G4 Powerbook 17" Options

[THE DUDE]

Hi Everyone...
First off...I would like to say that this forum is great!!!
I am a new member and definately a Mac fan. I am in the market to buy a new computer and have decided to go for Mac all the way. I am seriously considering the G4 powerbook 15" but now the 17" has intrigued me further. I know many people have a problem with its size but for me its actually a benefit having such a large screen to view when working. I will be using the PB mainly for music production..you know sampling, looping, multi-tracking...whatever. Considering I buy the G4 PB 17"...my ideal set up will consist of Logic 6 or Cubase SX running on OSX..a software sampler (Halion 2.0 or Logic EXSP)...the audio card will probably be the Digidesign M Box so I can benefit from having Pro Tools...for a midi controller I am looking at the small Oxygen 8 keyboard. Eventually I also want to get a Firewire drive strictly for the audio considering that the internal hard drive is running @ 4200 according to specs. Will I have a problem if I start with the internal drive for now. Obviously I want to be able to do both midi and audio based production together with some VST instruments and EFX. My question is...will the G4 PB 17" accomodate my demands and needs. I have heard from others that its a true workhorse and I shouldnt have a problem. Is there anyone out there that can shed some light on this for me possibly user experiences...pros...cons...or just good old opinions.

Much respect and thanks in advance.
PS...I will soon be running with the Mac gurus..LOL

[c.frederik]

I join to the people owning a 17" Powerbook G4 and use that work horse for making music.
After weeks of asking around, thinking, wondering and have sleepless nights, I finally have bought a MBox witn Pro Tools. Why??After all, because it is a goodlooking piece of equipment and many adviced me the MBox.

I have explored
1. Roland UA20 + Cubase SL / Logic
2. Aardvark USB3 + Cubase SL / Logic
3. MBox + Pro Tools LE

The best hardware -as I was told- was, the Aardvark, followed by the MBox and then the Roland UA20. All the profies I asked, pointed to Logic, then Pro Tool and then Cubase.
So the best mix should be Aardvark together with Logic...........................

OK, the MBox now stands beautifull smiling next to my Powerbook and I am reading a 600 pages of the instuctions and it will take a lot of time before I will actually be the boss of Pro Tools. So I am not so far that I can give you any advice but the demo sound great, great, great............

Mayby i am allowed to lay down another question and hope someone will and can answer;
The MBox is playing only when I use Protools. My expectation was that I can replace MBox as the soundcard for all the sounds. So if I pla f.e. a mp3 woth Itunes, the sound still comes from the internal speakers of the Powerbook.
What do I have to do?

Greetings Kees.

[Synthetic]

yep... the Mbox is nice... but not sure how it plays with other non-digidesign apps such as the Logic and Cubase in OSX though. I have major latency issues using Logic 4.8.1 with my Digi001 on OS9 but this may or may not be an issue in OSX. I would try to decide which app you will use mainly for audio production and get an interface that will work good with it first.

Example..... I use PT for most audio work and then resort to Logic for midi work (which has very little latency compared to monitoring audio inputs in Logic) so my Digi001 works best for me in that situation. If Cubase or another app besides PT will be the main audio tracker.... then you might want to consider another interface

[Synthetic]

c.fred.... i don't use Mbox but my Digi001 uses similiar setup. Not sure if you are in OSX or OS9 but in OS9 to get sound of my Digi001 monitor outputs.... you have to select the digi driver in sound control panel rather than built-in sound out. This may be same in OSX.

[c.frederik]

Hello,

In the meantime I was informed in other (Dutch) forums as well and there I was helped to solve my problem.
My major problem was how to use the MBox for other applications than just Pro Tools.
So I was adviced to download a driver at http://www.digidesign.com/download/coreaudio/. Here you can read, that this driver allows you to use MBox and several other programmas such as Cubase, Qiuck Time 6.0 and others.
So I downloaded it, installed and set the MBox drivers and now I can play f.e. I-tunes directly from the MBox.

So that was my major problem and I'am very happy again with my MBox.

Because I'am very new with Pro Tools and MBox, i cannot say anything about latency under OSX by myself, but proffesionals in the Netherlands assured me that there is no problem whatever with latency and OSX / PT + Mbox. As soon as I have some experience by myself I'll let you know if you are still interested.

Greetings from a hot, hot, hot Holland.

