Need Help With Choice On Mac Options

[Amathus]

Hi there, just this second registered and hello to you all.

I did a bit of searching before i registered hoping to find answeres to my questions but everything seems a bit wishy washy and cant seem to find clear info.

Basically im looking to purchase a Mac with Logic Pro 7 over the next few weeks and i know very little about them both.

Ideally im looking to get a powerbook to easily take it around with me but still i'm unsure that the powerbook or any of the laptops have enough power to run logic with no issues.
I would be grateful if somebody can point out and tell me exactly what mac is best for running logic and if a powerbook has adequate power to run it.
Will it be pushing it? or should it be difficult to crash it

And in terms of general music production on a powerbook, is it easier or harder on a laptop then a desktop? i.e are laptop soundcards just as good as desktop.

Money is not a massive issue but i was looking at not going over the £1500 on the mac itself

Forgive me if im sounding unclear but i would be extremley thankful if someone can help me!

thanks in advance

[lepetitmartien]

As it can run from a Mac Mini to da bigga bad G5 2X2,5 GHz, the best way to address the problem is to tell us what are you expecting to do with your Logic as best as you can do.

On the laptop/desktop question, it's up to are you going to move it around or not, and do you need expansion.

[Adrian Delso]

Amathus
The Powerbook CPU should be fine, but you must add sufficient RAM - if it ccomes with 256k, then add another 512k to be on the safe side. You will need a good interface - about £250-350 - which will have a sound card. If you don't need to move around, there are cheaper Mac options. Logic Pro 7 is very powerful and very expensive, with a steep learning curve, but it includes all sorts of fantastic things - a brilliant tempo mapper, fantastc software instruments, a superb drum synth.

If your budget of £1500 is just for the Mac and the additional RAM, you're OK. If you' re including the software and the interface, you need to rethink, I'm afraid. Good luck.

Adrian

[Amathus]

thanks for the informative reply guys.

in reply to your post adrian, yes the £1500 is the price range i was looking at for the mac and i was suspecting that i may have needed to get more ram. Lucklily i have managed to buy a copy of logic pro 7 already from ebay for a very reasonable price so im sorted there.
and in reply to lepetitmartien i will be using logic to make dance music of various genres and for recording my mixing from my decks to them.

just a few more questions to add on too if you can help with those:

1. what did you mean when you said i will need a good interface that includes soundcard? i was wondering what are the options for soundcards with the powerbook, Will i have to get an external one? is that better? how much? i am going to need something that can handle a connection from my decks and mixer so i can record my mixing.
2. I keep hearing of this release of "tiger" and from what i can gather, it sounds like a new version of the operating system, shall i hold out for that or can it be easily upgraded in the future with no problems?
3. what size powerbook is adequate enough to do this all on, is 12inch quite small or is that normal laptop size? and would it be better to use a 15, especially if i might be using it alongside other producers?
4. Whats the difference between combo and superdrive?

thanks again, i may think up some questions later! lol i need to educate myself with macs

[Adrian Delso]

Amathus
You asked:
1. what did you mean when you said i will need a good interface that includes soundcard?I meant you will need an interface and they all tend to have soundcards. i was wondering what are the options for soundcards with the powerbook, Will i have to get an external one? is that better? how much? i am going to need something that can handle a connection from my decks and mixer so i can record my mixing.That is why you need an interface! Check Edirol, M-Audio (which I dislike) and a few others.
2. I keep hearing of this release of "tiger" and from what i can gather, it sounds like a new version of the operating system, shall i hold out for that or can it be easily upgraded in the future with no problems? The current OS ("Panther" X.3) is fine. Don't worry about Tiger, until you're more comfortable with a Mac.
3. what size powerbook is adequate enough to do this all on, is 12inch quite small or is that normal laptop size? and would it be better to use a 15, especially if i might be using it alongside other producers? Whatever you find easiest to work with. Bigger is usually easier!
4. Whats the difference between combo and superdrive? I think that refers to what recordable media are supported - CD-R, CD-R/W, DVD-R, etc. How do you plan to distribute your music?

This post has been edited by Adrian Delso: Mon 4 Apr 2005, 11:00