Help! Like Londan, Soon To Blow A Few G's!!, Need some help though... Options

[uvbnskoold]

Hey everyone,

Thanks in advance for any advice you can give me. I've been to other forums and no one has ever replied or been interested in helping an established composer into the technological realm (of music, that is). This forum, and this site, for that matter, houses members who seem to genuinely be interested in helping people just like me. Anyways, on to the grits...

I am just about to make the switch from PC to MAC (whoo hoo!) because they're so much better, in so many ways. Not only that, but I'm new to the whole music and computers, that is to say using sampled sounds and anything but making scores with Sibelius. Kind of a music and technology dummy, if you will. But that aside, I would like some input from experienced music and technology peeps.

What I have been doing (up until recently with some difficulty) and what I plan to keep doing is Film Scoring, Commercials, trailers, etc. Keep that in mind when you read the setup and/or make suggestions!

Here's the "guts" of what I'll be getting (without listing the fancy extras):

Dual 2Ghz PowerMac G5
8 Gb RAM
M-Audio Firewire 410
M-Audio Solaris Microphone

and for instruments and progs:

Logic Pro 7.1
Garageband JamPacks 1-4 (I know they work in Logic 7.1)
EW/QL Platinum + Platinum Pro XP
EW/QL Symphonic Choirs
QL RA
StormDrum
Real Guitar
GrooveAgent 2
Bosendorfer piano samples

And a guitar and new keyboard and all... basically a home studio that I can finally start doing some serious work. I know there's a steep learning curve, but I'm a quick learner (thought I'd mention that before I get all these replies saying "are you crazy noob?")

Any comments on my setup would be welcome too. I plan on using 2 23" HD monitors as well in my setup.

Question 1) is 8 GB Ram overkill for the above instruments/setup? Would 4 GB Ram do?

Question 2) would anyone recommend getting separate hard drive for housing the samples (I'd heard that somewhere... that maybe it's a good idea)?

Question 3) can anyone recommend different/better programs to use?

Once again, thanks in advance for all your help!!

Uvee

This post has been edited by uvbnskoold: Sun 15 Jan 2006, 00:01

[uvbnskoold]

Thanks for the reply.

I've recently read the manual myself, and yah, I couldn't believe it. They recommend using 2 high end computers PER section, for a total of 8 all together!!

Not only that, but overnight I've reconsidered what I truly need for the cash I have to start off... when I thought about it, the only differences between platinum and gold is the bit depth and mic positions, pretty much thats it when you add the XP pack to each. For the extra $3700 CDN it's gonna cost, it's not worth it right now. I'm gonna get Gold + Gold XP, gonna save me some cash that I can spend getting the best computer.

I am sticking with a PowerMac G5 with 8 GB RAM. It should be enough to handle gold and other progs that I need. Even if for some of the more ambitious projects I have to record each section separately and piece it all together later in Logic or some other program.

Thanks again for your reply, Rick.

Uvee.