itsmedunc Posted March 10, 2018 Share Posted March 10, 2018 (edited) Amazing the conflicting reports online as to the spec needed. Opinions range from the latest top spec Mac to the oldest and most basic models. Recording 16 tracks live (without plugins, just the raw audio) with Logic X, Tracks Live etc, what spec have you used (and what software) to achieve a good decent (and beyond) standard? In particular used in conjunction with Behringer X18 - Xr18's. Edited March 10, 2018 by itsmedunc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xgsjx Posted March 10, 2018 Share Posted March 10, 2018 If it's that basic, then an iMac from the past 10 or so years would be fine. You'd probably still be able to use plug ins too. My old iMac from 2007 would have done that without issue. I'd get the best spec'd mac you can afford. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ambient Posted March 10, 2018 Share Posted March 10, 2018 I use a 2012 MacBook Pro with the standard 4gb of RAM. The only upgrade is the hard drive was replaced by an SSD this time last year. I run the latest version of Logic Pro X which in my opinion is the bargain of the century considering what you get. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charic Posted March 10, 2018 Share Posted March 10, 2018 If it's intel based I would look for an i5 with at least 16gb of ram but that's personal taste Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thepurpleblob Posted March 10, 2018 Share Posted March 10, 2018 You can't be too thin or have too much RAM. Generally the best value upgrade is to max out the RAM. Followed closely by an SSD drive. With the exception of some weird iMacs they sold a couple of years ago, Apple didn't make a low-spec computer so anything from the last few years is fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrtcat Posted March 10, 2018 Share Posted March 10, 2018 Yep concur with most of the above. A solid state drive and plenty of ram coupled with i5 or i7 and you'll be set. I use a fairly cheap Dell laptop with a Samsung ssd and 16gb ram plus i5 processor. I use it for exactly what you have described and it also works flawlessly for video production on the move. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itsmedunc Posted March 10, 2018 Author Share Posted March 10, 2018 Everyone above is more or less saying what I thought. However, a bit of an online search and some folk seem to dismiss maxing out the ram and processing power. The machine needs to run its own OS and the program used to record. A faster hdd than 54,000 sounds fair but the more I think about it, it's only audio. No signals are being processed with fx, sims etc. I'm going to have to resurrect the old Mac A1181 and give it a whirl. Hypothetically, if I was to plug in a bass to the X18, record enable 16 tracks in Logic and set all the input sources to the same, I should then be able to record 16ch of audio simultaneously. Does that sound a fair test or are there other factors to consider? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodinblack Posted March 10, 2018 Share Posted March 10, 2018 (edited) Anything can do what you are asking. I use an old acer netbook that came with windwos XP to connect to my X18 live and it works fine. I have also used my wifes old original macbook air running garage band, and that works fine 24 minutes ago, itsmedunc said: A faster hdd than 54,000 sounds fair but the more I think about it, it's only audio. A 54,000 rpm speed harddisk will almost certainly be good - that is 10 times faster than the 5,400 ones you normally get Although seriously I wouldn't use a spinning hard disk for anything other than single access storage these days. Edited March 10, 2018 by Woodinblack Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul_5 Posted March 10, 2018 Share Posted March 10, 2018 SSD dives and a lot of RAM - at least 8GB 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itsmedunc Posted March 10, 2018 Author Share Posted March 10, 2018 33 minutes ago, Woodinblack said: Anything can do what you are asking. I use an old acer netbook that came with windwos XP to connect to my X18 live and it works fine. I have also used my wifes old original macbook air running garage band, and that works fine A 54,000 rpm speed harddisk will almost certainly be good - that is 10 times faster than the 5,400 ones you normally get Although seriously I wouldn't use a spinning hard disk for anything other than single access storage these days. 54,000 duly noted! 'These days", is an interesting term. Surely, in the past folk would have achieved decent results without the technology available today? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dad3353 Posted March 10, 2018 Share Posted March 10, 2018 12 minutes ago, itsmedunc said: ...Surely, in the past folk would have achieved decent results without the technology available today? Sometimes, but not always, and at far greater expense than nowadays. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodinblack Posted March 10, 2018 Share Posted March 10, 2018 7 hours ago, itsmedunc said: 'These days", is an interesting term. Surely, in the past folk would have achieved decent results without the technology available today? What of an 18 channel mixer with multiple effects and multiple bus masters? Yes, they did, but not at the level a pub band could afford or carry in a small bag! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itsmedunc Posted March 10, 2018 Author Share Posted March 10, 2018 1 hour ago, Woodinblack said: What of an 18 channel mixer with multiple effects and multiple bus masters? Yes, they did, but not at the level a pub band could afford or carry in a small bag! Appreciated, the expense would have been far more than most could have afforded. I think I'll try Tracks Live on the old Mac, Intel Core 2 Duo, 2.13ghz, 4gb RAM (but will take 6gb), use an external SSD drive and see what results I can get. It's all just got me thinking. I recently sold my Mac Mini 2.5ghz, 16 RAM in favour of a 2013 Macbook Pro that would definitely do the job, No doubt the Mini would have done it too but I just wanted something truly portable. Only problem is, I saw a 27" iMac 2013, 3.2ghz, 16gb RAM (upgradable to 32gb), 1tb fusion drive for silly silly money and bought that instead! Portability is a no no and I'm back in the same position with no money to buy a Macbook! Hence the question posed - what can I get away with! