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440 Forums _ Switch PC to Mac _ Built In Audio Card

Posted by: Philosorhymes Wed 13 Sep 2006, 00:29

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.

Posted by: Jim Hoyland Wed 13 Sep 2006, 10:28

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

Posted by: mortalengines Thu 14 Sep 2006, 03:27

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.

Posted by: Philosorhymes Sat 16 Sep 2006, 00:11

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?

Posted by: mortalengines Sat 16 Sep 2006, 05:22

"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.

Posted by: Jim Hoyland Sat 16 Sep 2006, 13:15

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.

Posted by: mortalengines Sun 17 Sep 2006, 05:59

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.

Posted by: elvinort Sun 17 Sep 2006, 06:37

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.

Posted by: trancefan Sun 1 Oct 2006, 08:07

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

Posted by: gdoubleyou Tue 12 Dec 2006, 23:52

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.

cool.gif

Posted by: Jim Hoyland Wed 13 Dec 2006, 13:30

Has anybody noticed that QuickTime now has support for 64bit audio? Whats this going to mean in the long run? My mind is boggling as I sit here typing.

One of our G5 Quads (mainly FCP) at work is hooked up to a VideoLogic Sirocco Pro system with built-in DAC and as long as you don't try anything stupid (like running QT at 48khz, iTunes at 44.1khz at the same time) it works like a charm.

Posted by: Philosorhymes Tue 19 Jun 2007, 13:56

This is great news (about using in-built audio) If I understand correctly, this means that the 'Core Audio' driver helps deal with latency. It is to MAC what ASIO is to PC right?

Does this mean that I can use Kontakt & Komplete on the mac right out of the box then?


Many Thanks again.

Posted by: ben s. Tue 4 Sep 2007, 16:04

Yes, it's great to have CoreAudio as the built-in API for OS X. It has low latency and multiple channels. The built-in soundcard (and most externals) run at 512 frames per buffer.

Where does QuickTime say it's 64-bit? That probably means it's a built as a 64-bit library, not processing 64-bit samples.

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