VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[melissa eX]

I'm getting a laptop and I'd almost settled on the midline Macbook (not pro) because I figured I could partition the HD and still be able to use Sound Forge 8.0 on the WinXP side. At the store however, they're telling me it may be better for me to get a PC laptop. I'd been considering the MBox2 w PT LE. What they're not sure of is if SF will play well on a partitioned MAC with the Mbox. They've also suggested a couple of other options for me to think about.

Here are my choices:
Macbook w/Mbox2 (partitioned - will SF work with it?)
Macbook w/ M-Audio Firewire solo - (and get M-Powered software) (also partitioned - they say SF will work with it)
Macbook w/ Focusrite Saffire LE

PC - they made no specific suggestions for the PC - they said the MBox2 and PT le work well on XP.

I hear wonders from most of you about the MBox&PT but I'm not sure about locking myself into unfriendly hardware. Especially since I need to be able to use SF not only for a particular function but also to get me through the PT learning curve. I have to be able to hit the ground running on this laptop since my regular computer may take a couple of weeks to fix and I have nothing else.

I also hear that I should look for a 7200 rpm HD. Not an option on Macbook - only on Macbook Pro.

Suggestions? Advice?

Thanks all. You're all wonderful!

Melissa

[Jeffrey Kafer]

Don't expect your Mbox to work with Sound Forge. This is one of the complaints about Pro Tools and the Digidesign hardware, they tend to only play nice with each other.
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Jeff
http://JeffreyKafer.com
Voice-overload Web comic: http://voice-overload.com

[ricevoice]

I use SF 8.0 with a Focusrite Saffire on a PC and am quite happy with it. I'm also firmly of the opinion that if all you're doing is v-o, ProTools is complete overkill and unnecessary. I've used it for radio imaging and found it to be overkill even for that, let alone single-track work.
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Chris Rice - Noisemaker
www.ricevoice.com

[Yoda117]

http://www.sweetwater.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10145

Apparently people have gotten it to work with SF. Looks like it was on a PC though (or at least, that's what I'm getting out of it).

/near the bottom of the page
//Jeff's right, digidesign is very proprietary in their architecture
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Voiceovers by Gregory Houser
Philadelphia based Voice Actor

Blog - A man, a martini, and a lot of microphones

[Frank F]

MBox does work with SF on a WinMac, however this caveat applies: make sure you do not have PT active when trying to use Sound Forge on a PC boot. Plug your MBox in AFTER you have activated the PC side and disabled PT.

As PT operates it's own form of proprietary gobble-d-gook it will take over any and all sound distribution on the system.

Sound Forge is a PC based system only and is not yet able to run on a Mac boot.

Good luck on your choices.

Toodles

F2
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Be thankful for the bad things in life. They opened your eyes to the good things you weren't paying attention to before. email: thevoice@usa.com

[Don G.]

Melissa,

First question is what type of "store" recommended you away from the Mac? I ask only because I regularly hear stories about places like Best Buy, or other retailers who sell both Macs and Windows PCs often steering people away from Macs. If it was an Apple Store where you were dissuaded from Mac, then I'd certainly heed the advice.

As for Sound Forge not working on a Mac running Windows, if you're booting into Windows on a Mac via Bootcamp, you are using a Windows computer. Then the only incompatibilities may be with the hardware you may have connected to it.

I may be wrong, but that's how I understand it.

[Jeffrey Kafer]

[bobsouer]

Melissa,

I can't promise how it will be with a dual boot Mac rig, but I use Sound Forge 8.0 with an MBox2 every time I travel (that would be quite often) with an IBM T43 laptop. I run Pro Tools LE 7.3 on that same machine. I just don't run them at the same time.
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Be well,
Bob Souer (just think of lemons)
The second nicest guy in voiceover.
+1-724-613-2749
Source Connect, phone patch, pony express

[louzucaro]

Also, I've heard a few horror stories about BootCamp (from Mac people who run Windows "because they have to"), namely that BootCamp (the dual boot manager on the Mac) can, seemingly randomly, decide that you don't REALLY need that Windows partition, do you?

Poof.

Happened twice to one guy I know and once to another.

Ouch.
_________________
Lou Zucaro
http://www.voicehero.com

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

[TheVoiceOfBob]

Lou,
This is why I have a clone of my Windows partition on my Mac side. Easy and free software available from Bombich.com. I BootCamp, use BootPicker, Carbon Copy Cloner, etc... That way if something happens to the Windows side (where I do my recording) it's an easy step to restore.
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Try to imagine a world where there is no such thing as hypothetical situations.

The Voice of Bob

[melissa eX]

Thanks all for your replies.

This family is the BEST!

The place that suggested I go with a PC instead is actually a Pro Audio place in NYC - funny thing - they're an Apple reseller but NOT a PC reseller. Yet they suggested I may be better off going elsewhere to get a PC (they said it would be less expensive for me to do so) and then I could bring it to them and they would set it all up with the MBox2 or whatever else I decided on. They said the MBox will work fine with SF on a PC - but they couldn't find any info on whether it would work with a dual boot mac and they were wary about it. They suggested I save the money and the headache and get a PC.

