Mac mini for music vs new soundcard

so i want to set up a home recording thang. mostly sequenced stuff, but with plenty of recording guitars, vocals, etc.
do i buy a creative labs audigy sound card, that's bundled with cubase and put it in my ageing PC (2.4ghz, 1gb ram, 80gb, dvdr) and hope it works well
..or do i splash out £500 on the mac mini with superdrive - safe in the knowledge it'll work great and have garageband, imovie hd, etc all ready to play with!
I do music and video mostly, really tempted to get a mac but when i write it down like that it seems foolish and costly.
I know this is a biased place to post, but what do you think? convince me it's worth the cost! i've still got to buy a microphone adaptor for the thing! for crying out loud!
also... how do i move my itunes library over onto the new mac? will the tracks i've bought from the store still work on the mac and my ipod?

ASIO and Core Audio just don't compare.
ASIO isn't in Windows, it's a third-party add-on. Windows XP wasn't designed to handle its specific purpose. Microsoft is just flat-out more interested in audio for gaming than they are for audio production.
Steinberg's Official ASIO driver isn't even being developed anymore. There hasn't been a new version since 2003 I believe.
Core Audio allows for multiple applications to access the same audio device. You can switch back and forth from Reason to Logic, etc. easily
Up to 30 channels (I believe) on Core Audio vs 18 on ASIO
Core Audio has Device Aggregation, that's even more channels
ASIO supports up to 96Khz sample rates, while Core Audio does 192Khz
Let's say you have multiple Macs, a fast network, and one device that you'd like to use without unplugging, etc. You can use Core Audio to send a receive MIDI signal through the network!
The list goes on. Core Audio is much better to work with than ASIO. Not to mention the great software available on the Mac.
Brian

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Buying a Mac mini for music

I'm buying a Mac mini in September - so I will have Snow Leopard - to use with the latest version of Logic and the latest version of Pro Tools and use for my college work and recording my band. I plan on using an M-Audio MobilePre USB, external hard drive and multitrack firewire interface for recording. Will I be able to use all of these devices simultaneously by using some kind of firewire hub without any noticable latency or driver/hardware problems? If it will not be as plug and play can somebody offer some kind of assistance? I am getting the 120GB model with a 2GB memory upgrade so I can get the maximum graphics memory as well. Thanks in advance.

I cannot answer your other questions, but I believe that you can confirm this with Apple, you can go ahead and make your purchase now and get a free copy of Snow Leopard when it is available. Apple has always had a free upgrade program for those who made recent purchases just before the upgrade release date.
Dah•veed

Mac mini for video / music production

hello!
i'm really into music and video, i currently do all my video work in premiere pro on the pc, and music is done in a combination of packages like reason, soundforge, etc.
i'm really tempted by the offer of a mac mini for a few hundred pounds complete with garageband, imovie, etc. plus i can always get final cut on there too.
I am serious about what i do and would want high quality results. what i'm asking is basically, consdiering the specs of the mac mini, (i'd have to go for the top of the range to get the dvd writer) will it be capable of performing well with video work and more importantly, will garageband let me do professional sounding sequencing and mixing?
or am i kidding myself that the mini is capable? because if the option is buying a G5, i'll use the cash to upgrade my windows pc instead. it's all about tools for the job for me, i've got no brand loyalty.
thanks for any advice / opinions!!
-the swan

There's no doubt that the mini CAN do what you want - it outperforms many Mac systems that have been sucessfully doing pro-level video and audio work for years. On the video side the system is very capable, and whether in iMovie or Final Cut, professional results are achievable. Indeed, being digital, there's no practical way to tell from the rsult whether it came off a mini or an old G3 iMac or a brand new G5 tower. The mini's only drawback is that rendering takes time. Less time than older systems, and more time than a G5 would. Some rendering (such as transitions or effects in iMovie) run in the background and don't prevent continuing work.
On the audio side, I'll leave that to people who have a better knowledge of the application than I do as a rather 8th-rate amateur!
As for the model you should buy, I would suggest NOT the $699 version with superdrive. I'd suggest you buy the $599 model, replace the 512Mb RAM with a 1Gb stick, and add an external burner. That way you would be getting enough memory to give the mini a solid performance in video work, and giving yourself the choice of DVD burner which not only would include possible dual layer devices (the superdrive is single) but also better burn speeds.

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sorry, I'd like to butt in here:
I would like to do the same thing, so I am curious about this forum and rather than starting a new one, can I get some advice on this possibility:
Mac Mini
1.83GHz Intel Core Duo
2GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM - 2x1GB
80GB Serial ATA drive
Glyph External HD 250 Gig
Mackie Onyx 1620 w/Firewire
Logic Pro 7.2
thoughts?
The most number of tracks I could see at once would be 16.
Here is something I am most curious about...
Firewire Hard drive
Firewire Interface/mixer
Firewire camera for FCP
to much firewire?
Please let me know if you have other thoughts aswell...
Shuke
thanks guys, this forum is fantastic!

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Mac mini for music vs new soundcard

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