Logic 6 On Powerbooks, How does Logic work on Powerbooks Options

[TKNO1]

How does Logic 6 work on Powerbooks? What kind of mido gear are you using? Just would like to know if any old PowerBook users have Logic 6 ... What are the problems if any? [FONT=Arial][SIZE=7][COLOR=blue]

[TKNO1]

I am thinking of using some sort of music software. Wonder what people think of Logic on their Powerbook or DP 4 or Reason on OS X. Please anyone out there have some constructive feedback?

I use Logic 6 on a 867MHz G4 Powerbook. On it's own it runs fine I can get enought tracks going to do a session. I also run Reason 2.5 rewired into Logic. It reduces the track count significantly but that's not so much of an issue because so much can be done from within Reason.

I have used DP4 for abut 10 minutes. it's such a complete mess of a program. I thought Logic was quite bad initially though. I wasn't able to load Reason via rewire in dp4 either. I disliked the bundles of audio management. I just couldn't get by with it.

I can say though that with Logic and Reason together I can produce my coursework assignment almost entirely on my laptop maybe transferring the the Uni's G5 for final mixing with more plugins etc.

[lepetitmartien]

mhmm sequencer shoot out is a heavy trodden subject…

plenty of threads around already…

[TKNO1]

cerithom thank you for your comments. I am new here so sorry Lepitmartien. I wanted to know how certain music software performs on Mac Powerbooks. I just wanted to hear from people who have experience with Logic, DP4 or Reason in terms of performance and reliability. And if there was any bugs.

[file13]

i recently got Logic 6 platinum and it runs great on my 1 ghz titanium powerbook w/ 512 ram with the latest Panther. it's a bit pokey when using some big libraries like Garritan, but otherwise if you take time to freeze tracks you're not working on ATM and make smart use of buses for things like Space Designer then it's really not a problem. i've got more RAM coming (a gig) and i'm sure it will run fine at that point. but so far it's been running good enough to not interfere with composition and recording single audio tracks--which is all that matters for me at the moment.

i also have an Mbox and it runs PT LE with no major problems to speak of. but since i've gotten Logic, i generally use it for everything and just use the Mbox itself in Logic to record audio so i may be missing some problems with PT on it.

sure it would still be wonderful to have a G5, but it's still pretty sweet having a portable studio. so yes, you can run an effective portable studio on a powerbook assuming you respect a laptop's limitations ahead of time.

good luck

This post has been edited by file13: Mon 23 Feb 2004, 23:19

[erichodges]

i recently got Logic 6 platinum and it runs great on my 1 ghz titanium powerbook w/ 512 ram with the latest Panther. it's a bit pokey when using some big libraries like Garritan, but otherwise if you take time to freeze tracks you're not working on ATM and make smart use of buses for things like Space Designer then it's really not a problem. i've got more RAM coming (a gig) and i'm sure it will run fine at that point. but so far it's been running good enough to not interfere with composition and recording single audio tracks--which is all that matters for me at the moment.

i also have an Mbox and it runs PT LE with no major problems to speak of. but since i've gotten Logic, i generally use it for everything and just use the Mbox itself in Logic to record audio so i may be missing some problems with PT on it.

sure it would still be wonderful to have a G5, but it's still pretty sweet having a portable studio. so yes, you can run an effective portable studio on a powerbook assuming you respect a laptop's limitations ahead of time.

good luck

when you mention Garritan, I'm wondering if that is running on your powerbook along with logic?? Or, are you running the Garritan on a Gigastudio/PC??? Also wondering which Garritan you have....

[file13]

when you mention Garritan, I'm wondering if that is running on your powerbook along with logic?? Or, are you running the Garritan on a Gigastudio/PC??? Also wondering which Garritan you have....

nope, it's running in Logic (or the exs24 to be more percise) on the above mentioned powerbook. i have only tried the first couple of CD's from the Garritan Orchestrial Strings (the giga ones) to see how they worked (it's a friends copy so i've only played with the violins) and the EXS24 converted them fine to the exs format. these are the ones that take some time to load up. however some of the techniques did not convert. apparently you have to use Chicken Translator or the equilivent. but it looks like they are working on a native exs format version besides a kontakht version. but it's still in the works.

luckly though, my copy of GPO (Garritan Personal Orchestra) came in last night along with my ram (1 gig w00t!) and it's awesome (really quick shipping directly from Garritan i might add)! i've got GPO working in both Sibelius and Logic. in Logic it was a breeze since it's a AU plugin. i haven't had too much trouble, but it looks like the only burp in Logic is using the mod wheel in recording. but i loaded up a string trio i did on it and converted it to an mp3 just to test it and it sounds good without even messing with the mod wheel. of course i'll have to figure it out, but i'm a happy customer so far. also, the GPO stuff seems to load/run a lot quicker then the full on old converted giga ones from the GOS. not sure if that has anything to do with it being an AU or not.

in Sibelius it also sounded great, but took a little work to get it working for the same string score. i need to create templates for Sibelius in GPO (which you can do) so if i still end up writing in Sib and moving the midi to Logic i can still work with the awesome samples. i also want to see how if i notate the dynamics and expressions in Sib if they will be included in the midi file so i can dump them and still have a nifty little performance in logic. we'll see. i'm obviously still torn between which platform to do the actualy composition in.

anyway, hope this helps.

