Mac vs PC

[iFreedom]

I just got a laptop for recording basic stuff for back tracks. I built a pc and use sonar 6 last year with lots of plugins including ezdrummer. Once in a while it would crash but no big deal as I'm a ctrl S freak anyway. But, now on my laptop I'm using windows 7 and sonar 6 producer edition definetly became unstable once I starting installing my plugins especially ezdrummer. It's an ok laptop T6600 cor 2 duo 4 gig memory but I do wonder now, if sonar 6 is friendly with windows 7. I have about 1 week left to return it and was considering macbook. But then new DAW, plugins, etc, ontop of the inflated mac price. Big $ in the end. The computer I built last year has xp on it whcih seems to work great. I like windows 7 thought, just not sure about sonar.

Have you tried installing and running those programs with windows xp compatibility mode on? Just right click on the exe of said program and go to properties and then compatibility , select xp sp 3 and see if that helps.

Wow, I didn't know I could do that! Thanks, goin to give it a try.

 

[Rezamatix]

Don't do it! And don't listen to these guys!! Let me just tell you, buy the mac. It's worth it, someone said it was worth leas than the price, Macs have the highest customer approval an satisfaction of any computer ever made, there is a reason (actually a few) why Macs have this solid reputation. I used to be a pc guy, I'm microsoft certified, i used to build custom pc's for clients all year long, and I fought against macs until one day, they incorporates Intel processors and that caught my attention, because I used to build all my computers with intel boards and chips... Well, I started to read upnon the specs and started taking a real look at the industrial design. I also took note that every studio I went into, and every major producer I encountered (from Bob Marlette to Elvis Baskette) used macs...

So my windows home studio machine crashed AGAIN! From stupid viruses or a Trojan or something after 2 years of all my recorded material and everything getting screwed up. I just ordered a mac pro tower and made the switch, I have been going strong for 5 years now without a single incident. It runs amazing , logic is a perfect program and apogee makes awesome converters, I put a UAD card in for some extra plug INS and I have been non stop recording.

The windows machines are great if you are not that serious about what you are recording, because they WILL crash and burn, so it's fine for scratch ideas that you might not keep, but if you want to use pro level gear that's top quality then you buy a Mesa boogie ...right? Not a solid state marshall mg model...not a b52 amp or some pos Crate, that's what pcs are they are shitty solid state amps, apple is more like the mesa boogie.

Now, in all fairness it's not the guts of the computer I'm talking about, the build quality is up to you or your favorite tech, but the software, (windows) that will really bite you in the ***...either way, don't be cheap buy a real recording computer an do work.

 

[burnstudios]

Ive been running a pc based DAW since windows 95 ... And never had a virus or a trojan. That pc should have never been hooked up to the internet. No real recording DAW should be on the net at all.

For those that are *in the know* Macs are very very over priced and not worth the hardware you are paying for. Every part in my pc except the hard drives ( they have 5 year ) has a lifetime warranty..

And my recording pc has never ever crashed and burned not one time... I know how to build a pc that will last for years
You really dont sound to me like you really know to much about a pc honestly. And btw my pc based DAW will run rings around your mac pro. For alot less than what you paid.

 

[Rezamatix]

Like I said, I built custom pcs for Years, and was a certified mcse for most of them, my mac is my studio recording computer and is connected to the Internet too, I used to be an overly defensive pc fanboy too so I won't take offense at your comment, I used to be that guy. Bottom line , windows sucks...

 

[burnstudios]

It only sucks for noobs :wink:

You say you bought a mac 5 years ago because they started to use Intel boards and cpu's, they didnt start using Intel till 2006/2007
Plus a DAW has no business being hooked up to the internet, hooked up to your network might be ok. But getting online to surf is out of the question mac or not.
It causes fragmentation and is constantly reading and writing to the drive even when you are not surfing the web. Thats how you get malware/spyware which will lead to problems.

I am a fan of performance and pc will out perform a mac anyday of the week.. Plus I can get off the shelf parts in case anything goes wrong ... And if you are using any form of pro tools your locked in to using m-audio or didgidesign .. so that leaves you using logic... There are much better sequencers out there other than logic. When your using a mac you are limiting yourself so much its not even funny.


I dont need any add in cards to run plug ins.. my cpu has enough grunt to run plug in real time and pretty much as many as I want all with 96khz 32 bit depth. A quad core intel running at 4ghz and ram running at 1200mhz is plenty of grunt to get things done. :wink:

 

[Rezamatix]

4-5 years not a big deal you get the picture, when they went intel I got a mac. UAD plug INS work best with the pci card. Being connected to the internet is usually necessary if you need to update the computer or authorize software and plug INS. Btw logic kicks ***, and apogee destroys pro tools. I doubt I'm a noob, I have a feeling I have been using computers alot longer than you but that can't be verified here...

 

[burnstudios]

I just turned 40 in Nov, and have been tinkering with computers since the early 80's. All the way back to the the trs 80, ti99 and the franklin ace 1200.

 

[b0nkersx]

I just turned 40 in Nov, and have been tinkering with computers since the early 80's. All the way back to the the trs 80, ti99 and the franklin ace 1200.

Dude, you're 40, and you said "it only sucks for noobs"

High freakin five.

 

[Rezamatix]

Great so we have similar experience with computers, now tell me how many major recording studios you have been to around the country, how many Grammy winning producers you have worked with and then how many of those records were made with pc's.

