Bye PC Hello Mac

[rpb1966]

Hi everyone

I bought an M Box 2 for my PC as an upgrade from Sonar 2.2 and v3, and Yamaha DS2416 and SW1000XG and I have to admit I have been hugely impressed by Pro-Tools (I have only been using it for just over a week) and navigation takes a little bit of getting used too, but I`m amazed how well the M Box 2 and Pro Tools LE 7.3 work together,

I have decided to go from my old Pentium 4 3ghz to a nice new MacBook Pro 17" 2.33GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor.

This will be the first time I have used a Mac, and to be honest I`m really looking forward to this, and I`m hoping Pro Tools is gonna serve me well under OSX 10.4.

Is there any tips or advice that you guys could give to a new Mac user using Pro-Tools and put me out of my misery (cos I`m dying to know this) I take it the Mac Book Pro is gonna completely cream over my old P4 in the way of speed and everything?.

Do you think I have made the right move from going from a PC to a Mac?.

Thanks Folks

Russell

[sunburst79]

The MacBook will hand your old P4 Machines its A** on a platter.

I did the same thing.

The Macs got twice the power and runs PTLE much smoother.

I doubt you will have any regrets.

[M.Brane]

I'll admit to being biased in favor of Macs (I tried to learn Sonar 5 on a PC recently, and all I got was frustration with both the app, and the OS) but I think you'll enjoy the Mac experience. Get yourself a good book on the OS to use as a reference in case you get lost. PT works pretty much the same.

The first thing you'll want to learn is how to clone/restore the OS. It's pretty simple compared to Windows since Apple doesn't hide the needed tools, and there are some good third-party utilities some of which are donationware i.e. free. That way as long as you have a recent backup if something breaks you can be back in business in no time.

I recently setup a Mac/M-Powered system for a friend who is also a PC refugee, and he's diggin' it. No more recurring driver issues getting in the way of his creativity. It just works.

[Stiff]

Hey,

Congratulations to the move and welcome to the board! My transition from WinXP to OSX have been smooth sailing. Day 1 was just about getting used to OSX, but after a couple of days everything was like second nature. A non-Po Tools tip would be to get acquainted to th OS by looking in all the menus and system preferences (click the apple on the top left corner -> choose system preferences if you don't have it in the dock). You don't have to change a lot, but I felt just looking through everything once or twice made me understand everything a whole lot better.

Good luck!

PS: For the record, I have never talked to a person who was dissatisfied with the switch from PC to Mac.

[120359]

I regret that i have bought a mac much to slow it works like my old atari and the music doesn't sound better lies and snobisme is it.

[M.Brane]

You have an Atari? Cool!

Sorry, but the brand of computer you use has absolutely zero effect on how good your music sounds.

[MacFly]

"Do you think I have made the right move from going from a PC to a Mac?"

quick answer: yes.

"some" ppl consider thier computer "the mighty all in one all can do solution". so if you consider that again from the pro tools point of view the computer is nothing but a host system for pt. its a myth you can do everything at the same time on the same machine. however on the mac you will usually run into less and easier to fix problems then on a windows machine.

i do this for 15+ years now and back in the days were one could record only 4 tracks with pt i asked this question :
"will there ever be pro tools for pc" all i got was a laugh, from my dealer aswell as from the digi-dude the rest is history, (ftr: not that i havent tried windows in the meantime)

but we still have "specialists" out there who split thier systemdrive in 3 partitions (system, soundlib and recording or something similar) - no wonder pt doesnt perform well in such an environment, dont ya think? /sarcasm

most "switchers" do the same mistake, for instance: they threat the finder like a explorer pendant, so if you use the force the mac has to offer and you dont try to adopt your "windows workflow thingies" (pt aside) youll be fine and youll love it.

however nowadays the basic question is: why buy a computer when theres another, able to do both systems, especially when you have "special clients" stuck in the windows world for whatever reason ? the solution to this scenario is one reboot ahead, so from that point of view your decision is anything but wrong.

last not least:
rule 1: if apple does a transition (nubus/pci - g5/intel) give digi and thier 3rd parties time to keep up (usually around 1 year, sometimes less) -> if you are a pro, hobbiests may upgrade at will (... or is there anything you cant do on your present machine ? :P)
rule 2: shortcuts are your friend on a mac.

bottomline: welcome to the sunny side of recording

peace !

ps: m.brane is right, if the music doesnt sound better on serveral machines or brands the problem happens to be found in front of the display most of the time - lol

[rpb1966]

Thanks for the comments guys.

I have been a PC user for over 10 years and I do pick things up very quickly, over a week with PT and I`m already on a Mix down of a recorded song, and I have not had one problem running PT, its stable under Windows XP, but my PC is showing its age, I could of updated to another PC, but nah!!!!!.

I wanted the portabilty with POWER, and thats why I have chosen a Mac, so if I visit friends I can take my work with me, it makes sense does n`t it!!!

I know I am making the right decision here, and with Lepoard just round the corner, I thought about waiting for its release, then decided its not worth it, Tiger will do for me.

I have read that the M Box 2 likes the USB port by the power port on the MacBook Pro, and not the one on the opposite side, has anyone had any problems with this?.

If anyones interested the Macbook turns up next week.

Cheers Guys

Russ