Imac for audio ??

[rest44]

Hey everyone, I´m looking a daw to my studio and I´m seriasly thinking on going the mac way!

My concern is that I don´t have much experience on mac systems, only a little, so I´m wondering would the imac be an good option?? should I go 24" imac of the 20"?? or should I look into the mac pro?

My main goal is to record and mix live bands, tipical setup drums, guitars, voices, keys, and maybe a little midi work for production. I have a presonus firepod as audio interface (if that helps)

what do you guys think?? please help. thank

 

[zimv20]

modern machines are plenty fast enough to handle lots of audio tracks. where CPU and RAM issues come into play is with plug-ins and software instruments.

for throughput, just be sure to use an external firewire drive (7200 rpm, 8 meg cache) and you'll be able to handle a lot of tracks. how many tracks do you reckon you'll end up with?

 

[rest44]

modern machines are plenty fast enough to handle lots of audio tracks. where CPU and RAM issues come into play is with plug-ins and software instruments.

for throughput, just be sure to use an external firewire drive (7200 rpm, 8 meg cache) and you'll be able to handle a lot of tracks. how many tracks do you reckon you'll end up with?

thanks for the fast reply!

I do a lot of production work.adding tacks for some efects,like: doublind a track, putting compression on it and leaving the other one dry. that short of thing. So I need a little "room" to deal with this.. maybe I´ll need to handle 48 tracks in the mix running plugins.

 

[zimv20]

48 tracks with plugs. hmmm, that is a lot. i don't know how well the imac would handle that, maybe someone else can chime in. but i'd start thinking tower...

 

[topgun072003]

Actually I remember my audio teacher saying that his powerbook could run 24 or 48 tracks, so I think the imac should be able to handle it. I'd still go with the Mac Pro just because you can put soo much Ram in those things. They're soo expandable, and that helps in the long run. I believe that both machines will run what you need though.

 

[zimv20]

his powerbook could run 24 or 48 tracks

should we be reading that as 24 stereo or 48 mono?

regardless, these things must be taken into account:
1. sample rate
2. bit depth
3. number and type of plug-ins

the higher those are, the fewer tracks that can be run simultaneously.

 

[Danny Futuro]

I used to run Logic 7.1 and a plethora of tracks/instruments on a 20" iMac G5 (iSight) all day long. If I wasn't always at school, I'd have a newer iMac instead of my MBP. If your budget allows for it, grab the 24" as you'll really appreciate that extra screen real estate for doing your editing and such...plus it's got FW800 in case you need to get an audio interface or HD that requires FW800 performance.