New Quad Core iMac released (20 October 2009)

[mhschmieder]

One of the things I've concluded is that there's not much point in going with a MacPro unless you also have the dough to dump Firewire for AES/EBU or some other format (for the audio I/O).

I read the RME spec for their new PCIe card this past weekend, and even though one should have gains from being "inside the box" vs. an iMac, the cabling between the rack unit and the PCIe board is Firewire with a proprietary protocol vs. standard Firewire protocol, so the latency is the same as with an iMac as far as I can tell.

Again, this is from my perspective that the most important thing is to find ways to lower latency (and there aren't that many). I am so frustrated after years with my current iMac. I'm almost inclined to pick up the Kurzweil PC3x sooner rather than later, and do most of my early songwriting on it vs. the computer, just to avoid latency on overdubs.

Sure, a new computer will be faster all around, but as near as I can tell, even with a super-duper i7 iMac, my minimum latency will still only be half what it is with my G4 iMac (under ideal conditions, which I can rarely meet due to CPU/etc., but even in rare cases where I can minimise the FW400 latency on my G4, it isn't really good enough for accurate bass and percussion overdubs, so a mere factor of two that comes with the FW800 upgrade doesn't seem that significant).

[HCMarkus]

Other than the architecture of the computer, the one thing the Mac Pro provides that is, in my mind, pretty much essential is access to multiple SATA drives.

On the latency point, I have been running DP6 and 7 at a 256 buffer, and finding latency is not a problem, even when playing piano parts. I use a Motif and S90ES in studio, and if I need a quick sound often look there, but even on my Quad G5 I have been running a ton of VI's and Altiverb instances with great success, and no need for buffer size switching.

Whatever machine you choose you are going to love it!

[mhschmieder]

Hah, that's a sanity check for you, since many of the 'slutz are saying you need to be able to get down to a buffer size of 32 to be close to real world (i.e. the days of tape). Maybe that's true for ProTools.

[newrigel]

One of the things I've concluded is that there's not much point in going with a MacPro unless you also have the dough to dump Firewire for AES/EBU or some other format (for the audio I/O).

I read the RME spec for their new PCIe card this past weekend, and even though one should have gains from being "inside the box" vs. an iMac, the cabling between the rack unit and the PCIe board is Firewire with a proprietary protocol vs. standard Firewire protocol, so the latency is the same as with an iMac as far as I can tell.

Again, this is from my perspective that the most important thing is to find ways to lower latency (and there aren't that many). I am so frustrated after years with my current iMac. I'm almost inclined to pick up the Kurzweil PC3x sooner rather than later, and do most of my early songwriting on it vs. the computer, just to avoid latency on overdubs.

Sure, a new computer will be faster all around, but as near as I can tell, even with a super-duper i7 iMac, my minimum latency will still only be half what it is with my G4 iMac (under ideal conditions, which I can rarely meet due to CPU/etc., but even in rare cases where I can minimise the FW400 latency on my G4, it isn't really good enough for accurate bass and percussion overdubs, so a mere factor of two that comes with the FW800 upgrade doesn't seem that significant).

I have a K2000 just for the latency issue... I play the Kurz's on board sounds for monitoring for a tighter performance. I NEVER track with a VI unless it's the guide track. It's just ingrained in my workflow that VI's and plugs are for post processes only so it isn't an issue @ all here.

[mhschmieder]

That's good feedback; thanks. I'm also going to be talking with the production crew tonight for the stage show I am musical director for, regarding the benefits of the new PC3K for sound effects etc. It can load K2000 series samples, and Andrew Lloyd Weber was the one requesting this new "interim" model from Kurzweil before they deliver a K3000.

[Rainman]

My wife just ordered a 27" iMac with the i7 processor and 8 megs of RAM, should be here by the end of the month. She is a graphic artist/photographer/videogapher so if I'm a good boy I'm sure she'll let me play with it. I'm quite curious about it's performance and while I won't be loading it up with all my music software I think I'll get a fair idea of it's power and abilities. I'll report back once I've had a chance to use it.

Rainman