Anyone using an Imac?

Derwood · Post by **Derwood** » Tue Apr 27, 2010 4:55 am

Looking at the i7 Quad core and wondering if there's too much if any, fan noise to be used in the control room. Also, since there's only one firewire port, isn't that a problem? I'm using a 002 and several glyph drives and am concerned about the lack of extra firewire ports. Any feedback?

A.David.MacKinnon · Post by **A.David.MacKinnon** » Tue Apr 27, 2010 5:09 am

I'm using an Imac. It's a few years old at this point but has held up really well and worked flawlessly. No fan noise at all (I don't think it has a fan). Mine has a 1 firewire 400 and 1 firewire 800 port so there are no issues hooking everything up. In the past when I was using a laptop with only one firewire I would daisy chain my drive to the Digi002. It worked just fine too.

sad iron · Post by **sad iron** » Tue Apr 27, 2010 6:08 am

I have a 2.0ghz dual core for a couple years and it's been great thus far.

slowcentury · Post by **slowcentury** » Sat May 08, 2010 12:15 pm

I have also been toying with the idea of switching to an Imac. I have been using a PC for the last 5 years or so. What drive are you writing to when you track? I run two hd's in my pc, read from one and write to another would writing to a firewire drive work or is it too slow or is it fine on the Imacs to read and write to the same drive?

A.David.MacKinnon · Post by **A.David.MacKinnon** » Sat May 08, 2010 3:14 pm

I'm writing audio to an external firewire drive. No issues at all.

slowcentury · Post by **slowcentury** » Sat May 08, 2010 4:29 pm

Awesome. Perhaps I should take the dive. It seems like its worth it.

Jitters · Post by **Jitters** » Sat May 08, 2010 4:59 pm

Go for it. imacs only seem expensive until you actually own one.

slowcentury · Post by **slowcentury** » Sat May 08, 2010 5:11 pm

The only thing holding me back is all the software I already have is all PC oriented. I really have to think about this. My tax return should be coming in the next few and then I have to make the decision. I am also super comfortable in the PC world. But I really do want to get a computer that can handle everything I can throw at it with very little hassle it would also be nice to switch things up a bit too. I wouldn't mind switching over to using Logic.

Jitters · Post by **Jitters** » Sat May 08, 2010 6:22 pm

Logic looks good. That's where I'll go if I ever get out of prottolsland.Getting used to the mac is pretty easy. Seems like there were a couple things I had to get used to, but it only took two or three days before it was old hat. I do see your point about the software though.

Wagz · Post by **Wagz** » Mon May 10, 2010 4:52 am

I'm on the iMac bandwagon as well. Had mine for 3 years now, its a dual 2.33 w 2 gigs of ram, 2 firewire 400 ports. One for my 002 and one for my Hard drive, which I write directly to as well.

This thing still works like the day I bought it. Paying the extra money for a mac makes plenty of sense to me, the longevity of the thing (I think) makes them more cost effective than a PC.

As for noise, makes almost none, My external hard drive actually makes more noise than the computer itself.

ott0bot · Post by **ott0bot** » Mon May 10, 2010 11:20 am

Another iMac user here. I love it. Pro Tools LE runs flawlessly on it. I write to and internal partition here and there with no problems, but using exernal drives will keep your hard drive running longer. I use OnyX and applejack to keep everything running smoothly. Free programs that are a bit of an upgrade from the standard "repair disk permissions" utility. Those two programs are similar to disk clean-up and de-fragging a PC. Also I use Carbon Copy Cloner to put a bootable clone on an external drive, just in case I have a crash.

My only complaint....no way to hook up PCI cards. I'll have to buy a new computer when I upgrade to PT HD. So next stop is a Mac Pro, but my iMac will still get use in my house for as long as it runs.

EggyToast · Post by **EggyToast** » Tue May 11, 2010 7:35 pm

I had a Powermac for the last 6 years and realized that, in the end, I didn't really use any of the expansion capabilities. I had an extra FW card in it only because of a bug with the normal FW bus causing noise on my MOTU 828mk2 I had at the time. Thing got pretty loud in the hot summer months, too, and really ate through power.

I got an iMac in February and it's been fantastic. Fast, lots of ports. Handles Logic Express with aplomb (even while I'm running other big apps like Photoshop and Lightroom). Heck, I even opted for the cheapest model, and love the thing (especially due to the low price). I have a FW mixer for recording and just use a $3 adapter to convert the FW400 to FW800, and use USB drives for recording/backup.

Dead quiet too. They'll make you hate any other computer you have due to how quiet they are. Actually that might be a bad thing...

slowcentury · Post by **slowcentury** » Tue May 11, 2010 8:05 pm

EggyToast wrote: use USB drives for recording/backup.

A USB drive is fast enough to track to? Awesome I was not aware of this

ott0bot · Post by **ott0bot** » Tue May 11, 2010 9:16 pm

slowcentury wrote:
EggyToast wrote: use USB drives for recording/backup.
A USB drive is fast enough to track to? Awesome I was not aware of this

Not with protools, especially not with multiple tracks running.

Maybe Logic can work with the reduced transfer speed, I'm not sure.

wedge · Post by **wedge** » Tue May 11, 2010 10:05 pm

ott0bot wrote:
slowcentury wrote:
EggyToast wrote: use USB drives for recording/backup.
A USB drive is fast enough to track to? Awesome I was not aware of this
Not with protools, especially not with multiple tracks running.

Maybe Logic can work with the reduced transfer speed, I'm not sure.

Not sure about that. Digidesign recommends tracking to external firewire drives, but I've heard of plenty of folk, by word of mouth and on this board, claim that an external USB2 drive works fine...

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