Audio Editing and Creation Mac advice

[jtc13]

I want to add another Mac to my TV studio for audio editing and creation. It is for a high school, so I need something that I can teach the beginners and have some of the more advanced students push their creative boundaries. Any suggestions which Mac and software would be good in a teaching environment?

We already have 13 edit bays, 7 macs (FCP & FCE), 1 Avid, and some editing appliances. One Mac has a keyboard for Garage Band and has been used quite a bit this year. I just want to have something a little better.

Thanks

 

[techound1]

Are you thinking one machine to handle the beginers through the advanced?

My 2 cents: keep the beginers on the older machines with garage band and purchase a new PowerMac that you can graduate the kids up to.

Unfortunately, the only pro sound editing app I know is adobe audition, and it looks like it is only for PCs right now...

 

[Poeben]

Take a look at Digidesign M•Box ($500) or 002 ($1200 - $2000) on the hardware end. Both only run with Pro Tools LE which is industry standard pro audio software. There is also M•Powered which runs Pro Tools on M•Audio hardware.

I also really like MOTU hardware/software. More i/o for less money and some models can read/write SMPTE. For software you could run Digital Performer or Logic.

 

[Vaphoron]

I would highly recommend going with either an Mbox 2 which is an audio interface that comes with Pro Tools LE software or the M-Audio Fast Track Pro and Pro Tools M-Powered. The software is the same for both but they each work on specific hardware. Pro Tools LE works on the Mbox 2 and Pro Tools M-Powered only runs with M-Audio hardware. Pro Tools is a professional application that is quick to learn but is very powerful. I have included links below so you can get an idea of cost. Feel free to pick my brain about this if you have any questions because I do this for a living. I will warn you that it only works on one computer and requires hardware to run, so if you want multiple computers to be edit stations you would need multiple packages. Peak LE would be the solution if you just want something simple that can be used without extra hardware.

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/MBox2/

OR

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/PTMPEdu/
AND
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/FastTrackPro/