Newbie Needs Advice Options

[JeffR12345]

Well, I'm currently looking at getting a Mac and a Firepod, but I don't have alot of money to spend. I was wondering if I could do multi-track recording with a G4 Sawtooth(512 MB RAM, 1 GHz)? Also, what software would be good? If you're wondering, I'm gonna record my bands demo with this. I don't expect something perfect, but I don't want something that sounds like total crap, either. Thanks in advance.

[The Guitar God]

you want to get a decent mic and garage band is a good enough piece of software. i havent yet got a decent mic so i couldnt suggest one but garage band is a free piece of software.

[jams]

Jeff:

I would not use Digital performer on your G4 with that single processor. DP requires two processors to operate the program and handle the effects on tracks. However, ProTools will operate find. You may need to add somemore ram in your computer okay. I went through that problem in the pass, but I now own twin processors with 2Gigs of ram and I can now run either program on my machine. The cost between the two programs or about what and what. Check around before you buy either one. Also, look around for some good plug-ins. ProTools plug-ins cost much more than DP 4.5 plug-ins. Hope this will help you out.

Regards:

tjams:

[JeffR12345]

Thanks guys. I was considering upgrading the RAM, but like I said, I'm new to this whole thing and I havn't a clue about anything :-P
Any suggestions on what kind of room I'd need? Currently, I have a building out back that we practice in, but I don't know how that would turn out. No insulation or sundproofing in this building at all, but it does have better than average acoustics. Anyway, thanks again.

[jeffca]

6 years ago, I had no problem running Cubase in 16bit mode with a project that had about 50 tracks on a UMAX S900 with a 500mhz G3 upgrade card and a half gig of RAM.

Needless to say, what you have is more than adequate from a hardware standpoint. What hardware you should invest in, if you don't already have it, is an extra hard drive for your recording project. Digital audio can run a drive pretty hard. Things will work smoother when you aren't running your media off the same drive as your apps and OS. Not to mention, you can have back ups of important stuff on both drives in case either fails.

If you are just getting your feet wet in computer recording, GarageBand is a great place to start. It runs in 16 bit mode exclusively so it will require less RAM and tax the drive less. Since all of the audio is processed 32bit floating point, it sounds good and is easy & quite fun to use. It will sound as good as your equipment and knowledge make it (recording and mixing are like driving - the nut behind the wheel is the most important thing).

I use both Cubase SX and Performer. While they are way more capable than GarageBand, they are 15x more expensive, have huge learning curves for a newbie and neither have the loop functions of GarageBand. Put all the money you would have spent on more expensive software toward mics, pre-amps, etc.

Entering into this type of stuff is usually done best by being conservative. You'll waste less money that way.

Good luck,
jeff