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Creating a recording studio...

noodle654

noodle654

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jun 2, 2005
2,070
22
Never Ender
Hi there,

I am creating a recording studio in my house and I am looking for a good desktop. But, I dont know what to buy. I am just doing a little recording and some converting. I am on a tight budget and I dont think I need at MP at all. I have been looking at Powermac g4's on ebay but I really dont know what to buy. I have been looking at like single CPU 500mhz. Would this been enough? Any recomendations? I am looking to spend less than like $150.
 
I think if you're recording, like with music. You'll need a computer fast enough. I use my macbook Core 2 duo but it gets stuck, you can't make a project with 8+ tracks without getting stuck. All when all my other apps are off..
 
lofight said:
I think if you're recording, like with music. You'll need a computer fast enough. I use my macbook Core 2 duo but it gets stuck, you can't make a project with 8+ tracks without getting stuck. All when all my other apps are off..
Click to expand...

you should be able to do a lot more then that w/ C2D.....

are you trying to do it all with one harddrive? that's typically where the first bottle neck is. regardless of proc/drive speed, one drive can only really do one thing at a time. if you get an external for writing your audio files to you'll get much better performance.

and another for sample streaming if you use lots of midi stuff....

and to the OP: i agree with the above statement, a MBP will work great and run circles around any ppc mac (except maybe a quad g5 or something), just get a good firewire external drive for audio files (and as much ram as possible) and you should be golden.....

edit: heck, even your mini would kill a g4.
 
If you're going to use a G4, just make sure your system drive is 7200 rpm and you're recording onto another 7200 rpm disk other than your system drive...be it Firewire or a second internal. Also get the RAM up to at least 1GB.

I did quite a bit of recording with my G4/500 before I upgraded the processor. As long as your sessions are kind of low key you should be fine.

I even used a G3 iBook/466 for a while for mobile recording, the limitation was more the speed of the hard drive than anything else, and also the fact I was recording onto the system drive.
 
How did recording software get so bloated?

I remember doing 8 track stuff using Digidesign's Session on a 100Mhz PowerMac with 32MB RAM!
 
chakosticks said:
If you're going to use a G4, just make sure your system drive is 7200 rpm and you're recording onto another 7200 rpm disk other than your system drive...be it Firewire or a second internal. Also get the RAM up to at least 1GB.

I did quite a bit of recording with my G4/500 before I upgraded the processor. As long as your sessions are kind of low key you should be fine.

I even used a G3 iBook/466 for a while for mobile recording, the limitation was more the speed of the hard drive than anything else, and also the fact I was recording onto the system drive.
Click to expand...

I am not really recording anything for like a CD, just something for jam sessions. I understand that a C2D will dominate the G4, but I just need something small and cheap. I have some 7200rpm drives around the house so I am set there. Also, if I were to buy a 500mhz, could I upgrade the CPU?
 
Yes, I upgraded the CPU on mine to a Sonnet 1.4GHz a few years ago and it was quite easy. CPU upgrades are probably better and cheaper nowadays, but always keep in mind the cost of the original system + the upgrades vs. the cost of a better system in the first place. If you're just recording jam sessions I'd start with the 500MHz and see if you even need to bother with an upgrade, ESPECIALLY if you won't be using a lot of tracks. The CPU only became an issue for me when I started adding lots of plug-ins on 10+ track sessions after the initial tracks are recorded.
 
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