This post has been edited by file13: Wed 25 Feb 2004, 21:21

[erichodges]

cool that helps a lot!

I'm interested in doing something similar w/finale and logic...writing in finale and being able to listen back with the garritan sounds and then moving a finished composition to logic to polish the midi file so that others could here it...with the idea that a performace would be with real players..

I'm also thinking that if I later wanted more power I could get a PC/gigastudio setup and run that from the mac..

[erichodges]

Additional question

I would be interested in learning if you are able to record audio of GPO in logic at the same time the sequence is playing....er...

You are playing the sequence, which triggers the GPO and at the same time record the audio...all in logic.?...if so I would like to hear how many tracks you get etc...

many thanks!

[file13]

i hear ya. i'm still learing about Logic's score editor myself and trying to decide if i want to write directly in it or not. i spent a lot of time setting up the key commands so they're more or less like Sibelius since i'm used to it. on one hand it's nice to have everything in one program, but on the other hand i really love and am used to Sibelius and i'm also worried i might get caught up in pre-mature mixing (i.e. button twidiling) instead of working on the important part...the music itself!

so i'll have to see myself how i'll be actually working. but as far as GPO goes, it's an amazing library for an awesome price and it's working as good as i hoped for on my powerbook...i.e. no major technical problems or slowdowns.

BTW: you may already know, but GPO does support Finale and there are instructions in the manual on how to set it up. i'll probably try it on Finale just for the hell of it (along with the bundled Overture SE program that comes with GPO). toys are toys....

[file13]

I would be interested in learning if you are able to record audio of GPO in logic at the same time the sequence is playing....er...

You are playing the sequence, which triggers the GPO and at the same  time record the audio...all in logic.?...if so I would like to hear how many tracks you get etc...

just saw this after i responded to your last post.

i've only had it one day, but here's what i did. i dumped all the midi tracks seperatly from Sibelius (it has a built in way to seperate each track into it's own midi file). then i brought them into Logic as audio instruments. since i was just playing with it, i asigned each track directly to a seperate instance of the AU GPO plugin in Logic (just like you would do to assign it to the exs24 or any other sampler/AU plugins). then i sent them each to their own bus for mixing and froze them. then a little mixing and bounce it off to mp3. i did see on the Nothern Sounds board however that you can assign multiple instruments to a single instance of the GPO AU (as opposed to making a new instance for each track like i did) so i'll have to try that. i also saw a work around there for the mod wheel resetting each time you start and stop playing the music.

so yes you can assign multiple tracks to a single instance of GPO in Logic. i have no clue how many ATM, but with a little patience and some frugal freezing i'm sure you could do a full orchestra on even a modest system. but i'll have to get back to you since i'm still exploring it myself.

also a neat idea was one of the folks over at nothern sounds did a whole string section (as i recall) by building up each player as a single solo instrument track and then running them through a bus for mixing them all as a section. it sounded very good and gives you ideas of what you can do...and damn, i'm in love with this solo Staradivaris. imagine a whole 1st string section of them....

This post has been edited by file13: Wed 25 Feb 2004, 22:36

[erichodges]

cool, that helps a lot...

[erichodges]

file13, are you running 1gig total ram? Or, ~1.256 gig?

I'm looking at prices and the 1gig chips are around $800...I've got a 512 and the stock 256...thought I would start with that and then figure it out...

[erichodges]

ok, now i see that the 1gig prices are closer to 325...

[file13]

ok, now i see that the 1gig prices are closer to 325...

yeah, i got it here for $300:

http://www.ramjet.com/pbg4.asp

i have the 15 titanium which comes with 2 256 slots (instead of 1 512 stick) so to get a gig (the max it can hold) i had to get the gig kit. luckly i got that bonus at work....

but yeah, everything runs great with the ram upgrade. it's still a little slow to load up some big samples but Logic isn't choking anymore when working on multiple un-frozen tracks at once anymore.

good luck!

[TKNO1]

Thank you all for your feedback. It has helped me out greatly. I am looking forward when the Powerbook G5 comes out with 64 but processing. But until then it looks iike Logic or Logic Express when it comes out..