gretsch_drums

I am planning to e-bay my Mackie Onyx 1640 board in order to upgrade to the new i-series model, but can anyone recommend another place to try to sell it? I've heard some horror stories about selling on Craigslist, so I'm not sure if I want to do that...but I have no first-hand experience with that site. So is there a "gear site" that someone can recommend that might be a good place to try before e-bay? I don't mind a small fee to list it, if that makes a difference--I am just not familiar with any sites other than e-bay. Thanks in advance. TB

I just bought a Glyph 1TB external hard drive array. It's great so far--tracking 13 channels of drums and a bed track into LE9. Not a complaint... The only thing I would say is that, when looking at the Glyph product specs, be careful about the storage capacity. If it says 1TB, that is in the RAID-0 (striped) configuration, not RAID-1 (mirrored). I didn't research this carefully enough, and ended up with half the drive capacity I *thought* I was getting! But they are now using Seagate 7200.12 drives, and the factory guy said they've had great luck with them. So far, so good. I like their user configuration interface as well--very straightforward and logical layout. Slick product. I bought mine from B&H, who had as good a price as anywhere--but I am sure there are other deals as good. TB

I bought David's book about a month or so ago, but haven't had the time to start it until now. I mean, I started working through it with the exercises and the DVD. It's great, as others have said. After only the first couple chapters I find that I am much more comfortable with the application. I came from a background of using Sonar for a couple years on a Windows machine, so I am not trying to learn the basics of DAW applications...just how Logic handles this stuff. But I highly recommend taking the time to work through it with the DVD material. I've watched a TON of videos on these apps over the years--Sonar, Logic, Vegas & Final Cut Pro, etc, etc. The tendency with videos is to say "yes, I understand that..." and move on. Big mistake. You need to do it for yourself. Twice. Ten times even. Anyone interested in learning LP/LE, get this book and do the exercises. Then look for a video series if you want to embellish your knowledge. But don't pass on the chance to work from this great resource. And David's time estimates in the beginning of each chapter are pretty accurate, except you might finish slightly faster if you've worked with a DAW before. But at least it gives you a great starting point. So another "attay-boy" for David, in my opinion. TB

Well unless you're planning on buying used, I don't see that you have an option. I just bought my daughter a 15" MBP with an i5 processor, and that (or the i7 in one 15" unit) was the only processor you could buy. I've had a non-i5 17" MBP for almost a year now, and it does fine with Logic Express 9 and tracking 14 channels of drums and a bed track. It also seems to handle Final Cut Pro pretty well too. So if you can find a good used unit and can save a few bucks, then go for it. But I think my daughter's 15" MBP (2.4GHhz) was about $1600 with a student discount--how much cheaper can you find a used one for? I guess I would pretty much agree with trip here--just buy the current MBP with the i5, and don't worry about it. My cousin writes code for a living for the Government, and they buys tons of Mac machines (especially laptops) where he works. He told me to get the lowest 15" i5-based MBP I could, simply due to heat. Thus far my daughter's machine seems to run as cool or cooler than the 2009 17" MBP I have, and it sure seems every bit as fast. TB

Well, there don't seem to be any problems with the Mackie board through Snow Leopard (at least from the little I've tried it), and it worked perfectly in Windows XP running Sonar. And I believe I read online that Leopard (at least the early versions) had a particularly hard time with the Mackie fire wire boards. But you may be right. I plan to upgrade the G5 to a Mac Pro some time in the next 8-10 months anyway, so this only has to work for now. I also have the Macbook Pro to use if needed--but the way my studio is configured, it's just much more convenient to use a mini-tower machine that remains configured in the studio. Thanks for the post! TB

Well, I think I've solved the dilemma, although I am honestly not sure I understand it... In messing around tonight and trying several different things, I stumbled upon a solution. Although the Mac G5 "sees" the Mackie Onyx board, it isn't using it. I can see it as an available audio device alright, and I can select it--but there's no sound from ANY application. So what I ended up doing was to unplug the firewire cable from the Mackie, and then power it down. I then had to power it back up, and then plug it back in. In fact, I think it works better if it's plugged in (the firewire cable), and then powered up. Turning it off then on again while it's plugged in doesn't seem to solve the issue. It's weird, but that's what it takes to get the thing to be recognized by the G5, and then to actually play sound. But it works now as both an input and an output device. So I'm back to recording again! But I am finding out that Leopard seems to be very quirky when it comes to firewire audio devices...at least this Mackie machine anyway. I have an Glyph external hard drive running via firewire 800, and it works like a charm--no need to turn it on or off after it's plugged in. It's recognized right away. So it's something specific to the Mackie and the Mac Leopard OS, I believe. Hopefully it will continue to work and I can do some more recording. And hopefully this thread will help someone else with the same dilemma. It took some doing to figure out, although the solution is simple enough. TB

