Upgrade Recordingsetup Options

[boghi]

Hi,
I've been working for a couple of years with following setup:
G4 dual 1G/1,5G RAM/2*80G HD's
Logic Pro 6.3.3
bunch of pluginns

I notice I run out of headroom with some of my tracks.
Now I'm thinking of switching over to protools instead of getting a G5
Any recommendations/ideas much appreciated

Thanks!

[swilder]

what makes you think you're runing out of headroom?

[Nels]

boghi

Don't understand why you'd think Pro Tools might solve the headroom problem.

Depending on how many tracks and on how excessive your use of plugins/effects is, you're always going to run into that headroomless wall, ..no matter what you're using as your DAW. Plus, Pro Tools is proprietary in design and has poor Midi implications. Pro Tools is great for mic oriented projects and that's mainly why it's so widely used in the studio, but still has other limitations, that Logic does not.

Since you're already familiar with Logic Pro, I would say, ..definitely get the G5. And if your Dual G4 is in good working order, with minimal scratches and such, you could get a decent penny for it, to help with your $$$ spending.

I use Digital Performer, but my second choice was Logic Pro.

This post has been edited by Nels: Thu 3 Mar 2005, 21:42

[boghi]

reason I think I'm out of headroom is with some of my tracks which exists of a lot of tracks in combination with all sorts of plugins.
freezing tracks are not helpful anymore.. can't add more tracks... I get popups about slow disk
Have recently added 512 mb ram and noticed that this helps a bit...

I've heard that in terms of soundquality protools is the shit..(can anybody confirm?) having it's own processor on board gives you alot of headroom for other stuff (xtra pluginns, mastering etc...) but I could be wrong about this .. that's where i'm asking you for advice...

Thanks

[souljah]

hi there,

i have worked on pro-tools for ten years and it is great though I think
at this point of time there a whole lot more options than there was before.
Running out of headroom? If you're working digitally you're not going to get much more out with pro-tools. Having processor of it's own does help to manage your plug-ins in pro-tools only on TDM and not on LE systems so unless you're willing to part with so major buckeroos you're not going to be a happy camper.

Still I have to say it is one of the best cards around to date. I hope so anyway that it works if I am going to part with my entire live savings and live in my car from here on.

AD/DA converters, mic pre amps and plug-ins are brilliant on Pro-Tools. MIDI sucks though. So if you're like a music creative dude stay with Logic or DP. Still beats the crap out of Pro-Tools. I work with both so it kinda compliments eachother. So I write my tracks on DP and mix them on Pro-Tools.

I have mixed on DP and Logic which sounded equally great. What it boils down to is what serves you the best. It's really a mix and match of software and hardware.

Nige

[boghi]

Hi Nige,

Thanks for the advice.
I've been doin'my own little research and yep LE would not be what I'm looking for. Being able to prepare mostly midi in logic and then import as audiotracks in protools for further editing,mixing etc.. besides of superiour soundquality, is what I'm after
at least one core card and inevitably one i/o device. If I want to proceed with this, buckoos is going to be a temporary issue here.

You were talking about alternatives. What would be comparable to protools (HD1 core and i/o device)without having to pay as much though?

Thanks in advance
M

This post has been edited by boghi: Tue 8 Mar 2005, 21:55

[allears]

Hello,

I have been producing and engineering for about 12 years and have worked with just about every system and interface out there at least once and I would suggest that you stay with your logic setup and get yourself a G5 with 4 Gig of RAM, a really nice audio interface and a nice set of monitors. Great AD/DA and nice monitors are a must if you want to get "that professional sound." If you use alot of virtual instruments and samples then the fastest computer with as much RAM as you can afford is worth every penny. I cant even begin to tell you the the increase in performace you will see with a RAM loaded dual G5. The RME fireface 800 will give you the i/o options and sound quality you are looking for at a great price. The AD/DA converters in the fireface sound better than the digi hardware. If you are bent on swithing to Pro Tools software and want to go that route I would go with Apogee hardware and an X-HD card or Benchmark converters.

