8-core Mac Pro + Which Interface + Which Software?

toothpastefordinner · Post by **toothpastefordinner** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 7:07 am

Hi dudes - looking for quick subjective opinions here to get me pointed in the right direction.

My current tracking setup is a digi002 + an iMac from 2003. It still does everything I want, which is multitrack recording + basic plugins. The digi002 is on its last legs, though, and I'd like to upgrade to an 8-core Mac Pro, and get a new interface, and new tracking software.

No idea what interface + software combo would work best here. I'm looking more for a stable, friendly setup than the cheapest thing possible, and being able to run the music-ruining Melodyne DNA software would be a huge plus.

toothpastefordinner · Post by **toothpastefordinner** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 7:08 am

Ah, shit, forgot to mention that I will also be running Final Cut on it. Not sure if that matters, but it's the main reason for getting the Mac Pro rather than a new iMac.

getreel · Post by **getreel** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 7:30 am

forgot to mention that I will also be running Final Cut on it.

So what software are you asking about?

toothpastefordinner · Post by **toothpastefordinner** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 8:12 am

Just wanted to mention the Final Cut since, like the audio multitracking software, it is resource-intensive.

palinilap · Post by **palinilap** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 12:39 pm

Mac/Logic/Apogee seems to be a pretty popular DAW these days.

toothpastefordinner · Post by **toothpastefordinner** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 4:09 pm

I'm kinda embarrassed that I haven't kept up on the technology here. Logic looks slick as an ipod.

Is the Apogee Duet the I/O box to get?

Thanks for the info, I read about 600 different reviews of Logic and some other software packages today and can never tease out who's right when they say it's awesome and who's right about it "crashing all the time."

The crash-fear is what kept me in analog land for a while. Like most animals, I am driven by fear and beer.

rwc · Post by **rwc** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 5:52 pm

I've worked on setups where logic 8 ran great, and where logic 8 ran terribly.

The ones where logic 8 ran terribly, everything ran terribly. I put no stock into "that crashes on my machine" unless I can't find a single person who used it successfully anymore. There are a lot of people out there great at screwing up both windows and osx. I've heard OSX is harder to turn into junk than an XP machine, but truth be told if people take no care of their gear(computer included), even an OSX/logic or OSX/pro tools setup can be brought to its knees.

That being said if logic 8 or 7 actually DOES crash, which rarely happens(if ever) with a proper setup, it will save the session file you were working on automatically so you don't lose stuff. nuendo, reaper, and protools don't do this, logic has spoiled me in this respect. regardless of how stable a program is, even if it crashes once in a year and you lose 8 minutes of mixing it's something you remember.

However anyone who thinks a modern, properly setup DAW is less reliable than analog clearly has not dealt with as many A800s that went from working fine to total ruin in 20 minutes. analog so isn't fun sometimes.

As sick as the symphony system from apogee is I find it hard to recommend that over something like a pci express AES card since AES is more of a standard that you can use down the line. But from the mention of the duet it doesn't seem like you'd ever need 8 channels of conversion.

What are you looking to record exactly and will it all be itb? I feel weird recommending 16 channels of conversion from RME with an AES card to record acoustic guitar and vocals.

toothpastefordinner · Post by **toothpastefordinner** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 8:54 pm

I'd want a stable system for tracking/recording my own songs, it'd mostly be 4-6 stereo tracks from an MPC plus a couple vocal tracks. A few plugins. I usually get things sounding how I want 'em on the MPC and then dump into the computer.

I don't think I'd need more than a stereo pair of ins/outs, and I'd mix everything "in the box" down to a WAV file.

It would be nice to run Altiverb in real-time and be able to use Melodyne/DNA to mutilate samples on their way into the MPC. These are just thoughts (I've never actually done either.)

Given my past history of upgrading I'd try to track on this for probably the next five years. Feel free to quote this part and laugh.

toothpastefordinner · Post by **toothpastefordinner** » Wed Apr 02, 2008 5:44 am

bumpin' this

Silverlode · Post by **Silverlode** » Wed Apr 02, 2008 11:46 am

Logic 8 has never once crashed for me since the day I installed it which was about a week after it was released.

You said you want tracking and basic plugins. OK. If you get Final Cut Studio you'll get Soundtrack. It's possible that's all you need. I love Logic 8, though, I switched from ProTools to Logic a few years ago.

I have the RME Fireface 800. RME writes awesome drivers,early and often. More than can be said of Apple even (they developed the Apogee Ensemble drivers).

My system is stable. The only bottleneck is my iMac. 2.0GHz Duo Core (not Duo 2 Core) isn't quite cutting it, for me at least. I'm considering going up to a Mac Pro myself.

toothpastefordinner · Post by **toothpastefordinner** » Thu Apr 03, 2008 6:39 am

thanks, I'll check out Soundtrack too!

ladewd · Post by **ladewd** » Mon Apr 07, 2008 1:43 pm

I've had good luck with Logic 8. I orginally bought a Mac Mini 2Ghz/2GB Core 2 Duo to try it out. It didn't come with Leopard. I was so impressed I just bought one of those new 8 core Macs. I haven't even booted it up yet, since I just got it last week. I haven't made room in the studio for it quite yet. I have a rather inexpensive Presonus Firestudio Project at the moment and everything is working smoothly with the Mini.

I'm a bit concerned there may be some Leopard problems. I'll keep you posted, but Logic is a great composing program and I've grown to really enjoy using it.

CA

toothpastefordinner · Post by **toothpastefordinner** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 6:47 pm

How's that 8-core working out for you?

I keep feeling like as soon as I buy one the price is gonna go way down.

toothpastefordinner · Post by **toothpastefordinner** » Sun Apr 13, 2008 5:52 pm

Maybe a slight change in plans - I'm thinking about using my eighteen-month-old(-ish) MacBookPro (10.4.11, 2.33ghz core 2 duo, 2gb ram) to run logic.

The main idea being that I could mix somewhere else than my attic (where nobody else goes, being that it's a long walk from the main hangout room of the house.) Does this work in practice as well as it works in theory? Do I need to keep the interface hooked up to run logic, or can I headphone it without the interface hooked up? (I will be using an external drive for the audio, but that's not as bad as hanging an interface AND a hard drive off it.)

toothpastefordinner · Post by **toothpastefordinner** » Sat Apr 19, 2008 9:26 am

Bumping in case anyone has anything more to say about logic / laptop / interface / etc.

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8-core Mac Pro + Which Interface + Which Software?

8-core Mac Pro + Which Interface + Which Software?

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