Intel Mac

Hi there;

I’m considering to download the demo of Renoise and if I’m content maybe even purchase it.
What I need to know though, I’m currently on a G5 PPC Mac, however I’m saving money to buy a new Mac which is gonna be Intel based as all new Macs these days.

In your system requirements I saw you took note of the G4 and G5 processors and stuff, but I couldn’t find anything about Renoise working on Intel Macs.

It’s very important for me to know how well Renoise works on intel Macs (and what the CPU requirements for Intel Macs are) before I throw myself into this adventure.

my experience with OSX (leopard) is very little, as i just recently installed it alongside XP and Vista on the PC in my signature.
but from my own findings i can report, that renoise works and performs well on my core2duo-based “hackintosh”.
but keep in mind that there is no .AU support (yet!) and that the availability of VST(i) compared to windows based systems is rather poor.

but still, if you’re going to use it for sample-based purposes basically or think that the meager offer of plugins is more than sufficient for you, then there is nothing else you would have to compromise.

by the way: taking a closer look at the specs mentioned in the requirements section of the renoise.com site, should remedy all obscurities.

Well I ain’t that good as a musician, so if Renoise on Mac works good enough for me then all is well. (At least for me) :)

Anyway thank you for your quick reply…
At least I know Intel Macs are probably fine :)

Renoise got builds for Intel Macs since 1.5.2.
Also read this topic:
https://forum.renoise.com/t/renoise-1-5-2-osx-universal-builds-available/17327

If you want to know for sure, try the Renoise demo (or actually light version) on the intel based Mac and decide then.

works amazingly well on my intel mac :)

1.9.1 works perfect with macbook pro 2.2ghz (core2duo) with leopard 10.5.2 installed

I’m also considering buying a mac, namely macbook (not the pro). So you say it works good with a mac, thats great to hear. This is very important to me, if Renoise wouldn’t work good, I’d buy PC notebook.

Could any of you recommend an external soundcard for Macbook? It doesn’t need to have many inputs and outputs ( I actually only need one stereo input and one output). But they have to be high quality, and low latency is also important.

If you are trying to keep costs reasonable, I would recommend the Presonus Firebox. I have one. I paid $320 for it and it has been incredible. The step up in sound is impressive, and the mic inputs (only 2 of them) are crystal clear. It sounds better than an MBox running the same set-up, in my opinion. So yeah, I think it makes the most sense at the entry level/low number of ins/outs side of the spectrum

And it looks badass.

If you only need one input and one output, you don’t have to buy an external sound card.
The built-in sound card is good quality, 96KHz/24 bit and very low latency…

Really? I’m not used to this in PC world (mostly crappy integrated notebook soundcards). Is it good for recording audio too? I have microphone and instruments plugged into a mixer, and I don’t do multitrack recording, so I only need good line-in on the computer. And of course line-out, which goes to another mixer and from there into my monitors.

That Firebox sure looks nice B)

Yeah, I would never trust an internal sound card, no matter what the resolution the computer manufacturer claims it to be…

I would be amazed if the sound card on a Mac was up to the same level as something like that Firebox…

I’ve never had any problems with it, I actually still use the built-in card for my final recordings on my iMac. :)

In the interests of testimony:

I have an iMac 2.4ghz and ran logic and renoise on it on the onboard soundcard. It performed fairly well, sounding a lot better than the internal soundcard of my previous G4 iBook. However, after getting the Firebox, the difference has been enormous. It is a different sound world. I would make the investment. If not to the firebox then to something at least as decent.

I’ve been using Renoise on a 24" Intel iMac lately and I’ve never been happier with a tracker. Finally after a few years of Intel Macs there are enough plugins and systems to do quite a variety of stuff. I have it synced up just right with Ableton and I’m hoping to clue some MIDI gear in at a later update. Using it as my main sequencer for the last two months has brought lots of new ideas through the new/retro way of looking at music.

Highly recommended combination :)

good quality? r u talking about macbooks or macbookpros?

damned. its the worsted audio chip i ever heard. Its REALTEK chip there. And it sounds damn crappy. I swear.

dats true. the built-in Realtek chip sounds flat, noisy, etc…

forget about the buildin soundcard! do yourself a favour and get something firewire… for lower latency.
and be prepared to pay for plugins, there are only very few good freeware vst-plugs for intelmacs :(
if you need some cool cheap plugins check: www.audiodamage.com

wanna to spent some serious money on an audiointerface? check out the apogee duet…
i´m using the ensemble and it rocks :drummer: , but it´s kind of overkill for tracking only.

yeah. Apogees DUET seriously rocks!!! But it`s for macosx apps only. No windows…