Mac Mini and MachFive

[richardein]

Anyone using this? How well does it work?

The plan would be to set up machfive on a dedicated mac mini which would be input to a "mothership" (high end g5 running dp4). I would get a 1.42 ghz Mac Mini with 1 gig of ram and install Mach Five inside an AU host application of some sort.

Is this enough computing/ram/harddisk speed power for MachFive or do you need a faster machine than a MacMIni?

[doodles]

would think you would be struggling with 1 gig of ram, but woiuld be interested to know how it would work. i've got about 4 spare macs lying around here (dual 1gig g4's), but primarily use my g5 dual 2.5 now. if there's an easy way of using one or some of them as a stand-alone, would be v cool. often wondered...

[azusa749a]

I think the hard disk in MiniMac wouldn't be fast enough for the task.

[mhschmieder]

I'm looking into this option too, but am inexperienced in setting up computer networks in the home, which is what I assume you have to do to make this work, correct? is this done via Firewire connection between the Mac Mini and the host computer? Does it affect the latency of the plug-ins compared to Mach Five running on the same host machine as Digital Performer?

[richardein]

First of all, considering the comments here and the fact that none of the music store websites that sell the Mac Mini recc'd this kind of a use, it is probably not ideal, not in terms of the hard drive - you can always get a faster external - but in terms of bus speed, perhaps, or not enough memory. Too bad, as it would be a perfect solution...

Networking is extremely simple on a mac. The buzzwords are ethernet, hub, wifi, airport, etc. And a google search or a search on apple's website will provide what you need to know.

No, it is not necessary to network computers for this task. You need a MIDI interface hooked up to the Mach5 dedicated computer and an audio interface of some sort. You simply hook up the computer as another MIDI instrument and route the audio outputs (digital or analog) into a mixer or your main computer's audio interface. My plan is to use a traveler on the Mach5 computer, going into probably a 2408 - 3 (check the motu site).

[jeremyroberts]

You need a MIDI interface hooked up to the Mach5 dedicated computer

no you don't... since tiger, there is "MIDI networking", or MIDI over LAN, built in.

Apple is full of surprises.

[richardein]

Jeremy, I stand corrected. A very nice feature I plan to take advantage of immediately, if not even sooner (grin).