Quote:
Originally Posted by pschmailinglist  MAC technicians have
referred to me the new MAC PRO G5 system. Which software fit best? with the
MOTU? Can I use the latest Protools 7.3 on it? (I want to avoid any compatibility trouble here) |
I think you confuse 2 types of Mac's.
There are the G4 and G5's, which fall under the category Power PC...
And there's the newest and latest type of Mac, the Mac Pro which has an Intel Processor and is thereby sometimes refered to as MacIntel.
PowerPc's cannot run software coded for Intel chips, but the Intel's can run some PowerPC software because of translator software that Apple coded called Rosetta, but usually they won't run the more advanced video and audio editting software or run with heavily reduced performance. However there are also apps coded as Universal Binary, which means it will run on both platforms.
For the PowerPC there's a lot of software available because the platform has existed much longer, however the Intel are the latest development and the future and the PowerPC platform won't be more developed from here.
Offcourse this won't make G5's redundant, and perfectly capable for a studio computer but... well you got the point.
Since half a year most of the software is available as Universal Binary and since a couple of months it also has become a reliable platform... as bugs are getting ironed out.
Another advantage is that the newer machines can also run Windows.
If you buy a new machine everything you already have will be compatible, the older legacy Motu interfaces, are compatible with the newer PCIe cards. (if you buy a 424 card, make sure it is the PCIe version and not a regular PCIx version).
BUT PRO TOOLS 7.3 IS NOT COMPATIBLE UNLESS YOU BUY SOME DIGIDESIGN HARDWARE, it could be as simple as purchasing an mbox, or m-audio interface, those are the cheapest solutions, will allow you to run PT LE and PT MP. For PT HD you need HD hardware which will work in a Mac Pro as well.
I would sooner opt for other software than Pro Tools if you are planning to run your DSP fx natively because the LE and MP versions of PT are limited compared to other software offerings, however you do get the ease of PT editting which is IMHO ahead a bit of the competition, but not much...