Almost Ready To Buy First Interface And Software, newbie questions Options

[Rodrigo Ramos]

Hello everybody,

Alright here is where i am at, i have a Mac G4 powerbook and a 1000 dollars to invest in my first interface and software (aaah!) Like several other writers i have been contemplating between:
digidesign mbox with PTLE vs. MOTU ultralite with logic express.

I want to record mostly acoustic instruments (saxophone, elec and acoustic guitars etc.) but i also want to do field recordings (animals and machines) and i am certain that at some point i will work with midi. I am inspired by the work of brian eno, nigel goodrich (radiohead, beck) jim orourke and john mcentire.

Although i am looking towards doing mainly audio recordings i feel like MOTU/logic is more advantageous - 1) both are particularly MAC oriented, 2)both seem to be more flexible in working with other programs 3) tech support for both sounds more favorable- interestingly i have only found one complaint against Logic/MAC (hahaworld from last november) but i have seen much more complaints about digidesign and PTLE tech support. . . me being a newbie this is important. 4) reviews seem more positive about MOTU preamps than the digi mbox 5) MOTU has more analog i/o than the digi mbox.
Does my reasoning make sense?

question #1 can my MAC G4(OSX) handle logic express? i only have 512 MB and i read Lepetitmartien saying that 768 MB is not enough ( LPM, if you are reading this what were you refering to?)

question #2 i am living in spain (canary islands) and retailers/ distributors in the US dont ship overseas, does anyone know any reliable retailers in Europe ( U.K. will be too expensive!)

question #3 if i buy the MOTU interface in europe, will it be rated to work only with european voltage? or can it function in the states also?

thank you,

rodrigo ramos

[Rodrigo Ramos]

Thank you HaHaworld and ArchivalAudio for your input, i feel like motu/logic is the road for me. . . as a side note, two nights ago i went to the apple website and watched the logic express demo, and i gotta say it looks really clean and doable. . . of course, i won't be flying around the DAW like the charming english lad in the demo, but it wasnt intimidating either.
On the other side of the coin where is the protools demo??? I went to digidesign's website and found nothing that would introduce or orientate their software (DAW) to someone (like myself.)

Anyhow, I am going to max out my RAM to 2G and i am ordering the 10.4 tiger discs from apple to get my G4 ready for logic. Now my next big question is:
what ext hard drive do i get? In another thread concerning this issue (should i begin another thread for this topic?) i read several complaints against Lacie and postive things about maxtor. . . does anyone have comments or advice?

SHould i really go for a FW ext. HD? My G4 has 2 FW ports (800 & 400)? I am assuming the the MOTU ultralite will want the 800 port, which leaves the 400 for the HD? Can anyone comment on more optimized HDs for audio, should i be looking specifically for a HD with an oxford 911 chipset? what does it do?

Again, i dont have a big budget (100-200euros), i want to get started with just one ext. hard drive for the moment and i know this is contrary to what Lepetitmartien and others have said- two ext. HDs are ideal 1-to save and the other for backup. For now, i am going to take my chances with just one.

whats the word?

rigo