Octopus

I am going to be working with Max/Msp as part of a music project that I'm doing next semester and may be getting my own laptop in order to have a portable setup. The project is going to mainly involve live manipulation of sounds both electronic (and acoustic sounds that are being performed concurrently).

I am going to be getting a Mac, but I am wondering if there are any specific things that I should make sure to get with that--if I should be more worried about RAM or total memory, or anything like that. Also, I'm not sure what kind of i/o interface for audio is needed, I'm assuming generally this is done through something.

I'm on a student budget, so expense is something I'd like to keep low, but I don't just want something that will be useless at the end of the semester.

I am going to be working with Max/Msp as part of a music project that I'm doing next semester and may be getting my own laptop in order to have a portable setup.  The project is going to mainly involve live manipulation of sounds both electronic (and acoustic sounds that are being performed concurrently).

I am going to be getting a Mac, but I am wondering if there are any specific things that I should make sure to get with that--if I should be more worried about RAM or total memory, or anything like that.  Also, I'm not sure what kind of i/o interface for audio is needed, I'm assuming generally this is done through something.

I'm on a student budget, so expense is something I'd like to keep low, but I don't just want something that will be useless at the end of the semester.


system-suggestions-with-maxmsp

any mac you buy now will have leopard installed. check before you 

purchase any audio equipment that there are, in fact, leopard 

drivers. m-audio has yet to release *any*, the pigfuckers. 'scuse my 

On Nov 13, 2007, at 7:23 PM, deepseacatfish wrote:

> I am going to be working with Max/Msp as part of a music project 

> that I'm doing next semester and may be getting my own laptop in 

> order to have a portable setup. The project is going to mainly 

> involve live manipulation of sounds both electronic (and acoustic 

> sounds that are being performed concurrently).

> I am going to be getting a Mac, but I am wondering if there are any 

> specific things that I should make sure to get with that--if I 

> should be more worried about RAM or total memory, or anything like 

> that. Also, I'm not sure what kind of i/o interface for audio is 

> needed, I'm assuming generally this is done through something.

> I'm on a student budget, so expense is something I'd like to keep 

> low, but I don't just want something that will be useless at the end 

any mac you buy now will have leopard installed.  check before you  
purchase any audio equipment that there are, in fact, leopard  
drivers.  m-audio has yet to release *any*, the pigfuckers.  'scuse my  
flemish.

>
> I am going to be working with Max/Msp as part of a music project  
> that I'm doing next semester and may be getting my own laptop in  
> order to have a portable setup.  The project is going to mainly  
> involve live manipulation of sounds both electronic (and acoustic  
> sounds that are being performed concurrently).
>
> I am going to be getting a Mac, but I am wondering if there are any  
> specific things that I should make sure to get with that--if I  
> should be more worried about RAM or total memory, or anything like  
> that.  Also, I'm not sure what kind of i/o interface for audio is  
> needed, I'm assuming generally this is done through something.
>
> I'm on a student budget, so expense is something I'd like to keep  
> low, but I don't just want something that will be useless at the end  
> of the semester.
>


>I am going to be working with Max/Msp as part of a music project 

>that I'm doing next semester and may be getting my own laptop in 

>order to have a portable setup. The project is going to mainly 

>involve live manipulation of sounds both electronic (and acoustic 

>sounds that are being performed concurrently).

>I am going to be getting a Mac, but I am wondering if there are any 

>specific things that I should make sure to get with that--if I 

>should be more worried about RAM or total memory, or anything like 

>that. Also, I'm not sure what kind of i/o interface for audio is 

>needed, I'm assuming generally this is done through something.

>I'm on a student budget, so expense is something I'd like to keep low,

of course the usual answers you will get is " as much ram as you 

can, as fast a HD, a mid-price sound card"

however if you don't have much money, i would say for what yo want to 

do - "live manipulation of sounds" - if the sounds are pre-recorded 

(on your hard disk already) RAM is important (so you can buffer 

them), but you can also read them from the hard-disk (not read the 

buffer), in which case a fast HD is important.

but for live manupulation of sound, the CPU speed is very important 

(ok, i still use a PPC G4, and if it's far from perfect, it's still 

as for the sound card - you might not need one maybe: the sound InOut 

on mac is pretty good, at least i did not notice a difference between 

those and cheap sound cards (between say the build-in sound and the 

one of my ego-sys...) with 2 audio cables and a cheap small mixer 

you can have an OK sound, especially in live situation (I see many 

pro musicians not using any sound card.... and don't hear anyone 

complaining in a live concert about the bad quality of converters!!)

