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stoid

macrumors 601
Original poster
A friend of mine has recently gotten into recording audio (plays guitar and sings) and he's stumbled on to the wonders of VST plug-ins. He knows that ProTools can process VST plug-ins live so that he can here them as he plays rather than waiting for a render, but he doesn't have the money to ProTools, and is wondering if there is some cheaper alternative.

Note: He's using a G4 Tower @ 400 Mhz with 1.2 GB of RAM
 

ratspg

macrumors 68020
Dec 19, 2002
2,376
8,084
Los Angeles, CA
vst options

steinberg created VST technology.

all their apps have it... the main ones being
Consumer: Cubase SX
Professional : Nuendo

Emagic(kinda apple) has Logic 6 which has it.


the all work great
and live so u can hear while u play yes... just have a good audio card with low latency

http://www.steinberg.net

http://www.emagic.de

lates.
 

JFreak

macrumors 68040
Jul 11, 2003
3,151
9
Tampere, Finland
Originally posted by stoid
whatever sound card that came with the computer, is that good enough??

no.

why would you think there is pro gear for sale, if pro quality could be made with cheap standard crap? builtin soundcards have crappy preamp and even crappier ad/da converters, so you can only have crappy inputs and crappy outputs with those.

it should be noted that i use protools myself, and have pretty high standards for "ok" equipment. i have no idea what's "ok" for you...
 

stoid

macrumors 601
Original poster
Like I said both of us are extremely new to using a computer for recording, and know basically nothing about it.

Where would be a good place to look for a better sound card, and how much do they cost?


What I meant to say I guess is whether or not the standard card will work and not if it is of sufficient quality.
 

JFreak

macrumors 68040
Jul 11, 2003
3,151
9
Tampere, Finland
depends on the software you're going to use. protools for example requires presence of digidesign hardware. most other software require audio interface that has coreaudio drivers available.

try digidesign mbox. its quality should be on par with any 2-input hardware out there, and you are able to use protools as well.

but it might be even more useful for you to skim through manuals of the software you're going to use - there is usually some kind of section regarding hardware compatibility. not all pro audio interfaces cost thousands, but don't expect to see any soundblasters in the list :)
 
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