Best Platform for LIVE--MAC or Windows
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Jackal and Hyde
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Re: Best Platform for LIVE--MAC or Windows
Quixotic wrote:id like to get your opinions. i am currently debating to run my LIVE program which will be used for performing under either my MAC or a Windows based laptop...opinions?
ive heard it runs much better on Windows
It matters what your doing... Right off the bat I'd say Live in a "Live" situation Mac Laptop for stablilty. If your going to be doing all your E-mail and net surfing on your music machine I'd say go Mac. But if your building a machine for raw power on a Budget for the sole purpose of a DAW, I'd go with a PC tower for the $. Other than OS gripes, it really breaks down to raw power vs amount of $ spent.
Over the counter PC towers at Best Buy/Staples etc - Piles of worthless SHIT Pinto/Stationwagon/astro van
Over the counter Macs at the Apple store - Ferrari/Porche/Lamborginni
Built out PC Tower (if you know what your doing) - Dragster/Space Shuttle/Formula One
or, instead of building a Death Star PC for $1700 you could buy a Mac that will operate at the same speed (without the headache of the build out) for around $5,000 when all is said and done...
jackal thanx for the info but remember ill be using a laptop for a live setting...i recently had a new PC built to replace my current PC which i use strictly for music production...so ill be hitting you guys off with questions on my tower haha but right now im trying to get laptop opinions for a live setting...thanx again
Man, if you've got the cash get a MacBook Pro. If you can afford to wait a few months, wait til the MBPs get Merom CPUs. That'll give them another 20-30% CPU power. I think they're due in July...?
The MacBook Pros have benchmarked as faster then most windows laptops at actually running windows. Can't remember who did the benchmarks. If you don't have the cash, don't get a mac.
It doesn't run better on windows then OSX. It runs better on faster hardware, and Intel has been trouncind PPC in the last year in terms of affordable processing power. Now that mac = intel, that whole "pcs > macs" thing is BS. Affordability is another debate altogether.
Mac laptops have 6-pin firewire plugs. That means you can plug in a firewire interface and power it from your laptop. Most (all?) PC laptops only have 4-pin plugs, which means "no bus power for you". That's a pretty good selling point if you ask me.
Also, will you use your laptop for other things? If the answer is yes, then it depends on what kind of things. Personally I prefer OSX in a big way. I generally recommend OSX to people who use their laptop for web/email/word stuff. Case in point: there is absolutely no problem in using a mac laptop for audio work AND internet. There's just not an issue there. With windows, the internet is big and scary....
The MacBook Pros have benchmarked as faster then most windows laptops at actually running windows. Can't remember who did the benchmarks. If you don't have the cash, don't get a mac.
It doesn't run better on windows then OSX. It runs better on faster hardware, and Intel has been trouncind PPC in the last year in terms of affordable processing power. Now that mac = intel, that whole "pcs > macs" thing is BS. Affordability is another debate altogether.
Mac laptops have 6-pin firewire plugs. That means you can plug in a firewire interface and power it from your laptop. Most (all?) PC laptops only have 4-pin plugs, which means "no bus power for you". That's a pretty good selling point if you ask me.
Also, will you use your laptop for other things? If the answer is yes, then it depends on what kind of things. Personally I prefer OSX in a big way. I generally recommend OSX to people who use their laptop for web/email/word stuff. Case in point: there is absolutely no problem in using a mac laptop for audio work AND internet. There's just not an issue there. With windows, the internet is big and scary....
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Michael-SW
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Not so sure that the new Macbooks have 6-pin FW?forgie wrote: Mac laptops have 6-pin firewire plugs. That means you can plug in a firewire interface and power it from your laptop. Most (all?) PC laptops only have 4-pin plugs, which means "no bus power for you". That's a pretty good selling point if you ask me.
True. You have to factor in the cost vs. performance of the app(s) you're interested in, comfortableness with the O/S, aesthetics, etc. etc.PC vs Mac debate is pointless in terms of if you look at it without any bias. Each one has it's ups and its downs.
There's another option; if there isn't a laptop that has enough juice, why not consider a rackmounted PC for stage? It will be heavy but rugged; you can ship it in a portable rack box (like an SKB or Anvil) and depending on the size of the box you get you can use a rackmounted audio interface and other rack hardware.as much as i love my tower computer i also love a streamlined set up onstage...so no thanx...i would never ever bring my tower to a gig...
Also Mid ATX Case, sturdy, quiet, cool. That's the test. Internally holding 10,000 RPM Raptors, Audio (video) use only. So all you need is USB cable or two, Display cable, Firewire cable leading to Rack of hardware (SKB Case), etc .
That egg or two (monitor), keyboard/mouse would just fit in to something appropriately strong enough and lightweight for the occasion of transport. So it doesn't sit on your lap but considering the power of a Quad Opteron system and mobility.
That egg or two (monitor), keyboard/mouse would just fit in to something appropriately strong enough and lightweight for the occasion of transport. So it doesn't sit on your lap but considering the power of a Quad Opteron system and mobility.
