G4 Ighz Enough? Options

[rustynails]

i'm new to recording on the computer. i have a g4 sawtooth with a 1 ghz sonnet cpu and plenty of ram (1.6). i just bought a presonus firebox and am snorkling around in Garageband, which i will either upgrade to Logic Express or Tracktion2 later. i'm wondering if i have enough machine to do several tracks without bogging down, or is it time to buy a new machine.
don't want to if i don't have to.
i also have a sata drive hooked up with a pci controller card that i run all my main computer stuff on. i've thought of buying another sata drive and running only the music on it. to do this would i need to install OS X on this drive and boot up from it, or would i just use this drive for back-up? thanks.

[lepetitmartien]

You can start without problem, have only an IDE drive especially for the audio files. If you stay (if it's possible with the sonnet) in OS 9 you get extra power/reactivity. In OS X you'll bang on the wall faster. But a few tracks are no problem.

If your computer is at pain with virtual synths (and it will fast), bounce!

[AlexeyMohr]

Unfortunately GarageBand is actually a real dog. It's rather slow and slams the CPU pretty quickly. You're probably fine for a few tracks, but once things get busy with effects and a high track count you'll probably be in trouble. Hard drive speed won't be the botttleneck, it'll tbe the CPU.

Pro Tools 7 is actually significantly accelerated over previous versions. Maybe a basic M-Audio interface and Pro Tools M-Powered would be the trick? Or finding a used M-Box on ebay or craigslist and getting the PT7 upgrade for $75.

Just a few thoughts.

[ptilou]

A good piece of advice for GB on the Apple site
How to cop with the cpu limitation...

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93618


And click on the padlock of the tracks when finalized

This post has been edited by ptilou: Thu 1 Dec 2005, 12:22

[ptilou]

i have a g4 sawtooth with a 1 ghz sonnet cpu and plenty of ram (1.6). i just bought a presonus firebox and am snorkling around in Garageband,

It's quiet a good setting up to begin and to carry on seriously

[emgcarra]

That is true, but you can also download GarageBand Anywhere 5.0.1 @
macworld.com/0814 and move that app to somewhere else instead you
startup disk. I am experimenting with it right now and all I can say about is
"so far so good". But give it a try.

[rustynails]

thanks for the info. i do have Logic Express now, seems like a bit of a learning curve. Garageband is fun, and with drytracking i do o.k., but any software instruments and it bogs down pretty quickly. Garageband anywhere looks like a cool little app.

[fred sanford]

How about BoomRecorder:

http://www.macmusic.org/softs/version.php/...ang/EN/id/5256/