Using a Mac as an effects pedal?
I tried looking this up but am still confused and skeptical.
Is it realistic to plan on using a Mac to apply heavy, complex software effects to vocals and guitars live, or is latency a problem? What's the bottleneck for getting near-zero (say a very few ms that are unperceptible) latency--is it the audio interface, the processor, the FSB, the memory, ...?
We have yet to buy an audio interface and a Mac
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Is it realistic to plan on using a Mac to apply heavy, complex software effects to vocals and guitars live, or is latency a problem? What's the bottleneck for getting near-zero (say a very few ms that are unperceptible) latency--is it the audio interface, the processor, the FSB, the memory, ...?
We have yet to buy an audio interface and a Mac
.
Comments
It should be fine, considering Macs are used in professional studios. I'd say to look for a decent firewire interface and maybe something like Ableton live. However JACK maybe be very interesting too (software-wise). The processor will be a bottleneck for applying effects themselves, but somehting like the low end macbook will more than cope, considering what digital multi fx units do
Great, thanks!
I find it nothing short of freaking awesome that you can use a MacBook as a very rich and complex effects pedal
It should be fine, considering Macs are used in professional studios. I'd say to look for a decent firewire interface and maybe something like Ableton live. However JACK maybe be very interesting too (software-wise). The processor will be a bottleneck for applying effects themselves, but somehting like the low end macbook will more than cope, considering what digital multi fx units do
Great, thanks!
I find it nothing short of freaking awesome that you can use a MacBook as a very rich and complex effects pedal
Word. Get an M-Audio Firewire400 Audio/Midi interface. Should be pretty decent, and all these are advertised as "zero-latency". And they generally do live up to the name. Also, routing in and out of the latest version of Ableton live should be virtually zero-latency too.
I suggest do some research now, wait for WWDC/ end of June to see what the new MacBookPros have on offer. A MacBook with 2GB RAM and M-Audio FW400 Interface + Ableton Live/ Reason/ etc. should be pretty solid too.
Word. Get an M-Audio Firewire400 Audio/Midi interface. Should be pretty decent, and all these are advertised as "zero-latency". And they generally do live up to the name. Also, routing in and out of the latest version of Ableton live should be virtually zero-latency too.
I suggest do some research now, wait for WWDC/ end of June to see what the new MacBookPros have on offer. A MacBook with 2GB RAM and M-Audio FW400 Interface + Ableton Live/ Reason/ etc. should be pretty solid too.
Thanks for the pointers. Yeah, in anticipation I've considered the whole friggin Mac range (really, I've seriously considered an iMac, a mini, a MacBook, a Mac Pro, and a MacBook Pro), and now it's just waiting a few days to see what bringeth the 'WDC. I'm also waiting for anything about Logic Pro/Express 8--even the most credless rumor'll do!
That would be fookin' excellent!!!!
Inspiring thread actually, and thinking about it when I saw Tortoise in London last year I could see that a 12" PowerBook played a big part of the overall sound.