Powerbooks powerful enough?

[purveyor2]

Are the new G4 powerbooks powerful enough to use as a home studio? Or is a G5 necessary. I would be using maybe 16 tracks of audio with ???midi. Possibly some softsynths, probably a Virus TI.

[acoustictones]

My best friend is using this with no troubles, but an external hard drive will most likely be needed. I don't believe these are coming with 7200's yet, and an external HD should be used anyways.

 

He's running a Digi 002 and ProTools, and he is loving it. He also is a ProVideo guy (this is a BIG part of his work), and he does it all on his powerbook.

 

I do all of the same, but all on a Windows based system, and he swears he will never give up on me until I CONVERT But my system is just running to smooth to even consider it (Toshiba Satellite, P4, 2.8GHz, WinXP Home, Sonar 4PE, Vegas Video, etc.).

 

Good luck on your decission.

 

BTW: You mentioned the 16 tracks...neither of us usually track more than 4 to 8 at any given time, but will mix 16 to 32 with out much problem. So I can't help ya if your hoping to track 16 at once, not sure if it could handle that or not. I'll let someone else answer that one.

[purveyor2]

My bandmate is a PC guy, and I'm always ribbing him...

Of course, we always have some sort of technical difficulties when we record, so it's typically justified.

 

It's good to know you can run some video too, thanks for the input.

[acoustictones]

I'm a fan of both platforms, and really don't believe that one is any better than the other. It really just comes down to which one someone prefers to work with.

 

I'd even be willing to give the Mac a shot if it could run my Sonar and Vegas, but I'm so comfortable in each, and everything is SOOOOOO stable, that I just couldn't justify going to Logic and Final Cut.

 

Get yourself a nice sound card (take a close look at the MOTU Traveller...4 xlr w/phantom, 8-10 ins, and 8 more via ADAT, sweeeeet 16+ track system for about $750), and a nice external hard drive, and you're set.