by E4K1 » Thu Nov 06, 2003 9:01 pm
Personnally I would consider buying a Beige G3 if your interest is working with the E-Mu and MIDI, sequencing, and you're not fussed about not being able to use the latest MIDI+Audio technology like Logic 6 or Digital Performer 4...
The advantage of the G3 is that is has an old serial comm port, which means being able to buy cheaply on eBay an serial (and not USB) MIDI interface like the MOTU Express, Opcode Studio 4, i.e. something with 8 in and 8 out to be comfortable. The Beige G3 also has a SCSI plug as standard. Granted, SCSI 1 at 5Mb/s transfer speed but one that will work fine with the E-Mu connected directly onto it. The G3/300 CPU is good enough to work with ReCycle, Peak, or any other program that can treat audio and send it to the E-Mu. D-Sound Pro and Quattro Pro also come to mind.
Finally, being to run Mac OS 8.1 and up is a bonus as older Mac apps for the E-Mu such as Gallery Software EOS Browser, do not always behave under Mac OS 9, and cannot work in OS X.
Pricewise, a Beige G3/300 tower is around ?150/?200 on eBay. Add ?50 for an older Mac monitor like a Formac 17", and you're in business at a decent cost.
Of course, a G3/300 is also good enough to run your usual MS Office, Internet software...
I have a PC with 2.6Gz, 2Gb RAM, etc... that I use for audio recording and processing, but I'm not letting go of my Beige G3 as it is still the best machine to use with my E-Mu, as well as a great MIDI computer to control up to 15 MIDI devices via Studio Vision and the Opcode 5LX.
Fran?ois