Does it make sense to wait for the G5 powerbooks?

jhs · Post by **jhs** » Tue Feb 01, 2005 11:53 pm

drush, i have a feeling we might have similar working styles. my typical 'work session' consists of generating some sort of sound, wether thats in reaktor or recording it whatever. then i usually loop up the audio into something somewhat useable & process till i'm bored with it then save this processed loop in my collection. at some point in time i notice that a few loops go well with eachother so i arrange and process those into my track. i pretty much only use real time synthesis for the initial generation of the sound, and samplers for the rest. what would you personally advise? i mean i WANT to use a mac, and i hardly phase my cpu when im arranging my audio (its more of a HD issue), but i dont want to save up to compromise if you get what im saying?

drush · Post by **drush** » Wed Feb 02, 2005 12:23 am

i think if that's the way you work and you want a mac, get a mac.

that's also frequently how i work, where i'm either arranging audio or bouncing/consolidating/resampling -- either of which means i can comfortably use the mac. it's during these sessions (if you can call it that) that i'm working in probably my most organized fashion. and my particular psyche seems to appreciate that.

there are other times (not ironically, it's frequently after djing... like, with records) that i get as many instances of whatever vsti running and just take off.. collage city. and this is where the AMD kicks butt.

just comes down to how you work. but i also strongly believe that if you know you want a mac then you should get a mac. otherwise you're going to have this niggling annoyance with your pc... and really they are just tools. you should use the tool you are most comfortable with, not be focusing your attention on whether or not the bristles on your brush are really the kind you like to use.

drush · Post by **drush** » Wed Feb 02, 2005 12:25 am

p.s. - there's always some new mac around the corner so at some point you have to give up on finding the right time to buy one and just buy one.

of course, we've never gone G4 -> G5 in the powerbook line either.

vince watson · Post by **vince watson** » Wed Feb 02, 2005 12:40 am

g5 single 2ghz powerbook 3rd quarter of 05.

g5 dual 2 and 2.5 ghz powerbooks in 1st and 2nd quarter 06..

and if im wrong i will eat my 909.

(i got 2 anyways)

the guys are right...there is never a good time to buy one.....so just buy one and enjoy it until you want another one...which is normally around 4 weeks later ....

vince watson · Post by **vince watson** » Wed Feb 02, 2005 12:41 am

ooops.

and also g5 iBook 1.8 is out in May 05.

AdamJay · Post by **AdamJay** » Wed Feb 02, 2005 12:41 am

eat your 909? hahahaha.
as long as you web-cast it.

drush · Post by **drush** » Wed Feb 02, 2005 12:48 am

vince watson wrote:ooops.

and also g5 iBook 1.8 is out in May 05.

so the ibook will out-spec the powerbook for some number of months in '05 huh?

ooook.
but maybe you should start figuring out what goes well with vintage Roland just in case. maybe a good Malbec?

AdamJay · Post by **AdamJay** » Wed Feb 02, 2005 12:54 am

part of me would be like NO !! don't eat it!
and the other part would say "wonder what that tastes like?"

majestic · Post by **majestic** » Wed Feb 02, 2005 3:06 am

I'm really hyped about this upgrade. If they'd announced a G5 PB, I wouldn't have ordered it. I've had three Rev A Macs over the years and will never buy another one (although I kept the Cube as an antique 'cause it looks cool, even if it blew up after 14 months).

My 1GHz Ti works fine for me, since most of my sounds I generate on the Virus and then bounce to disk. Or at least, it was working fine until I upgraded to RMX, and now I can do f#$k all.

Sure, it'd be great to have an array of soft synths at my disposal in real time and a dozen reverbs running at First Class...but I'm more than happy with the workarounds of 2005, it's still so much easier than just 3 years ago. The thing is, it doesn't matter what you buy, you will always push it to it's limits (unless you have say, a grid of 100 G5 Xserves running as distributed Logic nodes of course).

I reckon the new PB will clock in at around 40% on AdamJay's test - I'll post the results when it arrives. Hey, anything's gotta be better than the dismal 76% I'm currently getting. You see, good performance is all relative. At the end of the day, it just comes down to "can I get work done with this?" and "do I enjoy working with this?".

BTW, while deciding how much memory to order for the new PB (1GB or 2GB), I came across a really good little donationware app that measures paging while running Live, and advises you on whether you need more, and how much. You can find it at http://www.hillmanminx.net/dinmm/.

One thing is certain (in my case anyway): I've never been more productive in 20 years of sequencing than since I moved to Live. Double the output in half the time. Yet again, thank you Ableton!!!

FaX-01 · Post by **FaX-01** » Wed Feb 02, 2005 3:17 am

majestic wrote:I'm really hyped about this upgrade. If they'd announced a G5 PB, I wouldn't have ordered it. I've had three Rev A Macs over the years and will never buy another one (although I kept the Cube as an antique 'cause it looks cool, even if it blew up after 14 months).

My 1GHz Ti works fine for me, since most of my sounds I generate on the Virus and then bounce to disk. Or at least, it was working fine until I upgraded to RMX, and now I can do f#$k all. Sure, it'd be great to have an array of soft synths at my disposal in real time and a dozen reverbs running at First Class...but I'm more than happy with the workarounds of 2005, it's still so much easier than just 3 years ago. The thing is, it doesn't matter what you buy, you will always push it to it's limits (unless you have say, a grid of 100 G5 Xserves running as distributed Logic nodes of course).