I can no longer get my Mac G5 to recognize my Mackie Onyx board... When I first installed 10.5, I had this problem. But the installation disk I was using must have been goofy or something, because when I took the machine to a local independent Apple dealer about 30 miles from my house, they installed OS X 10.5.4, and suddenly all firewire features worked. The machine recognized my Mackie Onyx board, and life was good. So I've been using the Mackie as a sound card ever since, and started recording in LE9 with it today in fact. It would see all the inputs and accept the output from the G5, and from LE9. Everything worked great. Today I was recording with the rig, and then tonight when I was working with the machine, the audio stopped working on the Mackie/G5 interface. I have no clue what's going on, because although I can set the G5 to use the Mackie as both an input and an output device, I don't get any sound--nor does the signal from the mics make it to the G5. I set this up in both System Preferences > Sound, and in LE9's Preferences area. (Basically, it's configured exactly as it was earlier today when I had it working.) In fact, I cannot even hear sound from the Mackie using ANY application on the G5--so it isn't specific to LE9 by any means. And when I switch the preferences back to "Use Internal Audio" and run a cable from the speaker output on the G5 to two channels (stereo) on my Mackie, there is sound from any application that plays sound (Firefox, Safari, LE, iTunes, etc). So it's definitely a problem between the G5 and the Mackie again. So after about 2 hours of messing with this, the only thing I can think to do is to restore the system from the Time Machine backup I did, after installing LE9, FCS, and all the other software I installed right after the store installed the OS. The only problem with that is that I don't have a working system disk, because the store couldn't sell me one...they simply installed the OS from their external HD and charged me $50. So that means I'll indeed need to buy a Leopard system disk, if I want to restore from the TM backup. I have a working Tiger system disk, but TM wasn't added until Leopard, so I cannot get at the "Restore" feature with Tiger. The other option is to keep messing with the G5, to see if I can get the sound to play again. I've repaired the permissions on the drive, and I also created another user with Admin privileges...neither action worked. I am still without sound. Anyone with any ideas? Thanks in advance. TB

Boy, ain't that the truth... Now I have ANOTHER problem! This is a new one, and to say I'm perplexed would be an understatement. I can no longer get my Mac G5 to play sound through or accept input from Mackie Onyx board! I started a new thread about this problem. http://www.logicprohelp.com/viewtopic.php?p=306822#306822 I wish this one was as simple as not holding a mouse button down long enough...LOL. TB

Ah, well...OK. Apparently I am a moron. That did the trick. A thousand pardons, lol. I thought I had tried it, but must have had a brain fart or something. I was sure that I held the mouse button down for a couple seconds, but it didn't work. It sure works now though...so the problem is solved. Thank you very much for the post! TB

I am recording 12 tracks of drums through a Mackie 1640 Onyx firewire board, and everything else seems to work fine...although I am a bit perplexed by the whole "Software Monitoring" option in the General Preferences section. I have got it figured out, but coming from a background in Sonar, I find it quite different. But I am having an issue that I need help with... Does anyone know if Logic Pro differs from Logic Express in that it (LP) allows you to reselect an input for a channel after the channel is selected? I just started working a lot with LE9, and it seems that the only way to select an input (or output) for a track, is when you create the track. Clicking on the "Input" box in the Inspector panel doesn't seem to do anything, oddly enough. I cannot seem to reassign an input to the track, nor can I redirect the output to, say, a drum bus. In Sonar you would simply click on the drop-down menu in the track header, and select the input or output you wanted...takes 5 seconds. But for some reason I cannot get it to work in LE9, and find I have to create an entire new track and set it up there, if I want to make a change. I've tried researching this track I/O issue in this forum, and in David's book (and in the manual), but it doesn't seem to be working as those sources seem to indicate it should. Thanks in advance for any assistance. TB

This is a good idea... I was having some sound-related issues with Logic Express 9 on my Powermac G5 running Tiger, so I updated to Leopard 10.5.8, and all is well at this point (knock on wood). I am not sure exactly why things are better now, but the projects open more quickly and their are no hiccups during playback. Basically, LE9 just runs better on Leopard on my G5. I would honestly say that it made a bigger difference going from Tiger to Leopard 10.5.8 on my machine, than it did when I later upgraded from 2B to 8GB of RAM. So I would definitely try it if you can find Leopard. You can buy a single user copy on ebay for between $125 and $175, but I was able to find a local independent Apple retailer near me, and they installed 10.5.4 for $50. I didn't get a system disk of course, but for $50 I am up & running again. Then I simply upgraded to 10.5.8 through Apple (for free), and installed all my software. Then I just used Time Machine to backup the whole drive to an empty 80GB hard disk I had, and then took it out of the machine and am storing it on the shelf. I also use Time Machine with a different external drive, so the system has a "working backup" as well. The point is, you don't need to spend the money on a Leopard disk, when you can archive your system using TM. TB

Well, that's an interesting question indeed. I will have to beg off at this point though, because I simply don't have the experience in that. As I mentioned, I too have a G5 so I just happened to be researching this issue recently. I have Logic Express 9, but haven't upgraded it on the G5 for this reason. I will likely upgrade to Logic Pro 9 this fall, to get access to a couple more of the features. I can upgrade my Macbook Pro, but don't want to upgrade the G5, based upon the comments I've found in this forum. I am sure that a Mac Pro is in my future, but probably not until the Spring, as our family is in the process of upgrading other (Windows) machines to Macs right now. And since the G5 is working fine, there is no real reason to replace it right now. I think if I was you (unless someone more knowledgeable tells you differently), I would indeed try to roll back to 9.0.x to see if the problem you're having is resolved. Then you'd have your answer, and could update us. I know that in my case anyway, the information would be much-appreciated. TB

Did you upgrade version 9 past 9.0.2? What version of 9 are you running? I have a G5 as well, and have been looking around for information about version 9, and it seems that version 9.0.2 is the last version thought to run normally on the G5 machines. At least that's what I've seen mentioned in the forum anyway. I understand that you are running version 8 on the G5, but I wonder if something changed in the Logic files at some point? TB

Hmmm... Can you simply do a clean install of Logic 8, and then install the upgrade? I wouldn't think it would make a difference, given that (it seems) you just restored the new drive with the old drive's contents. But if it worked on the last drive, I would think it would work on the new drive as well. TB

LOL! I guess I had that one coming...