Mac G4 and DP 4.5?

[JavierCalderon72]

I have a 1 Gig single Processor G4 with 1.5 Gigs of RAM. Is this enough of a machine to handle DP 4.5? And if so, are there any caveats? Is DP 4.5 performance on a machine like mine NOT optimal? Is there anythintg I should be concerned with?

What are the system requirements for DP 4.5?

Thank you very much for your responses.

Javier Calderon

[toofar]

Your machine will handle DP but as with every different config, there will be limits to what you can ask of it. Maybe post what you need it to do for you, and someone with a similar machine can give you some feedback.

cheers

[toofar]

Oh, and you should be able to find system requirements on the MOTU site.

[JavierCalderon72]

Thanks, toofar. I presently plan on using DP to do all the post production sound on a feature film - from looping, to foleying, to sound effects, to the musical score. I therefore need it to, of course, be able to work with video footage, as I'm going to be working with the edited picture.

[Releaux]

Javier,

This is a somewhat uninformed opinion, as I don't have specific experience doing post-production work. But given your description, I think you might want to bump yourself up to a faster machine.

I have a dual-800 G4 that I was using until last month, and it was certainly adequate up through 4.12. It didn't scream, but I didn't tear my hair out either. This was for basic remix and demo production, average plug-ins, mastering, and mid-range track counts of between 16-24.

My assumptions about what you're doing, however, are:

1. Fairly high track count (e.g. >32)
2. Lots of EQ/effects, possibility for cpu hogs like Altiverb

If that's the case, and this is a film with a decent budget, I wouldn't low-ball the post machine. It'll cost you more in time and headaches than it would to upgrade. If I were building a box to meet those specs, I'd go with a 10k rpm drive and a mid-range G5 with around 2.5-4 gigs of ram.

You might also ask this question on the Post-Production forum - those guys are more likely to know what's needed and what's acceptable performance. Additionally, they can provide a recommendation on how to deal with the video stream (do you need a separate drive for video? bus considerations...)

Cheers!

[JavierCalderon72]

Thanks much for the response, Toler. I shall indeed post in the post production threads.

I'm certainly going to TRY to keep my track count low - but considering how much post sound work I'm really going to have to do on this film, I wouldn't be surprised if the count reaches, or evern exceeds your guesstimation.

Same goes for the EQ and effects, although I am thinking that this area will be pretty crazy indeed (i.e. lots and lost of EQ and effects).

All that being said, the film's budget it, nontheless, negligible, and it looks like I am going to have to pull my hair out through potential frustration after potential frustration working on my comp.

Heck, I actually have Logic 6.4.2 . . . but, for some reason as of yet unbeknownst to me, my computer like HARD FREEZES and gets MAJOR kernel panics whenever I open it up . . . So I'm just thinking about getting DP and seeing if that's any "softer" on my system.

Thanks again,
Javier

[motuguy]

Well according to MOTU's www site:

Digital Performer has always been designed and built for professional use. For studio production, film scoring, live performance, remixing, and more, Digital Performer provides an easy to understand workflow, with all the features you need for full audio and MIDI production. You get unlimited tracks, unlimited undo, support for surround sound, 64 bit mastering tools, sample-accurate editing of audio and MIDI, automatic tempo calculation for film scoring, and much more.

I don't do anything as extensive as film scoring but my G4 handles DP with ease.

[Releaux]

Well... don't be too discouraged yet - as the old saying goes, "those who say something cannot be done need to stop distracting those who are actually doing it." Or something like that.

In other words, I'm certainly not saying that the project can't be done with the hardware you have. I certainly never felt that my dual-800 was "dog slow" running 4.1, but my projects were relatively simple.

You may just need to "think different" if you run into processing hurdles and may need to do a few more bounces than you would with a faster machine. Lots of us used to do some really impressive things with just 8 tracks before we got spoiled.

Just make sure you keep the original tracks in the event you have to go back and change things. I hear that happens sometimes with films.

[Studio615]

I run g4 867mhz with 1.5gb of ram and it runs great. I can at least 16 tracks with 2-3 plugins per track, depending on what they are. More tracks with less plugins. I can only run 1 or 2 reverbs at a time with that many plugins, that slows me down, but if I freeze the reverb tracks I can keep going. It's not lightning fast but it runs decent. I'm happy enough to not upgrade for a while, I'll wait and buy a used g5 later this year as my budget is tight.

[timware99]

I'm running DP 4.5 and Reason 2.5 on a 1GHz TiBook with 1GB of RAM, with just a couple audio tracks and a couple effects (and MACH 5) and it's not cutting it. I checked out this thread because I wanted to read opinions of others to see what was working & what was not.

[TZ_Keyz]

In a way, I'm glad I stuck with DP 2.72 on my G4 400 512 MB RAM. I get 48-64 tracks no problem at 48K. TZ

[JavierCalderon72]

Thank you all. This is more than valuable information, and it does help set me a little bit at ease in my thinking that my system may be able to handle the tasks that I will set before it in the approaching future. I'm looking forward to obtaining DP and learning all I can about it. This site has been very helpful, and I'm certainly glad it's back up again.

Javier