The Evolution of PowerBook Studio
Initially this system was put together through budget constraints. I sold off nearly all the equipment from a much, much larger recording system due to financial necessity and the thought of not having anything to record with was too depressing to consider, so I picked up an old G3 "Pismo" PowerBook off Ebay and scored an amazing deal on a used VX-Pocket sound card on "The Bay" too. With an old 2-channel pre amp I got used from, guess where? - I had a recording system to enable me to write my songs and the 8-tracks I had with Pro Tools Free meant I could mix stuff OK too.
It wasn't long that I realized the potential of this little system and I just had to get the ultimate in portable, pristine A/D conversion and signal capture. I bought an Apogee Mini-Me 2-channel mic pre amp with a digital out, straight into the VX-Pocket and I had what really is a better audio front-end that any of the Pro tools LE devices on the market. Suddenly, 8-tracks was no problem at all in light of the quality of the recordings I was making. Honestly, it's so hard to describe the magnitude of excitement and satisfaction I felt when I heard the results from this little recording system. The whole lot fits into a suitcase, so theoretically it can be taken anywhere.
As time went on I added a few bits and pieces to the studio, mostly in the form of RTAS plug ins and early in 2007 after suffering a minor setback with the G3's processor giving out I started to look for a suitable replacement in the form of the highest spec G4 Power Book I could find that would run Mac OS9. As it happens I also found a replacement G3 processor really cheap on Ebay, which breathed new life into the Pismo.
I have since sold on my G3 PowerBook. It was very sad to see it go, but what with relocating to SE Asia, it didn't seem very practical to take both machines. The G4 stayed due to its superior processing muscle power, graphics and the better compatibility of the G4 CPU with newer OS X applications, but if I had to choose between the two based purely on the experience of using them with OS9 (not counting the faster CPU) I would stay with the G3 every time. They are truly amazing machines and still a very wise buy if you want to record with Protools Free.