|
The iMac brought Apple back from the edge
of the grave and since then has evolved through several wonderful generations
— from gum drop colors, to cooler, darker shades, to graphite and white, out
to even some super zany shades like daisy prints and spots. The iMac added
DV and FireWire as iMovie came out, and then morphed into the new milleneum with
an entirely different shape, leaving the egg-shaped design behind and gifting it
to the eMac.
However, the evolution of the iMac did not stop with the swivel-armed design. The G5 version of the ultimate consumer desktop machine is
now pretty much a flat screen display with a computer inside. Not only is the G5 iMac fast
and powerful enough to serve as a studio machine, but it’s got a footprint
that is insanely small. Adding fuel to the iMac studio fire, Apple sells
20’ screen versions of the iMac making this option even better for those who want an all-in-one solution. The G5 iMacs are great machines for doing audio work
and can handle any of the high or low-end apps currently out for both
Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X.
Connect Your iMac to External Drives and Interfaces
First of all, you don’t have to worry about connectability issues if you
realize that the USB and FireWire ports built into the iMac gives you instant
networking capability to other components. I use the FireWire ports on my studio
machine to connect to a couple rackmount FireWire external hard drives,
to my Apogee Trak
2 audio interface, and to all of my other studio machines. With FireWire, you
don’t even need a network hub. You can just daisy-chain them together and
every item connected will have access to the others along the daisy
chain.
I also use the USB ports on my studio machine to hook up to a Unitor 8 rackmount
MIDI interface, and also to my Logic Control
virtual mixing console.
The G5 iMacs
are great machines for doing audio work and can handle most of the high or
low-end apps currently out for Mac OS X.
Top that with the built-in SuperDrive (DVD and CD readable/writeable), or a
ComboDrive model (DVD readable and CD readable/writeable) and you can see that
this is the perfect machine for audioheads who want to compose, tweak and burn
from the same machine.
The iMac is a great starter studio machine — if you’re just getting
into recording, mixing and playing with sound — but it also can be a serious
workhorse, so long as you don’t need to move up to a serious Pro Tools rig yet. In fact,
the iMac is a perfect engine to drive pretty much anything except apps
that require additional DSP (digital signal processing) cards.
So, if you’re ready to get a iMac now and starting engineering some serious
tracks in an all-in-one studio machine package, go ahead and select from the
options to the right. You’ll still need a USB or FireWire-connected
interface, and perhaps a keyboard controller and a mixing/control surface. Or,
you can just do it all in the machine. When you purchase through Audiohead
links, it helps support the site costs and maintenance, and you get the best
available price on products through our affiliate programs.
For more Mac stuff, click here.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Get an iMac
Apple iMac G5 Desktop with 20” M9250LL/A
1.80 GHz PowerPC G5, 256 MB RAM, 160 GB HD
DVD-RW/CD-RW SuperDrive
(click the image below to purchase)
|
|
Apple iMac G5 Desktop with 17” M9249LL/A
1.80 GHz PowerPC G5, 256 MB RAM, 80 GB HD
DVD-RW/CD-RW SuperDrive
(click the image below to purchase)
|
|
Apple iMac G5 Desktop with 17" M9248LL/A
1.60 GHz PowerPC G5, 256 MB RAM, 80 GB HD
DVD-R/CD-RW Combo Drive
(click the image below to purchase)
|
|
AppleCare Protection Plan for iMac/eMac 3.0 M8851LL/A - 3 year plan
(click the image below to purchase)
|
For more Mac stuff, click here.
|
|
|
|
Interviews