Buying Guide Options

[Schack]

Hey all!

I currently own a 12" PB G4 1.5 gHz and a Dual 1 gHz MDD G4. I use the laptop for sketches and small looping based recordings on the go and the PowerMac for larger ProTools/Logic songs/projects at home.

However, my PowerMac keeps going into standby mode, and there's nothing I can do about it. I've flashed the PRAM, changed battery on the PMU, reinstalled the OS and nothing seems to help... I can work on it, but there's no telling when it falls asleep, and it really stifles the creative flow:-)

Therefore, I'm tempted to go out and buy a new mac. I'm thinking the new iMac looks sweet, but I have a couple of questions that I hope you might be able to help me with.

I won't be working on very big arrangements at home, I'll go to a studio for that. But I want to able to work with medium-sized projects and a fair amount of plugs/insts. Is this possible with the iMac, you'd have to run the song from a FWHD, right?

Also, if I want to run ProTools, it'd have to be through Rosetta and how does this perform? Would I be able to run medium-sized projects even though it's slower than the native version?

I'm trying to find out whether it's better to stick with the MDD for now and wait for the native version of PT or if should just buy the damn thing and run PT emulated. 'Tis hard to decide

Any help is greatly appreciated,
Schack

[dixiechicken]

Traditionally running DAW:s, video recording and the like - in emulation mode has not been working very well, if at all.
(compare with. running Digital Performer 3 under Mac OS-X in the Classic environment)
I do not know how well Rosetta fares in the above comparison. (better one can hope)

As an example MOTU has just released DP-5.0 (my own favourite DAW)
Later this spring 2:nd quarter 2006 they will release an update that is a Universal Binary compatible with both
G5 PPC Macs and the new Dual Core Intel Macs.

If you're shooting for the new dual core iMac - the 2:nd quarter Digatal Performer UB update would be the one to get.

Cheers: Dixiechicken

[Schack]

Hmm, I guess emulation mode is not the way to go....

I'm currently using Ableton Live 5, Logic Pro 7 and ProTools 7.1, so I don't think I have the energy to get to know yet another DAW

I'm sooo tempted to buy the iMac now, but I think I'll hold my horses until the next rev. comes along. But it also depends on when Digidesign releases the UB update to PT, I guess...

There's just something in me that warns me against buying Rev. A. iMac, can you follow me there? What with the bugs in hardware that are bound to be there....

This post has been edited by Schack: Mon 24 Apr 2006, 17:43

[lepetitmartien]

The intel macs have already had some minor tweaks to care of some issues (Apple repairs the "old" un-tweaked ones) but if you can wait a little, there may be either better prices or better CPUs in them (pin to pin compatible so only the CPU will change).

As you work with it and you have issues with the MDD, I'd say wait on the macintel till it is cleared, try to grab a second hand G5 instead maybe (not the dual core ones, nor the single 1.8 mkII) or an iMac G5. Personally, I'd wait till PT road is cleared and jump this fall on intel.

On the standby issue, is your firmware up to date?

[Schack]

Hmm, it might be a good idea to get a used G5, just saw a Powermac G5 Dual 1.8Ghz 1.25 GB DDR SDRAM at € 1474, and that seems like a fair price. Then it could last until the new machines arrive (or maybe even longer) and I'd have the power to get things done.

Yes, everything is updated on the sleeping mac However, I forgot to mention that I put it in a noise-reducing cabinet, and it might be due to overheating that it falls asleep... But I think that it also did it when I had the door to the cabinet open. Anyway, it's impossible to work with the machine if it's not in the cabinet, it SO noisy I paid a lot of money for the machine back in 2002, and today it seems absurd that they would release such a noisy mac as the top-of-the-line model....

Cheers for the advice, guys!