Hey, I'm facing the same dilema. I'm gettign one for my Birthday, I can't wait ... all the music I can do with a G5, the thought of it makes me dizzy!!

I will hopefully get one of the Dual, Dual core 2.7's if Apple ever release the damned things.

The main advantage is in processoor cycles, I think you'd be able to have more reliable audio syncing, assuming you've got a lot of data to crunch though. I doubt it'll let you use more ram but I don't see that as a problem. I only have 1.25GB Ram in my current G4 and I use 40+ instruments with little difficulty, so being able to use 4GGb would be just lovely.

Bottom line is get the best possible.

Hetoreyn

hetoreyn:

How do you get so many instruments with so little RAM?


Miklos.

@mpower88 said:

hetoreyn:

How do you get so many instruments with so little RAM?


Miklos.

Hehe, I rule my Mac with an iron fist ... ;D

Seriously I have no idea. I have to jiggle a few things in logic but it does work. I'm not saying that it's great all the time, ..but it does allow me to play and edit quit smoothly once the sessions going.

But yes I have to bounce offline if I want reverbs and all.

That's my problem though.. I love to deal in the 100+ person orchestra sound but don't quite have the computing power to do it. So I look forward to seeing how the G5 will compare.

It seems very unlikely that the number of cores or processors would have any affect on the amount of RAM you can access. 4GB per program (minus overhead for Apple libraries) is the max for a 32-bit OS.

Redmatica Andrea explained that to me.

And EXS player that runs outside Logic and gets ReWired in could do the trick - as long as it didn't use too much processing horsepower itself, which is the problem with running Kontakt outside Logic.

But Tiger has 64 bit libraries now doesn't it? I thought it was just a matter of bringing Logic itself up to scratch and I'm sure they'd be working very hard to do that right now - surely they will have noticed that as soon as they have virtually unlimited RAM access they will have a very serious competitor to Gigastudio. I mean, it already is minus some limitations. I agree with hetoreyn, I am feeling the limitations of my system big time, and I really would love to have something that can run 300+ tracks of 128 instruments (including articulations etc) plus audio files and freeze tracks. Having that kind of freedom to move would be great - and it's not really cool when thigns lock up and slow down at that end so it's got to be a system that can keep up even when you're maxing things out orchestrally. I think it won't be long before people start having 64/128gig's RAM in their systems when the chips become available - a couple of years tops. Maybe they'll start having 512+ gig RAM sticks then you could load the whole library and everything else right into RAM on boot up yeay...

Miklos.

Guy: I would wait for the dual core's if I were you - I think it will be a big difference in processing power that you will definately notice.

Miklos.

Nick is correct (hi,Nick,just about recovered,and have been really enjoying the mag-a subscription in imminent!), RAM would not be affected by the increase in processing power. Logic has got to change to read the RAM,from my understanding.We're all waiting for Logic to catch up in that area.I'm sure they're working on it,though.

However,the increase in raw POWER would be remarkable: anything up to 80% is the quoted figure.That's some improvement. Imagine all the extra plugins and processor-hungry tasks that would be eaten alive by this thing.Plus,for people like myself with no audio mixer anymore,the load of (in my case) multiple MOTU's on the system would disappear,so one could run more stuff with very ,very ,low latency.I believe there is a dual core IBM coming soon: I'm sure Nick would know more about that,but Apple are famously tight-lipped.

@strawinsky said:

RAM would not be affected by the increase in processing power. Logic has got to change to read the RAM,from my understanding.We're all waiting for Logic to catch up in that area.I'm sure they're working on it,though.

That's right and that's why I said 'MAY'. It's very much dependent on a Logic/EXS24 revamp. But forgetting Logic for a second - a duel core Mac would be absolutely lightening quick in the processor department.

It's areal nuisance,this limitation on EXS instances.

@strawinsky said:

It's areal nuisance,this limitation on EXS instances.

I think so - in some ways though, I am more interested in large 'single' samples rather than loads of samples - does that make sense? [*-)]

I mean - multiple legato's etc that use a lot of ram memory.

Still can't quite get my head around Alternation. Kersten just dissed Excerpt bigtime in an email. Machine gun city etc and crappy choirs making it sound like a 'filmscore'. And crappy use of the high strings.

I may have to punish him for that.

[:D] [:D] [:D]

Isn't that an inverted compliment,though? I'll e-mail you later: I thought the music was great.

