I'm planning on buying a dual 1.8 GHz G5, but I can't find a ref anywhere about whether they will run Logic + soft synths etc without an additional sound card.

Do I need an additional sound card? Other than greater I/O capacity, what would an additional sound card allow me to do? If I'm doing all my processing, sequencing and recording inside the G5, is a sound card necessary (other than the increased I/O)?

Cheers.

No need for an additional soundcard to run/monitor logic. If you want to get external audio into logic (for example, guitar vocals), a good soundcard may raise the quality of these parts of your recordings. If you are going to be working mainly within logic with soft synths and effects, I would think that the built in audio will be fine. There are many reasons that you may eventually want an additional audio card, but I would consider trying the Dual 1.8 without an additional soundcard. If you find you need one later, at least you will know what you need it for and hopefully will be able to make an informed soundcard purchase.
If you are concerned that the performance of the actual software will be affected by not having an external soundcard, don't worry unless you need high quality monitoring. The quality of the soundcard will not affect the quality of the all-software-based logic songs except as far as better monitoring will allow you to get a better mix.

for the moment, there's no sound card optimize for the G5 in a PCI mode. Apple has made its computers with a new splot of PCI , the PCI-X, also called the PCI 2.2. So, for now, the only way to connect a sound card to a G5 is to use the firewire or usb port.

Maybe Motu is of a different opinion on this? uh?

424 core is compatible.

I'm not up to date with the others but a little search here and there…

Now there are options in USB and firewire aplenty… and more suited to a small number of I/Os. Be careful as some have real issues still with their drivers.

I'm temporary using a RME/Nuendo/Digiface sound card while waiting for MOTU to send me the 424/G5 upgrade, and it seems to work fine.
Not as flexible as MOTU though.

Thanks for the advice. I'd hoped that I might be able to put off the soundcard purchase - these little G5 fellas aren't cheap (unlike me).

However, I/O will probably become a pain after a while - so I guess I'll be coming back for advice on soundcard best buys later. By the way, definitely the best mac musician site I've found.

Keep up the good work Macmusic people.

Cheers.

Plus Motu has fairly recently upgraded BOTH their fw & usb-drivers to be G5/Panther compatible.


Cheers: Dixiechicken

Thanks m' man.

While I have your attention... I'm an old skool VST user, but fancy the whole Logic thing - several reasons - the Apple/Emagic buy-out thing, Rhodes piano plugin, tastey interface...

This is a massive long shot, but I have a big old back catalogue of VST song files which I'd like to avoid rebuilding in Logic - but I just don't like what I've read about Cubase support for Macs, so I'm thinking that a G5 could bring on a new era of Logic for me.

Does anyone know whether Logic recognises VST song files? Also, does it "Rewire" Reason successfully? (Emagic say it does, but I'd value some real life experience.)

Cheers again...

Is the G5 sound card great? I'm not sure. it help us to start quickly working with that powermac but it possibilities are limited: 44.1/24 bit. the analog input and output don't work in 6.35 jack.. so we loose sound quality with a less audio flux.
It's a standard hardware not made to work in a professional way.

I don't know about VST songs and Logic, but ReWire works fine for me. It's MUCH easier to set up in Cubase SX, but once you get your head round the Logic way of doing it, it's OK.

Saying that, I really get the impression that Emagic would be quite happy if ReWire upped and died. They didn't really bother about it until Logic 6, even though everyone wanted it in 5 and Propellerheads did their side of the deal. It's not Emagic technology, I suppose, and to me they always seem a bit sniffy about things they didn't invent.

But I digress. Yes, ReWire works in Logic Platinum 6.2.3, according to one user's real-life experience. And you're right about Cubase support for Macs.