buuying a G3

[kristopher612]

a friend of mine is getting ready to sell his G3, and has offered to sell it to me CPU, mouse, monitor, keyboard and Os10.2 for $850, but i also want to buy an eight track r-t-r machine. i could always use his studio for my d/a conversions. would you go for the G3 or the R-t-R? i want the reel machine, so i can do my own music/band's i want to do for cheap. nothing like using it totally commercial or anything, and i love tape.

[raygun]

850 seems a little expensive for a g3 since they are up to the g5 right now.
you can get them on ebay for half of that unless of course your friend has some extra audio hardware or something you didnt mention.

i say go for the tape machine and a cheaper computer

[alex matson]

I'd say 2 things.

First, check eBay for computer prices. I would think you could get a G4 for that price.

Second, an analog tape machine will need a mixing board, knowledge on how to clean and calibrate it, a snake, etc. Of course either method requires a certain amount of knowledge and peripheral equipment. the simplest thing would be to buy an inexpensive Portastudio. ADAT's are going for less than $400 on ebay, and you can easily take them to gigs, practice spaces, friend's houses, piano practice rooms at your local college, etc. Add a Mackie 1202 or 1402 and you've got a totally portable recording studio with cheap media and minimal crashes. Is your primary focus on learning to record, or improving your songs? Either one of these is a big undertaking. For many people, specializing in one or the other is best.
I've owned a four track cassette recorder, then a 1/4" Tascam eight track, then a Roland VS880 which completely took the fun out of recording my songs and sounded like shit (lost over a thousand when I sold it), then a Mac G4/450 with Cubase VST/32 (because it records at 32 bit and has an analog tape saturation effect), then an Otari MX5050III 1/2" 8 track. I'm about to sell the Otari because I have never been able to afford the rest of the stuff it needs to make it work, and because I felt that I should really be investing my time and money into songwriting, practicing and musical instruments.
The Mac/Cubase combo sounds great. Completely good enough that
it doesn't hinder my compositional progress. But it's not portable, and I'd like my band to invest in a couple of ADAT's to record our practices and demo stuff out. Sure, you could get a laptop, but I'm sure that getting a lot of simultaneous inputs would be expensive, and then there's always the learning curve and crashes that stop musical progress when your band is trying to write.
I've also recorded at 16 and 24 track analog studios, and at Protools Studios. Check out this place - my old band made several albums there.
http://www.coloradosound.com/
And here:
http://www.wilburland.com/home1.html
My feeling is that the main reason I'm not blown away by the albums we did there has way more to do with the songs, arrangements and performances than by any deficiencies in the gear or the engineers. So, if your focus is on songwriting, I'd say keep the recording gear simple and reliable, and listen for things that need improving, be it a drummer with feel problems, overly busy guitar parts, cliche keyboard sounds, or weak lyrics. A great test for songwriters is to play their stuff for other people, and notice whether you start to feel anxious while waiting for that cool chorus to arrive, or whether the intro now seems to take too long. You get my point, hopefully! Good luck!

[kristopher612]

well, i have a fostex four track cassette thingy right now, which i use for demos, making getting a song right a whole lot easier, so im using that right now, i have a mixer, and a few mics, and i really want the 8 track machine. now, if i could figure out a way to make the four track take 1/2 of its surface on one track before sending it to a computer, i would be more than happy without the 8 track, although it would still be time consuming.
his g3 has Pt LE i think, along with some other apps, that i'm not sure if i'd use. like iChat, and others. i think that maybe i should just get the 8 track, and learn how to do all the upkeep, and get a cheaper computer later, or just truck the reel machine over there. thanks for the help, im really indecisive sometimes.

[JES]

bottom line, anything you pick will have a learning curve. Doesn't matter what you choose or what you do. Expect some unanticipated expenses and downtime. My approach has always been to chose the path of least resistance. Last time I upgraded my computer for recording, I went with a Mac because I already knew the software. It was as simple as that. Yes, it cost a little more, but I didn't need new apps and I didn't have more than a day of downtime while I hooked everything up. And since I'v ealways worked with a DAW environemnt, I'm pretty skilled at it (for an amateur, at least).

So listen to Alex -- the bottom line is the songs. Find a working pattern you like and stick with it -- develop your skills in a direction.

Oh, and one other thing. Mac owners tend to overvalue their Macs. You could get a decent g4 for $850. Take a look at ebay and offer your friend what his or her Mac would go for on ebay.

Best,
--JES

[ottokbre]

dunno 'bout that deal considering my iBook 500 was had for $600