h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I wonder how much it would cost to move an organ from Scotland to the SW US. I've never actually played an organ before, but if it sounds like the one that the Band used, that's the sound I'm after. Blues rock and southern rock just wouldn't be the same without that sound.

Well, it ain't no Hammond, so your freight charges wouldn't be prohibitive. But it's still a two-man lift, and you're gonna need a big amp if you want to hear those bass pedals in full. And again, it doesn't sound like a Hammond - it doesn't have nearly as many drawbars, and it can sound a bit cheesy. It has a few daft effects on it that a Hammond doesn't though - a ridiculous portamento for one, and a truly honky tonk piano for another.

The clincher for you though, Art, is it's 220 V, 50 Hz. While you might be able to switch it to 110V, I don't know if it would pitch correctly with 60 Hz.

Plus I wasn't kidding earlier about the layer of dust...

Your best bet would be to leave it sleeping in my loft and see if you can't pick one up on the Net round your way. It' shouldn't set you back too much - they're not collectable like Hammonds.

Sounds like a good idea, I'll look into it. My list of possible things to spend my summer earnings on keeps getting longer. They now include an organ, a scanner, a multi-track recorder (analog), a CD burner, and an fx pedal for my guitar.

Well you've already got a computer, so why not consider the Pro Tools Digi 001 as a multitrack recorder? We use it all the time at work and it rocks.

Is it Mac compatible? Most Mac music software is expensive.

It was developed on the Mac, and many people feel it's better on there than the recent concession Digidesign (the makers) have made to PCs. If you've got a decent Mac, you'll get the ability to record and playback up to 24 tracks through an 8-in-8-out box with full editing capacity and all sorts of sound manipulation such as automated level mixing, pitch-shifting, reverb, compression -it's a studio in a box! Try getting all that from an analogue multitrack. Should cost you under $1000 dollars, perhaps well under. Again, try getting a MT recorder for that!

Forgot to mention that I run it home as well as at work, and I've just finished a session with my band where I put 5 tracks into record and went away and played with the band for 75 minutes. Now we have 7 or 8 songs ready to edit, mix and then burn to a CD. Try doing that with etc etc..

Since I was going to buy a four track recorder, I can easily get one for under $1,000.00, actually, I recently saw a new Tascam for approximately $300.00 -- but what you mention does sound useful, if I can save enough money. Where would I look for such a device?

Most of the bigger music shops will be able to point you in the direction of one, or even demo it for you. Or you can look at the site where you type in [url removed by moderator]. What you're looking for is Pro Tools LE and the Digi 001. LE stands for Light Edition, because it isn't as fully functioned as the big professional TDM system (as used by many major recording studios and film dubbing suites} But it's almost a tenth of the price, and it's still about the most powerful thing I've seen for the money. You'll never have to apologise for having a domestic set-up if you have Por Tools, put it that way.

You get the software on a CD, a PCI card, and the input/output box which gives you your 8 ins and outs, plus digital audio connections and a headphone amp. Two of the inputs are decent quality microphone amps as well.

You need a Power Mac running OS 9.04, 192 Mb of RAM, and a decent sized partition (>2Gb) on your hard drive. Better still, a separate hard drive. You can also run it on a PC, but I got the impression you're a Mac user. So if you've got all that already, or a budget for extras for your computer, go for it! You'll be able to do a whole lot more than you would with a multitracker for the smae money.

And, no, I don't work for Digidesign, I'm just a fan.

I think my Mac only runs 8.6. It's a 1999 iMac.

Is that a G3 then? I know they'll run Pro Tools, because we used them at work until we got G4s. I also know that you can run OS 9 on them, and that might even be a free download from the Aplle site. I think you need OS 9 to run the latest Pro Tools version, but a quick visit to that site I mentioned would tell you: look under "compatibility requirements".

Good luck, anyway, and fire any questions you have my way.

Thanks. Yeah, I think all iMacs are G3s, and I know it will run OS 9, but I don't know how much that might cost. Ah well. Thanks for the info and I'll definately check out the site you mentioned.

Ah! An iMac won't have space for the PCI card you need for Digi001. But it WILL have firewire, if I'm not mistaken, and there are manufacturers starting to make audio boxes/programs that will do a similar job to Pro Tools using that. Mark of the Unicorn (MOTU) do one, and there will be others. I haven't any experience of them myself though.

The point I'm really making, Arl, is that you already have all this computing power - why not put it to use?

probably a good idea. And I'll look into it. I actually wanted a G3, but it was a graduation gift, and since it did have a G3 chip in it, I wasn't going to turn it down What is it exactly you do for a living, by the way?

Hope you can find a way then. I'm sold on digital audio myself, but that's because I've been a broadcasting engineer with a British Corporation for nearly 23 years, and when I started we had to line up tape machines every day and play all our music from gramophone records!

Do you work for the BBC, then?

All very hush-hush, you know. I could tell you who I work for, but then I'd have to kill you

Gottcha. I've been looking into the Firewire stuff you mentioned. I found many add ons and such that work with Firewire, but I'm still not 100% sure what Firewire /is/ exactly. Is it hardware or software? Is it already on my computer, or do I need to install it?

Hey, Arl. I had a reply for you last night, but Explorer froze on me and I couldn't post it so I went to bed instead.

Try again.

Firewire is sort of both hardware and software. It's a connection system being heavily promoted by Apple. You're already using USB, another system which is also used by PCs, hence the name (Universal Serial Bus). Your keyboard and mouse run on it, and as you'll know, you can plug the Apple optical mouse into either end of the keyboard. You could also plug a USB scanner, printer or other USB device into the unused socket, and as long as you've installed its operating software,it should work without having to reboot your computer. It's supposed to be a no fuss plug-and play system that doesn't need you to open your computer and install extra hardware.

Firewire is similar, but much faster than USB. It's easily capable of handling several streams of audio, or even a video camera. So manufacturers are beginning to make audio boxes that have feed all the audio channels you need in and out of the computer on a single Fitrewire cable. And since you can't install a PCI card inside an iMac and therefore can't use the Pro Tools Digi 001 box, you could check out the Firewire-powered equivalents.

Or...since your iMac already has a sound card, albeit only stereo and not hugely high quality (but better than a cassette multitracker) there is the possibility of using it with Pro Tools Free. Believe it or not, you can download a nearly fully-functioning version from digidesign. Why not try that first and see how you get on? I can't remember the URL, but do a search for Digidesign Pro tools free and you should be rocking in a fairly short while. Good luck!

I'll give it a whirl, thanks.