IBook 800 n\' Mbox

Hi, I've recently purchased the latest IBook/800/384Mb, runnig on OS9 with DDMbox, in addition to an analog/digital home-studio, planning to use it for audio recording and mixing operations. Could anyone please, working with this kind of studio setup (i mean the IBook) give me advice to avoid troubles (software or hartdware). Last request: can i switch safely on OSX with this kind of computer , obviously to use PT6.0. If anyone already had problems running PT6.0 on an IBook, so please let me know and convince me not to switch.... Regards

Partition your internal HD. One half for OS X and all that stuff & the other half for OS 9.22 and PTLE/MBox. OS X is just too sluggish on a G3 (and even some G4s) OS 9 is optimized up the wazoo and will save you lots of headaches. That being said...I don't know if your iBook will boot OS9. The official Apple stance is "no, X only"...but I have no problem booting my iBook 800 into 9 (but I use a G4 867 & Digi 001 for recording). And am curently looking at the 002 with the iBook as a remote rig. The other thing you will need is a good external FireWire drive (Glyph makes a few) for your audio. I tried PTLE 6.0 & 6.01 and ended up running back to 5.21. I can't afford to look bad in front of a client & OS 9 & PTLE 5.21 has never let me down.

Thanks Steve, First, about partitionning disks, i was told to split my HD into 3 distincts parts: 1 OSX;2 OS9 system disk;3 OS 9 Audio disk.... Is that a clever solution to adopt, supposing that i don't have any external HD at the moment ? Fortunately my IBook boots into 9 and i am personnally looking for a Motormix remote control (already tried it...Amazing!!!) Now, considering i would buy an external firewire drive (thanks for your suggestion), do you know if 40Go firewire drives exist (cos i've never seen any in France). To conclude, you're not not the first to tell me that stuff about PT6, so thanks for confirmation. Regards

Someone please consider my request ?

It is generally not a good idea to use your boot drive as the audio drive...especially with the slower internal HDs they use in portables (they are generally 5400 rpm not 7200 rpm). Checking NewEgg.com I find a 40GB Western Digital Caviar (ATA 100, 7200rpm, 8.9ms seek, 2MB buffer) for $67 (USD) and a 40GB WD400JB (Jumbo Buffer -- same specs expcept a 8 MB buffer) for $75 (USD). Then a trip to Granite Digital () and you can get a FireVUE (item #4304) for $199 (USD). Just slip the drive into the swappable tray enclosure and you are ready. The great thing about the FireVUE is that you can get extra trays for $30 (USD) and install any ATA drive you'd like...and swap them out as needed. I have heard great things from the TDM boards about the "JB" (jumbo buffer) drives. Claims of 60-70 tracks (in TDM of course) in a Granite Digital FireWire enclosure...of course YMMV. Hope this helps.

Working with OS X and mbox just fine on ibook. 10.2.6 combined with 6.0.1 is stable as a rock. Occasionally, will have to "hot plug" the mbox to get it going, but it's only when I turn it on for the first time. No big deal at all. I use this configuration for recording my band 2-3 times a week, then take it home to mix. Studio in a backpack!