VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[CarynClark]

First off, I must say, this forum is fabby and chock full of such great info!! I spent some time yesterday doing searches and reading all about people's Mac experiences. Good stuff, and it's really helped me to know more than I knew before.

Right now, I have a PC ("P"iece of "C"rap) with ProTools, MBox2, Mackie board, Zephyr, Symetrix 528e, and my mic (into the Symetrix). Oh, and my external hard drive and printer.

So, I think I'd just need a couple of USB ports for the MBox2, external hard drive, and printer, and an connection for my cable internet (or wireless... right now I have it hardwired, but I could go wireless).

Now, if I were to get a Mac, would you all still not necessarily recommend the MacBook Pro notebook (b/c of the fan noise)? Any other reasons not to get the notebook?

Ideally, I would like the notebook for portability, but fan noise makes that a dealbreaker, I think. I have my computer, mic, etc. all in my studio. I replaced the fan in my current computer so it's quieter so fan noise isn't an issue, really, and when I'm on an ISDN session, I just turn my computer off.

What about the iMac, and the MacMini? I didn't find any discussions really about the iMac on here. If I purchased one of those two models, would I have to look for any specific requirements?

Thanks!
_________________
Caryn Clark... The Hip Chick Voice!

"A positive mental attitude and having faith in your ability is quite different from being irresponsible and downright stupid." - Dave

[Don G.]

Well, a year and a half after purchasing my iMac, I'm still loving it. Still incredibly quiet. In fact, it sits about 2 feet away from my mic and when I think I'm hearing something, it turns out to be the G4 tower sitting on the floor on the other side of the room that I forgot to turn off. Here's the thread from when I first asked here before purchasing it.

[Edo]

Two people I know, run PT on brand new iMacs here. Get all the extra memory you can stuff in there. Very silent machines!

[BenWils]

I would say get an iMac....20 inch or 24 ...setup a mixing environment outside of your booth and then just get a monitor to mirror your screen and put it inside your booth....you could also get the wireless bluetooth keyboard and mouse and if your mixing area was not too far from your recording booth you could just take the keyboard and mouse in with you. Just make sure the iMac has two monitor connections. I believe it does. I think David Monteath has this set-up. And I know Tony Craine has the wireless keyboard and mouse and it works through his Whisper Room from what I remember him saying.

Other than that...the Mac Mini seems to be a great, quiet computer if you can't rearrange your set-up like that.

Just make sure you get the added RAM if it is offered in a deal with the computer. Or you can add later...the idea, RAM up your machine. You won't be sorry you did.

The thing you need to ask yourself is how warm your booth gets when you record...it may kick a fan on if it gets hot, which may differ from other people's set-ups.
_________________
Ben


"To be really good at voiceover, you need to improve your footwork and hip snap."

[CarynClark]

Wow, this is all good!!! Thanks Don, Edo, and Ben!!!

Don, thanks for the link back to your thread. I obviously didn't search back that far, so I'm glad you linked to it b/c I learned a lot by reading all of this, and then looking at the Mac web site.

Dual Core - important

as much memory I can get - important.

The iMac looks like a great machine. Anyone have a MacMini and care to weigh in? It's not a powerful... I don't know that it would be the best for my situation. And, after tallying it up, the iMac seems to be a better buy.

And, Ben, thanks for the tips about the wireless. My office desk is about, oh, 15 feet from my studio. Wireless keyboard and mouse would be doable, but the extra monitor (oh, I mean "display") would require a cord from my desk to my studio, right? Do they make a cord that long?


_________________
Caryn Clark... The Hip Chick Voice!

"A positive mental attitude and having faith in your ability is quite different from being irresponsible and downright stupid." - Dave

[anthonyVO]

in true Digi form, they are no longer supporting the Mac mini so if you go that route, you're on your own... just FYI.

FWIW, i'm running PT 5 on a Mac G4 733MHz w/ 1.5 gigs of RAM in... drum roll... OS 9! So there.

PEACE.
-Anthony

[CarynClark]

Excellent Anthony... that's the stuff I need to know!

I followed you all the way up to OS 9 (Operating System?)... but I'm gathering that's on older version?

No fan noise?
_________________
Caryn Clark... The Hip Chick Voice!

