Anyone use a mac for recording?

[marklyn]

Originally Posted by Chiba

Couple questions.

What kind of music are you recording? With the single hard drive of the iMac, did you run into any problems with track count or what-not?

Tell me about that R84.
--chiba

On this project I've been recording multi-tracked acoustic guitars, from 2 to 10 tracks, (counting a stereo track as 2). It's an acoustic instrumental multi-tracked surf guitar album. (How's that for niche? )
I've had no problems at all with the iMac, as long as I'm in 48/24. If I go up to 96/24 (which I think I'm starting to like) it sometimes can get a little jittery---I have to adjust the hardware buffer for mixing and then it's been fine, but so far I've only used 96/24 with up to 4 tracks. I have an external hard drive that I use for backup and storage. I only keep my current projects on the internal hd and then swap and dump (after verifying and keeping a second copy somewhere else) for backup. I mixed this last project with a friend of mine who just finished his album on his powerbook 12". He was up in the 20-30 track range on some songs. There seems to be plenty of power for serious multi-tracking.

I love the R84. Very detailed, clear but still full of character. It can get a little dark depending on the guitar and placement. It also needs a quiet preamp. I was using a FMR RNP which has a really cool sound, but I had to just about max out the volume to get the levels I needed. This brought in a little high end hiss. This would have been no problem, probably not even noticable in a mix with a band. But with 5 parts of acoustic guitar all recorded with the same set-up the hiss can start to stack up. I ended up switching the mics around to control it and that was what really got me started looking at the Metric Halo. The preamps on that thing are amazingly quiet. It compliments the R84 very well. I added a little high end EQ to most of the tracks with the R84 but it didn't seem to thin out at all. I'll post something tonight that has the R84 on one side and the MXL on the other. I don't know how much will get lost in the mp3 conversion, but it might give you an idea.

I also have liked the R84 on vocals. Especially for smokey laid back stuff, it's really smooth and full. I've ended up going with the LD condensers for more in your face vocals but I'm still working on getting this with the R84. It's definately my most used mic right now, and I'm very happy I bought it.

I guess the one thing I've learned with the R84 is to make sure it has a nice preamp to play with. It sounded good straight into my MOTU 828 but it's definately better with a better preamp.

Also check out the OSX Audio Forums. There is a ton of great info there and a new section on setting up OSX for audio recording.

[marklyn]

Here's a link to a couple songs recorded with the R84.
edit---link removed

"Thirteen" is stereo solo guitar recorded at 96/24 with the R84 in the left channel and the MXL v93m in the right.

"Morning Glass" is stereo rhythm with the same L and R set with a mono lead track recorded with the R84.

All tracks have a little EQ. The R84 tracks have the RenEQ with a slight boost on the high end starting at about 2K. In addition to the EQ, Morning Glass has a little compression from the RenVox on the lead and it also has a hint of the Waves Doubler blended in on a stereo aux channel, with just a hint of reverb.

These are close to the final mixes but not quite done. They're from a test mix of a week or so ago. I just don't have a more final version in mp3. So I'll just leave them up a few days and then I'll edit the link out. Both of these are from my soon-coming album "Beach Days".

[utah]

I don't use a Mac.

I do use an standalone DAW from Yamaha ( AW16Gcd ) in conjunction with a Sony VAIO desktop PC. Actually, make that Two Sony VAIO desktop PC's and a Sony VAIO laptop. All, my PC's are loaded with software ( Acid Pro, T-raxs 24, Cubase, Krystal Audio Engine, and many others ) that I use in conjunction with my Yamaha.

Here was my rationale. I wanted a recorder that I could use without having to worry about software issues, plug-ins, limitations in simultaneous recording channels and PC crashes. And, I wanted a hands on type of interface with hands on controls etc.

While my DAW is fully equipped with effects, compression, mastering effects, wav-form editing, CD burning, and pretty much all you need to do to record from A - Z, I am attracted to PC editing, mixdown, and mastering.

So generally, I record on my DAW and then I export the Wav files to PC for each track and then I mix, and master and burn on PC. And, I have the same software on all my PC's so that I can take projects on the go, or between my house and cottage.

I record almost all my music as a one man operation. So, I lay over-dub after over-dub. However, I do play music with other people as well, and I wanted the ability to take my DAW on the go, and have the capability of 8 simultaneous ins, full mixing capability, and even Stereo Bus recording or Direct track recording. And, I sure as heck don't want to have to deal with latency issues. I have zero latency issues using my DAW.

I also didn't want to have to use a Laptop combined with an interface to do remote recording.

One other nice feature is this. The Yamaha can be connected to a PC via midi to work as the controls for Cubase, Sonar, Pro-tools and others. So, you can actually work in the PC domain but instead of using a mouse...you can use the controls on the Yamaha.

Here's the point. There are so many ways to do this it's crazy. I don't think there is a right way. But, the trick is to set up for what you want to do.

I think if you mainly record solo type guitar tracks with limited background tracks, a Laptop config would probably do the trick nicely.

[Chiba]

Thanks Marklyn - I'll check out those mp3s, looking forward to them.

I used to have trouble getting more than 20-22 tracks on my OS9 system when I was tracking to the same hard drive that the program (PT) was on. When I switched to another hard drive for just tracks, suddenly I could get 20 with no trouble, 22 with a little redraw jitter, and 24 with tweaking the buffer a bit - and this was on an older G4/400 with only 512MB of RAM!

My new Mac for recording is a G4/Dual-1G with a gig of RAM and I recently remixed an older song with 30 tracks - I ran 4 different reverbs, EQ on 8 of the tracks, and 2 different compressors - and my new rig gave me one of those 'is that all you got?' looks

--chiba

[SMurphy]

I use a Power Mac G5 (1.6 gHZ) with an additional gig of RAM to record. I've been using Garageband for everything so far while I get used to digital recording and plan to upgrade in the future. I also purchased a M-Audio USB mobile pre-amp to bring in a signal from a mic. The two channels are all I need from it for recording with GB.

Check out a song I recorded with my band: http://shawnmurphy.net/nevergonnaloveagain.mp3

The drums were created with Frooty Loops by our drummer.

For what we're doing right now this is perfect. We're recording an EP for internet release to be shared. This track is one that will be on it. It still needs some minor tweaking when we mix but overall the components are there.

I haven't had a problem running GB or adding tracks especially with a gig of RAM. This song has 9 tracks and I could still add even more if I wanted to.

[utah]

SMurphy, Nice tune!

It has a bit of a Todd Rundgren feel in parts, which I like.