Hello,

I'm used to recording on a PC with Sonar, but have recently purchased a new 15" Powerbook and would like to have something easy to take around with more versatility than my four-track Portastudio. I'm not familiar with Mac compatible recording software and hardware, but would love to have a decent interface with two to four inputs. The 15" has Firewire 300 and 800, USB and a "PC Card" slot, are there any decent sound cards that can be used with this? Any suggestions or warnings would be greatly appreciated.

My system is a 1 GHz PowerPC processor and 256 MB DDR SDRAM memory. I can upgrade the memory if necessary.

Thanks!

Jeremy
www.nsps.net

I just realized I should also mention that MIDI capabilities would be a big plus. I've found descriptions of a few different brands' products, but don't know what the best type of hook up would be or which products work well with Macs, and powerbooks in particular.

nsps i have the M audio FW410 i like it a lot it comes w/midi , Reason 2.5 is cool , whit GB rewire ,i am tinking of geting Logic 6

I have the Mbox, and I DON'T particularly like it. its a pain, and has terrible latency.

Thanks for the info and warning against the Mbox. Do any of the USB-driven interfaces work very well? I read that it's best to use a firewire HD when recording with a laptop, so I was thinking that a PC card or USB might be better. (I have one 400 and one 800 FW input). The Omni Studio USB seems to be the most versatile USB interface, but I can't find any actual reviews of it.

Also, I've never really had to worry about interchanging files with Sonar and other programs, but I'm now thinking that it would be nice. Does anyone know if Logic 6 have save-as file format features that a PC program could also recognize, until I can convert my whole studio to Mac?

Thanks again,

Jeremy

hello,

I recently made a similar move as you. I hopped on the mac lines after having been a pc user all my life. I've never operated on my own sequencer, but I used to work with Pro Tools LE (digi001) owned by a friend.

My rig is...
Powerbook G4 1.25 ghz 15in 1.25 gigram
MOTU 896 firewire interface
Emagic amt-8 midi interface
LaCie D2 extreme 250 gb external hard drive
M-audio Ozone 32 key midi controller
Audio-technica m40fs headphones
Logic Pro 6 sequencer

I was originally going to go for the M-audio Firewire 410, but then i got a great deal on the MOTU 896 so i went all out (same price as the m-audio almost!). My MOTU audio is connected by firewire 400, whilst my hard drive occupies the 800 port. Then logic occupies one USB port because the dongle XSKey must be plugged in to use it. The other USB port is used for the midi interface. So for me, all ends seemed to be closed.

But for you, the M-audio sounds like a good bet. I have heard some issues with it about not being able to turn it off while it's plugged in (the computer loses the interface's identity or something)...but i believe they've patched that up. Check it out yourself. It is a great piece of hardware for the price. And if it does indeed have midi on it as well...then you'd have all your needs connected to one firewire port. I wouldn't use USB anymore these days because firewire 400 runs faster than USB 2.0 which is rated at (412 mbps). But two firewire ports will allow you to put a HD and hardware on firewire. Stick with firewire, it's best in terms of performance. You will need your USB ports for many a peripherals (mouse, XSKeys, midi controller...etc, etc). My MOTU is fucking awesome. My amt-8 has 8 midi ins/outs which is overwhelming and unnecessary. I should've just spent less for a midiman. But i am overall very happy with my gear.

willie

This post has been edited by iscralatchtical: Sun 4 Jul 2004, 17:44

Hey,

I"ve just purchased the Edirol um-5 which is working really well. No problems or issues at all.

I've got the 15" 1.5Ghz Superdrive.

iscralatchtical: good point about all the midi controllers and dongle keys/USB...

I'm also in the market for an interface I can use in the studio and also bring with me to live gigs. I've been looking at the M-Audio OmniStudio USB as well.

Would love to hear from some current OmniStudio users.

I've often wondered about the USB reliability.


G5 Dual 2.0GHZ, 250G HD, 2G RAM (It's in the mail!!!)
G4 Powerbook, 400MHz, 10G HD, 640MB RAM
Pentium 3, 1.99GHZ, 40G HD, 512G RAM

hi
I have a m-audio ozone with a powerbook g4 400 and it was the worst piece of hardware i ever bought.
it works so bad that i had it stored for most of the time.
one of the reasons of my problems, pointed by the vendour, was the incompatibility with my external lacie firewire hard drive. Weird!!!
but even when i don't have the external drive connected it has problems, constantly loosing connection.
my advice is: don't buy the ozone.
besides that it has poor keyboard sensitivity.
good luck.