 

[burnstudios]

That is not the argument here... the argument is that you can build a better DAW out of pc than you can a mac. The only reason mac/apple pro tools has been the *standard* for so many years is, that when digidesign/midiman started making recording hardware they used mac hardware... simply for the fact that the architecture of the mac cpu was better than the pc at that time.. this is simply not the case anymore. Because mac realized that the Intel cpu was vastly superior to the one that they were using, hence the switch to intel based motherboards and cpu's. Hell I still have a dual core amd rig that did everything that I ever needed it to do. It sits as back up right now.

And if you think that you can not get professional polished results from a pc based DAW you are sadly mistaken.

I never claimed to be some big whig whos been into grammy award winning studios... My point was that for person recording at home, and how the money can be spent in better ways.. and judging from the responses I am not the only one who thinks this way. Actually if you really want to get down to it a linux/unix based daw would be even better than pc or mac. And yes there are apps than will run under linux/unix. I run a project recording studio and stay busy pretty much everyday of the week with it.. I am not a high end grammy award winning studio ( laughs ). Im here for the budget musician who cant afford to spend thousands and thousands of dollars on a demo/recording.. And I do it with a pc that never blue screens , that never messes up and always gets the job done. Ive recorded 200+ bands since I have been recording.. all with a pc.. go figure.

Enjoy that mac.

 

[burnstudios]

I just turned 40 in Nov, and have been tinkering with computers since the early 80's. All the way back to the the trs 80, ti99 and the franklin ace 1200.

Dude, you're 40, and you said "it only sucks for noobs"

High freakin five.

heheh


Yes my wife gets on to me all the time for saying things like that... It comes from most of the bands I get in here are mostly younger.

 

[Dale B.]

I use a Mac with a Metric Halo interface and a few outboard preamps when I want some color on the way in. I love my set up and it loves me. That's all that matters!

Best of luck! Recording is a whole new, beautiful world, yet it can get expensive in an addictive way.

 

[surferdeac]

I personally went for a MAC based Pro tools based setup. I have been recording (learning about screwing around with) for the last 12 yrs or so. and started learning about it via the roland br532 digital studio. That was great for catagorizing my ideas at the time, but decided to try using pc based stuff. Well as yrs passed i tried using some entry level pc based recording software stuff like guitar tracks pro stuff with some success, but "LATENCY PROBLEMS ALWAYS WERE AN ISSUE WITH MY PC!!!" so i went back to using my br532. again it was a way for me to get ideas/wav. files saved (converted onto my pc). As i continued to figure out what would be the best way for me to go I spent time playing in my old band's studio (Nantucket Farentella Gardenrock studio i believe Its on the net) where my old keyboards player's father ended up building a recording studio. They use PC with NUendo recording software i believe. I remember talking to the engineeer who set up the studio and asked him about the differences between different recording software. I mentioned pro Tools. and he said that it was the original "STUDIO STANDARD" of the recording software world. anotherwords all of these high end recording software programs like nuendo etc. etc. that have come are basically based off PRO TOOLS. That being said, PRO TOOLS is commonly used in the recording world. If you go to school (say berklee school of music) you will find pro tools is a priveledge given to those students who are in good standing. You get what you pay for and although macs are generally pricey, they will generally outperform a pc with regards to visual or audio applications. In the 4 or so years I have owned my G5 MAC I have never had a singal crash or acquired a singal virus off the internet at least that I am aware of, and i predominantly use it for music. If you like spending time trying to fix computer bugs or being nagged to download the latest virus software protection software every time u go on the internet then i wuold say yeah go for the PC :mrgreen:

 

[MesallicA]

I much prefer osx myself. plus if i need windows i got bootcamp, win win.

 

[surferdeac]

Like I said, I built custom pcs for Years, and was a certified mcse for most of them, my mac is my studio recording computer and is connected to the Internet too, I used to be an overly defensive pc fanboy too so I won't take offense at your comment, I used to be that guy. Bottom line , windows sucks...

:mrgreen: yES IT SURE DOES.
I stumbled upon a picture once Of Bill Gates actually sitting down in what seemed to be one of his offices and guess what: he had a big grin on his face and in front of him was; you guessed it, a nice apple cinema display screen with a G5 power mac in plane site

 

[Turumbar82]

I was a die hard mac guy. I had an old imac for 9 years and it never had problems. I also have 5 ipods and 4 of them had "hard drive problems" right around the one year warranty marker. My second iMac went 2 months after the warranty was up. I took it to 3 apple stores in my area and none of them could figure it out. I called apple support and they couldn't figure it out and wanted to charge me 700 bucks to work on it even though they didn't know what was wrong. The thing that made me give up on them was when I had to tell the manager of customer support some simple key combinations. He didn't know them!!!! I hate it when I call customer service only to find out I know more than the people that are supposed to be fixing my problem. Sorry, Apple is over priced, just like Gibson! haha I used to justify the price because I thought I was getting a better computer but I don't think that is true anymore. At one time it was true. Now I do believe you are getting a better OS. I prefer OS X over any Windows. I can get around on both no problem but just like OS X more.

At the end of last year I built my own computer and it cost me less than what apple wanted just for their repairs. I used an Efix and now I'm running OS X and Windows 7 on a custom built computer. I haven't had any problems for someone who knows what they are doing.

 

[tombo]

My vote goes for a nice Mac + Apogee interface. Simple and sounds great.

 

[burnstudios]

I would build a nice i5/i7 pc and use Reaper as the DAW. Reaper is cheap and building a pc yourself will save money that can go towards a nice interface and some pre's.
Ive been recording on a pc for over 10 years, and never once have I had a session get canned because pc problems/bsod's or anything.. Not once.

 

[xibalba]

I use a year old imac to do my recording. if im doing band stuff then ill use logic studio and if im working on beats im learning to use ableton. I plug all of my instruments into my mackie onyx 1620 with firewire interface.