New Laptop or PC for Recording

[John Bell]

Hi all, when I retire from telecoms in March, I will need to purchase a new laptop or PC when I hand in my works equipment.
I am thinking of staying with Mac's for recording duties and I am also thinking of moving on from my G4 iMac/Mackie's Tracktion 3, to a more compatible/professional recording software.

Any suggestions on what DAW and software would suite someone who likes the simple presentation/functions of Tracktion, but needs more processing power/usable track-count/plug-in friendly package? Cheers, John

[John Bell]

TRACKTION 4 is out now and in the hands of the Tracktion Software Corporation. It's back in the hands of it's original creators where it belongs. It has bugs, but they are being fixed.
I never though this would ever happen, after years of neglect.

www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=22

So happy I stayed with Tracktion 3 and did not move on.
Now just need a more modern iMac before I upgrade.

I will keep the old iMac/Tracktion 3 set-up, in case the new DAW gives me show-stoppers, until all of the bugs that could affect me are fixed.

[John Bell]

I have been looking at the new iMacs

store.apple.com/uk/configure/MD093B/A

I was very surprised that both of the 21.5-inch models only have a 1TB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm, instead of the usual 7200 rpm drives.
The only models that can have the 7200 rpm drives are the much bigger 27-inch models.
I do not really need such a big screen, which will also require me to have another flight-case made.

The original versions of Tracktion required 7200 rpm drives to be able to track properly.

Anyone else using an iMac/Tracktion DAW?

[John Bell]

I went for the 27" iMac with 16Gb ram and 3Tb 7200 hard drive.

I down-loaded it with Tracktion 4.3.1 (32 bit version) and IK Multimedia Total Studio 3 Bundle.

I connected it to my Midas Venice F-32 using a Thunderbolt to Firewire 800 adapter and 800 to 400 Firewire cable.

It all worked and a test recording was used to check out some of the new VST plugins. These all worked and looked great.

I will give it a full test this week-end, by recording my project band.

[John Bell]

The recording session went very well today, with me on drums/backing vocals, Clive Prentice (Jonestown) on guitar and lead vocals and David "Snowy" White (Jonestown) on bass.

8 mics on my drums, 1 mic on the guitar amp, DI'd bass amp and 2 vocal mics.

2 reverbs, 1 delay, 1 vocal EQ and 1 compressor VST's.
2 amp/cab emulator VST's and 2 guitar overdubs, were used to get a good rough mix.

All 7 tracks were Clive's own compositions and he was very pleased with the session.

We hadn't played as a 3 piece for a couple of years, but it felt like last week. We gel really easily and we realized just how much we missed these great sessions. Looking forward to more.

The 27" iMac/Tracktion 4/IK Multimedia/Midas Venice F-32 set-up worked very well, with no problems.

[John Bell]

I have since added IK Multimedia's White Channel Strip to my existing portfolio of excellent VST's.

The Total Studio 3 Bundle does not include expander/gates and you use Custom Shop to purchase additional VST's.

The White Channel Strip includes an expander/gate, a compressor, as well as fully parametric EQ's.

I can now gate the continuous low level buzz from the bottom snare mic track.

[John Bell]

Looking forward to Release The Peach returning to my studio for rehearsals next week.

www.facebook.com/pages/Release-the-Peach/224757734241109

It's been a long time since any regular gigs, so they need to work on new set-lists and re-visit some old material.

Roland V-Drums + cymbals, 5x stereo keyboards, bass, guitar via stereo DI peddle-board and a female lead vocalist.
All bar the drummer sing backing vocals.

This is an original Prog-Rock band, with all of the artists contributing to the song writing/arranging and I will probably be engineering their live sound and stage lighting like before, when they do future gigs.

[John Bell]

The session was very basic, as the guitarist couldn't make it, so it was just a recorded rehearsal.

Even so, everything worked well and at least the band could listen to a quality play-back of their efforts.

Next week, everyone should be there, so we should get some serious tracking done.