Actually, we can divide this into “things to envy” and “things to note.”

Things to envy: 5,000-lumen projectors, a racked maxed-out dual-G5 with non-stock video cards, and a visual artist with years of experience building software for just this sort of thing.

Things to note: a lowly 2,000-lumen projector bathes Thomas Dolby in projections, the keyboards are very-affordable twin M-Audio Axioms (perfect for VJing work thanks to built-in drum pads), and the software is all built in Max/MSP/Jitter. DeKam takes advantage of a relatively new feature of Jitter, which is the ability to manipulate video on the graphics card instead of the CPU, a technique he explains on the site. Usually you would associate this with 3D work and gaming, but oddly enough by mapping video as a 3D texture, you can get far greater video performance than you would on a CPU. (In other words, live visuals doesn’t have to mean ugly 320×240 video any more.)

If you’re interested in doing the same thing, check out the Jitter tutorials. This is a feature I think you can expect in other software, too, particularly since several major VJ apps are built in Jitter. I’m also working on a simple tutorial patch that demonstrates how to do this in a little more detail than the Jitter docs provide; expect that early this summer.

More software, also advocated here on CDM before: Vidvox GRID, and Apple’s Quartz Composer.

Oh, speaking of the term “VJ,” Johnny DeKam doesn’t like it, calling it video instrumentalism or live cinema. I’m very sympathetic to that, but I don’t think either term is likely to catch on. If you want VJing to mean more than raver eye candy, why not just apply the term to a broader range of live visual art? (Though if anyone has a suggestion for a better name and how to make it catch on, be my guest. In the meantime, VJ it is.)

Anyway, forget the terms: while this rig is certainly drool-worthy, I think it’s fantastic news that a lot of these tools are fairly accessible. (Jitter is pricey, though some of you already have it, GRID is cheap, Quartz Composer is included with Mac OS X in the developer tools, and Pd and Processing are both free alternatives to Jitter.) The more people working with these tools, the broader the definition of live visual performance will become, and that’s good for everyone as this medium tries to earn new respect. And musical expression can find a new multimedia venue with live digital visuals. Hey, it worked pretty well for opera.

I expect we’ll hear more about this particular rig, as music maker M-Audio is now establishing Johnny as their first sponsored artist, much like Vidvox has done in the past. Stay tuned.

Related:

There’s a lively discussion of open-source software solutions to many of these problems, particularly doing live visual performance, on the forums.

Sticking your desktop machine into a flight case doesn’t require a PC. You knew some high-end Mac audio customers would come up with something. Mike Salera writes us from the pro audio department at the legendary NYC Mac shop Tekserve. He’s got just the solution:

We recommend the folks at Nashville Custom Cases, who offer the “Pro Tools
Case” ($1,625) and road-ready cases for the Apple Cinema 20″ display ($525).

Cheap? No, but neither is the rest of a serious touring rig, and note that customers include Sting and CBS Studios. (Not sure Sting bought this case specifically; they do all manner of custom cases. And yes, they’re based in Nashville, or at least nearby Brentwood.) Thanks, Mike!

Bless Cakewalk. While most of the music software business lags behind on the latest computer tech, these guys are out on the bleeding edge. They’re one of the first developers in any product category (not just music) to take advantage of the 64-bit edition of Windows. And they’ve been busily testing all the high-end PC laptops, desktops, and rack-mounted machines for a quick encapsulation of how they’re performing. The machines they like include some systems built for pro audio, like the Rain Recording systems we’ve been talking about, as well as some mainstream boxes from Dell, HP, and Alienware. They even share audio card details and the setups they’ve used at trade shows:

Cakewalk DAW Labs

I’m all for getting as much information as you can, so this is great, and worth looking for lovers of other native applications, too. Especially interesting among the vendors they list, ADK Pro Audio will custom-configure a PC for you to your exact specifications, including many of the rack cases we’ve been talking about lately (and a few we haven’t). Want a high-end AMD dual-core 64-bit processor and NVidia 7800 graphics card, all in a specific case? Sure thing, says ADK. (Though I do wonder, if you’re doing the specs yourself, why not build it yourself?)

Now we need this for the Mac, too. It’s a much shorter list, of course. ;-)

The case/power supply maker Antec has a couple of rack-mount enclosures targeted at the musician called the “Studio Series”. There’s a 3U model and a 4U model, called suprisingly enough, the Take 3 and Take 4.

Antec Take 3
Antec Take 4

The Take 4 is currently on my spec list for my next desktop machine I’m working on.
For rack-mounting LCDs, check out flatmonitors.com.

An excellent combo would be the Take 4, a FlatMonitor Q-series rack
mount and a RoadReady slant-top rack case — but unfortunately, the
Antec cases are 20.5″ deep and the RoadReady has a maximum depth of 18″.
If you come across any racks with a 21″ depth and a slant-top, I’d love
to hear about it.

