q for people with gig experience

ovalroaster · Post by **ovalroaster** » Sun Jan 19, 2003 9:04 pm

i'm wondering if i should even bother with getting an external card (ie. USB) for my G3 Book, or just use live with core audio.

the G3 Book is not my "production" machine, just for playing live gigs. i've been told that in a performance/club context, unless the sound system is excellent, a fancy soundcard won't give you much more quality than core audio.

however, even if this were true, wouldn't an external card at least give my processor a break?

jdg · Post by **jdg** » Sun Jan 19, 2003 9:31 pm

the main thing i like about having my quattro is it has two sets of outputs, which i use one set for pre-listening.

dirtystudios · Post by **dirtystudios** » Sun Jan 19, 2003 9:48 pm

actually, you tend lower track counts with external soundcards. if you don't need prelisten and can live with a wee bit of latency, then i'd just go with soundanager and the headphone out. you won't have audio dropouts with soundmanager regardless of your cpu usage, and you'll have money left over for some blow.

k

Mr. Clean · Post by **Mr. Clean** » Sun Jan 19, 2003 11:53 pm

"...Money left over for some blow"?

My, my, you are Dirty aren't you?

I know the economy in Seattle is messin' with lots of people's sense of humor, let's hope you're feeling better today.

alejandro · Post by **alejandro** » Mon Jan 20, 2003 12:35 am

heya

Ive got a lot of experience with live laptop music, and would definitely recommend getting an xternal soundcard. I use a PC, and the inbuilt soundcards sound shit. I know macs are better, but there is still a big difference. In built cards often have problems with hum and also rarely can manage the very bottom end. In big system, you will reall be lacking in he sub-60Hz department without a half decent sounds card.

i doubt it would make a big difference to performance generally.

u could get something fo ~ $500 o invest n soemthing like a tascam us28 which gives ou lots of external midi control too.

cya

geargasm · Post by **geargasm** » Mon Jan 20, 2003 1:30 am

For me at least, I like having an external sound card for two reasons:

1. Something less likely to break off in my TiBook.
2. I don't have to worry about weird cables and adapters.

- mike

Filthy Ape · Post by **Filthy Ape** » Mon Jan 20, 2003 8:07 am

In my experience the mini plug outs on Powerbooks tend to short out eaisly. The ugly poping sound is not a nice thing through a cranking P.A.

Also it IS rather cool to provide yourself with a minimal control surface that many USB cards now provide (Tascam has been working great for me, used it on a few tours so far) as working with a mouse pretty much sucks when your in a live enviroment.

I found it worth the small investment to get a USB card...

point_misser · Post by **point_misser** » Tue Jan 21, 2003 9:41 am

i played some shows with a G3/400 PB but i had to stop doing it because the output was very noisy. at some shows i really got some strange flanging/modulating sort of noise. apparently the problem is the biggest with the 'pismo' pb's (like the one i was using).

i started using an emi 2/6 and it's been working like a dream so far. i recently did a 15 show tour with the emi and a G4/800 pb and i didn't experience a single glitch or problem. i think using the G3's mini stereo jack output is not really an option...

arne

lasers and their beams · Post by **lasers and their beams** » Tue Jan 21, 2003 3:03 pm

If you go with the miniplug, at least make it the king of all miniplugs, I love mine, even has a little carrying pouch:

http://www.monstercable.com/computer/pr ... p?pin=1731

steve

kitchen · Post by **kitchen** » Tue Jan 21, 2003 3:44 pm

dirtystudios wrote:..and you'll have money left over for some blow.

k

Nonono it's just the other way around.. less latency is better gigs means more chicks results in much more blow. Get more value for your money now!

kitchen

scotty · Post by **scotty** » Thu Jan 23, 2003 12:27 am

I've played 8 shows so far using my 333mhz G3 powerbook and at all of them I have used the pb's minijack output into our mixer. We perform dark-ambient/noise/collage so the shows are usually at small venues and frequently have crappy PA's... so the quality of the output has been good enough for us, and that means our setup is that much more portable.

That said, I do eventually want to get some sort of audio interface with mulitple ins and outs for more flexibility when we start incorporating Live into our live setup. I like the idea of 4 ins and 4 outs so I bought a Quattro. I loved the features but the unit introduced too many problems into my system so I had to return it. I'm very much holding out for a small firewire equivalent of the quattro. I know it's usb but I may actually consider the emi 6|2... hrmmmm....

-scotty

muthafunka · Post by **muthafunka** » Thu Jan 23, 2003 2:41 am

Not excatly multi-out but maybe you could figure something with the monitor/headphone out, other than that, does offer a lot of features in one box http://www.midiman.com/products/midiman/ozone.php
nik

q for people with gig experience

q for people with gig experience

get an external soundcard

Get A Card

G3 noisy output!