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Why MAS, when there already is MAS? To all non-musicians: MAS (from MotU) is a widely used audio system in the professional audio world.

My first Mac in late 1996 was a PowerMac 7600 with 132 MHz PowerPC 604 with 48 MB memory, 1.2 GB disk. I added a DigiDesign AudioMediaIII sound card as this machine was mainly for my music hobby. In early 2000 I upgraded the CPU to a 350 MHz G3. Also at some points during that time I upgraded the memory to 112 MB (8 slots allow for some crazy combinations!), added 2 disks (1 GB internal, 9 GB external, SCSI), and a USB card.

My second Mac came a year ago, a 733 MHz G4 QuickSilver (newly reduced price for education only after the dual 1-gigs were released, woohoo) with 640 MB of memory and a 40 GB disk. Added an aftermarket SuperDrive (same Pioneer model). After the wedding, with 5 1/2 hours of digital video footage to edit, I added a 120 GB disk.

Also bought an iBook in October for the wife, but I don't consider that really an "upgrade" from anything previous. Great little machine.

The 7600 is still in use today, running OS 8.6 as my primary music workstation. That'll be the case until my main music application comes to OS X "very soon". The machine is in great shape and still does everything I need it to do. I use the G4 as my primary desktop machine for everything but music (web, email, iMovie/iDVD, Gimp, programming, ssh to the FreeBSD box in the corner, etc).

So depending on what you mean by "upgrade" I'm not sure how often I have done so. But certainly, it's happened far less often than the PCs in my life. And so far, I've had zero hardware problems with my Macs (knock on wood). Can't say the same for the PCs, though again mine is but a single data point in the sea of information.

Actually Digital Performer has a press release ages ago about the Max OS X version that's coming. It should be released before year end.

And for what it's worth, MOTU already made a similar announcement back in July (pdf, screen shot). When that happens, I'll no longer have a use for my trusty old 7600, which runs Digital Performer on OS 8.6 since the QuickSilver runs OS X only.

And for what it's worth, MOTU already made a similar announcement back in July (pdf, screen shot). When that happens, I'll no longer have a use for my trusty old 7600, which runs Digital Performer on OS 8.6 since the QuickSilver runs OS X only.

with the recent release of digital performer 3.1, i heard that MOTU has put all developers onto the osX version which i heard is in beta. 3.1 is supposedly the last os9.x version.

i can't wait until i can do all my music stuff in osX, but in addition to MOTU i have to wait for native-instruments to get going on reaktor for osX.

hopefully, the protools announcement will help others get their asses in gear.

james

Of course, if Coda Music could get their ass in gear and get Finale out for OS X I could be happy. Running it in Classic mode is frustrating.

I'd be happy to see some more drivers out for OS X.....drivers for MOTU products for example...

I don't know first-hand about FireWire printers, but the FireWire ports seem to be used more for somewhat "specialty" items that need the grunt FW gives. There are plenty of audio and video devices that utilize and depend on FireWire.

At the very least, many musicians use external FW drives to stream digitial audio to, making it very easy to take that raw data to another machine for mix-down, collaboration with other artists, &etc. I'm guessing the video production folks do the same thing.

Don't forget about the various digital media players out there. Very few of these are going to be USB in the future.

From what I read in the iTunes 3.0 release notes, it still can't handle CD's where the music seamlessly spans multiple tracks. I'm getting sick of ripping CD tracks into Digital Performer and doing digital mixdowns just so I can get MP3's without gaps in the audio.

Digital Performer overview can be found here.

This is not only good news, but great news. Pardon me for feeling gleeful that Windows users will now feel the way some of us Mac users have felt in the past. It's about time that the Windows world lost a piece of software which is important to them. Although there are still options for them such as Digidesign'sProTools and Motu's Digital Performer, at least I can bask in the schadenfreude I have knowing they've lost a fantastic application like Logic Audio.

On to something more serious now, will this acquisition be good for Apple ? Certainly they've got the majority of Logic users, but can they improve upon this product to the degree that it will cause the Windows users to switch? I'm not sure whether they can. Getting someone to switch platforms when there are other solutions available is obviously not easy. But some of these audio applications take a lot of experience to master, and it may be cheaper in the long run for someone to buy a PowerMac instead of having to learn one of the other available applications for PC.

I do hope that everyone benefits from this, and that the small audio guy who only has a PC isn't left completely out in the cold, I do realize not everyone can afford a Mac. Hopefully the existing user base will not be immediately left out in the cold when they drop PC support. There should be some modicum of respect for the users who helped make Emagic as popular as it is today.

The ProTools rigs sound good (especially the big ones with the hardware-based effects plug-ins), but they're way overpriced and the software is a little messy.

Then again, I was commissioned to compose a piece for a performance festival in Zurich, and ended up buying a Sound Blaster from a market in Istanbul (I love tight deadlines). It sounded a bit crappy compared to what I usually use, not surprisingly, but it did the job. (Look for the piece "Renewal" at MP3.com if you're at all curious; by contrast, the "Diffusion" piece there was done on a big ProTools rig.)