While we’re on the subject the PC Doctor blog last week posted a guide to building your own quiet PC, with details on which parts to get and other vital info. I’m serious when I say I want rig photos — let us know how it goes if you do go this route! -PK

Love the blog; thought I would chip in on the current run of articles about rackmounting PCs. I have just done the same thing after many weeks of research. Like most people looking at this, my budget cannot stretch to a laptop at the moment, so rackmounting my current PC ([AMD] Operton 165) seemed like a cheaper idea. I also needed to mount up my mixer as the idea is to live live with my band and be able to mix vocals/instruments through the computer as well as turntables, etc.

This is the flight case which is perfect for my needs:

Gator Cases

They do come in smaller sizes if you only wanted to have the PC, but I figured that a few extra rack spaces would come in handy.

The main problem with flight casing PCs is the dimensions; rackmount cases tend to be server cases, and as a result are very long, a lot long than most standard rackmount equipment. After many weeks of searching I came across this case, designed as a HTPC case but this is a bonus, as it means it is quiet and about the same dimensions as a HiFi amp, so fits the Gator perfectly.

Silverstone Tek LC17

The only problem I have had is that the rackmount ears for the LC17 are not actually out yet. My solution was to bribe a retailer into selling me a pair of the rackmount ears for the LC18. I had to drill them to get them to fit as they are a different shape. This should not be a problem by the end of the month, though, as Silverstone will be releasing the proper rackmount kit. The case is beautiful, has well-designed cooling zones, is quiet, and will take a full ATX motherboard.

All in all, the Gator case was £75 from eBay, the case around £65, and I’m real happy with the set up. It’s a bit heavy, but nothing in the laptop world can touch it!

Thanks, Nat! Your whole note was useful, so worth reprinting in its entirety. If anyone else has rack rigs they’d like to share, send ‘em on in! And in the meantime, have a listen to 601: quite nice music!

There are even multiple vendors for audio-specific PCs. The idea of these machines is to choose specs optimized for audio work, rather than the compromises often made by mainstream PCs. What that means depends on the vendor, but some obvious choices are quieter systems, rack-mounted cases, faster hard drives, and even pre-installed software. The major draw, though, is the systems that are built to be rack-mounted, whether in a studio or on the road.

A new line of rack-mountable and small form-factor audio PCs was just announced by Spectral Computers. I really know nothing about this company, so I’m certainly not endorsing their systems, but they do look nice on paper: slick-looking cases and nice AMD and Intel Core Duo processors. The old standby in this product category is the UK-based Carillon Audio Systems (who also sell here in North America). The rack cases are thoughtfully designed, but the specs look a little stale to me from what I’ve seen. (That said, this isn’t a review: if you’ve got one, let us know about it.)

One company I have been hearing a lot about lately is Rain Recording. Their desktop machines are to me the real draw. One irony of the “audio pro” machines is that they often spec out too conservatively compared to mainstream computers, as if audio pros don’t need performance. Not so with Rain’s Element and 64-bit dual-core Element 64 machines. These are some seriously drool-worthy computers, especially with Windows and Cakewalk now supporting full 64-bit performance and Ableton coming out with a dual-core-optimized version of Live this summer. If you already have a “legacy” Windows PC, in fact, I think there are enough audio drivers for 64-bit operation to make the leap to the 64-bit version of Windows; you can always fall back on your existing PC for that stubborn piece of hardware that hasn’t been updated yet. I already know at least a couple of people with Rain machines, and they love them. (Rain has some nice-looking laptops, too. I may have been wrong to be skeptical of the laptop’s 5400 rpm drives because of some other key specs; more on that in a separate story.)

The best news here is Rain’s Rak Adaptor Kit, a set of rack ears custom-mounted to the case. With them, you can take the whole machine in an SKB road-mount case. (Check out Rain’s road case store, or go with your own SKB fave like the GigRig, shown here.) You’ll still have to decide what to do about a display, but I love this idea: there’s no way you could squeeze this amount of performance out of a laptop. Two caveats: one, of course, is price. This isn’t a cheap solution, with the rack-mounting alone costing over US$500 by the time you buy the ears and the case, not to mention the price of these high-end PCs. Second, make sure you buy the RAK option when you buy your Rain computer, because they’re factory-installed.

Your last option, for budding DIYers: build it yourself. There are plenty of rack-mount cases, like this 4U model sent by CDM’s Adrian Anders. Just prepare for some serious work: for an audio system, you’ll need to think even more carefully about heat, air circulation, and noise. Or, for the truly brave, you could try building your own laptop (yes, you heard that right) and giving it desktop-like characteristics. (Think zero battery life but high performance.) Maximum PC magazine here in the US has a cover story on building your own laptop this month.

