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I just found out the iMac DOESN'T allow me spread out the desktop across two monitors; it will only mirror them.

Oh well, that's not why I bought it anyway....

17" G5 iMac first generation - 1.6 Ghz, 80 gig harddrive, two firewire 400 ports and three USB 2.0 ports. It also has a digital video out which (with a cheap adapter) can hook up to my old 17" LCD monitor that I used with my G4 tower so I'll have two screens. Yikes! You can get them every now and th...

To tell you the truth, I don't need support for my OS9 apps. I've been using them for a few years now and know them inside out.

I just upgraded to one of the refurbished iMac G5s ($750) and am blown away by its' speed. Should be fast enough for whatever it is you're doing.

My pops and crackles went away when I increased the buffer size on the interface. Since it "seems" to happen when the hard drive is being accessed, that might be the problem for you as well. A higher buffer size means less running back and forth to the hard drive (though more strain on the CPU). (Ma...

Usually (for me) this type of a thing is the result of one application that uses sound (Adobe Premiere) not letting go of the hardware interface when it's time for another program (Digital Performer) to use it. I finally figured out that I had to go to the "Sound" control panel and re-choose my sett...

Playback of these recordings may also be further degraded by processing in the laptop. Specifically, Apple's default setting is a pseudo-surround thing ("Spatial expander"?) designed to make movies sound better. It usually makes music sound like shit. You can control it through the "Sound" control p...

Sounds like it'd be worth a try, although MIDI data isn't really that huge (compared to audio) and shouldn't really slow anything down. Buy an interface that has drivers for both platforms and give it a shot.

I just connected my MOTU Express MT (8 in, 8 out) to my new iMac (actually one of the $750 refurbished ones from Apple). I haven't even installed DP yet. I ran the MOTU midi interface software for OS X (which I have to learn, now stepping up from OS 9.2.2), opened up Garageband (which comes with the...

I backup to DVD-Rs, and it's been working out very well for me. I wouldn't bother backing up to another hard drive - hard drives fail, whether it's an internal, an external, or somebody's at a remote sight. There's also an EXCELLENT program for saving crashed discs, and you can download a trial vers...

Just in case you have an older Mac, I'd like to throw in my two cents: I'm running a Mac 500Mhz G4 with 512 mB of RAM. I can record 16 24bit/44.1kHz inputs at a time (probably more, but I run out of inputs on my 2408s). I can mix at least 48 tracks with lots of effects - I've never had to do more, b...

So anyway, why are you so pissed off at Apple?


(just kidding)

I have one bit of info to chew on: I have used a G3 12" iBook from the year 2000 with Digital Performer to both mix an album (with lots of effects plugins) and to record live sound and it worked amazingly well with no problems, so whatever you decide to get, I'm sure it will work well. If you're usi...

If my Dell has 4 pin Firewire, does that mean no buss power to the Firebox?

Yep.

The only time I've seen the smaller 4-pin firewire connection was on my miniDV camcorder. All my other connections are the more common 6-pin, but I'm using Macs.