Macs for Audio?

[Cameron K]

Anyone else here use a mac for audio? In my project studio, I've got a dual 1ghz G4 powermac running OS X 10.2 with Mark Of The Unicorn's (MOTU) Digital Performer 4 as my main program for recording. Hooked up to the Mac I've got a MOTU Midi Time Peice AV that controls my Roland RD-700, Roland D-70, Alesis DM5 Drum Machine, and an old Casio keyboard that I use for its drum loops. For audio, I use a MOTU 2408mk2. For mics, I have 3 or so Shure Beta 57's, and 3 Beta 58a's, which run through three BlueTube pre-amps that I have sitting in a rack tray. For audio playback, I've got an analog Yamaha board that powers two Yamaha cabinets with JBL horns on top. The board is only 300 watts per channel max, but it's still enough to make sure that ringing in my ears doesn't go away any time soon :-P .

As for equipment I'm looking into getting:
The Macke Control Universal (http://www.mackie.com/products/mackiecontrol/index.html) will definently be my next big purchase.

So what kind of setup do you guys use?

[Jason Dunn]

I don't use a Mac, nor do I record much audio, but I wanted to say that the Mackie looks sweet. :-)

It's amazing to see how digital audio recording on a computer has evolved - I remember in the early 90's recording an album in a home studio and the guy had a, I believe, 5 GB SCSI hard drive - and we kept running out of room, so we'd need to bounce the tracks down to tape and put them back on later when we had more space.

Nice to see that things have evolved. :-)

What kind of recording work do you do?

[Macguy59]

Outside of managing my MP3 collection via iTunes, I have recently purchased iLife '04. I am getting to know Garageband and enjoy playing around with it.

[Cameron K]

Sorry I didn't answer sooner, I forgot that I created this thread.

Jason: Right now I'm just tooling around, letting friends come over and record while I learn the ropes. I'm hoping to eventually buy some better equipment and maybe develop this into something more than an expensive hobby.

Byteme: Have you noticed Garageband freezing when changing loops? I usually only use it to play around with the Grand Piano (niice sound), but the few times that I've messed with loops, it's always froze on me.

[that_kid]

The Mackie Control is great, I have the main unit and 1 extender with 1 more extender on the way which will give me 24 faders at my fingertips(right now I have 16). I used to use a Tascam us-429 but the lack of motorized faders made it almost as bad as using a mouse. I'm not using a mac at this time(maybe in the future) but I'm running logic audio on a PIII 1 gig and I can do 24 to 2channel mixdowns with no problem. I also have 2 midiman delta 1010's (http://m-audio.com/index.php?do=products.main&ID=25a8eb75ad625b157c03ca63d4eb5c72) and a RME Hammerfall 9652 (http://www.rme-audio.com/english/hammer/d9652.htm) which will be upgraded to either 2 HDSP 9652's or 3 multifaces and 1 HDSP 9652(right now I have 16 analog and 30 digital channels of audio). I have a few SM58,SM57's and a Beta 52 but I'm in the process of adding more to my mic collection. For remote recordings I'use an Alesis HD24 (http://alesis.com/products/hd24/index.html) but I have to get some better mic pre-amps. I'm looking at the Presonus Digimax LT's (http://presonus.com/html/products/digimax_lt.html) so maybe I can retire my mackie mixer which I only use for pre's. For midi work I have a yamaha mu-50, boss dr-660 drum machine and E-mu Planet Phatt. I'm a big fan of outboard analog gear so I have a few things floating around like my all time favorite DBX 120 subharmonic synthesizer (http://www.dbxpro.com/120A.htm), some compressors and a few home made pre-amps. I think once the next batch of G5's or whatever they'll call them come out then I'll make my move. As of right now I'm good to go.