Got a rack rig of your own and want to show it off, Mac or PC? Do send us some photos. I expect a fully-modded case design, complete with a neon-lit action figure of Bob Moog.

The anti-Origami: why go portable when you can get the maximum performance from a machine in a road-ready case? That’s the question I’ll be offering all week, with a first look at some of the options. First up, we’ll start with the platform that makes this a bit tricky: the Mac.

Mac lovers adore their svelte cases (Mini, iMac) and buy up laptops more often than desktops (PowerBook, iBook, MacBook Pro). So it may seem odd to want to rack mount a bulky Power Mac G5 desktop and take it on the road. If performance is a must, though, you must be tempted: even if you can’t afford the blazingly-fast high-end Power Mac G5 quads, which recently roasted PC desktops alive in PC Magazine benchmarks, most of the Power Mac line offer pretty fantastic performance. I’ve had to think up new ways of using up the CPU and graphics power of my dual-2.7 G5.

Now, inevitably, the bad news: your options seem to be extremely limited. The one long-time manufacturer of rack-mounting accessories, Marathon Computer, is out of business. Worse, rack mounts from Marathon and others seem to assume you’re running a giant G5 server farm, because they rack-mount the machines vertically — utterly useless for musical road racks, and kind of silly even for stationary audio studio setups. (See pictured Marathon rig.)

So, here’s my question: is there any outlet whatsoever for solving this, short of picking up your G5 and carrying it? For that matter, does the seemingly fragile case of the Power Mac even want to go on the road, or will you soon be carrying around a giant, leaden, non-working computer? (Needless to say, you want to think through how you do this.)

Toting Other Mac Desktops

If you’re not married to the idea of lugging a Power Mac, you could always go with the small and cheap Mac Mini, or the fast, cheap, and luggable iMac — especially now with the iMac Core Duo available. DJ Sasha did his DJ sets here at Crobar using the iMac G5, apparently to squeeze extra performance from Ableton Live which has run notoriously faster on PC hardware than on Mac laptops.

The iLugger is a very cool case for carrying around your iMac that could fit the bill; iMac case maker Willow Design has gone out of business. (Is there a pattern here?)

For a great example of rack-mounting a Mac mini, see CDM’s previous story. (I’m still not satisfied, though, because of the somewhat lackluster video hardware on the bargain-priced mini.)

Wanted: Power Mac to Go

Okay, never mind that companies that have entered this market have gone belly-up. Never mind that the Power Mac is heavy, pricey, and fragile. Never mind that the Power Mac case is actually so wide that it won’t fit in a standard rack. Um . . . (this isn’t looking real hopeful, is it?)

I still want a road case for my Power Mac, and I’m guessing I’m not completely alone. Anyone have suggestions?

UPDATED: That didn’t take long — TUAW blogger and sound hacker Fabienne Serrier has some rack mounting suggestions based on past experience, including an audio-geared product for this specific purpose.

Fabienne offers some other rack-mounting tips, as well:

“When I worked in New York City at a studio called Engine 27 (that no longer exists in the incarnation that it was in then) I did this, which doesn’t look like much because the machines aren’t remounted in that picture, but those slide rails were used with rack mounted G4
towers.”

Sure enough, this product comes from the now-defunct Marathon Computers, which also made a G5 version. Fabienne suggests scouring eBay. (Then again, for audio use, the Radco product looks better anyway.)

Fabienne also suggests epoxy or hot glue for rackmounting smaller products (like a Mac mini) to shelves. Thanks!

Previously:
More on Fabienne Serrier, Sound Hacker Extraordinaire

Rack Rig: Rack-Mounting Macs?

nine inch nails: current [nin.com]

Apparently taken in a hotel room, Trent Reznor, Saul Williams, and Atticus Ross are on the road with their road-racked G5s and other audio gear. (Check out the cheap-and-quick recording tip: use a blanket or curtains to make an impromptu recording booth.) Looks like they’re also running Pro Tools via a Digidesign 002. And I don’t know where they stashed that Cinema Display. The rack mount itself appears to be a custom foam installation, like a bigger version of the racked Mac mini we saw last year. I think that is custom, not something commercially available, but feel free to let me know otherwise.

Christopher Scheidel has been hard at work cleaning up his sophisticated Apple Logic Pro Environment template, which he uses to manage his guitar + keyboard + Mac Mini rig while performing. He’s been nice enough to share it with us:

Logic template [Download]

See Christopher’s site for further information. He promises more soon, including a full walkthrough with screenshots; I’ll try to offer some additional tips of my own.

Sure, you could just run Ableton Live as your only performance rig, but with the Environment it’s easy to switch guitar effects, synth presets, and, of course, to play Logic Pro-only instruments like the fantastic Sculpture.

Previously: Christopher’s custom rack-mounted Mac Mini music rig