About to start doing remote recording with a 003

[jessejamietig]

Hello all.

I currently own a HD2 system running on a Mac Pro. I have been getting a bunch of requests to do location recording, so I was thinking about buying a 003 Rack. I currently have a MacBook 2.4 GHz Intel Core Duo Processor, with 2 gigs of ram. Is this computer ok to handle 16 tracks of audio at once with the 003 and a lightpipe interface? Has anyone had any luck with this system, or should I go for a MacBook Pro?

I'd like to let you know that I have an extensive rack of outboard preamps, and I won't be doing any mixing with the system (that's what the HD system is for.) It will mainly be for tracking and overdubbing. Please let me know what you all think.

Thanks,
Jesse

[norton]

i'd look at metric halo....the 2882 will handle 16 inputs with a lightpipe interface.. It also has an extremely efficient multitrack recorder in the software too. 8 mic pres, ridiculously flexible mixer loads of effects.... and the recorder.

The recorder is pretty bare bones but it'll export a variety of files... aiff .wav etc.. AND it's super super super stable. So your laptop won't be stressed at all.

Plus the converters on the mh really are top notch. It's an awesome box.

[jessejamietig]

Thanks for the info. I think I want to stay with Digidesign for now. I've got a nice Apogee light-pipe converter, and that is real nice. The 002 converters I've used aren't the best but they don't exactly suck.

The reason for sticking to ProTools, is to keep things seamless when I take everything back to my mix room for mixing a project on my HD system. I also do analog mixes through an old 16 channel Yamaha M-916 mixer, and then record the mixes back into an old 001 system I have through the API A2D digitally. I'm very happy with that chain, so I could just get rid of the 001 and just use the new 003 system with my laptop.

Mainly I wanted to know if the laptop was up to the challenges of handling recording 16 tracks at once. Does any body else have experiences with this using a macbook?

Thanks again,
Jesse

[Ron Obvious]

Hello Jesse,

I have a 003 and MacBookPro 2.5gig also. Both are recently updated from a 002 and a PowerBook PPC 1.67gig. I have done many live 16 input sessions with the old and new set-up, without ANY PROBLEMS.

I use the mic pres in the 003 for 1-4, my Mackie 1202 and Portico 5015 for inputs 5-8. I then rent a Presonus DigiMax (Lightpipe) for inputs 9-16. Just remember to set your PT's session, to have the Presonus (I.E. lightpipe) as the MASTER CLOCK. If you want to get a bit more exotic, you can rent a "la de da", master word-clock to Snyc both units to.

I record to an external 400 Firewire HD. I have done 1.5 hour live, continuous sessions my times.

See my website for my set-up list.

[mixedupsteve]

I have a Macbook with 2.0ghz processor and 1 gig of RAM and I have done 16 tracks onto the internal HD many times. I use a Firestudio via firewire to the Mac. at 48K 24 bit.

[jessejamietig]

All good to know. Thanks a million guys!

[Spindrift]

Even my old iBook G4 and 002 gave me no problems recording 18 tracks (8 tracks via lightpipe and 2 via S/PDIF). The only issue I ever had was one concert where after setting up, I closed the lid of the iBook while PT was still open. When I came back to record, PT was frozen. It was still half an hour before the actual show start, so not a big deal. Just make sure to leave the computer running unless you quit PT.