Making Music With A New Ibook, Looking for setup help Options

[musicteacher]

My fear is that after I get my new iBook (if I in fact do) that I will run into some little problem that I won't be able to fix and this website will be closed down. Is there some resource in the NYC area that you know about where people teach each other how to do all this in person? Or a class or teacher?

Again, my thanks for all your help.

[ghess]

Musicteacher;

There are two online resources which are particularly geared to music educators. TI:ME, The Technology Institute for Music Educators, http://www.ti-me.org, maintains discussion groups and mailing lists which can be used for any questions you have related to music technology.TI:ME also sponsors classes throughout the country.
The Association for Technology in Music Instruction, ATMI, http://www.music.org/ATMI also maintains a mailing list for similar discussions.

[jmax]

Take a look at Harvestworks they have a number of classes that would probably be of help for you.

[ryosode]

NYC being a huge market for multimedia, I bet there are classes or individual teachers involving OS X and music making. You should search for those.

The fact that matters is that this audio stuff has a very steep learning curve. But once you are past certain point, everything will make sense to you. So try and take a couple of classes or find an expert in your area who can sit down with you and walk through this. If not, join a band that does computer based recording by themselves. That's how I learned my stuff.

[bowsk]

If i can just throw in a query, Is there a major difference between the sound quality of a recording on a laptop or a tower?

The romantic idea of taking a laptop to a recording session is very appealing, will it still be of a professional quality? and be appeal able to keep the true dynamics of some mind blowing live music?

[rickenbacker]

Bowsk: there's no difference between recording on a laptop or a tower, per se. The crucial factors are the same for any computer: hard disk size and speed, processor speed and type, sound card, graphics card, screen size - these are all the things that matter.

Towers are usually better-equipped and offer a higher level of tech spec than laptops and are also more flexible in terms of adding new components. But if you were using the same setup on a tower or a laptop, you'd get the same result.

If you could afford a new 17" 1GHz G4 Powerbook and add on a FireWire audio/midi interface and FireWire hard drive ( ) that would be the ultimate portable studio.

[charlieb]

Hi Rickenbacker,
When you talk about "and add on a FireWire audio/midi interface" please tell me exactly what you are talking about.

Thanks,
cb

[Presto]

I'm no expert but have an ibook600 with 384 Ram, and use it with an Mbox (two I/O - ins an outs) and ProTools LE and therefore OS9 for the mo. When my apps want OSX I'll give it them but under OS9 they work well so I don't care. If you need OS9, before you buy a new computer, ask if the OS9 install CD comes with it.

I only do audio so for me the mics are very important. I'm waiting (impatiently) for my new DPA 4066 miniature mic and headband to arrive. Then I'll be able to consider my recording setup portable. I would say that being able to move your mic(s) and place them wherever you want, easily, is very important. Have a look at the DPAmicrophones instrument kit.

An ibook is quite enough in my opinion, IF you don't use so many tracks you need a video projector to see half of them AND if you don't have to abuse plugin use to hide bad quality recording. OK, if you want to go into recording/mixing etc for clients as a full time job, then the ibook would have limitations.

Point of view of a littlie who doesn't use midi

This post has been edited by Presto: Thu 9 Jan 2003, 17:14

[rickenbacker]

charlieb: I mean that whatever Mac you own, you're going to need to add either a better quality soundcard (if you have a tower) or a FireWire or USB interface if you have a laptop. If you're at all serious about the fidelity of your recordings, the internal soundcard of the Mac (although pretty good) won't be good enough. This is true for most musicians here, I'd say.

Presto's Mbox is a USB interface: the MOTU 828 or 868 that a lot of people here seem to like is a FireWire interface. There are plenty of interfaces around to choose from - Edirol, M-Audio, Emagic etc all make various flavours. Some have Midi, some have digital I/O, some have FX onboard. It all comes down to cost.

FireWire is faster than USB, obviously, which is why some people say USB isn't sturdy enough to cope with multitrack audio. But like Presto says, it depends how much you're doing. If you're a professional engineer or musician and you want to send 24 tracks out from your Mac to an external digital mixer, you're probably better off with a FireWire device. If you're only sending a stereo signal back and forth, or maybe a few more tracks, USB is fine. I use a 600MHz iBook with an Edirol USB interface and it's been good for me.

But if I had a sackload of money, I'd buy a new PowerBook, a FireWire interface like the MOTU 868 and a FireWire hard disk. Probably cost close to £4,000 all in. Dare to dream!