MAC Pro or PC for a DAW?

[leedsquietman]

Either is fine but most pro studios run Macs because they tend to fail less or use the same components making it easier to optimize them and replace gear/components. CoreMIDI in macosx is typically better than mme or direct midi in windows, but there are vendors who write some very stable MIDI drivers in windows which are as close as dammit to CoreMIDI performance. The old G4s and early G5s were about the noisiest machines ever made, so be careful about generalizing - Apple at least addressed this with later revisions of the G5 and then the Intel mac Pro.

If you're on a budget, Apple have priced themselves out of the market until recently - finally a quad core Imac, filling a huge hole. The Mac Pro range needs a thousand buck price cut to be realistic - by opting not to use ECC specified RAM, they could immediately shave 600 bucks off the cost of the Mac Pro range. People on a budget typically get more bang for buck by going the PC route. The Mac Book Pro is still worthy of paying the extra few hundred bucks over a PC equivalent IMHO and will probably be my next purchase, if I ever have any money to buy anything ever again.

[Donnie]

If you have to ask the question? Mac.

Honestly, this is probably the best responce in the thread.

[3phase]

??? sorry.. that i am not reffering to last century macs... the modern machines are pretty low noise... but there are soundprooved housings for pc´s that might be even more silent..but expensiv than...

Regarding the midi drivers.. sofar nobody was able to present me a midiclock jitter measurement form a pc that was better than > +/- 1 ms... to be gentle..

while with good hardware on a mac we have sometthing like +/- 0,08 ms..lets say +/- 0,1 ms

wich is almost as good as the good ol atari..with +/- 0,05 ms famous for its solid midiclock timing...

everything above +/- 0,5 ms actually can be anoying for straight grooves.. wont do much harm on breakbeats..

Also everything above +/- 0.5 ms might cause a drumme on electronic kits to conplain,,

I actually had the issue in the past.. mac wasnt allways this good :-/

The drummer really complained that he hasnt played so sloppy.. actually he was wright...

eve when his maximum derivation was something above 5 ms... he allways was precisly hitting the one every few bars .. the midi events was like a constant sine wave around the one line...

So its not only the maximum derivation.. its also how its distributed..

So people that argue that so little derivations dont matter.. they do when they are nerveous and often... they inded dont hurt when the one or other quarter is missing a bit... but nerveous computer generated jitter is no groove.. it just sounds tired and sloppy...

Its defenetly better when the computer dont alters the recording itself on a daw..

When we record a drummer with a tape machine the timing is precise... beside the wow and fluter of the tapemachine.. But this is minimal and can be considred as groovy and not nerveous.

So we are better of with good midi timing.. and pc´s just suck regarding that.

i ve measured systems with over +/- 2.5 ms... more than once..seems to be rather typical than the +/-1

I realy would like to know if Pc´s can get any better..
Maybe the actual systems on fast machines are better?

Because i am a consultant for studio questions that constantly has to talk again PC´s i really like to know.. Because for certain enviroments PC´s have advantages...

So i actually would be happy to hear that the problem is solved for PC´s...

but it actually dont looks like...

Here is a tool for reaktor

https://co.native-instruments.com/index ... tchid=9005


but you can make an midi to audio connection.. maybe with an led at the audio end to simulate the midi port and measure the distance between the clockticks by hand...


If you find your system able to compete with the actual mac midi timing please let me know...

[oblique strategies]

Anyone who is going to buy a Mac should do themself a favor & use the Mac Rumors Buyers Guide:
http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/

There are strategic times to buy & to wait.

Also, when a new model comes out, the price of the previous generation can drop quite a lot. These previous generation machines get removed from the main Apple Store & put in their Clearance section.

This gives you an option to the savings you might get on a Refurb machines, plus the Clearance machines are brand new. Refurb may be OK, but I'd always prefer a new machine.

I saved $700 on the exact MacBook Pro I wanted by waiting for it to go to the Clearance store.

[Tone Deft]

it's always the Mac people ranting about their computers.

[HeadrickProductions]

it's always the Mac people ranting about their computers.

I'd rant to if I paid double for almost the same product.

[Tone Deft]

it's funny because it's true.

[ze2be]

If you have to ask the question? Mac.

Honestly, this is probably the best responce in the thread.

Haha! yeah. Never ending story.
I like both, so lets try to get a sober comparison:


Basically,
PC: Best deal when on a budget, easiest to get and find technical help. King of software, lots of freeware. Will fuck you up if your not tidy. And stay of the web! Bad OS search engine, and limited file names. Rock solid if you treat it well. Tons of great games.

Mac: Easiest to use out of the box, looks good, expensive to repair, hard to get support. Surf the web while you perform live, if you wish. Prepare to spend bucks on software. Great OS search, and even scripts. Use any file name you want. Forget about games.


If you get a PC, get a geek buddy to help you partition the OS onto 2 systems, using the same disk. Then you can separate internet and studio w/dual boot. Use the internet system to test drive software, and use the other system boot for only the safe software. From here on its pretty solid. If the internet boot fucks up, just re install its OS. Your safe boot will be untouched.

If you go mac, contact your geekiest mac lover, and ask for tips. Find a good Mac forum!

[H20nly]

limited file names.

what does that mean?

are you bothered that you can't use <-- question marks in your file names??

I can name a file any word I can think of on the PCs I use. Numbers work too.

[oblique strategies]

Mac: hard to get support

Wouldn't agree with you on this point. I have had the best experiences with Apple support for every Apple product I have ever owned.

"Consumer Reports yesterday announced the release of new ratings of computer tech support ratings for both laptops and desktop, and while the full details are restricted to subscribers, CNET reveals that Apple dominated the rankings. Not only did Apple top both the overall laptop and desktop categories, but also took top honors in every single sub-category, including problem resolution, phone wait times, phone staff performance, and online support."
March 11, 2010

http://www.macrumors.com/2010/03/11/app ... t-ratings/

[Donnie]

I personally have no problems surfing the web on my music pc's. With avast as my antivirus its as easy as disabling it when workin on music and enabling it when surfing the net.

[esky]

I've worked 14 years with mac, changed to a win xp pc and never looked back. Nobody has ever explained me convincingly why a mac is easier to use. This easier to use thing is stupid nonsense spreaded by marketing blinded idiots. Mac spareparts are totally overpriced. If a part breaks your fucked because you cannot repair it yourself. Mac users here have more problems with Live 8, don't know why. There's tons of valuable freeware for win in the web. Go for pc/win xp and later change to win 7.

[H20nly]

^ oh no u di dunt

avast as my antivirus

Avast! FTW - Free, bad ass and even has a boot time scan in case you need to sneak up on a critter.

[SubFunk]

I've worked 14 years with mac, changed to a win xp pc and never looked back. Nobody has ever explained me convincingly why a mac is easier to use. This easier to use thing is stupid nonsense spreaded by marketing blinded idiots. Mac spareparts are totally overpriced. If a part breaks your fucked because you cannot repair it yourself. Mac users here have more problems with Live 8, don't know why. There's tons of valuable freeware for win in the web. Go for pc/win xp and later change to win 7.

ROFL after i fell from my chair. (you made my day and i want to buy you a beer!)

core audio vs asio or any other windows driver alone is one of hundreds of reasons why PC are not as good for audio use.

(and that live8 is a mess is abletons fault not that of OSX)

working in an office, type type, and using a printer once in a while i probably would even agree.

[tottigoool]

mac (core audio) makes the music sound better... with a win machine (asio) it's impossible to obtain professional results.