mac vs. pc

[DeezTracks]

Avid and Apple are in bed together it seems. I would sit back and wait till all the hype goes away. This release was not for the masses, only the pro's, or wanna be pro's. You can sure get a hell of a lot of recording time in a studio for much cheaper than trying to set a system from scratch. This is if your time is worth anything to you. However, if you have a decent coke connect and plenty of time. Go cook up some rocks and order that Mac.

[getz76]

Originally Posted by DeezTracks

Avid and Apple are in bed together it seems. I would sit back and wait till all the hype goes away. This release was not for the masses, only the pro's, or wanna be pro's. You can sure get a hell of a lot of recording time in a studio for much cheaper than trying to set a system from scratch. This is if your time is worth anything to you. However, if you have a decent coke connect and plenty of time. Go cook up some rocks and order that Mac.

Avid and Apple are in bed together? Other than Apple constantly trying to break Avid's back with Final Cut and Logic.

Plenty of the professionals are still running Pro Tools 7.x. Initial releases are always for the hobbyists and adventurous people who know how to clone a drive.

Studio time costs... you generally get what you pay for.

[Dism]

Originally Posted by DeezTracks

Avid and Apple are in bed together it seems. I would sit back and wait till all the hype goes away. This release was not for the masses, only the pro's, or wanna be pro's. You can sure get a hell of a lot of recording time in a studio for much cheaper than trying to set a system from scratch. This is if your time is worth anything to you. However, if you have a decent coke connect and plenty of time. Go cook up some rocks and order that Mac.

Avid and Apple are not in bed together... despite what you may think. Apple is probably Avid's biggest competitor, what with Logic and Final Cut...

Pro Tools has always run a bit nicer on a Mac. It's been working on Macs for around 20 years now. It was also Mac proprietary for a long time, as well.

That being said... I could easily build you a PC fit to run Pro Tools very nicely for around $800-900. And it will work.

[Keybeeetsss]

Originally Posted by DeezTracks

Avid and Apple are in bed together it seems..

I think this was jus a Will Ferrell joke...

Originally Posted by Dism

Pee, is right.

& yeahppp, u see, We Pee on Macs

[Cloud_9]

Originally Posted by Meads

Me too, and my PC-experience with PT(though certified by digidesign) was nowhere near pleasent. Must be case-sensitive.

AVID actually certified YOUR PC? Wow, what a lucky guy....

[albee1952]

Well said already. The big difference is whether you have more money to spend, or more time to do your homework. There's nothing wrong with a Mac Pro quad core, except that it cost you about $2500, while half that $ will build an i7 quad PC that will stomp the Mac(but that requires you to build a computer, by choosing the correct components-see the i7 thread), putting it all together and installing the OS and doing the tweaks-both in BIOS, and in the OS. None of this is beyond most of us(just, some of us shy away from it). I suggest you use which ever platform you are comfortable with(learning Pro Tools is plenty of work by itself, without learning a new OS at the same time). The iMac is another alternative, but if you want to use tons of samples, you will have to pay extra to get the OWC mods with additional drives. A Mac Pro or most i7 PC's will take 4 internal drives(or more) so that nets better performance

[Howardk]

If you are a total techie and enjoy sleuthing around the internet looking for solutions to problems, then you can use either.

If you want to spend more time recording and less time doing technical research, get a Mac.

My benchmark is musicians and songwriters that ask me for advice. . . I say by a Mac, about half listen to my advice. That half are productive very quickly and within a year they are comfortable, have a bunch of songs written, just generally being productive. The other half often don't get much done until they work out the bugs with their system, reinstall windows a couple times, replace a motherboard or other piece of problem hardware, hunt for the right drivers, need to stay off the internet and have problems with anti-virus programs slowing their computers down etc. . . After a year or 2 they are: a) now experienced total techies running fine, b) have given up completely on recording with a computer, or c) purchased a Mac.

There are exceptions to everything and I do know certain people that are doing well with Windows. They did their homework and found out exactly what to do (generally a very precise recipe). . . Time is money, or for drinking cocktails, so I lost patience for that type of detail a long time ago and I am more interested in musical performances, microphones, analog gear and plugins. . . but that is just me.

I am seeing some decent deals on the original Mac Pro Quad 2.66GHz on eBay these days. . . still a decent computer to get started with.

[Keybeeetsss]

The worst (or funnies) part with pro Tools is that u spend all that money from people tellin u Mac is better (which of course cost more) & u still hav a fedex plane load of issues...

Mac people can say & believe what they want but jus look around the forums.. Proof is rite there clear as day...

Sent from Epic 4G Using Tapatalk on'eim...

[Dism]

One detail that I think is being left out of this discussion, is the OS preferences.

If you gave me a choice between OSX and Windows, I would choose OSX every time.

Simplicity is a big part of it. Stability, too.

I've been building and tweaking PC's for well over a decade. Windows 2000 is still the most solid Windows version I've used, and I really haven't been impressed with any later version.

I was never a fan of OSX before, because of most of the (now) tired excuses. Compatibility, gaming, networking, etc. Since I switched... I can't STAND Windows. Any version.

Yes, you can most certainly customize and tweak Windows in ways that are either not possible or far more complicated than OSX. At the same time... navigating the OS in general just seems a lot simpler, and therefore easier to set up. It seems like for every one menu in OSX, there are 3 to go through in Windows. I constantly find myself having to turn off notifications, windows, messages, and so many unnecessary UI features, particularly in the later versions.

Give me a pale blue screen, an empty taskbar and a start button. That's what I liked about the older versions of Windows. The simplicity.

Honestly, I really think this "techie" vs. "artist" argument is mostly unfounded. It's more about the features you need, over your lifestyle choices. I've completely disassembled my Macbook Pro more than once, to swap drives, add RAM, etc. I've gone into Terminal (like Cmd-Prompt) and performed system tweaks. Since switching to Mac, I haven't found anything I can't do that I could in Windows, aside maybe from playing Korean template MMO's.

A Mac will do whatever a PC can do, and vice versa. It's all about what you want out of it. In my experience, a Mac just does audio better. Many might argue with me... but just by browsing these forums you can find the evidence. Lower buffer sizes, none of this "backwards latency" nonsense, better driver support, among a few other things. I'd be quite willing to debate the several other things, but I'm not trying to turn this into a flame war.

It is, however, easier to get the most out of a PC's power with Windows. Tweaking clocks in OSX is mostly impossible, so trying to squeeze every little bit of juice out of a Mac (that isn't running Windows, anyway) isn't really going to happen. Windows has a level of customization that just isn't available on a Mac, and that's why I believe the hardcore Windows users are as such.

I still build PC's, and will be building a new one for myself in the near future... but I will never go back to using Windows for my DAW. Unless, maybe I get a VENUE system.

[TOM@METRO]

Originally Posted by misterdmz

You definitely do not need to "tweak the hell out of" a PC if you get the right components.

I've used both, have had good experiences on both.

Same here.