Which ver. DP best for G3 450 (umax s900) 324-PCI

[tubanick]

Hello people.

New to list, have searched this forum but haven't found all the info needed.

Running Umax s900 (w/Sonnet G3 450 upgrade), app. 312 MB RAM, OS 9.0, Maxtor ATA on Sonnet Tempo 66 card for OS, 9GB Seagate Baracudda on E100 SCSI card for scratch disk.

Have installed a loaned MOTU 324 PCI, and may purchase it, if correct/best version of DP can be obtained.

What version of DP best for this rig? I plan on tracking myself on low brass, dry, with a bit of limiter/compression. Have run Audiodesk, and it works, but am looking toward future needs should I get into MIDI etc. Would upgrade hardware etc., but want to spend $ on great (Neumann) mic.

Am I nuts to try running DP 4.x on this setup? Anyone know where I could get DP 3.x if needed? Do I even need DP i.e. will Audiodesk suffice?

TIA,

musoguy

[tubanick]

Oops.....

possibly useful info I forgot to post.........

I plan on recording more than 10 mono audio tracks, at most 20. Thanks!

Musoguy.

[Studio615]

DP 4.x need OS X. You might be able to run performer, I think it went up to 3.0. But I don't know you can get it. Anything more and forget it, too slow of a machine.

[Morpheo]

DP4 and OS X would be very frustrating on such a configuration... I'm afraid a G3 450 is too slow for OSX and DP4.x. BUT, that doesn't mean work can't be done

I would go for OS 9.2 and DP3.11, but I don't know if MOTU still sells it. If you don't do any MIDI, then maybe Audiodesk can do the job fine. Maybe you can start with Audiodesk and see if you really need more. Although G3s do 'support' OS X (meaning you can install the OS, not a lot more...), they really work better under OS 9 imo.

[Morpheo]

Besides, OS X would require a PCI 424 upgrade...

[Dallas4lr]

Greetings,

I'm running DP 3.0 on a G3 B&W 350. As others have stated DP 4.0 would be far too slow on your processor. Your will probably have to go to ebay to get a version of DP 3.0 - thats where I got mine. Also I wouldnt lock myself in with that PCI 324 unless your certain you will be using a MOTU interface.

Dallas

[ross]

Morpheo. Why would he need a 424 upgrade.I'm using a324 with panther. Works fine.

[Morpheo]

I guess you only use your 324 with DP then, and use the mac's built-in for everything else (iTunes etc) otherwise it's welcome to KP-land... Or maybe you're just lucky. I had to upgrade mine.

[tubanick]

Hey all. Thanks for the info. Really useful. Will look into eBay for DP 3.xx Seems, from what I read, that the setup I'm using should do, especially since I'm not doing any MIDI. I'll just have to see how many audio tracks i can stack up before things start bugging out.

Dallas, you wrote:

>Also I wouldnt lock myself in with that PCI >324 unless your certain you will be using a >MOTU interface.

At the risk of sounding ignorant, or going out of this forums realm, are there better options for a guy like me who simply wants to record a track at a time of acoustic audio? My original intent was to record a multi track low brass album, play all tracks myself and keep the signal path as simple/clean as possible. At the $ (350 Can) this 324, plus a good preamp/mic should do the trick. I hope.

If someone thinks there is a better option/s I'm all ears. But if I can keep the s900 etc. from going to the landfill, I will!

[Don T]

Hello:
We are still using powermac 7600's with Sonnet G3 400 cpu cards in some of our labs. Our most stable setup is OS 9.1 and DP 3.11. You will need at least 512 megs of ram and a decent SCSI drive. We can get 22 stereo tracks running with jittery video. On a test we ran to compare with other systems on this board we ran 8 tracks of audio and added 12 MW compressors before the cpu peaked. We are not running 324 cards in those machines so I cannot give simultanious recording track count data. On my personal G3 B&W 450 I have recorded as many as 32 tracks at once but that machine has a 100 mhz bus (compared to 50 mhz for the powermac).

<small>[ July 20, 2005, 12:28 AM: Message edited by: Don T ]</small>

[Dallas4lr]

Musoguy,

The PCI-324 isnt a standalone unit, the PCI-324 has to be connected to a MOTU digital interface. Since you havent mentioned the model interface you are using I;m assuming you don't have one and without it you won't be doing any recording. My point is the PCI-324 only works with MOTU digital interfaces. So think about what interface you want to use, and that will determine if you will even need that card.

Dallas

[markwayne]

When I purchased DP, I just asked for a downgrade and they sent me a copy of DP 3.1. MOTU was very helpful in this regard. I used DP 3.1 with OS9 until I was ready to take the plunge into OSX and had converted all my SVPro work.

FWIW - I also use a PCI324 with Panther without any problems. In fact, due to a fatal conflict with my scsi card, my pci424 which I got for my OSX box, is now in my gigastudio PC.

Wayne

[tubanick]

Awesome. More useful info!

Dallas. Sorry I wasn't specific about my MOTU setup. I have on loan a complete MOTU 2408 system with:

-MOTU 2408 I/O (RCA in/outs)
-MOTU PCI-324 card
-Audio wire
-install cd (audiodesk, drivers etc)
-Manuals

I understand what you were getting at now. Thanks.

Don T. I have a Seagate Barracuda 9 GB 7200 80 pin drive connected to the stock E100 SCSI card in my Umax s900. I have the Audiodesk app installed there and will use this as my scratch disk. OS 9 is installed on the ATA drive. In terms of OS and app, is the best usage of drives?

As for DP 3.11 if I find AudioDesk lacking, I'll drop a line to MOTU and see if they can't send me a copy.

Thanks again people!

Musoguy.

[wynsmth]

I had almost the exact same computer & setup as you do although it had a Newer Tech 366 G3 card in it. It worked best with OS 9.1 & DP3.1.1 and is still working great for the friend I sold it to. I would suggest getting a SCSI card though, I had an Adaptec (can't remember the model #) but it was fairly cheap. The stock SCSI bus on that computer is painfully slow. (I think 5MB)

[tubanick]

Hey Wayne.

This rig has the stock E100 card which is an ethernet/ultra scsi card. Don't recall the scsi throughput, but it is certainly more (up to 40 MB?) than the scsi bus on the logic board.

Someday I'll graduate to a RAID setup as I have two Seagate scsi 9 gb drives I could use.

Any reccomends on an affordable scsi card for a RAID setup?

Musoguy.