Wannabe Mac User, seeks help! Options

[Calcaneus]

Hi, hope someone can help me out. I use to have a PC running Cubase5 , fruityloops and some MIDI equipment, but my PC exasperated me once too often and ended a little smashed up! Well, I haven't been making music for 9 months now and it's getting bad! I would love to get a mac, I have heard they are very reliable, but I really haven't a clue what I'm looking at. I would like to experiment with Reason and Ableton, as I had a go on a friends PC and I liked them. But I hear they don't have MIDI capabilities, which would make some precious hardware defunct . I also like the idea of making music on the fly, so I'm considering a laptop, but I also heard you need an external sound card for this? I wouldn't object to getting a stand alone if that was the best option for me, it's just the idea of being in bed and making beats is an attractive one! I have about £2300 to spend.

If anyone does help me out, please explain to me like I'm a dribbling imbecile, as I'm really fresh to all this.

Thanks

[arvidtp]

Reason does have some MIDI capabilities and Live now definitely has them in the latest version (4). You should check their sites out.

For any computer you're going to need an audio interface if you need to get high quality sound in/out. If you want a laptop setup - a powerbook with a portable firewire interface is killer. Even some of the USB ones are OK. But, for all software except pro tools (cause they make u use their or now M-audio's hardware) you can also run off the internal audio card in a powerbook (or any mac) as long as you dont need nice quality recording in bed. haha thats funny - i am in bed right now writing this! The built-in audio cards on macs are very decent for a built in card, and they get really low latencies now in OS X. I mix all the time on the go or during breaks at work with my powerbook, logic and a set of AudioTechnica headphones. But before finishing/bouncing a session i always take it back home an listen to it on my higher quality audio interface and such. I have even been performing lately using the internal card, because my silly Mbox has awful latency problems and also stability issues whenever it detects that I NEED it to work in a live situation

Also, a cool thing that the new OS X 10.4 offers is device aggregation: any number of audio interfaces (including built-in) can be grouped into one virtual one and show up as a single interface with lots of I/O to all applications! I dont have 10.4 yet, but a new mac you get would.

I wish you luck

This post has been edited by arvidtp: Sat 14 May 2005, 17:10

[Calcaneus]

Many thanks for the advice, it's been a great help. I've been doing some swotting up and am now understanding much better the plethora of information! I'm pretty much certain of what I want to get, that is a 15 " powerbook with ableton 4 and reason, but I'm undecided on the audio interface. You say that the Mbox has latency problems? I have read a number of bad things about M-Audio's stuff. Are there any other Firewire interfaces that you might recommend? I have been looking at the Edirol FA-66 and the Edirol FA101; they both look ok. There is also the PreSonus Firebox which looks kinda snazzy, but I can only find reviews on the FA101.

Thanks in advance,

[pmidi]

Check out the Presonus Firepod for $599: 8 audio in/outs, hi-quallity preamps and built in support from OSX 10.3.5 forward.
The Firebox has the same builtin software support but it requires configuration fo rinternal routing...