Is the Mac G4 still viable for audio?

[Matt Hepworth]

I'm a PC guy, but I have the option to buy a G4 for $100 and wonder if it's going to be very useful for audio - possibly remote recording.

It's not particularly loaded:

Single processor 733MHz
128 RAM (laughable, I know)
Single hard drive
CD Writer
Dual head video card


What do you guys think?

[absrec]

Originally Posted by glitch

Single processor 733MHz
128 RAM (laughable, I know)
Single hard drive
CD Writer
Dual head video card

I run my ProTools MIX3 on this very computer everyday. It's made me a lot of money so far and continues to do so.

Although, if you are running something native like PT LE or something equivalent, you may find it crapping out pretty quick. That is, if you like to go over 24 tracks and use a shit-ton of plugs.

-Aaron

[critical]

I have a dual g4 maxed out with protools le and it craps out all the time way before 24 tracks.It sucks I hate it.

[adrianex]

I got a mix3 on that computer, did the gigdesign dual 1.33 upgrade (it died on my yesterday... ), switched back to the old CPU...Still works fine, but I'm bringing a dual 1.0GHz (my personal one) and its works great for me....My average track count on an mix is about 37 to 50 and it can handle it, just fine...of course if you want to add a ton of virtual instrument and all that, then no, way.

I use and descent amount of plugs (TDM and RTAS), not unlimited power but, so far no complain...I'll hold on to it another year...plus with the Mix farm going for dirt I'll rather get another card..

[Matt Hepworth]

Yeah, I was hoping for doing some stuff with LE or M-Powered.

So, is $100 not such a good investment?



Thanks!

[sardi]

I guess it depends on the spec of the PC your switching from really.

But for $100, I dont think you can really complain.

Put more RAM in it though. That wont even run the OS (unless you plan on using OS9).

[travisgarrison]

A G5 at the school where I work died a horrible death last semester, and I temporarily threw together a G4 500MHz box so the students could continue working while I revived the G5. Running PTLE 6.9, nobody complained about track counts, but plugin usage was limited to a few choice plugins running at a time. The GRM Tools are student favorites, but they hog quite a bit of processor power. EQ/dynamics plugins could be stacked just fine.

$100 is a bargain, but expect to invest in at least a RAM upgrade and a secondary hard drive just to get into the "usable" territory.

This would be a great machine to use with Peak or some other Mac-only program, though.

[somedude74]

No, not with that G4 cpu, it is too slow for native multitrack mixing and recording.

[s.d.finley]

It can be done!!

My first PTLE machine was a Biege G3/266mhz! You just have to make choices plug in wise.

[mixerguy]

save up and buy something better!

[halcyo]

$100! Thats a fine deal! You will OBVIOUSLY need more ram, but even putting another $100 in Ram in it would still make it a good deal. I did plenty of rock solid tracking on my 733Mhz G4 for years, with no problems.

Track counts really have more to do with hard drive speed than processor speed. A 7200rpm drive in that G4 should get you 20-30 tracks VERY comfortably. And as long as you can live without effects while tracking, you can always crank up the recording/playback buffers to max, and you should be able to do fairly thick mixes. Obviously a DAW with a freeze track/bounce function will serve you well on this machine for very complicated mixes.

I would hate for your FIRST Mac experience to be on this machine, cause it ain't gonna show off the 'apple workflow' like the G5's and Intel's will, but in terms of functionality, a couple hundred bucks is still a good deal for this machine. If you are running a WORKING studio, or working on music that is very heavy mix work, you may just want to save up for a used G5, but if it's just to do some remote tracking, it will probably be fantastic. The G4's make great remote recorders, cause they were SOOO ****in' stable. I swear I don't think my G4 EVER froze up or crashed - it was kind of spooky.


halcyo

[Matt Hepworth]

Thanks for all the replies!

I've got a pretty powerful PC that I use - dual core, plenty of RAM, 5 HDD's, silent, UAD, etc.

Maybe it wouldn't do enough for me to bother with. I know the 733 Mac should run quite a bit faster than a 733 Pentium, but maybe it's not going to cut it for what I want to do. Although, for $100, it might be nice to be able to network and use as a Mac/PC translator.

I sure love that G4 Quicksilver case, but I'm surprised at how loud it is.

For about three times that amount, I could get a dual processor with enough RAM.

Eh, maybe I'll pull the trigger on it anyway.


Thanks everyone!

[absrec]

Just had a thought. If you go to mac mall, you can find processor upgrades for a couple hundred bucks. I think the quicksilver 733MHz G4 can be upgraded to a 2.0 GHz and 1.5 Gig of RAM. Pretty cheap and effective upgrade. I'm thinking about upgrading my processor at some point.

Upgrading your processor will allow you to run a native system much smoother.

-Aaron

[eskay]

I don't think you should do it. First of all it would give you a very bad interpetation of what the current Macs are capable off. Buy the point that you put more ram extra hard drive processor upgrade you can find a G5 imac on ebay that would put that machine to shame. It's really not worth it unless it's just a simple multimedia machine. Example: 2 track editors, itunes, quicktime and so forth. Oh and they are terrible loud.
Again, not worth it.

eskay.

[manofsong]

Replies have been all over the map so far. Lemmee add to the "go for it" list. I've been using a G4 933MHz, native using a Digidesign 001 (also very cheap now) running decent #s of plugs, no major problems. Of course you'll have to use/find older plugs depending on the OS you're using (stick with 10.3.9 I advise). Best advice so far is to add RAM.

[Football]

Originally Posted by mixerguy

save up and buy something better!

I agree!

I've been through many Macs (now on a dual 2.7). For lots of plugs and/or virtual instruments with Pro Tools LE you need a crapload of power.