@strawinsky said:

Isn't that an inverted compliment,though? I'll e-mail you later: I thought the music was great.

You're too kind. Kersten may have some points though about the way I'm too lazy to get to grips with certain aspects of 'the actaul usage' of samples.

Still gonna have to dish some punishment out though when he wakes up.

[:D]

I sort of agree with Paul on this one. At the moment i'm trying to build a set of solid soundfonts based on that principle, large sample 'collections' all operating at the same time. Some work, others don't, but the string sound is slowly improving. Like a blended tea rather than chewing on the one leaf.
Because of the multi use opportunities of EXS in logic, i'm able to cut down the number of instruments, although RAM is always an issue.
It's a real shame Logic won't accept articulation changes triggering samples in score mode, as a staccato or arco instant program change would certainly cut down the workload. And it would be good to be able to use a number of symbols or numbers triggering program changes that would go in a line above the stave, corresponding to the notes you've input, for example as you click the mouse or hit right or left arrow on the keyboard, it jumps to the next note. e.g. L(Leg) - 1a, S(Stac) -2a, etc. And for release samples something like LR(legR)-1b, etc. Record your line, then go to the 'articulation data line' and put in the numbers. Even if this did 95% of the work it would save time. The only task would be setting up a symbol/sample template, but surely custom maps reflective of the particular samplebase would help this along.
I tried this in Sibelius, but bombed out more than once because of that programs non VST/AU hosting, and the nuisance of individually inputting program changes each and every time. The multi track approach for one instrument or group doesn't seem to me a time efficient way of using sample bases, and maybe a built in 'dataline' above each stave, invisible in printed form would be a quicker way. I grant some tweaking would still need to be done, but if the bulk is done automatically, we'd be getting work finished a lot quicker, and making better use of the investment.


One thing is for sure, the next jump in technology that gives us almost unlimited Processor/Ram capability will be the one that brings large sample libraries to life, and enables us to really utilise these instruments to a level they were compiled for.

Regards,

Alex.

I've read the articles about Apple switching over to Intel & have seen the discussion boards about pros and cons of doing this, but it all has this overwhelming feeling of doom to it... sorta like if you get the new Intel machines, you'll have to purchase all-new software and MIDI or Firewire audio interfaces. Is there any danger of that happening? I don't understand the techie part of it.

@Kerry Muzzey said:

I've read the articles about Apple switching over to Intel & have seen the discussion boards about pros and cons of doing this, but it all has this overwhelming feeling of doom to it... sorta like if you get the new Intel machines, you'll have to purchase all-new software and MIDI or Firewire audio interfaces. Is there any danger of that happening? I don't understand the techie part of it.

Don,t know about that, but in the meantime we,ll see the Dual Core G5.s, 50 to 80% improvement over current G5,s.

Unless you know something I don't, that sounds like speculation at this point. I certainly hope it's true, but intuitively it sounds highly optimistic.

you should wait, because you will kill youself once apple releases the intel macs the week after you buy your g5.

This is a very difficult game to win. I was ready to upgrade to a G5 a year ago, and I figured I'd wait for new models that were rumored to be coming in a couple of weeks. The ones that finally arrived five months later were virtually identical to the existing ones.

I bought a G4 2x1.25 right when it became available (the top of the line macs always come out last) which was about a couple of months after its announcement from apple. Six or eight months later a new model was announced (2x1.4) and then the G5's the next year.

Never felt bad about my purchase. In fact, I was happy to have jumped on board when the hardware was stable and mature. Super stable. I can run five dual layer perf_leg, seven or eight single layer perf_leg, seven dual layer sus patches, etc. etc. which totals no more than 30 tracks of VSL. I'm not even bumping CPU but my 1.5 gig of ram is taking a beating. All this Without the Redmatica tool. With exs manager I'm sure these numbers would improve.

If you're a VSL freak than the new macs probably won't help without the exs taking the next step.

I wouldn't want to buy the very first dual core unless the reviews and forums indicated that the hardware was trouble/bug free (adding a few more months to the wait)...

Clark

@clarkcontrol said:

I wouldn't want to buy the very first dual core unless the reviews and forums indicated that the hardware was trouble/bug free (adding a few more months to the wait)...

Clark

That has been my way of thinking lately, so I'll go for the dual 2.7 instead, hey! it's still not a bad machine...