Help, My iBook sucks

inis · Post by **inis** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 8:05 am

Ok, first off, I use the search feature like no on else, but I hate spending hours looking for one fucking answer...

Finally rewired reason 3.0 to live tonight. Ive got like 4 audio track wired from reason into live and im playing like 4-8 other short clips in live.

Ive got a G4 iBook, 1.2ghz, 1.25gb ram. And while tring to record and tweak effects, and pleasure myself at the same time....im getting audio drops. ANd the god damn % is spiking, and my mouse is skipping, AND IM PISSED!!!lol.

So, My original intention was to use my iBook simply for DJing with live, and then to purchase a new G5 for all my more advanced studio crap. I expcted this would happen with my iBook eventually. My big concern now is, I was planning on getting a dual 2.0ghz G5 with like 2g of ram. BUT IS THAT REALL GOING TO BE ENOUGH....

I want to buy a computer and not worry about getting a new one for awile. SO, all you G5/Mac/whatever guys out there, let me know any problems you have with your set up. Right now im not doing a shitload of tracks at the same time, or anything that I think the lowest model G5 couldnt handle, but I dont want to be bothered in the future if I decided I want more...so...do I need to just buy the fucking dual 2.7 with like 8g of ram?

thanks. and sorry for wasting the last couple minutes of your life for reading this if you dont care. Send me you address and ill 1st class mail you that 2 minutes of your life back.

peace

jpv · Post by **jpv** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 8:29 am

But, but... Macs are better for audio.

LOL!

sylwesterski · Post by **sylwesterski** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 8:46 am

You must buy more,more G5s more Ipods more more more is the key,the more you buy the better you are off.

Just get more stuff.

PCs MACs DVDs VCrs gun's and amo,don't sell your self cheap buy more stuff.

Reason 3 4 5 6, Live 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 is not enough you must buy more stuff.

nobbystylus · Post by **nobbystylus** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 8:51 am

i think ReWire is your prob here... ReWire seems to be serously demandingi am DJing/playing live with an ancient old G4/400, and its still just about hanging in there...

kettensaege · Post by **kettensaege** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 11:17 am

my setup: ibook G4/800MHz/640MB
four midi clips sent to reason, returning as four stereo tracks, rewired into live, 4-8 audio clips playing in live at the same time. My ibook then tops out at about 60% and starts dropping out audio. Maybe your Reason sounds are very demanding or your CPU is not set to "highest" in energy settings?
I wouldn't blame it on rewire only, but I also noticed that when I rewire a Reason DrumKit into live using 8 channels of mono audio it seems to eat up ridiculous amounts of CPU, without using any effects.

hambone1 · Post by **hambone1** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 11:24 am

Ignore the ignorant assholes here.

You shouldn't have a problem. I run a similar setup on a 400MHz Powerbook. I do have to be careful with resources, though.

Your iBook should be up to the job. Probably just needs a little tweaking, though.

Winterpark · Post by **Winterpark** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 12:36 pm

man.. i have a freakin g3 ibook 900mhz 640mb ram, and it does just fine.... i can run 16-24 tracks of audio/impulse etc... with a reverb on "economy" setting, and plenty of eq's and compressors...

i think that either rewire is your problem, or that you are using some seriously processor hungry fx, like a couple of reverbs?...

if this is the case, then just use one reverb, and put it on a send channel.

as for rewire... just record what you want from reason as audio clips, and then get rid of the rewire.

-am

inis · Post by **inis** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 10:49 pm

thanks for the replys so far. I understand what I need to do as far as limitations to prevent dropouts on my laptop, but my big question is, will I ever see a problem like this with a dual 2.0ghz G5. It is going to be my home/studio computer and I dont want to ever comprimise on anything. I want to be able to do whatever the fuck I want without problems. SO will it be enough, or should I consider getting something bigger.

suburbanbather · Post by **suburbanbather** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 11:26 pm

Could he be having the same problems Adamjay had when he first got his 12" Powerbook?

inis · Post by **inis** » Mon Jun 20, 2005 11:36 pm

lol, I really dont care about the laptop guys... how about this...

If you use a dual processor G5, tell me the specifics of your setup and any problems you may have encountered in the "system performance" realm.

thanks.

bytheriver · Post by **bytheriver** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 9:06 am

If you use dual G5, you wont get full use out of both CPU's, live is only programed to use 1 of them effectively.

More so, the one it does use will run a lot slower than a PC would, since live isn't very optimised for Macs. With the changes in Macs on the way with intel, I doubt it ever will be, at least not for current macs.

I'm not a mac-head or a mac hater, but i'd suggest you look at the live4 performance thread and see how ther G5's do and compare them to a P4 or athlon alternitive.

Personaly if live is what you want it for it doesn't make much sense to pay more for a mac that will give you lower performance, but I know some people just love macs, so I guess it depends how your love of macs weighs up against your need for performance and budget.

Good luck

rand · Post by **rand** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 9:18 am

Often times dropouts happen when
Lives sample rate (in Audio Prefs)
is different then the
systems sample rate
(in AudioMidiSetup ap in the Utilities folder).
rRand

Michael-SW · Post by **Michael-SW** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 10:42 am

You WILL get more bang for the buck if you buy a PC. However a dual G5 should be more than up to the task. Even if Live only uses one CPU, the other one will be used for system tasks and to run your rewired Reason.

rand · Post by **rand** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 10:54 am

I have a dual 2.5 G5 and L-O-V-E it.
've been running tons of tracks and plugs and instruments in LIVE..
(Even though Live is not suberb Mac code the G5 can handle it just fine.)
FWIW, I also was running Logic at the same time.
The G5 is capable of serious performance,
if ya don't believe weee little ol me
then just read 90% of OSX G5 users posts...
rR

ejectorset · Post by **ejectorset** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 3:07 pm

i use a 1.0 gHz ibook with the stock 256 ram and have no problems.

i have read a lot of people complaining about a lot of things about reason 3.0 (i use 2.5 still)

i have no problems with rewire and lots of tracks and lots of reason stuff.

i didnt read the whole thread but have you tried disabling your airport extreme?