Mac or PC?

swnt · 2010-04-27T11:14:25+00:00

Hello, For recording, would you recommend a PC or mac, given budget constraints, value for money, etc as well as actual performance. I am a pc person and I can get a really powerful machine for a lot less than the MAC equivalent. What are the real benefits of using a MAC? is Logic that much better than Protools, cubase, sony and adobe products that would justify spending more? If possible, please provide links and substantiated claims, I know many people that just use Apple's marketing spins to try backup what they say which is rubbish. :? Thanks for any help you can provide ?

TomCat

Warren wrote One thing I must mention, is the excellent bundled copy of Garageband that you get with every new Mac. It's an awesome entry-level DAW with a very friendly, easy to use interface, and I've used it for most of my dabbling so far while I come to grips with the likes of Reaper.

For the casual recording enthusiast, it's a brilliant platform to get started, and you can always upgrade to something like Logic or Protools later on.

+100 on GarageBand......I've just done an acoustic album on it for my Brother-in-Law. The audio quality is really good and i'd say comparable with anything out there.
We did use a Tascam USB interface s well which obviously contributed to the good audio quality we achieved.

The internal effects on GB are also fantastic and natural sounding.

BTW we never had one instance of either the Macbook or anything else giving us a moments trouble.....It was really just plug and play....no buffering to sort out and no latency issues either.

Warren

TomCat wrote
BTW we never had one instance of either the Macbook or anything else giving us a moments trouble.....It was really just plug and play....no buffering to sort out and no latency issues either.

This was something I noticed too. I could plug my Line6 Guitarport and Yamaha keyboard (via MIDI) in without any hassles at all, everything played fine.

Tried the same with Cubase and Reaper and suddenly discovered I had to learn all about latency issues (which are resolvable, just with many more steps).

Obviously with great power comes great learning curves, but hell, for throwing down a riff, a crappy drum track and a dodgy solo in five minutes flat you can't beat Garageband ?

Jack-Flash-Jr

Warren wrote
TomCat wrote
BTW we never had one instance of either the Macbook or anything else giving us a moments trouble.....It was really just plug and play....no buffering to sort out and no latency issues either.
This was something I noticed too. I could plug my Line6 Guitarport and Yamaha keyboard (via MIDI) in without any hassles at all, everything played fine.

Tried the same with Cubase and Reaper and suddenly discovered I had to learn all about latency issues (which are resolvable, just with many more steps).

Obviously with great power comes great learning curves, but hell, for throwing down a riff, a crappy drum track and a dodgy solo in five minutes flat you can't beat Garageband ?

Wish I could say the same... since the mousepad is usb on the new macbooks power splits interfere with usb connected monitors on my machine. Horrible.

swnt

Ah wicked guys.... I know pcs well, only used OSX for a short while so not sure if i feel like trying to learn something new.

It really does seem like there is not much a difference in terms of actual use. so it just comes down to price and software?

AlanRatcliffe

Mostly, yeah. I don't see any advantage to Mac unless you have to use a very specific Mac-only software package.

Macs (mostly) work well for graphics, audio and video, right out of the box. Win boxes take a little tweaking to optimise for a specific task, but once you get them tweaked right, they can outperform a Mac (although performance isn't really an issue with modern machines). Tweaking a Mac is not usually necessary, but when you have to tweak something, they are more difficult to bend to your will.

If you are comfortable with PCs, you're already halfway there. I can't see myself ever moving from PCs (or Cakewalk) - precisely because I know how everything works and can get stuff done quickly and easily, thanks to years of familiarity. If something breaks, I can usually fix it and if I need a new machine, I build it myself and set it up specifically for my precise needs.

Warren

swnt wrote Ah wicked guys.... I know pcs well, only used OSX for a short while so not sure if i feel like trying to learn something new.

It really does seem like there is not much a difference in terms of actual use. so it just comes down to price and software?

That's what it boils down to: if you're willing to spend some time learning the new platform, OSX is great. If you want to be productive as quickly as possible: you will possibly want to stick to the PC.

Keep in mind that choosing a Mac is a pretty "safe" route these days for PC users: there are a bunch of easy, well supported means by which you can run Windows on a Mac, just in case there's something you need to do that just isn't available on OSX.

I'm a huge fan of OSX, but don't be fooled by Apple's awful advertising campaign: stuff does sometimes go wrong, and you're better off if there is someone nearby who can help you fix it.

swnt

LOL. I can also run OSX on a PC 8)

Warren

swnt wrote LOL. I can also run OSX on a PC 8)

Not legally you can't ?

swnt

Warren wrote
swnt wrote LOL. I can also run OSX on a PC 8)
Not legally you can't ?

shhhhh ? what can they do if I own the software? :-\

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