You want quality audio in a PC? Go get a card made by these people, these people, these people, these people, these people, or these people. Then we'll talk.

According to motu's website they have 2 devices which use firewire, the 828 and 896. Also, if you want to do professional quality audio, you really can't use linux, there are no pro-audio apps available, and i dont count the dozens of midi apps around. There is nothing comprable to Cakewalk, Cubase, Digital Performer, Logic etc. that runs on linux.

If you are planning on setting up a real recording studio, you will be spending many thousands of dollars, and you choose the operating system that has the apps you need, which leaves you with windows and macos.

At the consumer level, there's no need for Firewire audio devices as USB provides ample bandwidth. But if you look at pro gear, you'll need more than that...

Mark Of The Unicorn sells the 828 and 896, two Firewire/1394 devices for audio I/O. They support 8 uncompressed audio channels in and out simultaneously (USB's current data rate can't come close to the bandwidth necessary to do this), with room to add multiple units to the same Firewire bus.

The 828 is the sole reason why my next audio workstation will be a Powerbook and not a desktop G4.

There are rumors that DigiDesign is working on a Digi001 style interface that will work over FireWire. MOTU already has audio interfaces that work over FireWire (i.e. 828 and 896).

However, I like ProTools, so I'm going to wait it out a bit to see if DigiDesign will actually come out with a decent FireWire product. Although, DigiDesign is notorious for being unbearable slow to market with the latest and greatest, especially when compared with a company like MOTU. Just the thought of a Ti Powerbook plus one of these FireWire audio interfaces--it's making me drool just thinking about it... I own a Digi001 and it's a pain having to lug my entire desktop setup around to do a recording.

For two-channel I/O, USB provides plenty of bandwidth. There's a sledgehammer killing a fly argument to be made against making this device 1394. You could argue that everything should be replaced with firewire, including ATA and SCSI. I actually rather dislike the disappearance of RS-232, since it'll make hardware harder to hack. Putting together something that talks RS232 is so much easier for the average geek than something that talks USB/1394.

Anyhow, if you want a 1394 interface, check out MOTU. They have some killer audio interfaces for 1394.

I'm also a musician geek... I wish they'd bring the Digi001 interface into a PCMCIA card, for the same sorts of reasons. Of course, if you have firewire, you've been able to have MOTU's stuff for quite some time now (2408 was the first, but now the 896 gives 24bit/96kHz, 8 mic inputs (with individually switchable phantom), 8 outs (-10/+4 switchable) + stereo mains, and ADAT I/O.

Definitely go Firewire with a Powerbook G4 or a newer iBook (depending on funds). Although I'm a Windows guy, the multimedia laptops for the PC are still not as slick as the Apple offerings. If you must go PC, I would go with a Sony (w/Firewire, of course) and Win2K (as I personally have yet to test a lot of popular music software on XP).

I would personally recommend trying the MOTU 828, which has great sound quality. There are also many USB MIDI choices as well (from MOTU and others).

It really is a shame that PC laptop hardware is not quite up to par in this area.

I want to get a MOTU 828 or 896 audio interface at somepoint, but for now, the Cube and the iMic work great!

I want to get a MOTU 828 or 896 audio interface at somepoint, but for now, the Cube and the iMic work great!

Have you ever looked into the iMic which is a great little USB in/out for about $40. 24bit, great for hooking up a mixer to record to the Mac or even PC.......

I've had great results with my MOTU 828. It's a rack-mount unit that connects to my laptop via Firewire, with many digital (2 channel S/PDIF I/O, 8 channel 24-bit ADAT lightpipe) and analog inputs (6 1/4" and 2 Neutrik XLR/TRS combo connectors with optional 48v phantom power), all with 24-bit converters w/excellent range) and outputs (8 1/4"). It's rack mountable, it's got drivers for PC and Mac, and it's very dependable -- I've had absolutely no problems whatsoever. And it ships with both ASIO and WDM drivers for PC, which means that it will work with any sequencer or audio program.

D->A->D works fine with the combination of my MOTU 2408 and my Apogee PSX-100.

The iBook is nice (look: computers meet Tupperware!) but it doesn't do CardBus. I have a Magma PCI card cage attached to my Pismo, which means that I can gig with the Pismo running something like MOTU Performer or Max/MSP, and use a PCI-based synth/effects processor like the OasysPCI. It makes a really powerful rig.

The problem here isn't software (although the programs aren't exactly excellent either). The problem is hardware. Speaking as an audio engineer, i will make the bold statement that NO pro-level sound card is currently supported in linux. Some people may disagree, but let me see if i can cut some of them off at the pass; a sound blaster of ANY kind is not a real sound card. Nor is a gravis, a turtle beach, or any other of the gaming cards people usually mention. The turtle beach comes close in a few areas, but doesn't get out of the hobbiest arena, due mostly to it's SNR, i/o connectors, and low rate ADCs.

Don't misunderstand me, i'm not saying these cards are horrible or that they suck, but if you think you're gonna replace 2" tape with your audigy, think again.

