Guitar Gear Forum

I want something I can use for recording but I have a low budget. Since my old system died a few years back I've been longing for another recording set up. I used to use a G5 at college when I went back a few years ago. I want to use it for recording and mixing for band purposes.


http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Apple-Power-Mac-G5-Desktop-With-LOGIC-PRO-9-Many-More-/251279557818?pt=UK_Computing_Apple_Desktops_CV&hash=item3a816dc4ba#ht_7290wt_958

I'd think Logic Pro 9 would be a little sketchy on that system. I get up past ten tracks with more than a few plugins a piece in Pro 9 and things start falling to pieces for me unless I start locking/bouncing tracks and I'm using a MUCH newer/faster system than that.

Unless the G5s are a lot quicker than I remember.

How about this?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Apple-MacBook-Pro-A1278-13-2-26GHz-750GB-7-2K-4GB-2009-Model-7207-/330932163441?pt=UK_Computing_Apple_Laptops_ET&hash=item4d0d181371

That's definitely more like it. Pretty close to the specs of mine, except mine's an iMac. The 4GB will help a lot with keeping things smooth. Processor is probably adequate to do some decent multi-tracking. And you have the option of Firewire if you want to record to a separate drive. You'd still have to buy Logic if that's what you wanted to use, but Express is very usable and available on the app store fairly inexpensively these days, and even Pro isn't the complete wallet raping it used to be if you need the features. I'd say that one would be much more apt to serve you well than the first one you linked to.

How many tracks do you think I can get on that one? I like to dubb guitars.

Elessar [Sly] wrote:How many tracks do you think I can get on that one? I like to dubb guitars.

Depends on how you work, but if you get the latest Logic Pro, you can bounce tracks in place and keep stacking until the cows come home. Then go back to your original tracks at mix time to do your tweaking. Recording seems to eat the most processor, so if you don't need to hear every track as you record you can stack up a LOT of tracks before you start a mix. I've run up to twenty recorded tracks, four or five midi, plus a few side chains after the recording is done and been OK so long as I watch my plugins and make sure I'm not hammering the CPU with visuals (monitor plugins or plugins with complex visual representations of sounds).

At recording time I can record two tracks, run a few midi tracks, and playback four or five tracks without too much difficulty. Though sometimes a new midi track kicking on will cause an error in the audio subsystem the first time through, then it'll be fine the next time through and for the rest of the session.

Some of this will probably depend on what interface you're using and how much of the computer's CPU it needs at record/playback too. I'm using a Saffire PRO 24 on Firewire. Back when I was using a USB interface I was getting a LOT of errors on more complex tracking sessions. Other people may have more experience, but that's what I've seen with a fairly similar system.

Would I get more out of using an earlier version of logic with it?

Elessar [Sly] wrote:Would I get more out of using an earlier version of logic with it?

Sadly, probably less. Logic actually seems to get speedier as you get into later versions. I know I started with Express 8 and when I bumped to Pro 9 I saw a pretty big improvement in processor usage doing the same types of things.

Ahh well that sucks. I thought I could save £100! I do really need a recording set up.

So I'm thinking:

That macbook pro
Logic 9 Pro
Akai EIE Pro

After years of fighting with laptops I came to the conclusion it is better to get a cheap old desktop that lives at the rehearsal space for tracking, and a good desktop for mixing at home. A lot less fighting with overheating and crappy firewire drivers.

Mac laptops are almost identical to their desktops unless you get into the pro range towers though. iMac, Macbook, Macbook Pro, Mac Mini are essentially the same systems, same chips, same drivers, across the board. The only real differences is peripherals allowed, speeds, sometimes video chipset and amount of memory you're allowed to stick in them. This is of course if you are talking same model years. And it honestly looks like he's looking at the same model year my iMac is.

I wasn't talking about performance.

I was talking about the fart of a fan they use for cooling which will cause the laptop to overheat and lower its performance, and in the worst case, shut down on its own in the middle of tracking. 2c

nakedzen wrote:I wasn't talking about performance.

