Computer and Digital Recording

Computer: Powermac 8500 with a NewerTech G3-300/144M RAM. The 8500 has been an amazingly stable platform since I bought it 4 years ago. I can get a pretty dependable 32 tracks of audio, with a few VST effects. Yeah, I'd love a G4, but for now, the 8500 still cranks on.

Audio Card/Interfaces: Korg 1212 I/O, Frontier Designs Zulu AD/DA. I bought the 1212 because, at the time, it was the only audio card supported by Macromedia Deck, which was then my primary audio app. I've been relatively happy with it, I wish the lightpipe inputs went higher than 16 bits, and if any audio app crashes, it takes a cold reboot to reset the card, but it was fairly cheap, sounds fine and has been very solid. Much of my audio work involves recording bands elsewhere and mixing here, since I don't have a live room, and my neighbors probably wouldn't appreciate me tracking live rock bands. I generally record to ADAT, or, in the case of recent Minus recordings, record to analog multitrack and transfer to ADAT, then bring the ADAT's home to transfer to the computer, overdubbing, editing and mixing there. The ADAT transfers via the 1212 have been virtually flawless. It's sometimes a drag to have to do transfers 8 tracks at a time, but the sync between the computer and ADAT via the 1212 and make as many passes as needed.

Frontier Designs Zulu is a 4-input/8-output Analog to Digital/Digital to Analog converter. It allows me to get multiple tracks in and out of the computer simultaneously. It works and sounds great, subjectively, I find the sound quality better than the converters built into ADATs.

MIDI Interfaces: Opcode Studio 4 and Studio 64XTC.