The real pro-level sound systems like sonic solutions, protools, motu, and to a more semi-pro extent midiman and echo audio have absolutely no linux support. For now, studio level audio with linux is a total dead end. The most you can hope for now is to use it for audio processing or creation does not even involve a sound card, and that's a pretty limited use.

BeOS could have made it, in fact they were starting to, but then they made the brilliant decision to "change focus" from multimedia to networking, good call guys.

All is not lost however, because OSX will bring light. Mac is THE platform for pro audio, protools is native to it, as is sonic solutions. This means that before too long all the biggies will be offering drivers for OSX (midiman already does), and if they are smart enough to offer the source with them, then they'll be ported in short order to linux i'm sure.

Linux audio now? bah! Linux audio in three years? definately!

Although I'm not the owner of such a cd player, one of my dear friends has a mid-range JVC home mini-system with a built-in S/PDIF optical out for the CD-Player, meaning that anyone posessing an audio interface with compatible inputs would be able to make digital copies of the music (Although it would be like ripping at 1X). In fact, even soundblaster live has a RCA S/PDIF digital in. Meaning the widely used RCA S/PDIF outs on a lot of gear may just get noticed!

As audio interfaces like the MOTU 828 and the Echo Layla24 become increasingly used in home studios, we all just might have a friend who can very well copy this "uncopyable" CD. My only question, to anyone who can answer this is, would some of the erroneous information be transmitted over the pipe? I would think not... but I don't know enough about it.

My MOTU 2408 has a perfectly functional, non-resampling s/pdif input, and my MOTU 308 has 8 of them. If you're on a budget, i think you can hack a zoltrix nightingale for $50 to have non-resampling S/PDIF.

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My MOTU 2408 has a perfectly functional, non-resampling s/pdif input, and my MOTU 308 has 8 of them. If you're on a budget, i think you can hack a zoltrix nightingale for $50 to have non-resampling S/PDIF.

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Actually, this is totally wrong. Price out some of the lower end Digidesign or MOTU cards/racks, then tell me how far that amount would have gotten you 25 years ago (adjusted for inflation, of course). The big difference is that your home recorded music can end up on CD sounding good rather than a self released cassette. Remember those?

Since, the "near death" of Apple a couple years ago, most major third party hardware and software is available for both Windows and Mac OS, with the same functionality. And yes, you do need third party hardware, even on the Mac. To name a few of the major players: Steinberg, Emagic, Opcode, Sonic Foundry, etc.

A short history on music production and distribution:
blah, blah, blah

This amusingly myopic regurgitation of dated rock critic wisdom is so terrible that I'll bring up only the worst points of it and then point you to some good resources so you can get a better handle on things.

The major problem with your "history" is that it neglects to mention black people until Public Enemy and NWA. Don't forget that the black community has played a major role in the invention of every American music, from jazz to rap to techno. Furthermore, they've had their own distribution channels in the past, and still do today.

While perhaps making for convenient comparisons to Britney, et al. , your explanation of the differences between AM/FM and 33/45 are grossly exagerated and, in some cases, incorrect. A lot of this has to do with the fact that you forgot black people, whose music is often more appropriately presented in a singles format.

Perhaps you best check out these places:
All Music
The Mechanic's Guide to Putting Out Records, Cassettes and CDs
Home Recording at About.com

Yes, but this is irrelevant. We're talking about high-end digital audio. I work with this stuff all the time, my digital I/O is via Motu 2408, a card which is considered an absolute bargain at $1000. ASM doesn't help anything, it helps performance a little, by completely destroying portability. I'd much rather have something that can be ported to run on new/different architectures than something which runs incredibly fast on one low-end chipset and doesn't run at all on anything else.
----------------------------

• Mark of the Unicorn (MOTU)
  
• Yamaha Although I can't seem to find the popular DSP factory in a few minutes of looking on the site.
  
• Echo Audio make the Gina, Darla, and Layla cards that used to be distributed by Event Electronics
  
• Aardvark Audio
  
• Digidesign
  
• Sek'd
  
• Soundscape Digital Technologies
  
• DSP FX makes an effects processing card
  

Finally. The one thing Linux needs and is severely lacking is good multimedia studio software. Correction. Any multimedia studio software. The only projects are not really in active development from what I can tell, except Melys, and that's fairly new. KeyKit is pretty cool, although a bit ugly by modern standards, but it has a few problems, especially the license.

As you can see from general searching and The Linux Sound and MIDI page, there isn't much else going on. I don't even see an attempt at a nonlinear video editor.

Also there are some unfortunate driver issues. I requested specs for the Motu MTP AV after purchasing one, only to get a reply that the information wasn't available to the public... so I can't write a driver, and am forced to use it like a cheap MIDI switch. (I'm going to continue to bug them, of course. It would benefit them and the Linux community to at least have open drivers. They sell more, we get software support and better, more capable studios.)

This really is a step in the right direction for the Jazz people, though, since they don't have a lot of regular updates. Hopefully they will use a Free(tm) license like the GPL. I applaud them in their decision, though, this is something I've been hoping for for awhile. Thanks guys!