96K with Amadeus Pro? Use on G3 iBook?

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JohnHenr
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96K with Amadeus Pro? Use on G3 iBook?

Post by JohnHenr »

I'm on the verge of purchasing but was unable to find out if Amadeus Pro does 96K/24-bit recording (as I want to do my vinyl) and if it will work on my old G3 iBook or do I need a new MacBook? Why is nothing in the manual concerning sample rates?
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Martin Hairer
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96K with Amadeus Pro? Use on G3 iBook?

Post by Martin Hairer »

if Amadeus Pro does 96K/24-bit recording (as I want to do my vinyl)
and if it will work on my old G3 iBook or do I need a new MacBook?
It will, if your hardware does. The built-in hardware won't do that on
any Mac. Regards,

Martin

HairerSoft
http://www.hairersoft.com/


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Lou Kash
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Post by Lou Kash »

I used to work with iBook G3 for some "light" audio recording. I have a M-Audio FW410 which is capable of 24/96. However, I never went that far in terms of audio quality. Mostly I used to work with Logic Express 6, recording to 24/44.1. The 700 MHz processor was at its limit pretty quickly. So don't expect wonders.

There isn't much benefit in digitizing vinil to 24/96 anyway. 24 bit, yes, because you can record at quite low volume level without fearing the clipping and normalize later without stretching the word length too much. But 96 kHz? That's a waste of resources unless you want to digitize some incredibely rare acetates or such. But then again you should do it on real hi-end equipment anyway and your iBook will definitely be the weakest link in the chain.

Additionally, when working in 24 bit, for downsampling to 16 bit for burning a CD you might want to dither your high quality recording to prevent audio artefacts at low volume levels. Amadeus doesn't utilize any high quality dithering algorithm and neither does the built-in CoreAudio.

That said, I guess Amadeus will work just fine on the iBook. Just make sure you have a good audio interface as the iBook's 16 bit audio I/O are of rather poor quality; preferably FireWire since the iBook G3 only had USB 1.1 ports. And a fast external FireWire drive for recording. Even if you have already replaced the original painfully slow (4400 rpm!) internal drive, there are still too many bottlenecks to make audio recording reliable on such a slow machine. Then again, perhaps buying a new Mac would be a smarter investment. Keep in mind though that Apple in its "infinite wisdom" killed the FireWire ports on the new unibody MacBooks. (In my opinion the "old" cheap white MacBook which is still available is the best deal for the bucks!)

(As a sidenote, I'm surprised that there are still any iBooks G3 "alive". Mine died about 4 months after the extended AppleCare warranty ended, running its second display and fourth (!) motherboard. I kept only its pathetic internal hard disk and sold the rest for an equivalent of approx. USD 80 to some enthusiastic hobbyist for spare parts...)

ophelia.katz
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Re: 96K with Amadeus Pro? Use on G3 iBook?

Post by ophelia.katz »

Martin Hairer wrote:
if Amadeus Pro does 96K/24-bit recording (as I want to do my vinyl)
and if it will work on my old G3 iBook or do I need a new MacBook?
It will, if your hardware does. The built-in hardware won't do that on
any Mac. Regards,

Martin

HairerSoft
http://www.hairersoft.com/


Martin:

MacPro's have built in 96/24 bit I/O (I have one and use it as such) and I believe the newer MacBooks & MBP's do also.

Ophelia

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Lou Kash
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Re: 96K with Amadeus Pro? Use on G3 iBook?

Post by Lou Kash »

ophelia.katz wrote:the newer MacBooks & MBP's do also.
That's actually true. (MBP 15" Early 2008) (MATTE!!! ;)
But then again, at least the analog output on MBP is anything else but "Hi-Fi". You will find many threads on this topic on Apple Discussions. Obviously a hardware design flaw. And obviously still unresolved with the current shiny glossy mirror models... Thus for "mission critical" hi-end recordings I'd still recommend a trusted external FireWire device. [EDIT:] (FireWire of course won't work on the new 13" MacBooks.)

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Martin Hairer
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96K with Amadeus Pro? Use on G3 iBook?

Post by Martin Hairer »

MacPro's have built in 96/24 bit I/O (I have one and use it as such)
and I believe the newer MacBooks & MBP's do also.
Sorry, I didn't realise that :-( My MBP is one of the earliest Intel
ones (2006) but I'll get a new one in two weeks, so I can now look
forward to have something to test there ;-) Regards,

Martin

HairerSoft
http://www.hairersoft.com/


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