Built In Audio Card Options

[Philosorhymes]

Hi all, I am about to make the switch to MAC (wohooo), but I would like to know peoples opinions of the built in audio interface. Could I use the built in audio interface to efficiently run my VST's AU's and reason? I ask because I would very much love to carry my MAC on stage as is and plug straight into a PA.

Your thoughts would be most appreciated.

Many Thanks.

Phil.

[Jim Hoyland]

Built in audio will be absolutely fine for that as long as you can get yourself a nice secure mini-jack adaptor.

[mortalengines]

I took a MIDI class a couple of years ago that used IMACs with Reason & they worked/sounded JUST FINE. You may get different responses from the anal-retentive audiophile types & to some small extent they are right, but if you are just running Reason or some other program thru what will amount to a crappy PA in a live situation, you don't really need anything else. If/when you decide to actually record audio & concentrate on your mixing your music for public release, you may want to look more closely at your input/monitoring setup & THAT is where the 24/96 firewire-interface-thingys come into play.

This post has been edited by mortalengines: Thu 14 Sep 2006, 03:29

[Philosorhymes]

Thanks so much guys. So what format does it use? (i know most use ASIO). I take it this means I am not going to get huge latencies?

[mortalengines]

"Core Audio" is the format that Macs run on. Latency is not really much of an issue. If you are recording into your computer from a live source or, if you are using Reason as a rewire slave in another app, you may have to adjust the sample rate in the audio preferences of your DAW to avoid pops & clicks but, Ableton Live & Logic (I think) already has "latency compensation" as a feature so, I never really notice it much (I use Ableton). If Reason is all you are using then latency is practically non existant.

This post has been edited by mortalengines: Sat 16 Sep 2006, 05:24

[Jim Hoyland]

Absolutely. With core audio, a fast processor and a decent amount of ram you shouldn't really suffer from latency.

One thing to bear in mind tho is that the current MacBook line up features 5400 rpm HDs which aren't really fast enough for audio work. If you're looking for a really portable music machine you'll either need an to get an external firewire drive or go the extra mile and buy a MacBook Pro with the optional 100Gb HD which seems to be the only one on offer than runs at 7200 rpm.

[mortalengines]

One thing to bear in mind tho is that the current MacBook line up features 5400 rpm HDs which aren't really fast enough for audio work. If you're looking for a really portable music machine you'll either need an to get an external firewire drive or go the extra mile and buy a MacBook Pro with the optional 100Gb HD which seems to be the only one on offer than runs at 7200 rpm.
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Jim is right as far as working with loops & audio files in apps like Logic & Live where the app will "stream" the audio files from the hard drive any Sony Oxford Firewire drive will do (I bought my FW enclosure for 65 bucks from Tiger Direct). However, if you are working with Reason as your only app, you really won't need to worry much about it since Reason runs on RAM more than anything else. I can't really say enough good things about Reason for its ease of use & stability. If you don't have it...get it. Even if you want to move on to a more complex DAW like Logic or Pro Tools, Reason can operate as an instrument inside of those apps.

[elvinort]

Just to add that the speed of internal HDs in Mac is irrelevant in terms of working with audio. The external drive is required for anything serious beyond two- or four-track audio work. Most apps require an external drive in order to give the user more track density.

[trancefan]

I'm using the soundcard on my minimac and it definetly sounds decent!

[gdoubleyou]

All of the new Macs have built in 24bit audio with optical SPDIF, special cables are required to use the digital I/O. you could hook up a DAC directly.

I picked up a M-Audio Fast Track for my powerbook, for mobile use, and I use a MOTU 828 at home.