Hi everyone,

I need to start all over again. But this time, I want it to be the last time for a long time. Um...

You see due to reconfigs, system updates I have rejigged my setup so many times I never get settled into a workflow.

I have a Powerbook G4 1.5Ghz, 1.5G RAM, a Stanton Scratch amp for my soundcard, a Remote SL25 and about 25 Gigs of samples/ loops.

I've always used Ableton Live. i recently tried the demo of 7. My computer struggled even without playing anything so I've given that up and actually went back to Live 4! It starts in like 2 seconds and the CPU isn't strained at all. I like that.

What I want to do is have a basic setup. I'd like to know maybe a couple of good free, easy to understand VST synths and maybe a drum machine to use with my Remote SL25.

Any suggestions for loop/sample management? Most of them come from computer music magazine (which I can borrow from my local public library). I have about 3 gigs that I have organised myself.

Any ideas/advice? All welcome!

I'd look into the MAX/MSP users community, some made loopers for live sessions and are giving them away.

Else, have you looked into our software tracker?

It's odd that you had issues with Live 7 on a G4 Powerbook. I have the same computer as you (though I did JUST upgrade to a MacBook Pro to accommodate a Waves plug in bundle) and I ran Live 7 flawlessly....What OS are you using?...I updated to Leopard and it went really easy....I would just recommend that you make sure that your Scratch interface is Leopard compatible. If you give it a chance, you will LOVE Live 7. Its mix engine is light years beyond Live 4 and its effects racks and compressors are really good now. The only other thing I would recommend beyond an OS update (and you may have already done this) is have a separate hard drive to stream your samples from....Make sure it is optimized for audio video work (find one with the Oxford 911 Chipset....they are simple to find on Ebay). Reason has a hell of a drum machine and some pretty good synths if you tweak them enough.

www.myspace.com/mortal_engines

Thanks guys for the replies.

"loopers for live sessions" - I don't understand what that is......

Software tracker - I had forgotten about that, thanks.


Mortalengines - are you saying you ran Live7 flawlessly on the MB pro or the powerbook? My CPU was at 90% without Live actually playing anything.....

I have the lastest OS and separate, 7200 hard drive, though I don't know what a Oxford 911 chipset and don't know why I would need this.

I have a hard enough time remembering Live after not using it for a while so no go for Reason I'm afraid.

As I say, I really don't have time to learn new stuff, I just want to keep it simple so when I feel the urge I can dip in without having to fiddle with new settings and tweaking etc.

mortalengines... Upgraded... MacBookPro... Waves Bundle... Wow!!! Bravo... Could not have happened to a more deserving, creative and positive individual...

Where you gettin' all dat money??? Is your music paying for itself now? Be sharp, don't Bb.

Note that Live had for some time a terrible record at optimizing its CPU footprint…

Yeah...It runs great on my G4 powerbook...easily 17 or 18 tracks. I am not sure what would be the problem would be if you are up to Leopard. You may have better luck figuring out what is wrong with Ableton's support (which is pretty good by the way). I have upgraded steadily since Live 4 and yes, Live can be a little touchy at times but, there are always ways to work around the issue. Somewhere around Live 6 they set it up to where you could do small edits to frozen tracks and that REALLY helped with my workflow. The 911 Chipset is basically a firewire hard drive that apparently was developed for work with audio and video....it streams info more efficiently between the drive and the computer.

Max/Msp developed a free version called Runtime which many of its users developed free plug in modules for...the interfaces are not much to look at (just a generic AU plug interface) but they are fairly intuitive and easy to use. I don't know if they would be Live 4 compatible or not since they came out with Runtime somewhere around Live 5 (no harm in trying though). Again, you really should see about upgrading to 7 and do whatever it takes to get it to work with the PowerBook.....Maybe look at you audio buffer size in the preferences window...raise (and/or lower) it and see what happens. There is definitely something weird going on if you are at 90% CPU and you aren't even playing a song...that's not right. It never happened with my G4 unless I got a little crazy with some CPU hungry plugs on a lot of tracks.

Ah...the new computer and the Waves bundle was thanks to my decent credit and interest free financing promotions that happened around Labor Day...I will be sending several hundred dollars out to various folks over the next year.....Just before the economy decided to melt down.....Talk about your dumb luck.

www.myspace.com/mortal_engines

PS...Live runs GREAT on the MacBookPro... with something like 7 or 8 plug in instances (like the Waves or REAKTOR) it registers maybe a 17% hit.

This post has been edited by mortalengines: Sat 27 Sep 2008, 18:47

Ah cheers, tons of info there I can use. I really appreciate your help and knowledge. I will start by re-installing the demo of Live7 and see how I get on. I will re-check and re-try and let you know.