Phil Taylor wrote:
> >Phil Taylor writes:
> >| I've put up a first rough beta version of BarFly Carbon, for all the
> >| folks who've been badgering me for an OS X version. You can download
> >| it from: <http://www.barfly.dial.pipex.com/BarFlyCarbon.hqx>
> >
> >Hmmm ... I'm getting more and more tempted to invest in a PowerBook
> >with OSX. Now there's another reason.
Looking forward to checking it out, Phil - dammit, if you'd done it a year ago, I
wouldn't
have needed to write Skink...
>
> >
> >Actually, I've done a bit of digging, and have put it off because of
> >not enough information to decide what to order. While my official
> >excuse for buying one would be for "professional" software
> >development reasons, I'm also interesting in something that could
> >function as a portable musical tool. Maybe someone here knows more
> >than I can get from apple.com.
>
> Well, I bought a new Titanium G4 Powerbook about a month ago, so I
> can answer some of your questions.
I've had a couple of iBooks in the past 2 years, and I can answer some more...
>
>
> >There's a lot of hype about the wonderful music support, but it all
> >seems to be aimed at people who are downloading and playing musical
> >recordings. This is interesting, of course, but it can be done on
> >nearly anything these days.
>
> You're right, but Apple do it very prettily:-)
>
> >More interesting would be the ability to
> >use the machine as a recording studio. I can tell that a PowerBook
> >comes with a microphone, but I can't even tell from the specs whether
> >it's mono or stereo.
>
> Mine didn't come with a microphone, but it has line-level audio inputs
> (16 bits per channel stere).
>
I do most of my recording on a Yamaha MDS-8 Minidisc recorder, which has 8 inputs. I
hook
it up to a Mackie mixer (so I can use the preamps and phantom power) and attach some
decent microphones. When I'm done, I take the stereo output from the MD and put it in
to
an M-Audio Duo, which is a nicely versatile USB box with two XLR phantom powered
inputs,
digital in/out, line in/out and makes my Mackie 624s sound truly awe-inspiring.
I use Spark LE to master, and burn CDs from Toast on the iBook. I've been really happy
with the results, but as you'll notice, I haven't done anything more than stereo.
>
> >And, of course, I'd like to plug in N
> >microphones, and it would be interesting to learn how large N can be.
> >Can the "sound studio" software actually input N tracks from mics and
> >play games with them? Or can it only download the N tracks from some
> >other computer?
>
Apple changed their audio architecture radically in the last year, and it's taken a
bit of
time for the audio software vendors to catch up, but it is happening now. Already
eMagic's Logic Platinum is Mac OSX ready, and ProTools is demoing. Audio capture for
more than stereo is probably best done with a FireWire interface (Motu, for example).
>
> Not sure about that. You could use multiple USB microphones. There's
> nothing in the operating system to prevent recording multiple audio
> channels, and a machine which can record full-screen video in real
> time ought to be able to handle at least a dozen audio channels, but
> you'd really need to speak to somebody who is doing this to find out
> about the real situation.
>
> >Another topic that's hard to get straight info on is what can
> >actually be done with the wireless ports.
>
> The standard airport thingy is for wireless ethernet. You can use it
> to connect to a base station which is connected to the internet via
> modem or dsl. There's also Bluetooth, about which I know absolutely
> nothing. As far as I know, if you want to connect to the internet
> while you're out in the woods you will still have to use a cell phone,
> although there are a variety of interfaces which could potentially
> be used to connect the computer to the phone.
Bluetooth is a short-range, high-ish speed interface which would be used to connect to
a
(Bluetooth enabled) cellphone, such as many of the newer Nokia and Ericsson models.
From
there you can connect to the internet
In my house I have highspeed internet via Bell Sympatico DSL, which arrives at a magic
black box in the basement. This is attached to a wireless router which then attaches to
two Macs (an old beige G3 minitower and a Rev B iMac) via ethernet, and also has a
print
server with a parallel port that attaches to a salvaged HP LaserJet III. The wireless
part allows me to connect two iBooks anywhere in the house to the Internet and to
print on
either of the printers.
I can also connect one of the iBooks to the Internet via modem and then share the
internet
connection with the other one via modem.
>
>
> >As far as I can tell, the only available answer is "Buy one and see
> >if it works." I'm not sure if I'm ready to invest that much money,
> >just to find that it will only work when I'm at home.
>
> Try asking around on some of the comp.sys.mac usenet groups and you'll
> probably find somebody who's done it if it can be done.
At work, I can connect to the NFS server on my Sun workstation or to the Windows NT
server, and I can run X windows. I have a Java development system, BSD unix and all the
gcc tools. I bought a 3 button mouse with a scroll wheel... And I have 3 days worth of
tunes in iTunes...
I never have to shut down, I just close the lid and it sleeps, then when I open it up
and
plug in to another network, I can connect without having to reconfigure and reboot.
Uptime
measured in weeeks, not hours... I bought a copy of Virtual PC so I can run Windows
2000
if I really need to...
>
> >Sure would be useful, though.
> >
> >(And, since I'd use it for testing my day-job stuff, its price tag
> >would be deductible. ;-)
>
> Yeah!
>
> Phil Taylor
>
The only thing I didn't like about the iBook was that Apple had disabled the video
card's
ability to drive monitors at greater than 1024 by 768, but there is a firmware hack to
fix
that.
Do I like my iBook? oh yes! would I like one of the new 12-inch PowerBooks?
absolutely.
and mine isn't even deductible...
wil
<well, you _did_ ask...>
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