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EBS_freak Posted March 10, 2018 Share Posted March 10, 2018 (edited) Its always interesting when people start talking speed with regards to HDs... Doing some rough calcs... For each mono track, 24 bit, 48KHz, the bitrate is going to be 1,152 Kbps. So filesize is 144 Kb per second, per channel written to disk. For 32 tracks... 144kb x 32 tracks = 4608Kb/s, so in Mb, 4.5Mb/s So realistically, any HD will do at those kind of write speeds. Of course, with a magnetic drive, you'd hope that you've got the disk defragged for recording. Of course SSD doesn't suffer with fragmentation. So when I say any HD will do... they will... as pretty much any 5400rpm HD will handle write speeds of way more than 4.5Mb/s. In short, the hard disk is not going to be the issue when tracking. Editing however, you'll probably appreciate the faster disk speed. If you suffer problems whilst recording - especially long sessions - it's probably down to your choice of daw, or buffer on your audio device. In short, processor for recording and then RAM for are king. For clarification though - SSD for at least your system disk is going to make your system feel a lot lot lot more responsive. Edited March 10, 2018 by EBS_freak Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ambient Posted March 10, 2018 Share Posted March 10, 2018 11 hours ago, paul_5 said: SSD dives and a lot of RAM - at least 8GB SSD drive, yes, I use a basic 2012 MacBook with just 4gb and it's never let me down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodinblack Posted March 11, 2018 Share Posted March 11, 2018 5 hours ago, itsmedunc said: Portability is a no no and I'm back in the same position with no money to buy a Macbook! Hence the question posed - what can I get away with! This is why I have a netbook for live recording. I don't want to take my nice expensive macbook that contains my entire life into a pub, so I take a cheap netbook that is not worth anything. It records all channels to wav, then I come home, copy it onto a disk and copy it to a mac and put it into logic where I can process it to my hearts content. I don't do anything on the netbook apart from the recording. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itsmedunc Posted March 11, 2018 Author Share Posted March 11, 2018 8 hours ago, Woodinblack said: This is why I have a netbook for live recording. I don't want to take my nice expensive macbook that contains my entire life into a pub, so I take a cheap netbook that is not worth anything. It records all channels to wav, then I come home, copy it onto a disk and copy it to a mac and put it into logic where I can process it to my hearts content. I don't do anything on the netbook apart from the recording. That sounds like a sensible solution! If you don't mind me asking, what netbook and software are you using? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodinblack Posted March 11, 2018 Share Posted March 11, 2018 1 hour ago, itsmedunc said: That sounds like a sensible solution! If you don't mind me asking, what netbook and software are you using? Its an advent 4211 http://www.trustedreviews.com/reviews/advent-4211-netbook Just because I have had it for 7 years running windows XP (but picked at the time as it could ran macosx). Nothing special about it now, and I imagine it and other things better than it could be get for really cheap on eBay. The software for recording is Mixtools: https://forum.musictri.be/showthread.php?8118-XR18-Recording-MIXTOOLS/page27 basically gives you a window with 18 boxes that you can turn on if you want to record on that channel and a record, stop and play button. When you record it produces a wav file for each channel you have asked it to record in a folder. I have found it is a good idea to press stop / record again every so often to make the files easier to handle and stop the occasional problem where a tiny bit is missing from a track and then you get out of sync. Almost imperceptible but it takes ages if you want to resync things. You can just copy those files off and dump them in Logic / garage band / DAW of choice. If someone walked off with it / broke it, it would be a minor irritation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itsmedunc Posted March 11, 2018 Author Share Posted March 11, 2018 On 3/10/2018 at 11:26, Woodinblack said: Anything can do what you are asking. I use an old acer netbook that came with windwos XP to connect to my X18 live and it works fine. I have also used my wifes old original macbook air running garage band, and that works fine On 3/10/2018 at 11:01, itsmedunc said: I'd actually missed this bit of your previous post! Thanks for the info, it's really helpful. I'm sure there's a laptop here kicking about with similar specs. Mission to find that and download Mixtools then! So, it looks like the Mac A1181 may well do the job too, without an SSD. I know it will play back 16 channels of audio in Logic X. I'll try it out with Logic, Tracks Live today at some point as well. Thank you! I only need the WAV to import into Logic at a later date. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
operative451 Posted March 11, 2018 Share Posted March 11, 2018 Interesting answer on the netbook as i was about to jump in with that too! After being helped on here and getting a behringer umc404hd so that i could record multiple tracks at once, i got annoyed with my desktop PC making amps do buzzing and resurrected my venerable HP compaq mini110 with windows 10 (and everything windowsy switched off!) and REAPER to record live guitar, bass and singing along with normally 2-4 tracks of backing track. It totally works... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itsmedunc Posted March 11, 2018 Author Share Posted March 11, 2018 10 minutes ago, operative451 said: Interesting answer on the netbook as i was about to jump in with that too! After being helped on here and getting a behringer umc404hd so that i could record multiple tracks at once, i got annoyed with my desktop PC making amps do buzzing and resurrected my venerable HP compaq mini110 with windows 10 (and everything windowsy switched off!) and REAPER to record live guitar, bass and singing along with normally 2-4 tracks of backing track. It totally works... Nice one, I'd forgotten about Reaper! That's another one to try. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itsmedunc Posted March 11, 2018 Author Share Posted March 11, 2018 Just tried Reaper on the Mac A1181 and after a bit of meddling it worked fine. Recorded 16 tracks simultaneously then exported the stems and imported them into Logic X and all is well. Hopefully, problem solved! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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