Long story short... stick with Logic, spend your money on great converters and monitors.

[boghi]

Hi,

I was thinking.. let's say Im gonna get the G5 with sufficient memory how can I incoorporate my G4(if I'm not going to sell it..) and use thepower and resources in addtion to the g5. Has anybody done this before, Any ideas? I'm afraid to lose out some serious money trying to sell my G4.. so i'd rather keep it unless somebody is willing to pay my price...

This post has been edited by boghi: Thu 10 Mar 2005, 07:30

[wick]

dont sell your g4 keep it.. having two machines its better than one.just in case one the g5 that you buy might give you problems you can always depend on your g4 or use g5 to record and the g4 as a server and link them together if your g4 has been faitfull to you dont seel it....thats my advise

[boghi]

thanks for the advice, but that's not exactly what I mean in terms of backup/redundancy.

Is there anyway I could use both machines for musicproduction, how to set things up etc...
for instance using my g4 as a plugin machine only and trigger these plugins through g5 or whatever possibilities there are of which I don'n know of

any ideas/comments much appreciated!!!

[eric_berlin]

you should check out distributed audio... a logic7 features... www.apple.com

you can also use your second computer as a sampler or synth... midi controlled from your master computer and have its audio out back into your audio ins of your master machine.
will make some delays that you will have to handle, but it works.

eric

[chappy]

I'm in a similar situation running Logic Pro and PT HD3Accell.
PT runs fine on my G4 but as a professional, I've learned the hard way
that skipping more than 1 generation of software/hardware ends up costing more.
So, what to do with a perfectly good G4, a ton of SCII drives, a perfectly working L5
ex smpte reader, 15x15 patchbay. Will Logic accept a g4 as a node?
The escalation curve is like having an organ ransplant!
cheers,
chap

[chappy]

ps- the new system is a dual 2.5 G5 with 6 gig or ram and 4 250 gig Glyph firewire drives. My experience with firewire (I have 8 drives, 4 have died) is that is slower and less reliable than SCII.
dang,
chap

[Adrian Delso]

Not sure that the L:7 'node' idea is easy as Apple make it sound! I'd just use the G4 as an extra storage drive, linked to your new one by Firewire. Agree 100% about interface and monitors.

[allears]

If you get a dual 2.5 gig G5 with 4 gig of RAM you won't even remember that you have that G4, trust me. I upgraded my system from a dual 1G G4 to a G5 and I am still amazed at the increase in performance. The G5 can handle an incredible virtual intrument track count in comparison to the G4. Sell the G4 and use that money for great AD/DA conversion.

[allears]

Apple will only provide support for the "node system" in Logic 7 if both computers are G5.

[designlord]

Hello,

Steinberg supports VST-LINK, linking up multiple machines via an audio cable to the sound card. I'm going to try this with my two PC's pretty soon, and you can have Mac's in the fray as well so with the G5 I'm getting I'll have 3 machines running, which if it works well is a very good reason for me to stay with Cubase SX/Nuendo.

I'll tell you Logic users that I did Logic PC 5.5 before going to SX2 and I found SX to support a very nice interface and I found the Audio to be better (Nuendo heritage, though I didn't know back then) and midi seemed pretty able as well, though Logic is considered the king by most. Wait to find out what Yamaha does with Steinberg, but if you have a few machines SX is an option and would be easy adapting to from my own experience. This is of course if Yamaha doesn't abandon the Apple market in reaction to Logic leaving PC market, because with Logic gone every PC user went to SX/Nuendo, with a few going to Sonar but they don't know any better =) (sorry but that interface flow just blows, even as far as PC apps go)

I have a post under PC | Mac that talks about a lot of this sort of stuff with good input from everyone, PT HD talk, and such. Maybe it might help.

[zelen0]

Logic 7 supports distributed processing on multiple Macs..

just chain them together on a network and you're set.