>I am going to be working with Max/Msp as part of a music project 
>that I'm doing next semester and may be getting my own laptop in 
>order to have a portable setup.  The project is going to mainly 
>involve live manipulation of sounds both electronic (and acoustic 
>sounds that are being performed concurrently).
>
>I am going to be getting a Mac, but I am wondering if there are any 
>specific things that I should make sure to get with that--if I 
>should be more worried about RAM or total memory, or anything like 
>that.  Also, I'm not sure what kind of i/o interface for audio is 
>needed, I'm assuming generally this is done through something.
>
>I'm on a student budget, so expense is something I'd like to keep low,

of course the usual answers you will get  is " as much ram as you 
can, as fast a HD, a mid-price sound card"

however if you don't have much money, i would say for what yo want to 
do - "live manipulation of sounds" - if the sounds are pre-recorded 
(on your hard disk already) RAM is important (so you can buffer 
them), but you can also read them from the hard-disk (not read the 
buffer), in which case a fast HD is important.

but for live manupulation of sound, the CPU speed is very important 
(ok, i still use a PPC G4, and if it's far from perfect, it's still 
ok)

as for the sound card - you might not need one maybe: the sound InOut 
on mac is pretty good, at least i did not notice a difference between 
those and cheap sound cards (between say the build-in sound and the 
one of my ego-sys...) with 2 audio cables and  a cheap small mixer 
you can have an OK sound, especially in live situation (I see many 
pro musicians not using any sound card.... and don't hear anyone 
complaining in a live concert about the bad quality of converters!!)

kasper
-- 
  Kasper T. Toeplitz
noise, composition, bass, computer
http://www.sleazeArt.com

jeanfrancois.charles@newflore.org schrieb:

> And as with any laptop, you will add the 3-year Apple Care.

Sorry, I disagree again. Apple Care is a pretty expensive insurance 

(though they sell it as "warranty") which even doesn't cover things like 

theft, or if you drop your laptop from the balcony...

A normal insurance will cover those cases as well as repair, and is 

usually cheaper. Its only a bit more hassle and bureaucracy if you ever 

jeanfrancois.charles@newflore.org schrieb:
> And as with any laptop, you will add the 3-year Apple Care.

Sorry, I disagree again. Apple Care is a pretty expensive insurance 
(though they sell it as "warranty") which even doesn't cover things like 
theft, or if you drop your laptop from the balcony...
A normal insurance will cover those cases as well as repair, and is 
usually cheaper. Its only a bit more hassle and bureaucracy if you ever 
need it...

-- 
Stefan Tiedje------------x-------
--_____-----------|--------------
--(_|_ ----|-----|-----()-------
-- _|_)----|-----()--------------
----------()--------www.ccmix.com

On 14 Nov 2007, at 17:30, Stefan Tiedje wrote:

> Sorry, I disagree again. Apple Care is a pretty expensive insurance 

> (though they sell it as "warranty") which even doesn't cover things 

> like theft, or if you drop your laptop from the balcony...

It is a bit of a rip-off (as are all high-price "extended 

warranties"), but in the case of Mac laptops I think it's worth it; I 

have just purchased it for my MacBook Pro...

...which replaces the 1GHz TiBook I have here. Once out of warranty, 

the TiBook blew its FireWire port, broke its SuperDrive, and came out 

in white spots all over its screen. Of the half-dozen 667MHz TiBooks 

we had (one of which it replaced), two of them developed bad cable 

On the other hand, the Pismo which the TiBook replaced is pretty much 

bombproof, although the battery is basically dead. So, yes, it's 

insurance. Whether it's worth it really depends on how inconvenient 

it would be for the machine to die, and how likely it is that you'll 

be somewhere abroad when that happens. For us international laptop 

gigging types, that's something of an issue.

