gordon.murrison

Just wait a few weeks and see what happens. That's what I'm doing. In fact tonight I've just put my Power Mac on eBay to generate the cash for a new Mac. I have thought long and hard about the iMac vs Mac Pro and I came very close to getting an iMac (and keeping my 23" display for a dual screen setup). But I think the iMac would last me at most 3 years before something (RAM and Hard drive probably) would feel inadequate. With the Mac Pro, I can see me keeping it for 6 years with some upgrades along the way. The new Intel Xeons (called 'Harpertown') that are the direct replaccements for the current 'Woodcrest' Xeons used in the Mac Pros are released to retail on 12 Nov (Apple could get them earlieer than this I expect). These are all quad core chips and sell for the same price as the current dual core chips. Apple could lower the price of the Mac Pro range or, more probably, keep the current price scale but everything would be 8 core rather than 4. I would aslo expect 2Gb standard RAM (as is in the Mac Book Pro) and a better standard GPU. Maybe even a new case! Have a look at this story... http://www.macrumors.com/2007/08/15/intels-penryn-xeon-processors-due-in-november/

For a given sample rate, should all firewire audio interfaces that use the built in OS Core Audio firewire driver achieve the same latency?

You could use it as a node but I doubt your 8 core will need any help!! Perhaps you could put it use as a backup server to keep things safe if you don't have an automated backup solution already?

Has anyone ever seen, heard or used the Yamaha GO44 firewire audio interface?? Can't find one review on the net. Anyway, I've just ordered one in the UK for £90 - RRP seems to be £250 with typical on the street prices of around £160. I need a new 2x2 interface and figured I can't go wrong for £90!

I've just found a Yahama firewire interface in the UK for not much more than the Behringer FCA202. It's the GO44. Looks really good for the price. Better convertors, balanced I/O and a control panel to select the input sensitivity seem to be the plus point over the cheaper Behringer. RRP appears to be £250 - DV247 are selling it for £90 Thing is I can find no review at all on the interneet. Is no-one using this boxl??

The standard video card in the Mac Pro can handle 1x30" display and 1 x23" display. It's not a great card of you do any 3D work. The upgraded ATI X1900 is much, much better and can also handle 2 x 30" display.

Dancelot, I had never considered the head ping pong thing at all. I can see your point. I even moved my current dispay to the side where it would be on dual screen set up and, becasue I'm quite close to the sceen it does make your neck twist. Very interesting. Thank you.

Thought going dual would be recomended I have a three year old Power Mac G5 dual 2.5Ghz with a 23" Cinema Display. It's getting close to the time where I feel I should switch to Intel. So, for me it's compromise time.... Pure power vs dual display... (because money is not unlimied!!) Single disply system - Quad Mac Pro with my 23" display or Dual dispay system - Aluminium 24" iMac with my 23" display If you had the choice which would it be?

For those who have gone dual screen with Logic - how much better does dual screen make your workflow? Is it so good that you'd hate to go back to one screen? I'd imagine it is superb! I was using a dual screen PC at work today for software development and it really was great!!

I would imagine the FCA202 (or any firewire interface) would have better quality convertors, run and higher sampling rates and run at lower latencies than the built in interface.

Anyone tried one these with Logic? I'm thinking that's it's so cheap (<£50 in the UK) that either it's total cr*p or a great bargain and well worth a look! I use a PCI Delta 44 just now. Moving to an Intel Mac soon so I'll need a new interface. Obviously this is for a home studio where I am the sole single user so I don't need (or can afford) a hugle multi I/O system. Guitar, mic and external MIDI kit is hooked up to a mixer with the subgroup feeting the audio card. As I'm recording on my own these get overdubbed one at a time, so stereo I/O is fine. 90% of tracks will be virtual instruments anyway (so low latency is big deal). Any experience with the FCA202 or alternatives would be welcome. Thanks, Gordon p.s. Just waiting for my Logic Studio upgrade to arrive (UPS site says it's out for delivery!)

Looks great!! How about the colours on your regions - did you assign the pretty colours to tracks / regions or does it make a good stab at automaticlly assigning colours to tracks / regions? Reason I ask is that they look similar to the screenshots at Apple.com with the gradual changing of colours on adjacent tracks. Also, do you know how well it behaves on dual screen setups?

For what it's worth I think the single window interface rumour is true. Just read the soundtrack pro blurb... Apple seem really upbeat about it. http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/soundtrackpro/interface.html And it DOES work accross dual screens so that concern goes away. I guess they might streamline the workflow and only build the core Audio + MIDI record, edit and mix tools into Logic and seperate out things like the EXS editor, score layout and maybe even the environment into seperate applications and have them cooperate like Final Cut Studio.

Apple have just been added to the list of exhibitors at AES in October... http://www.aes.org/events/123/exhibitors/exhibitors.cfm Looks like they've got two demo rooms but no big stand.

Just read this.... http://9to5mac.com/node/184 Well.. it might not be on the 5th but Logic 8 is going to be released very soon. As a beta tester my contract has expired (as original release was well over a year ago!) and somehow Apple have not renewed my contract!? Anyway.. I feel obliged to not say too much except the 3 years of development have payed off. It is truly a ripper. serious thought and flawless design have made this the most major competitor to pro tools ever. The main aim was to make this as flawless and as bug free as possible. serious time has gone into the interface design. it is beautiful and the work flow is very unique. it also uses a new audio engine that is not only powerful but sounds very good. as an audio engineer they have made this a program that sonically is comparable to a 20k + pro tools system.. still for the same price as the old version. there are many new plugins and a few synths have been consolidated into one synth that sounds truly awesome. It new one page modular window is a first and I've already heard a similar design will be used for future FCP versions. it is finished and has been held up by the manual and a few other formalities. There are even rumours floating around us beta testers that it may see the light of day under another name. there is also lots of talk going on between Apple and Apogee and hardware not on the market shows up in the preferences. I cannot say the name as it will point me out. but it is a sound card that is expandable and has virtually no latency. I have not seen or tested such device at this stage. i can't believe how little there is out on the net?! this is the most tight lipped release I've ever witnessed! a few sites got things right earlier in the year but the passed 6 months have seen additional development that have not been mentioned anywhere! If any of this is true, I would think Apple would want some sort of event to make a splash about this and not just release it like they did with 7.0. AES would seem the next natural place to do that. They are not listed as an exhibitor - but it's long enough away for that to change.