Hi,
I am just starting to put together a home studio and am in need of some advice. I currently have a Powerbook G4 1.5Ghz, 512 running Reason 2.0. I am interested in putting together Vocal/Guitar/Piano based music with a simple system that works, I don't have the technical ability to sort out latency/compatability etc. issues!

What do I need?......
More memory: Should I upgrade to 1GB?
Audio Interface: USB or Firewire (Ua-5, Ua-700 ,Tascam FW1884, RME Hammerfall, MOTU 896 and PreSonus Firestation)) ??
External Hard Drive: Firewire or USB?
Sequencer: Go all out on Logic 6 or will Tracktion do the job?
Vocals: Is this simply input via the Audio Interface or do I need something else, compressor (MAudio TAMPA)?

I am more interested in keeping it simple and having it work without too much fiddling!

Thanks

512 should be enough ram for simple V/G/P music. Your Powerbook is definitely powerful enough. I have the same thing you have, and I run all kinds of stuff on mine simultaneously. I don't do many projects with more than 10 or 12 tracks, though. Most of the things I do are demos, so it's usually 3 or 4 tracks, and I never have slowdown or latency problems. You can upgrade to 1GB. It never hurts to have more ram, though. I use a simple MidiSport MIDI interface sometimes, and sometimes I use a little Oxygen USB MIDI keyboard. It's cool, too. Definitely get a FireWire external HD. LaCie makes a GREAT one that's got 200GB, and if you do a search on MySimon.com, you can find one for a little over $200. Don't buy it from the normal computer wholesalers. Do a search. MacMall and places like that hike up the prices too much. If I were you, I'd go all out Logic 6. It is WAY worth the money you'll spend, and you will LOVE it once you learn it. You won't love the manual, though. I'll warn you about that in advance. Get a friend to show you how to use LOGIC. Once you learn it, you'll never want to use anything else! For audio, I'd get an MBox with the ProTools bundle (another great program). It's cheap, portable, reliable and lightweight, as well as easy to set up.

Good luck! I hope this helps!
hahaworld

Hi Sigi

I have a same opinion with hahawaorld about your RAM memory. But you have to select with care for audio interface, I think. It is very important material of sound quarity. I recommend you MetricHalo and MOTU 2408. especially, MetricHalo has very clearly and high resolution sound. This is not talk about catalog data for bitrate. MetricHalo has wonderful mic preamp and dynamic effects processor ---compressor, Limiter, EQ and more... (+DSP ver.) It is always help you and your simple concept materials of music. (vocal, piano and guitar)
I use some firewire external HDD. USB HDD is not bad stuff but little bit slow for multi track mixing and editting I think.
I always recommend a Logic when I talk about sequencer. Logic has a lot of very systematic MIDI functions and audio edit parameters. It's very simple but very useful for wide way of audio editting and mixing.

I hope this help.

stansonic

hahaworld and stansonic
thanks for the feedback, judging by all the accounts I have now read, Logic is the way to go, and I may leave the RAM for another day

On the simple Audi/Midi interface solution, I like the sound of:

MetricHalo ULN-2, but does the 2882 I/O add anything useful?
MOTU 2408 (does it hv pre-amp) can I plug mic in directly?
and just to confuse the issue, a friend just recommended
RME hammerfall digiface or the
Yamaha 01X

Would you favour any of these above the others?

THanks again for your advice!

Well, I can tell you what I have and after some help from these forums have been using successfully. It really depends on what you want to do - but most folks here suggest Logic. Logic is a truly powerful app, handles sequencing, recording, mixing, midi, and mastering. But it is a truly in depth app, and will come with a major learning curve as you begin to tap it's power.

I personally had to start recording right away, and since I have a PowerBook (G4 Titanium, 867Mhz, 1Gb RAM) I wanted to be mobile. So I bought the M Box from Digidesign. It runs about $450, $550 with the Factory Bundle (worth the $!) It has 2 Focusrite pre-amps, several ins/outs and S/PDIF, 2 headphone jacks, and 48v of Phantom Power (for those sources that don't have their own pre-amps)
M Box came with ProTools LE 6 and special versions of Reason, Ableton Live (an excellent sequencer!), T-Racks (EQ plug-in), Sample-Tank, Amplitube LE (guitar amp modeling plug-in). I gotta tell you - I was recording the day I brought it home!

ProTools is pretty easy to use, so are the plug ins. I needed a little help with Live, but once I got it I loved it and now I own the full version of Live 3. Reason is great too. The rest of the plug-ins -including a batch of Bomb Factory compressor/limiters - are essential,too. I have a set of Edirol MA-20D near field monitors (self- powered and not too $) I bought a Digidesign rack mount Efx processor (for V/P/G) and a 250Gb external USB 2 Hard drive (I don't have FireWire 800 - only 400, and USB 2 is faster than FireWire 400) YOU NEED AN EXTERNAL DRIVE WITH YOUR POWERBOOK TO RECORD EFFECTIVELY!

Other than that, I just have some mics, some guitars, my Fender Rhodes, and an Edirol PCR-30 USB keyboard controller (for MIDI) and a pair of Bose noise cancelling headphones.

That is my entire rig - it's portable, easy to use - can be had for under $4000 (including the computer) and best of all, it works.

Someday I'll move onto Logic 6, probably with Express first and then up to the full version - but for now I'm using ProTools because I can - it only took a few days to begin to understand the ProTools interface. I've seen Logic in action - it is a superior program for full-featured recording, or if you are doing post-production video work along with Final Cut. But for this semi-pro, ProTools with MBox has enough of what I need. PS - aside from an fast external HD, the RAM is a good move, I saw a noticeable difference in performance when I went to 1Gb. Your Mac can house 2Gb, and I'd but it if I were you!

Once again thanks Lushbudget for the comprehensive feedback. Your set-up does sound simple and easy to use, which are my key criteria. Have you suffered any latency issues with the Mbox?

I have noticed some latency during monitoring, but only acoustic instruments. The issue is easily solved however by simply monitoring the "Playback" on the mbox instead of the source. Once I twisted that knob, there was no noticeable latency in my monitor mix.

I have had zero latency issues with my recordings, but I only record 1-2 tracks at a time. If you need to record more tracks at once maybe a firewire interface, like the Motu or the Digi001 or 002 would be faster. Both are pretty nice, but not as portable.

Hope this helps.

Many thanks Lushbudget!