[s.d.finley]

I dont think any of you Nay-sayers even read Homeboys post.

Hes not talking 'bout mixing....or using VI's out da wazoo. Hes not talking bout convoloution style reverbs.......

What he's talking 'bout IS REMOTE RECORDING.

Faster Harddrives ARE better for this. I used 10k rpm SCSI 2 drives in that olde Biege G3 with a Digi 001. I had ZERO problms tracking 16 inputs at once.

Spend the $100 on the G4. Get a SCSI accelerator PCI card and some 10k scsi drives and you will be set for remote. If you had a hotswap SCSI, you could then just mount the drive locally on yer PC. Or, transfer via Firewire to another HD to the PC.

What kind of interface would you be using?

[netrom]

Originally Posted by manofsong

Replies have been all over the map so far. Lemmee add to the "go for it" list. I've been using a G4 933MHz, native using a Digidesign 001 (also very cheap now) running decent #s of plugs, no major problems. Of course you'll have to use/find older plugs depending on the OS you're using (stick with 10.3.9 I advise). Best advice so far is to add RAM.

Off topic, but love your avatar! My first recording system, back in 1999(?)!

[manofsong]

Originally Posted by netrom

Off topic, but love your avatar! My first recording system, back in 1999(?)!

Heh , yes those were the good 'ol days. I remember everybody seeing the WAVEFORMS and how it just blew everybody out of the water. The idea of SEEING what your music looks like! And being able to MANIPULATE it with a mouse!

[halcyo]

Christ, at the very least you will have one of the most stable, virus free internet computers you can own. It would be a fine 'family' machine, with the iTunes, iWhatever suite....

For that matter, I just sold MY 733Mhz about two months ago for $400! It WAS a bit more loaded with Ram, but you could probably buy and resell it and make a profit! I guarantee some teenager would buy it from you for $200 just for friggen iTunes and Garageband....


halcyo

[somedude74]

Ummm..... Mr. Non-Naysayer please read again.

"POSSIBLY REMOTE RECORDING"

And with that in mind..... he means POSSIBLY mixing as well.

Purchasing SCSI drives and a SCSI controller is rediculous-- you can get a Mac Mini for the cost of all this and be able to mix as well.

And, still no, I would not waste my money on this G4.

Originally Posted by s.d.finley

I dont think any of you Nay-sayers even read Homeboys post.

Hes not talking 'bout mixing....or using VI's out da wazoo. Hes not talking bout convoloution style reverbs.......

What he's talking 'bout IS REMOTE RECORDING.

Faster Harddrives ARE better for this. I used 10k rpm SCSI 2 drives in that olde Biege G3 with a Digi 001. I had ZERO problms tracking 16 inputs at once.

Spend the $100 on the G4. Get a SCSI accelerator PCI card and some 10k scsi drives and you will be set for remote. If you had a hotswap SCSI, you could then just mount the drive locally on yer PC. Or, transfer via Firewire to another HD to the PC.

What kind of interface would you be using?

[jeronimo]

I use a G4 dual 533 with 512Mb of RAM.
I use it for 6 years now, it works every day, I never had problems with trackcounts, I can record all 18 tracks of 44.1/24 bits with no problems.
I mix with digital performer, some projects have something like 50 tracks.
Yes, it is slow compared to today's computers, but if you want to use it for tracking, go for it, it's a great machine!

[s.d.finley]

Originally Posted by GTR

Ummm..... Mr. Non-Naysayer please read again.

"POSSIBLY REMOTE RECORDING"

And with that in mind..... he means POSSIBLY mixing as well.

Purchasing SCSI drives and a SCSI controller is rediculous-- you can get a Mac Mini for the cost of all this and be able to mix as well.

And, still no, I would not waste my money on this G4.

Posibble mixing???? Whatever you are smoking send ME SOME!!

Yeah macmini......5400rpm drive....boy that outta get those track counts up!!!

He has a hot rodded PC for mixing!!

[Matt Hepworth]

Well, I did not get the Mac. I tried it, though. Even surfing the web hit the max CPU (probably from the little RAM). It won't run PT7 on OS10.1, so I'd have to upgrade that too. Overall, not impressed, and I found the lack of being able to really do things on a Mac frustrating.

I won't let this completely deter me from Macs (I've used them before), but trying to do the mundane stuff (since I couldn't really give it an audio test) like internet and so forth is no good. Gimme a PC for that. If there was a version of Safari that ran on it, it may have changed my mind, but Safari requires 10.3.

I learned a lot. I hate THAT Mac.


Thanks all.

[sardi]

Originally Posted by glitch

Well, I did not get the Mac. I tried it, though. Even surfing the web hit the max CPU (probably from the little RAM). It won't run PT7 on OS10.1, so I'd have to upgrade that too. Overall, not impressed, and I found the lack of being able to really do things on a Mac frustrating.

I won't let this completely deter me from Macs (I've used them before), but trying to do the mundane stuff (since I couldn't really give it an audio test) like internet and so forth is no good. Gimme a PC for that. If there was a version of Safari that ran on it, it may have changed my mind, but Safari requires 10.3.

I learned a lot. I hate THAT Mac.


Thanks all.

OS 10.1 and 128mb RAM is probably why you hated THAT Mac.

[mcgwd]

10.1, well that would leave a bad taste in my mouth as well.

[jeronimo]

damn, I didn't notice that the G4 had only 128 of RAM... that's almost unuseable...

[Football]

Originally Posted by glitch

Well, I did not get the Mac. I tried it, though. Even surfing the web hit the max CPU (probably from the little RAM).

I learned a lot. I hate THAT Mac.

Good decision thumbsup

[s.d.finley]

That machine was really made for OS9......either way you'd need more RAM