PC or MAC

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Permalink Reply by Dwoogie on September 15, 2007 at 9:25am

Fall in for the PC/Mac war part 857 here. :o)

Here's my contribution.

Apple users, please try not to be offended. It's a joke.

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Permalink Reply by Grant Bridgeman on September 15, 2007 at 10:08am

I thought we were only at part 855; I'd obviously missed a couple of rounds whilst working...

So to summarise:

In the red corner...PCs...cheaper...open architecture means that not everything inside will interact in the way it is expected to...you only have to look on the Pro Tools site to see how specific their requirements are for PC's...

In the Blue corner...Macs...more expensive...prettier..have more qdos in the industry...more closed architechture - making them more standardised - and so more reliable. Mac's don't have to run Logic - Cubase and Pro Tools still run on Macs, its only Logic that has become mac only.


There is a LOT of snobbery (based firmly and accurately on history) in the industry, meaning that many professionals only use macs, but it is changing. In broadcast / film systems such as Sadie and Pyramix are starting to knock PT off of its mac based pedestal and are both PC only applications - and Cool Edit (Audition) has been the defacto stand alone editor for BBC radio for years.

The main thing is have a dedicated Audio PC - and not expect your cheapo laptop for 50p from fischer price to run Pro Tools.

Both are tools for doing a job. When it comes down to it, it's personal preference and cost benefit analysis.



As for the best thing for music production....well I think we all should have to spend at least 12 months starting on a dedicated four track recorder, before we even go anywhere near any software...(and thinking on, if apple bring out their own audio hardware interface that is 19" mountable - will it be called the I-rack ?)

;-)

(let battle commence....)

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Permalink Reply by Dennis Sandoo Jr. on September 15, 2007 at 10:28am

Nice one!
I am planning to buy a new computer.
Haven't decided yet if it's going to be a Mac or Pc.
I am leaning more towards a Mac Pro, although I have always used pc.

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Permalink Reply by s6xtoe on March 8, 2008 at 4:11pm

this is an old post i know but i just switched to Mac for music, we have been using MAC OS X for sometime now just for photos and our i phone and itunes , but never for music.
I took the leap and now have a MAC Pro tower, with (2) 2.8 xenon processors and 8 cores. So far this thing is so satisfying and fast, it can hold an astonishing 32gig of RAM, so future upgrade is not an issue. If you can spend the cash, jump on this. When software catches up with utilizing 8CORES youll be ready and so will I.
later

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Permalink Reply by Mike Hillier on September 15, 2007 at 6:17pm

Now that Apple is using Intel hardware the difference between a PC and a Mac is largely the OS. In that way the advantage is to the Mac since Macs can now run OSX, XP and Vista (simultaneously if need be).

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Permalink Reply by Dwoogie on September 15, 2007 at 7:55pm

I'm just frantically jumping up and down inside myself wanting to scream something about 1-button mice, but I won't. :o)

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Permalink Reply by Mike Hillier on September 16, 2007 at 9:00pm

Now now, let's not resort to old stereotypes. The Mighty Mouse might have the worst name Apple has ever come up with, but it's a decent mouse. I know a few people who prefer the one-button approach though and resolutely stick with their old mice.

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Permalink Reply by mistrust on September 17, 2007 at 12:40pm

Maybe this will bring out a few more converts to Macs....

"Microsoft loses anti-trust appeal"

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Permalink Reply by andrew sykes on September 17, 2007 at 9:09pm

I heard that for stability you cannot beat a mac pro running logic. I've just recently finished a music course and the tutor there explained that yes the PCs are cheaper to run with Cubase but once you get down to loading up your creative tracks with vsts and inserts you run the possibility of the PCs crashing out.

tell me if i am wrong?

"Ones mans word is not always the truth."

DigDeepMusic

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Permalink Reply by mistrust on September 18, 2007 at 10:25am

The problem with PCs is that (1) most of the software isn't written to run alongside other programs, drivers, etc. (2) There are too many bits to go wrong inside a PC, so you can never guarantee anything will work properly, especially when you upgrade your own machine.
As far as I know Logic is written to be completely compatible with Apple machines, so the chance of anything going wrong is less.

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Permalink Reply by Dwoogie on September 18, 2007 at 1:27pm

Stable is as stable does. I don't know about other folk, but since I've been using XP it has never - yes, that's never - crashed unless I've done something particularly stupid. Software goes belly up occasionally, but I mean occasionally, and it hasn't taken the OS with it, unlike Win98.

Not having been within spitting distance of a Mac for about 15 years, I'm quite curious. What do they do when you running VSTis at 150% of processor capacity?

Having said that, I've now doomed myself to a lifetime of crashes, freezes, and blue screens, of course.

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Permalink Reply by Brian S on September 20, 2007 at 3:49am

Having been thoroughly cross-platform for years, and having dealt directly with more computers than I could possibly count, I have found one truth: any computer can (and more than likely will) crash on you. I crashed a MacBook Pro running Logic 7.2 just a couple of weeks ago, running a very small session. I've also built PCs that were nearly bulletproof. It goes both ways, despite what some (especially the zealots) will tell you.

You make your system stable by careful configuration and by limiting what you expect of it. Don't expect an e-mailing/surfing/game-playing/social-networking/file-sharing computer to be a stable DAW, whether it's a Mac or a PC. MTM has offered many pages of less-grouchy counsel on this topic, so dig through your back issues. :-)

The primary reasons for choosing between Mac and PC are: 1) the software and/or hardware you favour is only available on that platform; or 2) one OS seems more natural to you and helps you be more comfortable and efficient. Have fun with whatever you use.

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