Migrating to Mac from PC...

[Wheeltard]

I'm a PT 7.0 user from the PC world making my first foray into Mac (I'm not a complete Mactard, but pretty close). I'll understand if I get few or no replies, but just wanted to solicit any advice, preparations, tips (from those who've made the switch/long-time Mac sages, anyone), etc., to help make this a smooth transition.

I'm trying to temper my giddiness and make sure I'm prepared for when my new iMac (20" 2.16ghz arrives). Any advice or things to look out for would be greatly appreciated.
Best,
Wheels

[M.Brane]

Well I'm still living in the PPC era due to budget constraints, and waiting for the Intel stuff to mature a bit more.

Probably the best advice I can give is to get a good book on the basics of Mac OS to help you make the transition, and to use as a reference until you get used to the OS. Once you do I think you'll be glad you made the switch though with the Intel stuff you can run Windows (and other OS) on it if you need to.

There ain't a hell of a lot of difference between Macs, and high-end PCs as far as hardware goes these days.

[Slim Shady]

Digi has a really good list of stuff as far as getting ProTools optimzed in their General Troubleshooting Thread. There's not a ton of things, but for the most part they'll help you get the system running as smoothly as it can for PT. There are some thing in there, like turning off Airport and Bluetooth which you don't HAVE to do if you need those connectivity options, but can be something to try if you experience problems at any point.

As with PCs, you should immediately upgrade the RAM in the computer to at least double what it ships with, more if you can afford it. If you haven't already ordered it with 1GB or more, you can get good prices on RAM upgrades for Macs at Macsales.com, which is a good place to know in general for Mac accessories etc. It'll probably ship with the latest OS etc. but run the "software update" in system preferences to make sure, then be sure to turn off the automatic part of the updater, and keep your eyes on these forums before doing any major software or other OS upgrades as it usually takes a few weeks for incremental updates (10.4.6->10.4.7 for example) to get approved by Digi and upgrading to soon and finding out there's a problem can be a big PiTA.

That's all I can think of for now, anyone else?

[Wheeltard]

Thanks Slim and M for the heads-up. I've already read up on the downloadable iMac manuals on the Apple site, and would like to have Airport enabled. But I'll keep an eye out for any issues. Also, I've got another gig of RAM coming from Macsales. They say it can go to three, but I'll start out with 2 gigs.

One of the things I read here, also seen on the Logic users forum, is a sometime an issue or two with binary folders/format for plug-ins. I'm not sure I get it, but it seems like it's something I'm going to need to understand as I start life in Macworld. The other thing is, I have a 250 gig Glyph Firewire secondary drive (I'll have to reformat back to Mac) for my audio files. I'm assuming the same rules apply for Mac as they do for PC -- applications on the hard-drive, audio files on the secondary drive.

Also, I know that with a PC, the idea is to rid the C:drive of as much extraneous software as possible. But I really want to use the iLife and other applications that come with the suite that ships with the iMac. However, this is my dedicated recording studio computer so if I have to forgo the lil' extras, so be it.

As for the added RAM, I'm hoping with duo core (double dutch bus) architector, 2.15 ghz processor and 2 gig of available RAM, I should be more than copasetic with my Waves GTR and SSL plugs. Which were a heavy load on my PC's CPU.

Thanks again, fellas. Any other words advice are welcome. Take care.
Wheels

[Slim Shady]

Don't worry about erasing any of the iLife stuff, you can use it all you want, they don't interfere with PT (although you want to try and not have much stuff open when you're running PT to give it as much CPU as possible). Having the external drive for sessions/audio files is key for good performance, you'll just have to format the drive (which is covered in that General Troubleshooting thread I think, if not it's covered in "Audio Record or Playback Volume Error Info").

As far as the plug-ins go, if you've the Ignition Pack (Live lite, Reason lite, Amplitube lite etc.) there's a link on the Main Mac DUC page for downloads to the Intel compatible updates. For any 3rd party plug-ins if you own any, you'll have to check with the manufacterer's website to see if they've released a Universal Binary (Intel-Mac compatible) version yet. i'm pretty sure Waves released an updated waveshell for Universal Binary for all their bundles, but you might have to be under WUP (waves warranty) to get to them.