I reckon the new PB will clock in at around 40% on AdamJay's test - I'll post the results when it arrives. Hey, anything's gotta be better than the dismal 76% I'm currently getting. You see, good performance is all relative. At the end of the day, it just comes down to "can I get work done with this?" and "do I enjoy working with this?".

BTW, while deciding how much memory to order for the new PB (1GB or 2GB), I came across a really good little donationware app that measures paging while running Live, and advises you on whether you need more, and how much. You can find it at http://www.hillmanminx.net/dinmm/.

One thing is certain (in my case anyway): I've never been more productive in 20 years of sequencing than since I moved to Live. Double the output in half the time. Yet again, thank you Ableton!!!

That's a great post Majestic

.

AdamJay · Post by **AdamJay** » Wed Feb 02, 2005 4:11 am

majestic, i understand that some folks don't want to buy Rev A apple products (i myself have owned nothing but Rev A apples and never had a problem, they're still apples, not lemons

) But remember that it takes a Rev A to get a Rev B, C, or D.

but yes if the new PB gets 40%, thats good... the G5 1.6ghz imacs get 39% on the test so its definitely on par.

but apple still has alot of catching up to do, look at the comparison:

• Apple 1.67ghz G4 15.2" Widescreen Powerbook
• 512MB DDR333 SDRAM - 1 SO-DIMM
• 80GB Ultra ATA drive @ 5400 rpm
• 8x SuperDrive (DVD±RW/CD-RW)
• AirPort Extreme Card
$2299 plus tax (if theres an apple store in your state)

• HP AMD64 3700 15.4" Widescreen Powerbook
• 512MB DDR333 SDRAM - 1 SO-DIMM
• 80GB Ultra ATA drive @ 5400 rpm
• 8x DVD±RW/CD-RW
• 802.11g wireless (same as Airport Extreme)
$1499 no additional tax

65% of the price, and twice as fast.
Apple needs to go G5 in their mobiles asap, especially when more than half of the powerbooks start at $2G's

Machinesworking · Post by **Machinesworking** » Wed Feb 02, 2005 4:33 am

AdamJay wrote:Apple needs to go G5 in their mobiles asap, especially when more than half of the powerbooks start at $2G's

Couldn't agree with you more. I still think it's because they will not give up the 1" thick body type. Makes no sense to users like us who would rather buy something that could be used in combat situations.

Drush is straight to the point as far as I'm concerned, I use the desktop and multiple applications for the initial song, then bounce to loops, and work in Live 4, so the paltry 800mhz. powerbook does just fine for now.

If the G5 hits a powerbook by next fall or so, and I have the money I'll get one, if not, I'll get an AMD and use both the powerbook running Logic, and the laptop running live 4 on stage....

AdamJay · Post by **AdamJay** » Wed Feb 02, 2005 4:39 am

Machinesworking wrote: I still think it's because they will not give up the 1" thick body type. Makes no sense to users like us who would rather buy something that could be used in combat situations.

i agree with you. had they come out with a G5 PB in mid-2004 when it really should have been released probably would have looked like this:

funnily enough, i know a couple users on this forum that would buy it anyway. it does look like a combat laptop. something that would have been used in Desert Storm or something. lol.

LiveLong · Post by **LiveLong** » Wed Feb 02, 2005 5:52 am

jhs wrote:i should note that a 1.6ghz centrino is about as fast as a 3ghz p4.

livelong, so for you, the interface is what did it? how come you use both a PC for live, was this just coincidence (already had the notebook, then bought live?) or was it a performance issue? I have considered getting the mac mini as I already have the monitor and accessories (theres apple marketing doing its thing )

I bought the pc laptop, to DJ with a laptop. Back then I wanted to use NI Traktor. It was PC only, the mac version was to be released later. However, at the last moment I found out about the working method of Live, that I can warp long tracks, and switched. Traktor came out to be a waste of time for the simple reason that I could do the same, and much more with my ttables, mixer and dj sampler. I moved to dj with a computer, giving up on the MANY vinyl advantages, knowing I should be able to do some stuff I could not do before.

I bought a PC, and not the Mac laptop, because of Traktor and ended up using Live. It was when ver 1.5 was released.
Now, I am happy about it. Live works better on a PC (It should not be that way, Ableton should spend the same development for both). For me it is like a hardware machine. I know Live the way it works on the PC, and almost never use it on my desktop Mac.

Clock speed is NOT all, a "faster" PC will not always be faster than a Mac.
It is the whole hardware/ software combination that is not the same.

Will all cars with a 1800cc engine be faster than 1600cc ones? NO NO NO.

GET WHAT YOU HAVE A FEEL FOR, THERE IS NO BETTER, ONLY DIFFERENT.

Machinesworking · Post by **Machinesworking** » Wed Feb 02, 2005 6:41 am

AdamJay wrote:
Machinesworking wrote: I still think it's because they will not give up the 1" thick body type. Makes no sense to users like us who would rather buy something that could be used in combat situations.

i agree with you. had they come out with a G5 PB in mid-2004 when it really should have been released probably would have looked like this:

funnily enough, I know a couple users on this forum that would buy it anyway. it does look like a combat laptop. something that would have been used in Desert Storm or something. lol.

OK that's more like 3" !! Mr!! I would buy it though, I use a laptop because it's designed for portability, not because it's lightweight. If the Xserve wasn't a loud sonofabitch, I would use one of those instead, I drag a 10 space rack with a mixer on top to gigs anyway....
I actually thought about whether or not I could fit a 17" iMac in my rack.