i was wondering if theres anyone who could offer some advice,guidance or sanity!

Well, here goes,

I want a mac for audio music production purposes and to add electronic sound on top. I don't really need to record onto tracks, just to be able to download tracks from a yamaha aw4416 hardisc recorder and have flexibilty with them. I've heard the cheap pro tools is the best for audio, but am i right in thinking i don't need a 'break out box' as i will not be recording to the hardrive? or is this bollox?

I was thinking of an G4 imac due to funds would this be ok?
Any ideas on any other software would be greatly recieved!
As I've never used macs before, is there a quick way to get pre recorded audio onto the hardrive.
Does anyone know if its possible to hook up the yamaha aw4416 to a mac!!??

ANY help or advice would be appreciated

Thanks in advance

Personally I'd go for metro 6 (Sagan tec.), rather than getting the run around later by protools. JMHO for more info on metro 6 CLICK HERE
G4 will work fine... be sure to get as much ram as possible.
There are many ways to get pre recorded music onto a mac. Drag and drop, use iTunes (comes with the mac), toast, on and on. Easy as pie.

thanks for the info, i'll look into metro.

Having only limited experience through p.c. 's and cubase all this is a bit daunting!! I'm used to dealing with a set up where you just record and play. I'm not really a tech head but i'd like to think i'm fairly computer literate.

what sort of connection would i need to get audio straight onto the imac without the hassle of cd?

If you're used to cubase, why not just get cubase sl for the mac? you should be right at home then. as far as getting audio into the mac, you can go to almost any music store or radio shack and get a cable that has an 1/8th inch stereo plug on one end and has 2 1/4 inch mono plugs on the other. that shoudl get you going.

Scott

Thanks for the reply.
i need real versitility with my audio, and my experiences with cubase don't give me enough ease when trimming, time compressing and looping and the quality was not all that hot.

The main audio I'll be tinkering with is live drums. If I'm wrong please put me right, as i have the dosh to spend but i don't wanna end up with the wrong piece of kit. I've pretty much decided on a G4 imac, it's just the software.

here is something I found on a FAQ page for the Yamaha;

I would like to transfer audio data to my computer for editing. What's the procedure for doing this?
A: You can use either of the procedures below to transfer data to your computer.
-Use the internal CD-RW drive (or external SCSI storage device) to read and write the audio data in WAVE format.
-Connect the audio output of the AW4416/AW2816 to the input of the audio card in your computer, and record it into the computer as it plays back from the AW4416/AW2816.
The info was found

HERE