Question about Mac

winston · Post by **winston** » 18 Mar 2008 7:56 am

I just came into a MAC G4 and am wondering if it is strong enough for home recording. It has a 500MHz processor with 512 MB SDRAM. I do not know anything about a mac. It came out of a TV station. I am recording with a pc p4 3G w/1024 MB and am not having any problems but will change if the mac is strong enough. It only has a 15G hard drive so I suppose I would have to use and external one to work from. I have no clue as to the operating system on the machine, I know it works. thanks for any help, winston may

Chris Tarrow · Post by **Chris Tarrow** » 18 Mar 2008 9:08 am

You should be able to do some recording, but your track count, ability to use plugins, etc. will be limited. The system drive should never be used for recording, an external firewire drive is the way to go. I have been using these:

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire ... iteclassic

for many years with no problems, although there are many brands that will do the job.

That said, if you have a rig that is working, I would stick with it.

Jerry Erickson · Post by **Jerry Erickson** » 23 Mar 2008 1:43 pm

A G4 with that processor is not going to be able to run much new software. You could go to Apple's website and see what the requirements are for Garageband and Logic, but I'd bet they'll want to have a processor running 1 gHz or more.

winston · Post by **winston** » 23 Mar 2008 1:56 pm

Thanks for the replies. I think I will stick with what I have. winston may

Randy Phelps · Post by **Randy Phelps** » 23 Mar 2008 4:43 pm

there are a couple of things that will work.

If you are running OS9 you can run the free version of protools. You are limited to 8 tracks but it is great.

if you are on OSX you can run logic 6... you can probably get it for 50.00 off of ebay.

Many, many, many famous albums were made on the model of mac you have.. you'll just need to source the software from that era... it is out there and either free or dang cheap.

robert kramer · Post by **robert kramer** » 29 Mar 2008 10:22 am

You could look for a used Pro Tools 001 (around $300) which will give you 24 tracks/8 ins & outs. Although the 001 is no longer supported by Digidesign, it's a very useful format. If you insert a hardware reverb it will free-up memory for EQ/comp/delay plug-ins. You will need a dedicated hard drive.