> Sorry, I disagree again. Apple Care is a pretty expensive insurance  
> (though they sell it as "warranty") which even doesn't cover things  
> like theft, or if you drop your laptop from the balcony...

It is a bit of a rip-off (as are all high-price "extended  
warranties"), but in the case of Mac laptops I think it's worth it; I  
have just purchased it for my MacBook Pro...

...which replaces the 1GHz TiBook I have here. Once out of warranty,  
the TiBook blew its FireWire port, broke its SuperDrive, and came out  
in white spots all over its screen. Of the half-dozen 667MHz TiBooks  
we had (one of which it replaced), two of them developed bad cable  
connections to their screens.

On the other hand, the Pismo which the TiBook replaced is pretty much  
bombproof, although the battery is basically dead. So, yes, it's  
insurance. Whether it's worth it really depends on how inconvenient  
it would be for the machine to die, and how likely it is that you'll  
be somewhere abroad when that happens. For us international laptop  
gigging types, that's something of an issue.

Nick Rothwell / Cassiel.com Limited
www.cassiel.com
www.myspace.com/cassieldotcom
www.last.fm/music/cassiel
www.loadbang.net


> jeanfrancois.charles@newflore.org schrieb:

>> And as with any laptop, you will add the 3-year Apple Care.

Most of the new Macs around me had to be repaired during their 3 first 

years these 5 last years (funnily, when I worked years ago as a tech 

support for a 150 Macs network, I had almost no hardware problems, even 

with these ugly 5200). Laptops and desktop. There were harddrive 

failures, screen problems, cpu problems...

You don't have to buy AppleCare directly, you can wait until the end of 

your first year warranty, but you should do it.

Centre de Recherches et de Formation Musicales de Wallonie asbl

> jeanfrancois.charles@newflore.org schrieb:
>> And as with any laptop, you will add the 3-year Apple Care.
>

Most of the new Macs around me had to be repaired during their 3 first 
years these 5 last years (funnily, when I worked years ago as a tech 
support for a 150 Macs network, I had almost no hardware problems, even 
with these ugly 5200). Laptops and desktop. There were harddrive 
failures, screen problems, cpu problems...

You don't have to buy AppleCare directly, you can wait until the end of 
your first year warranty, but you should do it.

_____________________________
Patrick Delges

Centre de Recherches et de Formation Musicales de Wallonie asbl
http://www.crfmw.be/max


> Whether it's worth it really depends on how inconvenient it would be

> for the machine to die, and how likely it is that you'll be somewhere

> abroad when that happens. For us international laptop gigging types,

Don't get me wrong, I do think that an inssurance is worth its money, I 

just say you could have it most likely cheaper than with Apple...

And especially in France/Germany I had a bad experience with Apple 

"warranty". I claimed my broken drive, which broke in normal warranty 

time, and in France they offered me to take the computer into repair for 

at least three weeks. Of course if I'd be willing to pay extra, they'd 

I tried to get it fixed in Germany then, but the places I was close 

didn't have the part... I decided to live without drive, which was the 

With an inssurance you just don't care what they charge and get it done 

Nick Rothwell schrieb:
> Whether it's worth it really depends on how inconvenient it would be
> for the machine to die, and how likely it is that you'll be somewhere
> abroad when that happens. For us international laptop gigging types,
> that's something of an issue.

Don't get me wrong, I do think that an inssurance is worth its money, I 
just say you could have it most likely cheaper than with Apple...
And especially in France/Germany I had a bad experience with Apple 
"warranty". I claimed my broken drive, which broke in normal warranty 
time, and in France they offered me to take the computer into repair for 
at least three weeks. Of course if I'd be willing to pay extra, they'd 
do it in 2 days...
I tried to get it fixed in Germany then, but the places I was close 
didn't have the part... I decided to live without drive, which was the 
better decision in this case... ;-)

With an inssurance you just don't care what they charge and get it done 
on demand wherever you are...

system suggestions with Max/Msp