"A positive mental attitude and having faith in your ability is quite different from being irresponsible and downright stupid." - Dave

[anthonyVO]

oh no... that's like a dinosaur... my point was that whatever NEW mac you get, you should be ok... just check the compatibility docs on Digidesign to make sure you don't get something that will leave you out in the cold should you ever need support from them... that's all.

http://www.digidesign.com/compato

-Anthony

[CarynClark]

I get it. Cool. I see that OS X Leopard is the latest.
_________________
Caryn Clark... The Hip Chick Voice!

"A positive mental attitude and having faith in your ability is quite different from being irresponsible and downright stupid." - Dave

[louzucaro]

Caryn, I hate to bring this up because you just re-did your logo, etc., but keep in mind that if you switch to using a Mac that you'll be required by law to refer to yourself as iCaryn iClark from this point forward. And I think the proper syntax for the tagline would be "The HipChick iVoice"

I'm just sayin'
_________________
Lou Zucaro
http://www.voicehero.com

"Well, yeah, there's my favorite leaf!"

[CarynClark]

Lou, you are TOO funny!!!!

The only reason I'm thinkin' about this is b/c my husband might be taking on a partner in his company and he needs a PC. I could "sell" mine to him... and if I did, I think I'd get a Mac.

I'm usually a PC person though... and I'm not big on change. But I've used someone else's Mac from time to time, and I think I could get the hang of it.
_________________
Caryn Clark... The Hip Chick Voice!

"A positive mental attitude and having faith in your ability is quite different from being irresponsible and downright stupid." - Dave

[louzucaro]

I hear ya...change is never fun, Unless it's change from a million dollar bill and all you bought was a candy bar.
_________________
Lou Zucaro
http://www.voicehero.com

"Well, yeah, there's my favorite leaf!"

[steveanthony]

I'm running a MacMini 2ghtz (upgraded memory to 2 gig) with ProTools and not having any problem. The recent issues between Digi and Apple seem to be with the plug-ins. I just upgraded to the new Operating System (10.5.3) and the latest non-beta version of ProTools (7.4). So far, so good.

I'm also running VMWare Fusion. This is a program that allows you to run Mac applications and Windows at the same time. Windows runs inside it's own window on the Mac like any other application. I prefer editing in Sound Forge. What I do is record in ProTools, save it to a shared file, grab it and edit in Sound Forge on the Windows side, then save it back to the shared folder.

I went this route because I was looking for as quiet a computer as possible. I have a MacBook Pro sitting next to the Mini. Sound from the MacBook is detectable. The Mini is silent.

Happy hunting.

Steve

[BenWils]

You will get the hang of it. It is just like Windows in many respects....things are just in different places. Trust me, when I go back to PC....I am lost sometimes.

Yes, there are cords out there that will connect your monitor in your booth. Others here may be more versed as to what you need to get, since I have not done this set-up in my studio....yet. You will need DVI monitor connections for newer Macs instead of VGA. There are adaptors I believe. The Apple Store is good at getting you what you need to get running.

As for RAM, I have a quad-core Intel Mac and was running Pro-Tools with 1 gig. I upgraded to 5 gig and it was a totally different experience. Not that it was bad before....but now I can have many other applications open too now. It doesn't even blink. PT can be a resource hog. But I have a Digi002.

Thanks for the details about the Mac Mini, Anthony....that is good info.
_________________
Ben


"To be really good at voiceover, you need to improve your footwork and hip snap."

[georgethetech]

The ability to run Windows applications under the Mac OS with Parallels or VMWare make going Mac a no-brainer. Just secure a copy of Windows XP Home (still available). You will get the best of both worlds. Eventually you may find yourself completely weened off Windows. I still use Windows for Quicken and Wavelab, and to aid in giving support to occasional Windows users.
The Mini is a remarkable little machine, and nearly silent. I have both a Mini and a iMac 24, the quietest computers I have ever used. My Powerbook G4 has the fan running most of the time, and I've seen the fans kick in a good deal on Macbooks.
I see now that Digidesign just came out with a "Pre-release" of Pro Tools with support for 10.5.3. I guess that is a non-committal way of sorta supporting Leopard, kinda, in some cases. YMMV, I still wouldn't fully rely on Pro Tools in the Leopard environment just yet.
_________________
If it sounds good, it is good.
George Whittam
GeorgeThe.Tech
424-226-8528
VOBS.TV Co-host
TheProAudioSuite.com Co-host
TriBooth.com Co-founder