Anyone Using Cubase Sx3 Happily On Mac? Options

[cruelc]

Hi there,

I'm thinking of moving from PC to MAC. I've been with PC since ATARI days, but always with accompanying frustration.

I currently use a Dell laptop with Cubase SX, Reason, Ableton Live, Midiman Ozone and Midisport 8x8 USB MIDI interface. I also have a Yamaha Motif ES6 synth and an AKAI DPS 24 HD recorder.

Anyhoo, each time I turn the computer on, it either does or does not recognise the USB interfaces so I realise that something needs to change.

Also, the ES6 is supposed to talk to the PC through USB and that's flaky too.

What I want to avoid is buying a Mac just to find I have the same problems.

Relatively few people on this forum talk fondly of Cubase, and some also talk badly of USB.

Does anyone have experience of any of the above equipment on the Mac platform, positive or negative?

I dont need huge processing muscle (maybe 8 audio and 10 midi tracks), and was contemplating a Mac mini to start with to see how I find it, or a laptop for portability.

But I also like the look of the imacs. Does anyone know if Cubase SX3 works OK on the new intel Imacs, even if it's not yet optimised?

From reading through many posts, performance and pricewise I might be best off with a second hand dual G5 tower. Would this accept a yamaha SW1000xg soundcard?

Appologies if I've asked too many questions, but I hope someone might have a system which has something in common with the above components, and can advise if it's satisfactory.

If you think it's the USB, can you recommend a Midi/Audio firewire alternative? I have a PCMCIA port on the laptop so could presumably get a PCMCIA to Firewire converter.

Many thanks in advance

Best Regards

Chris

[gdoubleyou]

In spite of having Pro Tools, I am an avid user of Cubase SX3, which I do everything on a pair of G4's, a desktop PC, and a laptop PB. I have experienced a few problems along the way, but never nothing severe. I have just finished a project, which averaged around 40 tracks, with a ton of plug-ins happening. Of course I also use UAD plug-ins, which have there own processing card (PCI). My desktop is a 933 mhz G4 (1.5gig ram), and my laptop is a Power Book G4 1 ghz (750gig ram). I am about to upgrade to a Mac Intel, but wanted to first complete a couple major projects I am working on. As far as I know Cubase SX3 should work fine on the new Macs, but will require driver upgrades from Yamaha (Cubase). Good luck!

Allen

Cubase 4 is required for the macIntels.

[Kwasi]

My experience is different. Tried to run Cubase SX3 on Intel, but had very little luck. It is going through the Rosetta conversion and is really slow and prone to crashing. SX4 is out now and runs a lot better on Intel machines. Well worth the upgrade.