Macbook for recording?

[Ibanez Strummer]

Hey everyone.

I'm looking to make the switch to the mac especially for recording purposes as i'm a avid guitar player and music fan...however i'm undecided between the imac 2 Ghz ! gb ram or the macbook with same processor and ram? The thing is, will this macbook be up to running multiple tracks on garageband and later logic express also with a midi controller and audio interface? I like the idea of the portability when i need it such as for college, but unsure about performance differences?

Does anyone here use normal macbooks for proper amateur recordings, both software and real instruments. All comments welcomed!

 

[chasemac]

The performance should be fine with either of the two machines. But I would recommend 2 GB of RAM. I still use the G5 but a friend has the iMac 20" with 2 GB and it is a very nice and fast machine. If it was me, I would go with the iMac 20" but if portability is a key factor then the Macbook would be fine as well. FYI, I've used the ibook with GB & the Traveler and it recorded just fine at 4 tracks. Remember, RAM.

chasemac

 

[quigleybc]

I just got a Macbook with 2 Gigs of RAM

and I'll be recording my band for sure...

Multi Track and all, and it will be great

go with the Macbook

 

[Ibanez Strummer]

Thanks for the replies so far......drifting more towards macbook at moment, but will definitely now consider upgrading ram to 2gb!

 

[zimv20]

if it helps....

a few years ago, i did a stress test on my g3 ibook: 800 MHz, 640 meg RAM. in the end, i was able to simultaneously record eight 96/24 tracks while playing back 16.

i reckon today's macbook can handle a bit more. note that one of the keys to the ibook doing so well, imo, was that i was recording to an external firewire drive, 7200 rpm, with an 8 meg cache.