Need Advice On Best Computer Options

[teetopkram]

Greetings, I want to set-up a small home recording studio that I can use to record 1-2 tracks at a time using analog, MIDI and possibly SPDIF (Vox Tonelab). I have two computers that I can use for this purpose:

1. A G4 desktop running at 400 Mhz, 128 MB RAM, 10 GB HD, 2 USB, 2 Firewire, and a CD-ROM that reads only.

2. A G4 powerbook running at 1 Ghz, with 1 GB RAM, 60 GB HD, 2 USB, 1 Firewire (400), and a CD-ROM with read and write capabilities.

The desktop is a hand me down that can be dedicated solely for home recording purposes. However, the Powerbook is my work computer tha I use in my consulting business everyday (loaded with lots of apps).

Because I had heard that its a bad idea to use a home recording computer for any other applications (i.e, its always desirable to have a dedicated machine just for the studio), I had initially considered just getting a small mixer and putting an Audiophile 2496 PCI card into the desktop, and increasing its RAM. I could then transfer files to the Powerbook and burn the CD there.

HOWEVER, is there a better solution given my two computers?

Could I use the Powerbook for all the plug-ins, synth modules, effects, etc, and thus decrease processing demands for the desktop if I use the desktop to record? How about vice versa?

If I use the Powerbook for recording, mixing, and burning, I would have to get a Firewire interface, and they are more expensive...are they just as good as PCI interfaces? I am on a budget and am looking to save money. Which in your opinion is the best Firewire interface?

Is there a way to use one of the two computers as an external Hard Drive to help with the recording demands?

Essentially, I am looking for the experts here to help me design a nice little set-up and talk me through the pros and cons for both computers. Thanks a bunch!!!

Mark

[jeffca]

Hi, Mark.

Welcome to the big bad world of computer audio. Just so that you don't worry too much about the bug-a-boo involving using a system for more than one use, DON'T WORRY! This isn't Windows 98. I've been using all of my various Mac's for audio, video, 3D and graphic design for 10 years (UMAX S900 w/CPU upgrades, a graphite G4, an iBook, a PowerBook and a G5) and never felt any need ever to configure them as single use machines under OS 9 or X.

I'll assume that you're running OS X on both your machines since you don't say.

Since both units are USB and Firewire equipped, I'd suggest an external audio interface for one reason: noise. As good as many PCI cards are, they are plagued by EMI induced noise from the computer power supply and the system's internal components. I use an Audiophile USB by M-Audio with my PowerBook and the thing sounds incredible for something that costs $200 (-96db unweighted S/N ratio on the ins - not a spec, I measured that - WOW!) It doesn't sound quite as good as my DBX Quantum run digitally into the MOTU system on my G5, but it's not far from it. And it has MIDI in/out.

You're on the right track when it comes to hard drive use. You are usually better having the audio streaming off a drive not running the system and apps. This becomes even more critical as your track count rises. While a Firewire drive or even a small array, such as a Medea G-Raid, is ideal, you can mount the drive from which ever computer isn't being used as the DAW as the recording/playback drive.

Here's the basic deal: connect the 2 Macs togther via ethernet or Firewire (10.3 is needed for firewire) and turn on file sharing on the extra Mac. On the main Mac, you use the Chooser or Connect To Server command to browse for the other machine on your network. Once it's mounted, that drive can be used for recording and playback. Make an alias for that drive and mounting it is a double click away.

That all being said, it's not likely that either drive in your two machines is even close to being beefy enough for anything, but goofing around with eight or so 24/44.1 tracks. Multi-track audio can really run a drive to its limits and shorten its life, not to mention take up lots of space.

My suggestion, from what little I know about your rigs, is to use your PowerBook as the DAW. It has way more horsepower than the G4 400. I'd avoid running lots of multi-track audio from the PowerBook since laptop drives aren't really fast enough for big projects.

As to the hope to set up a distributed computing beast to share the CPU load, I don't believe that anyone other than Apple with the latest Logic Pro offers it. FXteleport was promising it for OS X, but, so far, it's a no-show. Steinberg has a partial solution, but you'd need 2 desktop CPU's and it requires their PCI cards.

So, basically, Mark, with a decent interface (which is quite important), you do already have what is needed to get started. And once you get hooked be prepared to spend tons of dough on CPU's, effects, soft synths, drives, cables and all kinds of crap. Run away now while you still have a chance for a regular life!

Best of luck,
Jeff

jeffca.com

This post has been edited by jeffca: Mon 20 Dec 2004, 02:03

[ourmanflinty]

You can run a powerbook in firewire target mode, hold down T as you power up. This makes it into a firewire drive and you plug it into your tower and up it pops onto the desktop , magic. Make sure you unmount it before unplugging or turning off, hold the power button down to turn off. The same goes for the tower actually.

The tower has slots, always a bonus when running audio...SCSI card, audio card, dsp card...all of these will take a load off the cpu.

Don't ask PC users for advice on running audio on a Mac for my two cents worth...
You can install s/w on a pc and find that it has stopped something else from working. Too many third party's in PC land not all reading from the same page, too many OS as well from Microsoft. So you get the urban myth that you need to focus the machine. Can't really say as a Mac only person that I have ever had much of a problem that way, PC users hate that Macs are very particular about what can be used with them, I love it, it helps.
I would say the same for the opinion that you can't have the music machine on the net, this came from a PC world too as there are so many virus out there which mean regular rebuilds.

Backup is always important