I was talking about the fart of a fan they use for cooling which will cause the laptop to overheat and lower its performance, and in the worst case, shut down on its own in the middle of tracking. 2c

The intel macbooks don't seem to have that problem. The G4 macbooks though, those suckers would melt in your lap.

I've had my intel macbook several years, done tracking on it, and 3D renders, and never run into an overheat issue.

Well I bought the macbook pro. I just need to get logic pro 9 and the interface now.

Elessar [Sly] wrote:Well I bought the macbook pro. I just need to get logic pro 9 and the interface now.

Enjoy the man. If you have questions, don't be afraid to hit me up. I've been using Logic for quite a while and have a few reference books laying about my desk so I can usually figure things out if there's something somebody needs.

I haven't used logic for many years. I also used to use cubase more often as well. - I also haven't used a mac for about 7 years?

Before I get logic 9 and install it. I need to know a few basics about where and how I should save songs/ audio. That would be a great help.

2 choices. Default (userdirectory/Music/Logic) or on a separate drive. I've taken to separate drive so that access to the programs/plugins/OS drive don't interrupt the flow of tracking, but even recording on the main drive isn't too terrible of a performance hit. No matter what, make sure you back up your recording files every day or two. I had one catastrophic loss due to my own neglect. I'm never letting that happen again.

Thanks for the help.

Being that I mostly used cubase, setting up an audio interface was a pain. How exactly would I go about setting up the audio interface with logic so it will pick up signal from mics? - Heads up you are going to get a bunch of n00bish questions on this. I really haven't used logic for so long and I'm totally out of the loop lol.

I'm also looking at midi controller's now.

If the interface you get installs correctly, you just go into your Logic preferences for Audio and choose the device. That's literally all it takes. Of course, you can set up an aggregate device if you have more than one interface you want to use, but that's in the utilities/audio settings on the OS itself. Then you'd choose the aggregate device. Your inputs and outputs will be numbered, and Logic will default to using input one, but it's listed right on the channels strips and can be changed with a click to any other input.

Oh cool. Thanks for that!

I'm sure I will have more questions when it is all set up.

nightflameauto wrote:2 choices. Default (userdirectory/Music/Logic) or on a separate drive. I've taken to separate drive so that access to the programs/plugins/OS drive don't interrupt the flow of tracking, but even recording on the main drive isn't too terrible of a performance hit. No matter what, make sure you back up your recording files every day or two. I had one catastrophic loss due to my own neglect. I'm never letting that happen again.

Do you use the same process when saving/making a file for the external drive? like: external drive/music/logic ?

Also, do you use the firewire port when saving/loading audio from an external hamster, or do you use the standard USB port and use the firewire for the audio interface?

Finally... What sort of external drive am I after in terms of speed? 1TB storage is what I want (NOT SSD), but are there specs I need?

Elessar [Sly] wrote:Do you use the same process when saving/making a file for the external drive? like: external drive/music/logic ?

Yep. Just point your initial working directory to the external drive instead of the internal. You can make the folder be whatever you want. I have a Logic folder on my external drive just to keep it tidy and then several working directories under that.

Also, do you use the firewire port when saving/loading audio from an external hamster, or do you use the standard USB port and use the firewire for the audio interface?

I actually use the firewire port for my interface and USB for my drive. Though my understanding is firewire drives give you a slight performance boost, I decided it wasn't worth the extra cost. I haven't really seen any problems going the route I'm going.

Finally... What sort of external drive am I after in terms of speed? 1TB storage is what I want (NOT SSD), but are there specs I need?

Speed wise I doubt you can buy a drive that would be too slow to process a huge number of tracks at a time. Your limiter will likely be the speed of your drive access, rather than the speed of the drive itself. I kind of made it a point to not get a 5400 RPM drive, but that's just years of ingrained training at work there. I like 7200 RPM drives and 10,000 RPM drives, though there don't seem to be a lot of them out there.