windows xp, nothing but noise and hassle. It has supercharged my project studio.

[eeoo]

imac 2.66 ghz core 2 duo, 4 gigs ram running 10.6.4

I don't use a ton of vi's, for my purposes it's been great, like the ultimate multi-track! Pro Tools 9 by the way.

If you're not running huge sessions with lots of vi's the imac seems like a good way to go.

eo

[jaysoul]

My macbook pro 2008 intel 2.4ghz coreduo is still performing great, especially with a 7200rpm HD and the max 4GB ram. 10.6.8. Logic 9 with tons of plugins.
It will have to be replaced at some point of course but yeah.

Should your laptop hit its max as far as CPU or harddisk, pls make sure you turn off wifi, bluetooth, dashboard etc and close software you don't need. Helps squeezing out some more power.

If not sufficient - you could consider a new computer. iMacs are great value, but of course not very portable.

hth
jay

[bassman]

Thank you everyone

Mac mini, been looking at that. £499 for the cheapest one. That's an excellent deal. Will consider it.

Imac, a friend of mine has a brand new one and he raves about it. It's a bit more money than I want to spend right now.

Then there's my laptop which is similar to the one Jaysoul describes. It's a good machine and seems a shame not to use it. A new drive, a firewire hub, 4 gb ram, I think I can get it together for around £200. I think I may give it a go. I used it on a session the other day. Didn't use a lot of plugs but it worked absolutely fine.

Thanks for the input

[pboss]

Hi,

Your idea to use an existing computer, and throw a few hundred bucks at it is brilliant. You have such little risk, and you already tested it with no problems. If you really want to limit spending go for it, man, that is your smartest move. Getting new gear can be super over-rated. If it works, don't fix it.


Other than that, I have two thoughts regarding getting another machine. One, you can get a desktop machine that can run Apple OS, called a 'hackintosh' PM me for a builder's contact info - for half the cost of whatever you're going to get new, for example.

My second thought is that if you are not already on Lion, to really do some research on exactly what you plan to install, and do web searches for known issues and problems for each combination. For example,

- what OS will you run (specifically which release number)
- which multitrack recording app (PT, Logic, etc, and exactly which version)
- soundcard hardware, soundcard driver, make sure they're going to be all happy with your apps

OS 10.6.8 has great reviews online even though it's older. A lot of complaints about Lion, but also once everything is ironed out, a lot of fans as well. The devil is truly in the details.

Those are the main ones, but of course, there are other apps you will want to use. They will always sell you the latest greatest products and promise they'll work like a charm, until you realize your 32 bit plugins or your 64 bit plugins are experiencing some conflict with a soundbridge and your projects are crashing. I just spent a lot of time getting a new machine up to snuff, and believe me, I had to wade through serveral issues. One issue for example was to spend a week getting a Novation Zero external hardware controller wroking. It started working after I documented, tested, and wrote the company, finally getting a new version of the firmware. But that took some serious devotion of energy, because of course I thought it was my fault at first.

But good luck. In the end, when on a budget, I'm a huge fan of doing something buying a used machine which already has the Apps loaded on it. You can get an excellent deal in that scenario.

[bassman]

Thank you Patty

Managed to get a cheaper drive and RAM than expected so I think it's a good decision.

Best

[CabDriver]

This month 'Tech Talk' column of Mix Magazine states that the new Mac Mini with Thunderbolt is a better setup than any other Mac for pro audio recording. Everything you need can just as easily be connected through Thunderboldrather instead of PCI cards.

Of course that setup only makes sense if you do not have existing PCI cards that work just fine. I still have an old G5 tower that I use for virtual instruments that benefit greatly from a accessing a dedicated hard drive and processor. Either way it's worth waiting for a week since Apple will introduce new models at the upcoming WWDC.