Mac Mini + Live Multitrack Recording Options

[Quintron]

Hi All, glad to have found this knowledgable spot!
First off I know hardly anything about Macs except they have a good track record as stable units good with audio applications.

As I'm sure is the case with many others I have become enamoured with the new Mac Mini but am wondering if it will be sufficent for what I need.

I run a small Jazz CLub in Ireland and for a long time was considering a laptop to record live gigs there. I was looking at Macs and PC laptops, but on a budget of next to nothing with the venue, all desirable options were off limits.

With this new machine there is some hope. I am looking at the 1.4Ghz mac mini with 512MB RAM option. I would also get an Edirol FA-101 usb capture card and was wondering how good these would be at live multitrack recording using Logic or Cubase (Have both). I would need to record usually up to 6 Mic imputs or 4 MIc ins with maybe 2-3 Line ins at a push. The usual setup for a night is about that. Sometimes less. Mix it down when I get home. What can I expect from this box with the FA-101 (or indeed a cheaper alternative if anyone knows??)?

Any options / help / advice greatly appreciated!

One of the sellers of this for me is that it would also be an excellent replacement for my ailing PC at home.
Adding a KVM switch I'd have the best of both worlds. Not a laptop, but a unit in the two places I need it most. (Its' lighter to transport than a lot of Laptops) and a hell of a lot cheaper!

If my above expectations are unrealistic then caould anyone suggest the max abilities of this unit for live recording. I could work something out.

Sorry for the barage of questions.

Cheers in advance,
Quintron.

[shaneblyth]

my external firewire drive is fat32 windows format and osx can read and write to it no worries
i keep it that way as i plug it into my motif es keyboard which can on read fat usb drives
i save (yes it does firewire 800 as well)all my digital performer audio to it so it works sweet for me.
my powerbook is basically the same as the mac mini... same speed same bus speed same hard drive (internal) so it will work as well as a powerbook... as for garage band 2 i believe it is less of a hog than 1... alot of the cpu usage in garage band is that the softsynths have alot of effects on them standard.. check it out.
maybe you could try traction which is easier on the system... mackie make it and then there is metro which alot of people like... or even express logic 7...
max out the ram to 1gig though there is only 1 slot

This post has been edited by shaneblyth: Sun 16 Jan 2005, 06:14