It used to be simple I guess.
If you wanted stability you would go for a Mac. If you wanted processing power you would choose Windows.
All that changed when Apple started to copy windows though (around OS 9.x)
I used to love Macs (system 6/7 is probably the most flawless OS I've ever used) but I can't stress enough how much I hate OSX now.
If you want an opinion I think I would buy a custom built PC for audio (Carillon for example)
Probably quite expensive, but still, to the best of my knowledge better than anything else.
They used to be desktop only but now they have a few portable options.
Good luck,
<reverse<
If you wanted stability you would go for a Mac. If you wanted processing power you would choose Windows.
All that changed when Apple started to copy windows though (around OS 9.x)
I used to love Macs (system 6/7 is probably the most flawless OS I've ever used) but I can't stress enough how much I hate OSX now.
If you want an opinion I think I would buy a custom built PC for audio (Carillon for example)
Probably quite expensive, but still, to the best of my knowledge better than anything else.
They used to be desktop only but now they have a few portable options.
Good luck,
<reverse<
Here's an interesting story for this subject.
I work at a music house that makes music for TV commercials. A co-worker was working on a track that had around 25 tracks in Ableton and about 4 tracks in Pro Tools (both programs rewired). He uses a 3.2 Ghz PC with an mbox 1. When we brought the session into our studio (dual 1.25 G4 PPC Mac running pro tools HD 2), the system couldn't handle the session (pro tools kept saying to increase the buffer).
I've also found that when rewiring pro tools to ableton on a PC, you can load up more plug ins and have it run more smoothly than a Mac.
I work at a music house that makes music for TV commercials. A co-worker was working on a track that had around 25 tracks in Ableton and about 4 tracks in Pro Tools (both programs rewired). He uses a 3.2 Ghz PC with an mbox 1. When we brought the session into our studio (dual 1.25 G4 PPC Mac running pro tools HD 2), the system couldn't handle the session (pro tools kept saying to increase the buffer).
I've also found that when rewiring pro tools to ableton on a PC, you can load up more plug ins and have it run more smoothly than a Mac.
Power Mac Dual 1.25 G4, 2GB RAM
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Machinesworking
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dobyboby wrote:Here's an interesting story for this subject.
Not really. Do your math here. FYI a dual 1.25 machine won't ramp up to 2.5Ghz even, more like 2Ghz. Compare the processor speed of a 2Ghz machine to a 3.2Ghz machine, the PC is over 35% faster.
Now compare that 3.2Ghz to my dual 2.5 G5, and see who has a faster machine!
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dj superflat
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i always find these discussions amusing, b/c if you're just using your laptop for music production -- as quixotic plans to do, as i do, as many others do -- who cares what the OS is? you never use it, except perhaps in the initial set up. and while the initial setup in windows may be more of a hassle, i understand there to be more readily available tweaks in windows to increase performance, so let's call that a draw. so then you're down to performance, stability, price, and platform specific functionality.
claiming that macs are categorically more stable than all pcs is somewhat silly -- there are too many variations in setups, how hard you're pushing machine, etc. -- though you obviously should steer clear of certain budget PCs, certain manufacturers. and if you're only using a mac or a PC for audio, you really shouldn't run into any stability issues you can't sort out before heading out for live shows (i mean, you run through the show first at home, right? you can have as many rehearsals as you need).
which leaves performance, where you can at least get as good performance with the right PC as you can with a mac. so then you're down to price, and that too seems to be about a wash (b/c a quality PC with good performance will cost you).
so maybe it turns on what apps or soundcard you want to use (need logic or metric halo? go mac!). but either way seems defensible (disclosure: i use mac and PC, but main rig now PC).
as for all the pros who use mac, some of that -- note, i said some -- is fashion/culture/comfort. that is, macs were much better for a long time, so people think mac, are used to working with it, etc. but the fact that X dj uses mac live doesn't really seem that relevant to what quixotic should do.
claiming that macs are categorically more stable than all pcs is somewhat silly -- there are too many variations in setups, how hard you're pushing machine, etc. -- though you obviously should steer clear of certain budget PCs, certain manufacturers. and if you're only using a mac or a PC for audio, you really shouldn't run into any stability issues you can't sort out before heading out for live shows (i mean, you run through the show first at home, right? you can have as many rehearsals as you need).
which leaves performance, where you can at least get as good performance with the right PC as you can with a mac. so then you're down to price, and that too seems to be about a wash (b/c a quality PC with good performance will cost you).
so maybe it turns on what apps or soundcard you want to use (need logic or metric halo? go mac!). but either way seems defensible (disclosure: i use mac and PC, but main rig now PC).
as for all the pros who use mac, some of that -- note, i said some -- is fashion/culture/comfort. that is, macs were much better for a long time, so people think mac, are used to working with it, etc. but the fact that X dj uses mac live doesn't really seem that relevant to what quixotic should do.