New Apple iMac for my home audio :)

[spiritdave]

I bought a brand new Apple iMac 27 inch Quad Core and have installed my audio interface and Cubase 4 onto it ....

Now I just gotta make some more music

Anyone else rockin' a little home studio setup?

Humble and small but I do ok with it

 

[jaek]

Nice setup. And nice Desktop background.

 

[spiritdave]

Thanks I love it ... (the background too!) ... it's such a super fast system, and it's utterly ... and I cannot stress this enough .... utterly silent. No fan noise or anything. The engineering of this thing is insane. And you can't get a PC with 27 inch IPS LCD screen in an all in one neat package like this. So I am so pleased. Plus, my copy of Cubase came with a Mac and Windows version on the disc, so my USB licence thing works immediately with it

 

[jcmjmp]

I use my Macbook Pro.

 

[spiritdave]

Nice ... recommendations for any cool audio utils? I will not change my multitrack recording software, as I have used Cubase for over a decade and I love it. But any little tips ? I'm relatively new to MacOS

 

[jcmjmp]

Nice ... recommendations for any cool audio utils? I will not change my multitrack recording software, as I have used Cubase for over a decade and I love it. But any little tips ? I'm relatively new to MacOS

I just use garage band. Works well for me. It has all the tools I need.

 

[Australian]

Mac when only the best will do!
do you have 2 Hdrives, or partition the drive for audio is a good idea.

 

[spiritdave]

Not yet no ... I haven't done that ... could do!

 

[Moving Air]

Nice one!

Bootcamp! I was running Cubase/protools 8 on a G5 and an older iMac (Exactly the same as yours but dual core) and I found it essential to have windows xp running on bootcamp as some of my favourite apps didn't like 10.6.5. I would also turn the apple auto update off, and check with Stienberg/Avid(dgidesign) forums before installing OS updates, can save a lot o pain.

I don't really have a preference between mac/pc, personally I think both formats have pros and cons, but mac owners tend to get very upset if you say that Best onboard speakers I've ever come accross in the big iMac's though.

Is that an Edriol?

 

[spiritdave]

Well, I have Windows 7 running on Bootcamp. But I don't wanna use it. I only do because I use 3dsmax for a living and that isn't on MacOS ... going to move to Maya soon.

But for music? I'll stick with MacOS! No point running Windows for it when I have it on MacOS and my machine is designed to run at it's best with MacOS

Yes, it's an Edirol UA-25 Bought it on Ebay for £85

I'm not loyal to a company like Apple or Microsoft. I have used Windows PC's my whole life. I now have the iMac and will never go back to Windows. MacOS is just too nice

I use M1Active 520's by Alesis for my monitors. They're very good for the price. Blow any regular speakers out of the water, and of course are designed for audio mixing

 

[Moving Air]

Those big screens a so cool and I loved the fact that it's self contained. We had trouble with mac os cubase 4 and the digidesign 003 rack linked to a presonus digimax d8 so we had 16 input channels but the mbox 2 worked perfectly seemed to be a firewire issue with the os update.

Which plug ins are you using?

 

[spiritdave]

I don't have any plugins to be honest. I just use the built in stuff.

The Cubase update I installed works fine so I'm pretty happy so far

 

[Moving Air]

Yeah the Cubase 4 bundle is pretty good, protools 8 comes with a very useable piano, but I was really disappointed with the midi editing upgrade. Cubase is still miles ahead in that dept.

A couple of affordable plug-ins worth trying:

Addictive Drums, very musical and some nice editing options
Miroslav Philharmonic: Affordable orchestra, not the best sounding but cheap and useable
T-racks Brickwall limiter: cheap mastering software that can add a lot of punch to recordings

 

[longfxukxnhair]

Thanks I love it ... (the background too!) ... it's such a super fast system, and it's utterly ... and I cannot stress this enough .... utterly silent. No fan noise or anything. The engineering of this thing is insane. And you can't get a PC with 27 inch IPS LCD screen in an all in one neat package like this. So I am so pleased. Plus, my copy of Cubase came with a Mac and Windows version on the disc, so my USB licence thing works immediately with it

I bought a 24" Imac 2 yrs ago this month and I swear by it.

 

[willscott182]

If you can get hold of Reason, that's a pretty cool piece of sequencing software, with a nice interface... You can integrate it to work within Cubase somehow.

 

[spiritdave]

If you can get hold of Reason, that's a pretty cool piece of sequencing software, with a nice interface... You can integrate it to work within Cubase somehow.

I'm not really into sequencing, so I'd rather not lay down any cash on that kind of thing. I've used it before tho.

I tend to record mostly guitar stuff with drums, but my brother has a new electric kit with mesh pads, so it's more like a real kit. He spent £1600 on it, so it's not bad. My drummer is gonna come round and lay down the beats to 8 songs, which we'll then get guitars onto etc.

Btw, drum plugin wise, I'll be using Addictive Drums older brother, Superior Drummer 2. It's literally insane!!! And works with General Midi standard, which Addictive Drums doesn't seem to. That's custom.

 

[Australian]

Any chance you'll be doing a photo shoot with your new computer and the gf......nugde nudge wink wink .

 

[spiritdave]

Any chance you'll be doing a photo shoot with your new computer and the gf......nugde nudge wink wink .

I'll ask her. It's usually her idea She did one with my guitar once, but I don't seem to have the pictures.

I'll see what happens, and if I do them, I'll post in this forum hehe

 

[StootMonster]

how much was the mac?

 

[gibsonguitar1988]

Very nice!

I LOVE Macs.... I've used MacBook Pros for the longest time but I keep wearing them out after a couple years (cracks, dings, etc) because I use them constantly, so my plans are to get an iMac like yours and get cheap PC laptops so I don't waste so much money. It's not Apple, its just my laptops don't last but maybe 2-3 years tops. I'll get an iMac to get my Apple fan fix and for my studio and heavy lifting and a 500-600 dollar PC laptop for internet, email, portability, etc.