@jamriding said:

O.K. A dumb question ("Oh no!", I can hear you all say... :lol[:)]

I have a G4 PowerMac (1.25 Dual) at present. If I were to purchase (and that's a BIG if) another G5 would I be able to make use of this at all? And would it have to be a PowerMac or would an iMac or something similar be acceptable?

I suspect that it probably has more to do with running the same OS on both units than anything else. Does your G4 have optical I/O's? That would be another consideration. SvK might have a clearer answer for you...

I'm not sure the iMac would work, but again I'm not sure if any iMac has dual optical I/O's. My suspicion would be it would have to be at least a pair of G5 towers running Tiger- unless I'm mistaken.

You need optical outs, on the computers.

BTW,

If you are in the market for another computer, I would wait for the new Mac Intel Towers....(novemberish)

Maya recently sent me the stress test results of a MacBookPro, and they are insane...imagine how crazy the new Mac Towers will be.....

BTW here is the comparison...it is unbelievable. Note that the MacBookPro has a much higher polyphony count then the G5 QUAD!!!! wow.


Processor: 2 GHz Intel Core Duo (Mac Book Pro)
Ram: 2 GB DDR2 SDRAM
OS 10.4.6
Data storage: Firewire 400
Host application: Logic 7.2
Plugin: 1.0.5beta (INTEL)
Soundcard: built in Audio

Latency at 512 Samples (12ms) / 1.3 GB Ram usage)
Maximum Vienna Instrument instances: 32 (CPU load activity monitor 95%)
Maximum Samples loaded: ca.13.000
Maximum polyphony: 580 stereo voices

Processor: G5 PPC 4 x 2,5 GHz (Quad)
Ram: 4,5 GB
OS 10.4.5
Data storage: Firewire 400
Host application: Logic 7.2
Plugin: VI v.1.0.5.2
Soundcard: Digidesign HW (002)

Latency at 512 Samples (12 ms) RAM usage 2.54 GB
Maximum Vienna Instrument instances: 34 (CPU 95%)
Maximum Samples loaded: 24.530
Maximum polyphony: 476 stereo voices / (CPU 35 % Harddisk limit exceeded)

@svonkampen said:

You need optical outs, on the computers.

BTW, ...

Thanks for the answer: plenty of things to ponder...

svonkampen,

Just a question as silly as it may sound but how long have you been working with this particular installation? I'm asking because sometimes things are too good to be true, and in the long run we end up with complicated situations and who knows if that could harm your computer. But maybe I'm completely out to left field, I just like to be cautious with these things.

Guy,

3 12 hour days

yould be investing in (2 optical cables, and a cross-over cable) 20 bucks maybe [;)]

SvK

ps: Also this sytem isn't some crazy-hack job......Aggregate Device and Network MIDI are embedded into Tiger OSX!

There is no crazy shareware stuff needed..

It just works.

SvK

But my point was, is there ANY chances of this set up harming your computer? Just inquiring... [:)]

Guy,

no...no chance of harming your computer ...

SvK......

@svonkampen said:

Guy,

no...no chance of harming your computer ...

SvK......

I tried what you said:


My computer blew up! [:(]

hahaha
verry funny [;)]

SvK

@Guy said:

I tried what you said: My computer blew up! [:(]

Well, you will have to write better music. They are very sensitive creatures.

yeah, I shouldn't of tried that serial composition... [8o|]

SvK,

Very exciting what you have figured out here! Thanks for sharing the good news.

If one were to use audio interfaces could they use more than two G5's? Of course this means you're buying extra hardware but then you would also have multiple audio channels...

Clark

@clarkcontrol said:

SvK,

Very exciting what you have figured out here! Thanks for sharing the good news.

If one were to use audio interfaces could they use more than two G5's? Of course this means you're buying extra hardware but then you would also have multiple audio channels...

Clark

Or......
It could be worth experiementing with an optical daisy chain.

Master out to slave 1 in.
Slave 1 out to slave 2 in.
Slave 2 out to slave 3 in.
Slave 3 out to Master in.

Given SVK has already indicated there's no latency to speak of, maybe this would work? It would be worth setting the master as clock, and have the slaves sync to that.

Or, do the same thing, and with optical Gigabit ethernet cards (allegedly able to transfer 1000mbs) in each machine all connected to an GB ethernet switch.
(I've seen three in sites whilst researching a network setup, and have been surprised just how little they cost. And of course, not confusing switches with hubs)


It would be worth going to the Euphonix website, and checking out their network diagrams for some other possibilities.
And the controllers are worth looking at too!
(Two vids to see, with Steve Tucher using an MC controller at home, and John Ross sitting in a mixing barn with the full System MC 5 laid out in a row. Definitely worth a look.)

Interesting developments here.

Alex.

Clarkcontrol,

Sure....all you need is some PCI-Card or Firewire Interface with multiple....spdif optical ins and outs


BTW...many have been asking me: "Why the digital from main G5 to SlaveG5?"....well until i hooked that up, i was getting clicks and break-up...so i figured it was clock noise so i rigged that 2nd optical and everything was gravy.

SvK

I'm glad this is working for your application and don't want to be negative, but it's also worth pointing out the limitations of this set-up.

First, apart from having only two outputs, clocking with the Mac's internal audio *and* using lightpipe (a very jittery clock carrier) isn't an audiophile solution. Second, this is only good for two G5s - as soon as you add another Mac or PC, you need sound cards on all the machines.

Finally, Network MIDI is only between G5s running 10.4. I use MIDI Over LAN since it works with PCs as well.

However, as I've posted before, I'm using the digital output of a slave 2x2 as a temporary solution. I've converted its optical S/PDIF to RCA and plugged it into a MOTU box just like all my other machines.

What I wish is that AUNetsend/Receive were fixed, or better yet that Max would finish FX-Teleport for Mac. That would allow a slave Mac to fit in without any hardware at all.

Yeah very good points by Nick. In fact I didn't read past the clock issue ( been thinking about that with this setup) because I realized it must be very solid which will require a quality card. At least midi should be no problem so you can save few bucks there

ok there AudioPhiles,


If I sent you a bounce from the litepipes......and a bounce straight from the G5 .......i say you will not be able to tell the difference....and if your ears can't hear it, it's good enough.....


I know ...you guys are all gonna jump on me for this.........but at some point good enough, really IS good enough.....

jitter, schmitter...it's fine.

SvK

I used to have a room full of EMU4....they were all ADAT litepiped...the scores sounded great.....

but i will concede that if we were to analyse the files ....I'm sure the direct bounce (no pipes)....will be superior, but your ears will not hear it..

SvK

I worked with an engineer once who had to have absolute 0 vu on all his tracks.. 2 -24 tracks with Dolby SR. His productions were clean and had NO dynamic range. So much for Audiophile. I cannot hear the difference between a $ 1000 amp and a 10 thousand dollar one. Except that the more expensive one heats up the entire room. Same with jitter I can't hear it. Yet all these companies want us to spend spend spend.

I don't know about actually hearing jitter but I can hear insufficient clocking without any trouble because it's so pronounced. It just depends on the actual sound. I've never heard what a lightpipe connection sounds like when the lightpipe itself is transmitting the clock. My clocking is all BNC connections to an Aardvark.