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James Steele wrote:What about a used Mac Pro 2.66 Quad (Mac Pro 1,1) as a stepping stone. I bought one for 1k USD and they should all be selling for that or less soon as the new Mac Pros come out. Probably between 600-800. Saw on in craigslist recently for $750 USD.

I would if I could James, I would if I could. Unfortunately, the prices here in Oz are a bit higher - for example Apple's refurbed basic Mac Pros are still about twice the cost of a mini server - that extra $1,000 - $1,500 is a killer.

Here is an interesting twist - I happen to have a mac mini server from my work (just testing it out at home, you see). Out of interest, I ran up DP on it, but when I come to the authentication part, because it wants to see DP's install disk, and the mini doesn't have an optical drive, I'm networking it to my iMac and using the one in there, the authentication fails.

Oh, and before anybody gets too excited, I will NOT leave a copy on the mini, I'm really just trying to see if I can get it to work, lest I buy a new mini server and find out the hard way. If I had a USB-outboard optical drive, I would try that, but I don't.

Regarding audio in the Server OS, I don't think that is right. Snow Leopard has Pod Cast producer built-in, methinks that might need a bit of audio to work. Quicktime is in there too, of course.

Look HERE and under "Key Technologies"... there's no mention of Core Audio.
But HERE there is mention of Core Audio under "Key Technologies".
There's framework for QT but it's more for streaming than executing the code locally on the machine itself. Nothing stops you from running OSXSL though.

BKK-OZ wrote:

James Steele wrote:What about a used Mac Pro 2.66 Quad (Mac Pro 1,1) as a stepping stone. I bought one for 1k USD and they should all be selling for that or less soon as the new Mac Pros come out. Probably between 600-800. Saw on in craigslist recently for $750 USD.

I would if I could James, I would if I could. Unfortunately, the prices here in Oz are a bit higher - for example Apple's refurbed basic Mac Pros are still about twice the cost of a mini server - that extra $1,000 - $1,500 is a killer.

I was talking about used sales from private parties. Like from newspaper classifieds or online buying/selling sites like eBay? Do they have craigslist in Oz?

James Steele wrote:I was talking about used sales from private parties. Like from newspaper classifieds or online buying/selling sites like eBay? Do they have craigslist in Oz?

Not really - it has a bit of a presence here, but the closest we get is ebay, and I have been tracking a few mac pros there, but they all have been either pretty old, or pretty expensive. Maybe I'll get lucky with something like this. There are some auction houses, but it is pretty hit and miss.
Makes me sad.

Looks like there are lotsa problems trying to install SL onto a mini server - much discussion here.

When the mini server first came out, I read some stuff about starting the unit in firewire target mode and installing the regular SL OS from another Mac. I do not know what the outcome of those discussions were, but it seemed reasonable at the time. I think you may be able to authenticate DP from an external FW optical drive - again, speculation though. I gave up looking into this because I couldn't get by the thought of giving up my UA plugs.

Well, my Mac Pro is about as old as a Mac Pro can get. It's the first Intel machine. A dual dual-core 2.66 GHz and it's still much faster than my G5.

There is a way to authorize DP using a disk image mounted with toast if you don't have an optical drive. Of course it takes an actual installer disc but create a disk image of DP to an external HD and use toast to mount it... then open DP and put your info in and done. You must use toast.

BKK-OZ wrote:

twistedtom wrote:If money is the issue you will be the price of a Mini closer to a Pro.

? Sorry, but I don't understand?

What I mean is if you save the price of a Mac Mini in the bank and put that money towards a Mac Pro you will have that much more money to get what you really want.

Well, you all just go out and get your fancy Mac MIni's. I don't need such tricks to make my music sound great. Just give me a microphone and a floppy drive. Direct-to-disk. That's what I say. Who needs anything more than that? If you want to cheat and make out like you are doing something you aren't, then go right ahead and use a Mac Mini or one of those outlandish Mac Pro's. But the real musicians will always use just a floppy. Record with one mic. Write it to the floppy. Read it back directly to amplifier and speaker. One speaker. One good speaker that doesn't lie about the sound. That's the cowboy way.

and to all you buckaroos and buckarettes out there, I give you a whoopee ti-yi-yo, and a big <––––

I'd rather just buy a Mac Pro and forget the headache.

newrigel wrote:I'd rather just buy a Mac Pro and forget the headache.

Well, it wouldn't be the cowboy way, but hey, if you promise not to tell anyone, you and I agree on that 100%!

Shoosh

Geesh, every time there's a new Mac, there's a wrinkle in the works.

They really seem to want to make sure you have to spend at least $3400.

Maybe it's time to start looking into Windoze...

Shooshie wrote:...Just give me a microphone and a floppy drive. ... the real musicians will always use just a floppy.

hey, pardner, I'm with you!
but I'm still havin' a heckuva time gettin' that XLR to plug into that danged lil' floppy thing.

Shooshie wrote:Record with one mic.

would that be the LEFT "one" 'r the RIGHT "one"?

Shooshie wrote:Write it to the floppy.

right on, brother...do y'all use a felt-tip or a grease pencil?

Shooshie wrote:Read it back directly to amplifier

I don['t know...I've sat for hours, reading away to my Deluxe Reverb and, danged...it just sits there!

Shooshie wrote:That's the cowboy way.

ya-hoo, buckaroo!