Will Logic 8 run slowly on an old G5 (dual 1.8 with 2 gig RAM)? I am sure that Logic 8 was designed more for the newer Intel based Macs. I'd love to get Logic 8 but not at the price of slowing things down. Thanks.

Hi Caml, The G5's are still very respectable machines. Granted, the intel mac's are very quick, but with some more ram there is plenty that can be achieved by a G5. What kind of music are you planning on creating. Will you be recording audio mainly, or using soft synths and effects? Are you coming from Logic 7 to 8? I haven't tested the G5's but by some accounts there are still many "pro's" running their studios using them with Logic 8. Logic 7 was very fast on my intel iMac system. Logic 8 is a bit slower, but that's more than compensated for by the addition of STP2, all the jam packs, the consolidated Arrange, sample accurate editing in the arrange, 5 jam packs included and Mainstage and Delay DDesigner & the price! Another benefit is that you can still use Logic 7 when Logic 8 is installed on your system.

Thanks Rounik. I will be doing primarily a mixture of soft synths and hardware based synths (which I bounce to audio). My biggest frustration now is running Quantum Leap Gold Orchestra. I can only run about 5-6 instances before Logic starts crapping out on me. I'm then forced to bounce the parts to audio before the arrangement is complete. So you recommend adding more RAM? I have 2.5 gig of RAM right now. If only I had the cash to buy a new Power Mac dual quad core! Thanks for your help Rounik.

Hi Caml Even a macbook pro or Intel iMac would match and in should out perform your current system - but then it's probably worth saving up for a MacPro quad core ;-) Adding more ram is the surefire way to being able to use more soft synths and effects. Other tips: - don't insert reverbs (space designers) on each channel strip - send the channels to a bus with one reverb unit inserted. -try Freezing your tracks. You will be able to unfreeze them later if you wish to edit them. -try increasing your I/O buffer size. (Logic Pro > Preferences > Audio). The larger the buffer size the less strain on your computer, but the more latency when playing/recording an instrument. -run your samples/projects from a separate HD. Make sure Logic and OS X are running from the same internal HD and run your projects either from a second internal drive or a fast external drive (7,200rpm or higher). Don't know how Quantum Leap Orchestra behaves under Logic 8, but try the above out on your current setup if you haven't already. Do let me know if it helps and if you have any other questions :-) Rounik

Thanks for your help Rounik. I'll experiment. I've tried freezing tracks before but I often would get drop outs in audio on the "frozen" tracks so I really haven't done it since then.

im using a G5 1.8DP with 4.5gb ram. no problems here all running sweet.

Looks like it's time to get some more RAM! Considering it would cost me about 5 grand for a new Power Mac with the bells and whistles, I think I'll try more RAM first. THanks!

I was having drop outs on freezes on my G5 too. The fix I found was to not do ANYTHING w/ the computer while freezing or bouncing. Anything you do on the computer that may put in a call to QuickTime (including browsing a directory with media files in it) could cause QT to be called and will disrupt the bounce. I was even finding that if I was downloading something in the background, it would break the freeze if the download completed while it was freezing (possibly because I was downloading audio files). So now I just watch the bar go across the screen rather than trying to multitask. May work for you too, but my issue may be due to my UAD-1 or the fact that I am running Leopard.

I upgraded to 4.5 gig of RAM so hopefully this will make a difference with Logic. I haven't had a chance to use Logic yet. Hopefully it will mean more instances of my East West Quantum Leap Orchestra!