Is My RevC 12" PB Capable Enough for Recording?

[C-Mezak]

Hey all,

I switched recently. I always had a huge PC Rig that I used for recording with Cubase. I switched and went to a laptop, though, because Im about to leave for University overseas and needed something portable. I haven't been, making much music for a while, but Ive just caught the bug again. I was wondering if anybody had some general advice/recommendations for my considering my machine.

I have the stock revC 12" Powerbook. I want to be able to

- process/rcord guitar
- use midi to control softsynths and samplers
- program some decent organic-sounding drum tracks

Well I be able to do all of this in software? I imagine that guitar processing expecially would be taxing on my machine. Would I be better off going with an external preamp? I doubt Ill find one as nice as the Guitar Rig software, though. Also, does Logic or any other audio editor allow you to pre-process effects on one or more tracks rather than having it always do it live?

Some other questions:

Whats a simple guitar preamp solution? Just to get the signal in so I can use something like Guitar Rig

Should I buy a fast external hard drive for this?


Sorry my thoughts arent very collected. Pleae throw whatever information you have at me!
Thanks

Charlie

 

[CmdrLaForge]

Hey all,

I switched recently. I always had a huge PC Rig that I used for recording with Cubase. I switched and went to a laptop, though, because Im about to leave for University overseas and needed something portable. I haven't been, making much music for a while, but Ive just caught the bug again. I was wondering if anybody had some general advice/recommendations for my considering my machine.

I have the stock revC 12" Powerbook. I want to be able to

- process/rcord guitar
- use midi to control softsynths and samplers
- program some decent organic-sounding drum tracks

Well I be able to do all of this in software? I imagine that guitar processing expecially would be taxing on my machine. Would I be better off going with an external preamp? I doubt Ill find one as nice as the Guitar Rig software, though. Also, does Logic or any other audio editor allow you to pre-process effects on one or more tracks rather than having it always do it live?

Some other questions:

Whats a simple guitar preamp solution? Just to get the signal in so I can use something like Guitar Rig

Should I buy a fast external hard drive for this?


Sorry my thoughts arent very collected. Pleae throw whatever information you have at me!
Thanks

Charlie

Hi,

my guess is that your PB should be really fast enough. To get the signal in you can buy M-Audio MobilePre USB Audio Interface
for $149.00
http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APP...MHEgZVlz76/0.0.9.1.0.6.13.0.4.1.3.0.7.7.1.1.0
from the Apple Store.

I heard very good things from the Mbox with Pro Tools LE 6.1 for Mac OS X $449.00


Cheers
LaForge

 

[PHARAOHk]

You can certainly do anything through software. You will definitely need an audio interface for direct injection guitar recording. Most if not all sequencers let you use plugins live or you could record that effected track as just an audio track to save processing power.

I would recommend no less then a 7200 RPM hard drive for serious audio recording. The 4200 internal hard drive of the powerbook does work fine in a pinch though.

Software I love and use constantly: Propellerheads Reason 2.5/ Ableton Live 4.0/ I would look at Traktion which is VERY affordable and has lots of awesome features.

I think Reason and Traktion with a USB MIDI controller and an external HD would be an awesome little full featured setup. You may even be able to get away with a 1/4 mono to 1/8 inch mono adapter into the built in powerbook mic input. Anyone ever do that? With guitar software after processing it can be hard to tell what and where the track was recorded anyway.

I have an Mbox but I can't recommend protools and or Digidesigns policies. The Mbox does sound good though but there are tons of alternatives. Maybe check out some gear mags to see what's out now and so on.

 

[C-Mezak]

You can certainly do anything through software. You will definitely need an audio interface for direct injection guitar recording. Most if not all sequencers let you use plugins live or you could record that effected track as just an audio track to save processing power.

I would recommend no less then a 7200 RPM hard drive for serious audio recording. The 4200 internal hard drive of the powerbook does work fine in a pinch though.

Software I love and use constantly: Propellerheads Reason 2.5/ Ableton Live 4.0/ I would look at Traktion which is VERY affordable and has lots of awesome features.

I think Reason and Traktion with a USB MIDI controller and an external HD would be an awesome little full featured setup. You may even be able to get away with a 1/4 mono to 1/8 inch mono adapter into the built in powerbook mic input. Anyone ever do that? With guitar software after processing it can be hard to tell what and where the track was recorded anyway.

I have an Mbox but I can't recommend protools and or Digidesigns policies. The Mbox does sound good though but there are tons of alternatives. Maybe check out some gear mags to see what's out now and so on.

Hey!

Your advice has been most helpful. Ive been playing with the tracktion demo and it does mak a lot of sense. At first it seemed rather toyish, but it's actually really intuitive (like a mac!). And you're probbably spot on about Reason, too. I used to do lots of rhythm stuf in fruity loops back on my pc. Reaosn ought to be a perfect step forward.

I already have a couple of aweosme softsynths, but does anybody have any recommendations for samplers? Piano and Strings? Once I have that I shoudl be set for a while!

Thanks again!

Charlie

 

[PHARAOHk]

Reason has two built in samplers the NNXT and the NN19. It comes with the orkester sound bank with pianos and strings etc, you may want to see if that's adequate or not or what libraries it can play. It could save you some money if so. I use the redrum for all of my drum needs.

http://www.propellerheads.se/

They have some pretty good product demo videos on the front page too!

*I don't work with the Propellerheads at all, just a big fan.*