Record on Mac Transfer to PC

WaveLab
1

Hey All - I am brand new to Cubase and this forum so if I have this in the wrong spot please let me know. I appreciate any and all help given!

A brief story - I have a Mackie 1640 (the older version…not the 1640i) with the firewire card that we use for our main live mixer. I originally bought it so we could record all the shows and eventually (now) for studio applications. I recently bought an older Mac G5 (I have had or used a Mac before either!). The only other computer I have is a fairly new laptop (running Intel i3 and Windows 7 64 bit) but it doesn’t have a firewire port or PCI slot to add one. So, I bought the Mac because it had firewire and every one I talked to recommended using it for the recording/mastering stuff. So being new to both Cubase and Mac, I overlooked the operating system/computer requirements. The Mac is running OS 10.5.8 so I bought Cubase 6 Elements AND Mac OS 10.6 (Snow Leopard I think). The problem I ran into is that the hardware in the Mac won’t allow for any newer OS. So now I have Cubase 6 that I can’t run on the Mac and a laptop that doesn’t have a firewire port to connect to the mixer (it’s been a long couple weeks of trail and, well…lots of, error!!!

Though I am new to Cubase, I have used Mixcraft and Pro Tools in the past and I am pretty well versed in PC hardware and applications. I have scoured the web looking for an interface to connect the laptop to the mixer…no luck here. I have found AD/DA converters that I can use with the DB25 outs on the mixer but I’d have to have a pretty large, thus expensive, one to get the same 16 channels simultaneously that the firewire card already provides. I am afraid that my only firewire option is to load Cubase 5 (or older) on the Mac.

So now my question…if I buy Cubase 5 (the last version that will run on the operating system I have on the Mac…I think) or an older version, can I record to that then transfer that raw audio to the PC that I just installed Cubase 6 (actually 7 with the free upgrade or whatever it was) on for mix down, editing, etc.? If there are issues that I can’t overcome, does anyone have any suggestions for connecting the mixer firewire out straight to the PC through some other interface?

Again, thanks to any and all for suggestions, advice, input, and info!!!

Chris D.

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if your laptop has a pcmcia type slot you can buy a f/w adapter for it…otherwise there is no such thing as a usb to firewire converter. as for the mac …welcome to the wonderful world of apple control. they force you to buy new hardware. my suggestion is dump the mac…buy a cheap i5 with a texas instruments f/w port on the mobo and load your cubase 7. to directly answer your question yes you can do a track by track mixdown on the mac to .wav and import it on the pc.

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Thanks for the reply! I have to say that when all this first started I kinda new the few possible solutions…just needed to make sure I wasn’t missing anything. I do want to tell as many people as I can about an solution I hadn’t considered! Before posting this here I wrote Steinberg support basically saying the same thing. They responded and gave me an additional license to run Cubase 5 (the last version that my Mac would support) for free! So now I can record on the Mac and do everything else in C7!!! I didn’t ask for anything but advice and they gave me free software!!! Now that’s support!