Guest WSTE_M Posted March 12, 2003 Share Posted March 12, 2003 Hi! A friend of mine wants to start making music, sell his car and buy a mac. I know a great deal on macs, but not a great deal on music making He wants a PowerBook, even though I have tried to tell him that he can get more for the buck with a PowerMac, anyway... What is the best audio interface for him: He should be able to connect the mac with a mixer, maybe later a synthisizer. I though about recomending the M-Audio Audiophile USB unit, though I have heard that USB is too slow, and that FireWire is better, Is it ? http://www.m-audio.com/products/m-audio/au...diophileusb.php What would you recomend ? W Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest DeeperNETWERK Posted March 12, 2003 Share Posted March 12, 2003 Hmm... Well, If you've noticed, all sound card manufactures have pretty much ditched USB audio interfaces except M-Audio. I was actually having this conversation with my MIDI teacher this morning... And we both agreed that USB is too slow for audio. If I were to buy a Mac, then It'd be a PowerMac, as well. If I were a millionaire, I'd buy both (Powerbook/Powermac), but I'm not. But, If he's really stuck on getting a Powerbook. I recommend this... http://www.rme-audio.com/english/hdsp/cardpci.htm He'll have to buy a compatible breakout box as well, but RME cards are great... Well worth the extra cash. ...And firewire is much better than USB, yes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hels Posted March 12, 2003 Share Posted March 12, 2003 Usb is crap compared to Firewire... If you're gonna go mac there's no reason not to do firewire Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest .:::EP Posted March 12, 2003 Share Posted March 12, 2003 A G4 powerbook have firewire as well.... and is just as powerfull as most G4 PowerMacs. If he's going to play live I would deffinently recommend a PowerBook... Who want to use a PowerMac for Live? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest WSTE_M Posted March 12, 2003 Share Posted March 12, 2003 Hi! I have been looking on the alternavtives, and USB is out, that leaves two options, PCMCIA (PC-Card) or FireWire. PCMCIA cards require a big box anyway, so the portability goes out anyway, and they are too expensive, while not nessesery having better connections or beeing faster (limited by PCMCIA bus) also if he should choose to upgrade to a Powermac and PowerBook, then well PCMCIA wont work that well anymore... FireWire it is. Which unit to recoment, I dont know, ill have to talk to him about connections. Thanks guys, I was all wrong W Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest DeeperNETWERK Posted March 12, 2003 Share Posted March 12, 2003 "A G4 powerbook have firewire as well.... and is just as powerfull as most G4 PowerMacs. If he's going to play live I would deffinently recommend a PowerBook... Who want to use a PowerMac for Live?" Well, We may be different here, EP, but... When I'm using a computer for audio, I'm gonna want two (or more) harddrives. Yes, you can buy a firewire harddrive (I have one on top of my 2 internal drives), but that's just another box to lug around. I didn't get the impression that WSTE_M's friend will be performing live quite yet, as this is his first audio rig. And i'd bring a PowerMac to a live performance! More power... More power... More Power... There is a post a few down about firewire audio interfaces... Check it out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Andreas of Amygdala Posted March 13, 2003 Share Posted March 13, 2003 Yep - also my suggestion, to check out the earlier post... I've come to the conclusion, that MOTU is the way to go Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest WSTE_M Posted March 14, 2003 Share Posted March 14, 2003 sorry im lost here, MOTU ? and harddrives... hmm how intesivly do you use harddrives during music making ? Is it so that a internal PowerBook drive is insuficient ? (either 66/ATA 4200RPM or 100/ATA 4200RPM) and will a Firewire drive be good enouth for main sound use ? (OS on main drive and sounds library on FireWire) W Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hels Posted March 14, 2003 Share Posted March 14, 2003 motu = mark of the unicorn www.markoftheunicorn.com funny name Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Andreas of Amygdala Posted March 23, 2003 Share Posted March 23, 2003 Yeah I was baffled about it as well... But I thought I was the last person to look (and sound) stupid in the music gear store... "huh - whazzat? MOTU?!?" - anyway, a friend of mine is an audio-geek as hard as they come, and he swears by his MOTU .oO Andreas Oo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest WSTE_M Posted March 28, 2003 Share Posted March 28, 2003 Some people have said that they have problems witht the MOTU software on Mac OS X, kernel panics and the like, and recomended me to look at M-Audio instead... Are any of you familiar with the problems wiht MOTU ? W Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Andreas of Amygdala Posted March 30, 2003 Share Posted March 30, 2003 I'm not... But I think the problems are due to the OS - OS X is still new and wobbly... Hopefully the newer "Jaguar" is better, but I haven't tried yet, since I'm comfortable with OS 9 .oO Andreas Oo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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