Can of worms ready to open...

[mantaray]

I am building a small but quality facility PT LE based. I am in the(eternal) dilemma of choosing a Mac or a PC for it. I am equally familiar with both platforms but there are certain things I'm taking into consideration.

My experience with Mac OS is with HD so system performance was not the sole deciding factor as it happens with LE. I have worked perviously with Windows and LE(and still have an Mbox-win laptop setup), but I don't really fancy it much. In addition, from what I've noticed with the home-built PCs is that different motherboards etc cause troubles to different versions of PT LE. Macs on the contrary are almost always compatible with any version of PTLE. IN other words, buying a mac, will save me from the trouble checking compato every now and then when a new PT version comes out.

With PCs however, I'm noticing great performances, equal or better than the top of the line powermacs and at a smaller price. If anyone noticed it, the new ad of PTLE 7 shows two TFTs with PTLE on windows. Perhaps an implication that LE is optimized for Windows?

Windows users always post their results(davec) however, I haven't seen many Mac people post theirs. And some of them tend to be quite unclear.

An important question: With Logic Pro, you can connect more Macs and increase the DSP power. Does this work with PT7?


I am a great fan of Macs but I wouldn't like to spend once again a big chunk of money and get beaten by a 'radio shack red light special' user who payed less than half than I did...

[bzldzl]

I don't think you can chain macs together to get more dsp power.

Currently I have a dual 1.42 g4 and just finished a project with a few songs at 30-32 tracks and 8-12 reason tracks. Using a large amount of plug ins, all waves. In a few sessions I had to use audio suite to apply effects to free up power, which sucked but we lived.

The newest G5s have bench tests showing them about 5 times faster than mine I think, I guess you could max one of those out but you would have to be doing some extremely crazy stuff plug in wise.

If you are going for quality I assume your budget reflects that and I would say get the biggest mac out. When recording peoples music the thought of the computer causing problems mid session is something I can't deal with. With my mac I have no problems short of every now and then I get a buffer underun error, which sucks but is not a big deal overall since I click ok and just keep going. I haven't used a PC, except at my day job, in about 5 years so I can't comment on how well they work.

The thought of spending time making the computer work instead of using it makes me feel sick to my stomach. I remember way back in the windows 98 days of once or twice a year reloading the whole system, maybe it was user error but my mac is roughly two years old, been though a 001 to 002 upgrade and have never had to reload anything.

Plus I use this computer, since it is my only one for everything else, i.e. internet, email, hobby movie editing, itunes, etc, which I think says a lot about the stability of os X.

[Slim Shady]

but I wouldn't like to spend once again a big chunk of money and get beaten by a 'radio shack red light special' user who payed less than half than I did...

If your all you care about is getting the highest possible DaveC score for the least amount of money, get a PC. There are other factors to consider (some of which you touched on) but if you're really worried about getting "beaten", which seems to be your main concern, a PC is your best choice.

An important question: With Logic Pro, you can connect more Macs and increase the DSP power. Does this work with PT7?

No. PT7 does support multiple processors now though, and there are a few threads with smokin' DaveC results with Dual/Quad G5 Macs, but they still cost more than PCs.

Windows users always post their results(davec) however, I haven't seen many Mac people post theirs. And some of them tend to be quite unclear.

That's probably because we're not so worried about beating each other's scores on this side of the tracks, we understand that a powerful computer is only a tool that is part of the creative process, not what dictates it. That being said, there are several threads that do have DaveC scores for pretty much every mac available, but you need to use the search feature for anything more than a few days old.

If you want the best power:money ratio, a PC is probably always going to win. The hardware/software integration of the Mac cuts way down on incompatibility issues, and the interface/OS is something to keep in mind when you choose - but Macs are expensive, not much can be done about that.

[mantaray]

Perhaps I didn't put it correctly, sorry for that. What I'm after is actually a system that is capable to work with the fewest possible errors and powerful enough to reach the track/plugin limits of PTLE comfortably. In other words, I wouldn't like to be in a position to tell a client 'sorry mate, we can't do that I'm out of DSP power'. With HD2 Accel there was boom to spare, but again this is a LE thread so it is the computer that is doing all the work, not a PCI card.

Can I run 32 tracks with full plugins(5 heavy RTAS[Waves, Sony etc] on every track), 10-15 Auxes, a couple of Master Faders and some MIDI flawlessly with a dual CPU(dual 1.8 or 2.0 or 2.3 or 2.5 or 2.7) G5? If yes, then Mac will be my final choice.