Soon I will be saying goodbye to blogging at PowerBook Studio. I am gradually consolidating all my blogs into my main, personal blog called Leave The Office.

I have several websites, which are blogs because it was an easy way of building an attractive lookig site very quickly, but now I have decided that I only want to write blog posts in one location. There will still be a news/updates section on this site where readers can comment, but it will be for announcing new content and material on the site and any news I feel is relevant and interesting enough to add.

This website will eventually focus on production: My productions and music, Articles and Discussion.

Sorry for a less-than-interesting post.

As soon as I’m able to I will be investing in new hardware and processing power in the form of a brand-new Mac. Most probably a MacBook Pro. However I don’t know how long that will be.

This is why I am excited about the latest product from Avid/Digidesign:
The Mbox 2 Micro.

It comes with the latest version of Protools LE software and is about the same size as a USB memory stick. It has no inputs, only a mini-jack stereo out and a thumbwheel to control volume. It doesn’t support 96KHz sample rate, but it is a very portable and cost effective way for me to become compatible with using Protools on OS X.

There is just one unknown factor so far for me. How well will it work with my G4 Powerbook. I’m sure it will run OK. My old G3 Pismo ran Protools LE 6 on an Mbox 1, but did not have the power to successfully bounce to disk, so I need to find out how well the G4 will perform with this gadget. If it works OK then I’ll be really happy!

I still have a great audio input via the Apogee Mini-Me & VX Pocket into Protools Free. In fact I think that the quality of this still exceeds the entire Digidesign LE range of products, albeit limited to only 44.1KHz, which is fine for me right now anyway.

The MBox 2 Micro would allow me the option to mix with more than 8 tracks. Of course an old G4 isn’t going to do well running 48 tracks of audio, but even if I am able to run 12-16 tracks and have the ability to run some new plugins and instrument tracks then PowerBook Studio can be very much more feature laden without bankrupting me!

Exciting stuff. If I get one soon I’ll do a full review of it here…

While I continue to "remix" the website I’ll continue to post here on the blog although ultimately I want to move away from the blog as the focal point. OK, so I have received a few messages about more pictures and I found one that I took on my mobile phone.

It is the original PowerBook Studio, par excellence! I have upgraded the core of my studio now to the lovely G4 Titanium, but my G3 Pismo was what started the whole thing off… and to think I may never have embarked on the PowerBook Studio path if I hadn’t gone through the tough, learning experience of signing a big management deal in the USA and then it falling through. The whole reason I built a system like this was because I sold all of my up-market equipment along with my car and many other items in order to help fund my big career change Stateside. I put together this small system so I could still record rough demos and "sketches" of songs. As soon as I realized the potential of this I invested in a quality audio interface, namely the Apogee Mini-Me and produced an entire album from beginning to end with it.

So the first incarnation of PBS looked as it does in this photo. Actually all that has changed now is the Powerbook itself, which has loads more horsepower, a nicer screen and the ability to run a few more of the newer OS-X applications due to the G4 processor.

This is a landmark post!

The PowerBook Studio is well and truly realizing it’s potential. The dream was to produce music in paradise and that is exactly what is happening right now. I am about 10 metres from the beach, sitting outside on the porch watching the Andaman waves crashing in. Once I have posted this I have loads of new music to work on that I have been commissioned to produce.

PowerBook Studio is soon to be a transformed place. Far less emphasis on the blog, although I will be posting on it as and when interesting updates are to be had.

The website will mainly be geared towards sharing the ethos of the Powerbook Studio, which is to make music, or multimedia for that matter anywhere without needing a large budget to do so. In fact it is more likely that travel costs will be more than the cost of the studio!

I love the fact that I got my studio out here in my hand luggage, although it is not the complete studio. If I didn’t have to bring a lot of other stuff that I needed for this trip I think I could have got all of it in (minus the studio monitors). I am intent on being able to transport the entire studio, which consists of PowerBook, microphones, audio interface, external hard drive, cables and powered monitors all in my hand luggage. Maybe I’ll have some room left for a toothbrush, razor and a spare pair of underpants! Failing that I know that it will all go in my main luggage.

So maybe I’ll create a PowerBook Studio podcast to get into the swing of things. It seems fitting to make audio posts on the blog too.

For a blog that doesn’t seem to be very active I have a surprisingly high number of RSS subscribers and interested readers. This is great, but a little confusing, since there is not much to read here. I can only assume that what music is here is worth listening to according to my loyal visitors, so I would like to thank everyone who does stop by here.

Sorry for the lame post, but I am still working on a totally different format for PowerBook Studio. I have a strong intention for this site to become a hub for my multimedia activities. I have started to see the concept of the PowerBook Studio from more than just a music production point of view. The idea here is to expand the limits of your imagination with regard to using a Powerbook or a notebook computer.

I am also building this site to showcase my own work, the services I offer and a source of information in varying formats like audio, video, downloads, podcasts and written tutorials & articles. There’s a lot to be done, so it will be an unfolding process. The new design is almost complete, so the next thing is the content.

I am spending the month of October in Thailand, so there may not be that many site updates or changes, but I am keen to spend some sunny days outside creating some written content. This is the website I have been wanting to create for ovedr a year now, but for some reason found a way to put it off, mainly due to "not knowing how I want to do it". The subject matter of the forthcoming PowerBook Studio website is my big passion in life, which is expanding into new fields as well as getting stronger than ever.

I’ll be posting from Thailand on my personal blog Leave The Office while I am away if anyone is interested in my ramblings from Thailand.

Thanks for reading.