Hi,

Recently, from work I strenuously requested a MacBook Pro, and my wish was (justifiedly so ) granted, so... as of recently, I have taken my first real steps in a very nice OS and hardware world, and naturally, I'd also like to investigate just how well this machine can be used for my audio sampling and editing efforts.

What I've got:
It's the 2.16GHz dual core Intel MacBook Pro, and it has (presently) 1 GB of memory, which will soon be upgraded to 2 or 3 GB. Of course I did not want to miss out on the possibility of also installing Windows on it, so for getting optimum performance out of the machine, I installed it natively in a Bootcamp partition (hence giving me access to the full force of the dual core processor, as well as better overall hardware support than would be the case in an entirely VMWare or Parallels installation), and the Windows of choice was XP Home (good enough for my purposes). Bootcamp 1.2 beta allows you to create a special drivers disc for better hardware support, and after installing it, the "audio hardware device" is listed as being a: "SigmaTel High Definition Audio CODEC" (more about this configuration can be found at a.o.: http://37prime.com/bootcamp.html ). I am not 100% certain as to what the actual hardware is, and probably Apple won't tell, but it does at least feature combined analogue and digital in and outputs.

What I used to use:
Previously I just used to sample from a somewhat old PC (a Dell Optiplex III or so), which AFAIK has an on-board sound card, which by no means will be a high end one. For editing I use Sony's SoundForge 8.0d.

What I'd like to know:
-Are there any (very) good Apple (or 3rd party) OS-X programs, that are up on par with Sound Forge?
-Does anyone know anything about the ADAC quality of the MacBook Pro's sound card?
-Has anyone already experimented with such a machine, and if so, what were your findings regarding audio editing?
-When sampling, would it be preferrable to do so from OS-X (if so: using which program?), or from the native Windows XP installation (with the above mentioned SigmaTel sund driver), using Sound Forge?

Finally, back in 1998 for my M.Sc. thesis I built a high end A/D D/A sampling board, and hence I know just how critical a good design is. More in particular, if the analogue sections are not very properly shielded against "digital overspeak" (if that's what it's called in English), a lot of sampling errors and inaccuracies are introduced, esp. with ADACs that are as precise as 16-bit ones!
Intuitively I would say that the space restrictions of a laptop design would almost inevitably be in direct conflict with the space requirements for such a proper ADAC design, but then, perhaps Apple's engineers have found a way to make it work really well. Is there anyone (probably a real techie) who has any idea about that?

I'm very curious as to exploring the possibilities this machine offers further, and therefore, anyone's 2 cents are more than welcome!

Tnx in advance, and cheerz,
MM