newbie questions..

[rjj]

I would like to be able to record live music to a laptop and also make computer music with it myself. What I was looking at getting was an ibook or powerbook and an M-box from digidesign. Any advice would be great, I'm really new at this. thanks.

[Scott Gould]

I'm not familiar with the Mbox, but I do know the MOTU 828 & iBook make a very good pair. It's all going to depend on what your specific needs are (how many channels do you need to record simultaneously? Will they be microphone, instrument or line inputs? what outboard gear do you have? will you be using MIDI? how familiar are you with recording hardware/software and the recording & mixing process? etc. etc.) I'd suggest you look at the forums at www.macmusic.org - that will give you a better idea of where to start. The learning curve for this stuff can be pretty steep. You might find that a dedicated all-in-one box with 8 or 16 channels HD recording, mixing, mic pre-amps & effects will be more suited to your needs. I love my Macs, but I do my recording on dedicated hardware, except for occasional editing of the final stereo mix.

Scott

[rjj]

I'll be recording small groups (2-6) people. mostly jazz and electronic music. 2 inputs are fine, thus the m-box.
I have a korg d12 right now and it's a great machine. The couple of recordings I've made on it have great sound quality and we just did them in my small aprtment with 2 sure 57's.
The only reason I want to change equipment is that I am very interested in learning and making computer music myself and being able to have portable studio at the same time. The korg really isn't that portable, I'm in NY, and hauling all that stuff on the subway just won't work. anyway, thats a little more on where i'm at with all this. thanks for the reply. I've tried macmusic and they haven't been any help.

[hmurchison]

rjj I'm eyeballing the Mbox myself. Sounds like the Mic Pre's are pretty decent for the price and the software is of course solid. Wish I could offer more advice but I'm in need of a new mac before I can make a Audio Recording purchase.