15" Powerbook For Making Music?

[iClaudius]

Hi all

I have a real dilemma. I ordered a dual G5 which, I have been promised, will ship on Tuesday Only thing is, I also ordered a 15" Powerbook two days ago (I was getting tired of waiting for the desktop) and it has already shipped.

I had a Quicksilver which I sold because it made to much noise. It was driving me nuts. So for 4 months I've been stuck with a 23" monitor with nothing to plug it into and a 12" PB which is no good with Logic 6 once I ramp up a few software instruments.

I'm just a bit worried that the 15" PB won't make the grade. I ordered the standard 1.25Ghz configuration. I was planning on adding a 7200rpm FW drive for good measure. Not sure whether FW800 is entirely necessary? Am I still gonna have problems? Or was I just a dumbass getting a 12" in the first place?

What do I do? Send the 15" back as soon as it arrives and wait for the dual and keep the 12"? Or sell the 12", cancel the dual and load the 15" with ram. Any PB producers out there? Anyone got any ideas? Help me out. The clock is ticking!

 

[jzieske]

I am not sure how well the 15" PB will do audio stuff as I do not do audio things. However, i can almost gaurentee you that the Dual G5 will do it better. It overall is a more powerful machine and will perform better. On the other hand the 15" may do what you need just fine.

 

[iClaudius]

Thanks for the advice! I know I'm gonna sacrifice a lot of power going for the PB but, as long as it can handle Logic 6 and a fair amount of software instruments (I got all the Emagic instruments), I'll be OK. If it's gonna moan like this 12", I'll sacrifice portabilty and go for the G5. Why do I get the feeling I need both? Dream on.

Oh yeah, who uses Firewire 800? Would it be good for audio and games on a Powerbook or would a 7200rpm FW400 drive do the job just fine?

 

[howard]

with a 867 mhz powerbook we've managed to record a full ep with no troubles...using dp4...

the new powerbooks should run beautifully...but it really depends on how much your gonna do with them...are we talking 15-30 tracks? or 30-100 tracks??

when it comes to recording audio especially its all about the ram...thats really what you need...512 isn't going to do to much for you ...at least a gig and if you get 2gig on these powerbooks then your set i would think.

oh also..does portability matter for recording? its nice to be able to take a powerbook anywhere to do recording in different settings/areas...wouldn't get that off the g5...

 

[iClaudius]

Hmmm... the performance on my 12" PB sucks. Maybe there's something wrong. I should do a reinstall of the system. Could be Fruitmenu or an Unsanity haxie causing the problems. Could be that dodgy 4200rpm drive, though.

Neway that 15" screen will be welcome. Plus, I can plug it into my 23"

On average, use about 30 tracks. Sounds like the 15" should rise to the challenge. And it's the only portable option unless Brenthaven come up with a G5 rucksack, that is. Cool, I'm sold! Thanx

What do you think? FW400 or 800? Does it make a difference?

Hey, what style of music is that EP?

 

[Pismo]

The PowerBook will do everything you want it to do without any problems. My brother in law has a 1GHz TiBook with a gig of RAM and he uses Logic 6 and Pro Tools. He runs everything from the laptop's hard drive (but he does have a FW drive that he uses sometimes) and it can keep up with what he's doing.

Soooo...the PowerBook should be more than enough to work with video and audio. Hope that helps.