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Re: O.T. Computers



At 1:25 PM -0700 4/10/02, William Mcallister wrote:
>Whats the best bang for the buck? I eventually want to use it for 
>recording and all things musical.

I'm a Macintosh partisan and will recommend one.  What's your budget? 
Do you need a portable to take on gigs, or will a desktop model with 
slots be more to the point?

An iBook with an external audio convertor might be adequate. The list 
price range for an iBook is $1,199 to $1,799. The models with Combo 
Drives (DVD-ROM/CD-RW) are $1,499 and $1,799, the more expensive 
having a larger screen.

The G4 PowerBook is a lot more powerful and consequently more 
expensive, with a price range of $2,299 to $3,699.  All three models 
have Combo Drives.

The cheapest desktop is the iMac, with a price range of $1,399 
through $1,899. The bottom of the line has a CD-RW drive, the 
mid-price has a Combo Drive, and the top has a SuperDrive 
(CD-RW/DVD-R). The iMac has no expansion slots for sound cards, so if 
you're happy with a USB or FireWire audio interface this could be an 
ideal model for music production. It's also fairly compact, so it 
could be taken out on gigs as well.

Desktop tower Macs range from $1,599 to $3,849, plus the cost of a 
monitor. The cheapest one has a CD-RW and the others have 
SuperDrives. They all have PCI slots for sound and video cards. The 
top models have dual 1GHz processors, but all of them are fast.

Whichever model you decide on, you'll need an audio interface of some 
kind. There are four types, depending on how you want to connect them 
to the computer: USB, FireWire, PCMCIA, or PCI. All Mac models have 
USB and FireWire. The laptop models have PCMCIA and the desktop 
towers have PCI. Depending on your audio I/O needs you can spend 
under $50 or over $50,000 on a system. You can get and 8-channel 
FireWire interface for under $1000 and a 2-channel USB interface for 
under $500.

-- 

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Richard Zvonar, PhD
(818) 788-2202
http://www.zvonar.com
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