3 other friends I've asked (aside from everyone here!) have also said I should just go with a pc, including one (who as of last night is an emmy award winning audio guy - YAY!) who swears by macs and wants no part of a pc world.

So I'll check out PCs - but still deciding whether to go with the Mbox or m-audio.

On a friends computer - gotta go - I'll check in later. Thank again! You all are "fabby" as PB would say!

[Jon Morss]

Melissa,

I half agree with the folks that suggested you go with a PC in that it would be cheaper and will allow you to run your PC as like Sound Forge. But that doesn't eliminate the issues that exist with Windows especially with VISTA which you will be forced to go with in the future. Anyone try to load Mac OS X on a PC?

Another option for you is Parallels Desktop for MAC. This will allow you to run Windows side by side with the Mac OS and does not require a reboot. From what I have read, Sound Forge works fine with Parallels so you should be fine there. Here you could run PT in a OS X window and SF in a WIN XP window. There may be an issue accessing the MBox from Windows, but I am not completely sure about this.

And, if you are feeling adventurous, you could try VMWare Fusion which runs like Parallels.

Good luck.

[Yoda117]

[SomeAudioGuy]

Putting OSX on PC hardware is called Hackintosh or OSx86.

Apparently with OSX 10.5, the compatibility built in for Intel hardware has made this process very easy, if you're careful about which components you use to build your PC. As long as you pick the right chipset and videocard, you wont even need to make substantial modifications to the OS. It's almost as easy as updating a real mac.
Where you run into problems is with os updates, and platform driver support. Moving from 10.5.1 to 10.5.2 was a headache for a lot of people. Also one of the many strengths of the PC platform is it's ability to play with a wide array of hardware, whereas you have to be very selective with OSX, as very few pieces of platform hardware will be compatible (no AMD for example, only Intel), and you know that drivers for things like videocards will be at least one generation out of date (you can still find mac pros with raedon 1900's and nvidia 7xxx's those are TWO generations out of date).

I don't know that I would recommend trying to put OSX on a PC laptop, but people have had success with it. Lenovo might be a good place to start, as they have a pretty flexible base of hardware, and I find upgrading and swapping components pretty easy on Thinkpads.
Check out Lifehacker for more info on Hackintosh:
http://lifehacker.com/software/hack-attack/build-a-hackintosh-mac-for-under-800-321913.php

There should be no issue using soundforge with an mbox. On Dell's, HP's, Compaq's and Macs, I've used MBoxes with Soundforge, Acid, Audition, Garageband, and Audacity. I've never had a serious problem with the hardware, and Digidesign has even released a standalone hardware driver so you can do exactly that, use the MBox with something other than Protools (without even installing PT in the first place).
For example, this should be the stand alone driver for windows:
http://www.digidesign.com/index.cfm?langid=100&navid=54&itemid=23087

The proprietary nature of Digidesign, is a lock on the Pro Tools software. You can ONLY use PT software with some kind of PT hardware. I have never found the reverse of that to be true however.
Also, Digi software will completely hijack hardware. I can have Sound Forge, Acid, Audacity, and Audition all running at the same time (as long as I don't try to play them at the same time). Pro Tools will refuse to run if another a is up, and Pro Tools will prevent another a from starting if it's already running. This doesn't mean you can't use it with other programs, just not at the same time.

I don't think that boot camp would be an issue, though I'm not sure how parallels would react (just never tried it really). But this brings up an interesting question.
Why pay for the mac to use it as a PC, and why pay for pro tools if you really want to use sound forge?

There are going to be pros and cons to any audio gear, but I might suggest checking out the M-Audio cards a little closer. That way if you want to run PT later you can, but you're not paying for it up front.

As for the actual computer, is it only soundforge that's keeping you on PC? I LOVE SF, but that alone wouldn't be enough to keep me there. I agree that XP is where it's at. Vista isn't bad, it's just not good. It'll be a headache to work with, but should be fine once you work the kinks out (I just don't feel that in this day and age we should HAVE to work out a bunch of kinks).
If you like OSX though, there's no reason not to try it out. There are great recording as for OSX too. Hell even garageband is pretty decent, and you'll get that for free...

If you do decide on PC, Lenovo will configure machines with XP, and include updates to Vista for free. For the price of a MacBook and AppleCare, you can spec out a pretty nice T61 and get a decent warranty to boot. It would be a lot more rugged than a MacBook as well (carbon fiber shell with injection molded magnesium insides, us geeks make jokes about it being like Wolverine from the XMen, better than the plastic of a MacBook). Matching specs, the T61 should be almost $200 less expensive, and comes with a better factory warranty (before applecare). For the same price as Applecare you can get 2 year on-site WITH accidental damage covered (Applecare will not cover accidental damage in most cases).
Just sayin...

***EDIT***
To answer your question on hardrives,
The 7200 rpm drive is nice, but I don't think is necessary unless you're doing a LOT of production level heavy editing.
Basically the faster the drive, the faster it can access information, but we're talking fractions of a second difference for most applications.
Though it is said all over the place (and I'll second it here). Don't skimp on the RAM.
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[Eddie Eagle]

Email the folks at sonycreativesoftware.com