[THE DUDE]

Thank you to everyone who has replied so far...it looks like the PB 17" is growing on me everyday. I was going to make the purchase a week ago but stopped myself as soon as I heard the rumours of a revised version coming soon. I am in no rush but the anticipation of the new PB 17" is killing me
Why does Apple insist on torturing us with these rumour teasings...why cant they just give us something more to look forward to rather than leaving everyone to make their own assumptions.

[c.frederik]

Hello The Dude,

So, in answer to your first question, I can say, I am a proud and very happy user of the Powerbook 17" and most of the problems have to do with my little knowledge of this very new world of Mac and OS. I take the powerbook everywhere I go and have to be carefull not to forget to take my wife with me too.

In the past monthes I have worked more than 10 hours a day with the PB 17" and before that I used Pc and Windows and I still do. Because of the music I was looking for somthing portable and solid and, and, and............So I came up to Mac and choose the Powerbook 17" because off all the technics and the wonderfull screen. Yes the size is big, but that is according to my wishes.

So what do I think now of the PB 17".
There is view negative I can say. OSx is new and there is not very much software as I was used to have on the Pc. Oh, and because I want to e-mail everywhere, I was looking for a PMCIA solution, but Mac do not support that, but every PC or Laptop do support. So I use my Mobile now as a modem and that works fine as everything works fine. Installation of software is always a piece of cake........

I'am now considering to buy a fire wire external HDD. The hdd drive can be used for your music but as they suggest, it is better to use a separate external fast hdd.
I'm thinking of the LaCie 120 or 80 GB. As you kow I use the MBox and PT LE and G7 for gitar / midi. I'am still looking for a solution to become good midi sounds rather than the sounds of the build in Quick Time midi sounds. Perheps you have a suggestion.

Counting all the positive and negative, I'm still more than satisfied with my Mac PB17"!!

Wish you good luck and wisdom choise!

Greetings,
Kees.

[THE DUDE]

Well c.frederik I thank you aswell for your experience and wisdom. As for your midi request...are you looking for good sounds? Let me know what kind of sounds your interested in and I will do my best to help. As for the Lacie firewire drive I would recommend the 120 gig and thats based on a good friends advice and experience with the same hard drive.

[c.frederik]

Hello the Dude,

Thanks for your advice. Indeed 120 GB is 50% more than 80 Gb, but the price is just a few euro's more!! So....

What kind of sounds am I looking for? Two sort of sounds, I think.

The first sort of sounds have to do with PT LE; when I listen to the demo and when I saw the video's I was completely enthousiast the way you can compose your own music with all these nowaday's sounds (samples?). But where can I get it?

About the midi sounds. I'have musical lived through te 50th 60th and 70th years (no, I do NOT feel soooooo old) and the sounds of that days are part of my brains.

To make a good choise I have to consider a external "box" or a virtual sound "box". With the last I do not have experience so please advice me. I have an eye for it, because it save a lot of space on my desk and another ugely cable. But most of all, I bought a PB 17" to be easy on the road!!
What is the quality of those virtual sounds. And what about latency? And how put these into PT?? What are the prices; are they for sale secundhand etc.

In case of the external sound "box", I do have seen on the internet, the range of Roland (SCD70 / SC20 / SC80) but a lot of money!! So I consider f.e. a Roland SC 155 / SC 88 (secundhand). More good sound modules I do not know.

Have you already made your choise about the PB17"

Greetings from a still hot, hot, hot Holland,

Kees.

[THE DUDE]

Maybe I should have also asked what kind of music you are interested in producing. As for options there are tons in terms of software samplers, synths etc. I dont think you'll have a problem with latency running any of these programs on your PB 17". A software sampler is a good all round tool that will allow you to sample but yet also use instrument type sounds to achieve the latest and greatest sound quality. Some samplers worth looking into are the Kompakt by native instruments. They also have a professional line of soft syths worth taking a look at...there website is Native Instruments
Logic is also a very highly recommended choice especially running on your Mac. That website is Emagic Logic
As for sounds and or samples you should listen to some sample cds and see what you like. Any of your local music shops should have them...if not there are a few websites that I have discovered and found to be very very good. How it works is you pay per sample or you pay a membership fee that allows you to download an amount of samples per day and month. There are also yearly memberships that allow unlimited downloads. This site is gigantic with over 200,000 sounds, samples and even special fx...put it this way, anything you can imagine is on here. Another neat thing about it is that all the sounds are from those same sample cds I mentioned earlier. You can also audition and pre-listen to stuff before you buy or download. That site is Sonomic
I hope this is a good start for you...let me know how it goes and other advice you might need.

This post has been edited by THE DUDE: Fri 8 Aug 2003, 21:52