Mac question...

[mallyone]

I'm considering making "the switch" but had a couple of questions. I'm trying to decide between the entry "mac mini" and the 20 inch iMac which is at the top end of my budget (so no power macs in my future ).

1. with the pc, I need some sort of audio device with asio drivers in order to get my latency down, for simple audio out, will I need an external device, or is will the mac sound device give low latency?

2. Checking the ableton4 performance tests, it looks like a 1ghz mac will peak the cpu out at 44%, is the mini powerful enough to run ableton and a couple software synths?

3. Having said that, is the iMac powerful enough (2ghz version) for ableton and a couple software synths...

That's pretty much it , any help would be greatly appreciated...

[Captain Screwbarb]

I'd reccomend you get the iMac. The mini is nice, but not really suited for music work. And yes you probably should get an extenal audio interface.

[nosuch]

1. the stock-sound device gives you low latency thanks to core audio

2. + 3. generally the preformance on a mac is rather poor with live (ok, I'm on a g4 867 PB). maybe you can try it out before buying?
it really depends on the vst or au you're using. operator is very thirsty in my opinion...

[vsmith1]

If you can afford the iMac G5, then get the G5 - the step up in performance is great over the G4. Yes the mini is more portable but you have lug a screen around as well.

Remember that the Mac's built in audio-in is 16bit 44.1kHz and output can be up to 24bit 96kHz. In is mini-jack and out is mini-jack or optical. The mini is the same AFAIK.

Vince

[pepezabala]

danger danger!

please also consider that ibooks or macminis do not have a built-in audio-in. So you would need a soundcard for recording.

Although I really appreciate the OS of apple, I would recommend to purchase a PC for audio - it's cheaper, faster, and there are far more vst's and vsti's for PC than for mac.

I am a proud owner of an ibook, but if I had to buy a machine today I would probably buy a PC.

[CWoodOne]

I have an iMac, and it just doesn't cut it for serious music, particularly at 24 bit. A couple of VI's can max it out, or Kontakt II or Reaktor by itself! Kontakt with its built in convolution reverb will go over 100% CPU. Wish I'd gotten a bigger computer!

iMac 20" 1.8 1 gig ram, 2 exteral firewire drives, built in sound + Lexicon Omega

[hoffman2k]

Before you buy anything... wait till next week

http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=1193

[mallyone]

I am a bit afraid to buy a mac simply because they seem to update so frequently that if I bought today, I'd have apple-envy tommorow.

The reason I wanted the iMac was because it seemed to be an all in one, quiet machine. I do web development and moving apache etc. to the mac would be a no brainer. the 2.0ghz does scare me a bit, but I was trying to price out a 2.0ghz AMD 64bit machine and once you factor everything in, it's only slightly cheaper than the iMac.

Has anyone had any problems with it? I mean, I always see people with a powerbook doing live PA's with no problem, and they seem to be half the machine the current g5 imac's are (no offense )...

[DJSLEEPLESS]

I have an iMac, and it just doesn't cut it for serious music, particularly at 24 bit. A couple of VI's can max it out, or Kontakt II or Reaktor by itself! Kontakt with its built in convolution reverb will go over 100% CPU. Wish I'd gotten a bigger computer!

iMac 20" 1.8 1 gig ram, 2 exteral firewire drives, built in sound + Lexicon Omega

wow i have the same mac as you and i have no problems, I have 1.25 gig of ram running tiger, normally use live in a dj type situation upto 6 tracks going, 4 aux sends suppatrigga delays eq on each channel, crayon filter on each channel, 2 x reverb on an aux dont even bring it upto 50% on the ableton meter. I also run logic 7 pro, too many sculptures will bring it to a halt but that can only be expected with such a cpu intensive plugin. sound designer runs fine alongside sculpture. I normally have maybe 16 tracks with standard comp eq and gates on each verb on the bus and occasionally a few plugs on the master. have no problems. I also own a G5 2 x 2ghz which i have never halted to this day.