I am going to speak to the macs in studio element later in the day, but I
have to ask you this.
Why do you personally feel that your present needs are not being met by
your setup?
If your needs are being met now, then why switch?
especially given the long list of items you do not want to give up for
fine reasons of course.
Presently, because of my needs, i am spending a lot of energy having a mac
custom built for me. Will it run voiceover? No, because voice over does
not work with pro tools and may not for years.
Will I get to keep my pci add ons yes, because pro tools requires some of
them.
would I tell anyone else to do this, not at all.
If your computer car gets you where you are going, keep driving. I see no
reason to run out and get a new edition of either platform mac or
windows, especially the latter if you use it, just because bill gates got
a new hair cut.
More often than not these things are still very bug ridden, and you spend
more time and more money trying to switch when your hardware is working
fine.
Just because someone says you will not be able to keep up, do not believe
them.
Like all of life, you are the only expert on your personal needs.
Hardware is still vogue until it no longer gets you where you want to go,
and often the older stuff is built better in any case.
Just my take,
Karen
On Tue, 27 Feb 2007, Veli-Pekka Tätilä wrote:
Hi Tim,
Yeah if I'm going to switch, and that's a big if at this point, I guess some
new hardware is in order. FOr one thing I'll have to get a flat screen to
replace my aging CRT anyway.
I'd like to learn more about the audio side of things, though. My
understanding is that Apple offers new and good APIs for both plug-in effects
and software synthesizers as well as a low latency driver standard. AS
MIcrosoft was quite late in Windows, the VST synth standard and ASIO drivers,
which are 3rd party tech by Steinberg, are quite common.
Are there any practical audio advantages in switching to a Mac though? How
good is soft synth latency with the default sound card? Howabout the noise
levels and frequency response if you record a Mic or Line signal? In brief,
is the built-in audio any good in semi Pro stuff.
One thing I've been surprised to discover is that Macs cannot record audio
playback digitally without 3rd party software. Where as most WIndows
soundcard drivers let you do that, provided that you know how.
I had another funny thing with an old G3 power book, too. When trying to
speak into the built-in Mic, it would auto-lower the volume when-ever the
input signal clipped digitally. Quite nice for newbies but I had to manually
fight with the volume slider back in iChat. I would have preferred to go with
the occasional clipping and decent audio levels in stead but saw no way of
turning off the automation. I hope any new Mac's don't have stuff like this
or at least make it optional.
PS: Pro TOols is definitely cool but way too expensive, and currently
inaccessible, if I've understood correctly.
--
With kind regards Veli-Pekka Tätilä ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
Accessibility, game music, synthesizers and programming:
http://www.student.oulu.fi/~vtatila/
Tim Kilburn wrote:
Hi,
I understand that it seems wasteful and painful to discard older yet
perfectly fine technology. I, as well, am not an audio-engineer but
agree with Greg whole-heartedly, using Pro Tools with a MacPro and
even a MacBook Pro is quite common. The built-in sound management on
a Mac is quite amazing. Placing old technology inside new
architecture often causes its own list of problems. I suggest that
you keep the old card in your older machine and work with the more
compatible technology with the new Intel machines. Just my opinion
of course.
