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

[greg001]

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

Hi there. I have a Motu Ultralite and Logic Pro running on a Mac mini. The reason for the second hard drive is that it is too much for the computer to read and write to the same drive. Drains a ton of CPU resources which = bad for recording audio in real time. You want an A/V (audio/visual) rated drive (at least 7200 rpm) with at least 9ms (something or other blah blah blah... lol.. i forget.) You also want a FIREWIRE DRIVE. Don't go USB 2.0. With USB 2.0 (and this is the chief difference which ONLY makes a difference when you are recording audio on a computer) the CPU will allocate bandwidth and this will create lag with your efforts. Which, as we have already established = bad. A firewire device will not only allocate a specific UNTOUCHABLE area of bandwidth to record upon (thus no other devices will mess with it) but it is also driven FROM the device as opposed to putting the load upon your CPU. After that its a matter of basically deciding which brand you want to go with. You said Lacie and I've heard solid stuff about them. Just make sure that the device you get matches this parameters. The drive I got wasn't Lacie ( i forget what it was.) but it was 350 gig and it met all those specs. I picked it up at Target. It has a light that is blue in a black boxie thingy and it reminds me of the computer eye in 2001. Word. $150. All in.

Good luck!