Which Mac??

[Al]

Hi

I'm due to update to Mac from PC and I am hoping to get an idea of what people think is the best Mac for the job. I'll basically being using M-Audio Axiom 49, MicroKorg, Korg Kaoss pad and soft synths through Ableton Live 7 with Reason. I currently have a HP Pc which seems to break up when I have a certain amount running and the soft synths are a bit slow. I'm also using a Line 6 Toneport UX2 but I'm not too sure if this might be redundant. Could anyone advise what Mac would be best (Macbook Pro or IMac most likely candidates) and what soundcard/audio interface would be good??

cheers
al

[Greg]

Any of the Macs you mentioned would be fine. It really depends on your needs. I personally like the Mac Pro desktop because I can expand it. 4 hard drives, more memory and so on. If your using a lots and lots of plugins you may want to get the Mac Pro or at least the iMac.

I'm not sure how fast your PC is so it's hard to say how much more power you need.

New Macs just came out, so check them out at apple's web site. The New iMac comes with 4 gigs of ram and you can get up to 8 gigs. Just don't buy the ram from apple when you buy ( they charge a lot more ). Check out macsales.com for less expensive ram.

I have a Toneport UX2 as well. It's not the best. I'll be upgrading soon.
The Apogee Duet is $500 and is made for the Mac. I did an A/B comparison with one and the Toneport.
The Duet has a much cleaner sound.

[Al]

Hi Greg

Thanks for that. I've got a month or so before I commit so will do a bit of further research. The laptop I'm using is an Compaq nx7300 which i received as a gift so it isn't tailored to my needs hence the update.

Specs: Intel(R) Celeron(R) M CPU 430 @ 1.73 GHz, 2GB Ram.

I'm using a softsynths, guitar and MIDI keyboard as stated above. I'll check out the Apogee too.

Cheers for the feedback!