Should I switch from Mac to PC?

Alex Reynolds · Post by **Alex Reynolds** » Fri May 02, 2003 8:01 am

Live may not be the only player in town, so to speak, in a short while.

I eagerly look forward to testing Cycling 74s RadiaL under OS X very soon:

-- http://www.cycling74.com/products/radial.html

Covers the same feature set and goes beyond -- and is written for the Mac by Mac users.

Ignore your userbase at your peril!

-Alex

Credo · Post by **Credo** » Fri May 02, 2003 8:53 am

Isnt it funny how these Mac vs PC can start fires all around!

Someone should make som kind of phenomenological survey identifying the dynamics going on here!

Love you all!

C - Happy Switcher (-> Apple)

Dr. Banner · Post by **Dr. Banner** » Fri May 02, 2003 2:00 pm

Alright...it's me again. So both PC users and Mac users feel passionate about their OS systems. and Mac users will always be outnumbered...now despite knowing that Mac is the industry standard for music production (which i really don't give a shit about) Please answer me this.

Can you use a PC LAPTOP straight out of the box as a music studio without buying any usb/firewire peripherals (you can with a Tibook...it's actually recommended by many audio professionals to stick to the basics)? I'm talking about recording live sound, great audio processing etc. If so please tell me which lightweight laptop machine is 100% audio ready and I'll stay quiet about my OS X passion.

I can't argue with the fact that at the moment, OS X can't compete with the vast number of choices for PC, particularly in the areas of VSTi plugins and compatablity. But as a creative person, my preference has to be the mac...and sometimes it's hard to put your finger on why...

Raffles · Post by **Raffles** » Fri May 02, 2003 5:41 pm

Dr. Banner wrote:Alright...it's me again. So both PC users and Mac users feel passionate about their OS systems. and Mac users will always be outnumbered...now despite knowing that Mac is the industry standard for music production (which i really don't give a shit about) Please answer me this.

Can you use a PC LAPTOP straight out of the box as a music studio without buying any usb/firewire peripherals (you can with a Tibook...it's actually recommended by many audio professionals to stick to the basics)? I'm talking about recording live sound, great audio processing etc. If so please tell me which lightweight laptop machine is 100% audio ready and I'll stay quiet about my OS X passion.

I can't argue with the fact that at the moment, OS X can't compete with the vast number of choices for PC, particularly in the areas of VSTi plugins and compatablity. But as a creative person, my preference has to be the mac...and sometimes it's hard to put your finger on why...

Macs are much better than PC because musicians arent technicians, so its easier for them to stick with a Ti book (although they dont have sound in)

doc · Post by **doc** » Fri May 02, 2003 6:14 pm

My Tibook has a sound in...it get's fantastic sound real time too!

quandry · Post by **quandry** » Fri May 02, 2003 6:24 pm

don't kid yourself into thinking true professional (not part time) producers and/or engineers doing studio of field recording with laptops (granted most studios use desktops) would really just be using the internal soundcard, even though the mac cards are supposedly really good. It is true, you can get a good stereo recoding through the internal sc on a mac (our sound guy records us at gigs onto his tibook into bias peak, running stereo AT condesor mics through a mackie board into the internal sc, adn it does sound great). However, studios and professional field recording people are going to need more than steroe 1/8" ins, lets be realistic. And as far as I know you still need an external midi port for a mac. Bottom line, you can get a sweet pc (P4 2.4, gig RAM, XP) and an awesome soundcard (with midi) like an RME multiface (which will work with laptop, desktop, mac and pc) for less than the mac with only internal soundcard and no midi port. That is the bottom line for most people, price, and since you can get a pc that is faster than the mac plus a great soundcard (which would certainly NOT be a usb soundcard) for less than the mac, you have to really love macs to buy one. Yes, the mac has by comparison a great internal soundcard, and the only pc laptops that could maybe compete with the mac internal card are ones devoted to audio and costing $2500 plus. But who cares about internal soundcard when you can have a faster computer AND a mulit-in out plus midi external soundcard for LESS than a mac.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri May 02, 2003 6:46 pm

macs have great internal sound. but the yamaha chip in the sony vaios is better, I know from experience, take your ibook to the store and compare
the on board sound to that of the sound in a sony vaio picturebook, talk about sound, the diff will blow you away. this is what I did, and then I sold
my 600mhz ibook and got the picture book, I've since sold that and got a sony pcg-vx88, I'm now saving so I can have a little powerbook in my life
too

speedbird · Post by **speedbird** » Fri May 02, 2003 7:12 pm

I sold my Mac and big ProTools rig a year ago after being a user for 10 years. I never looked back.
The Mac was ridiculous expensive and slow.
Now I have a custom built PC running at 3.06GHz with 1066MHz RAM.
I can run more plugins and synths that I could with 6 DSP farms on ProTools and it even sounds better!
Forget all the Mac/ProTools hype!
I'm thinking of getting Nuendo2 after using Cubase with Live in tandem, which is one of the greatest combinations on this planet.
The Mac is no longer the sole tool for a creative musician anymore, believe me, I was not easy to convince, but Mac users can only dream, what I can do on a PC.
And it's very stable, too. As long as you use high quality components.
I bought the finest & fastest PC in the UK from http://www.overclockers.co.uk/ and it cost me £1500. It had a P4 3GHz, 1GB of RAMBUS RAM, Firewire, Dual monitor card (Nvidia Ti4600), USB 2.0, 6 PCI slots, Aluminium chassis,...
Then I sold my Mac/ProTools system for £10,000 which put a big smile on my face!
I also like the look and feel of Windows XP, which gives you a very Mac like feeling.

Check it out for yourself and decide.

Steve
London, UK

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed May 07, 2003 11:44 pm

This is an older thread, but I just wanted to put this out there. If you are looking for a competent rewire host for Live on the PC... take a look at TRACKTION.

http://www.tracktion.com

It's even rather abelton'esque tho not intentional, fully supports VST, and I don't think I would consider much else. It is incredible cool, and works nicely with live or reason.

oh yeah, and with regards to internal sounds cards.. I can vouch for the Yamaha chip in the newer Sony Vaio's.. I have an Echo Indigo, and Yamaha chip is DEFENATELY on par! I can't even tell the difference between the two. Quiet as a mouse, with exceptional sound quality.

2.6Ghz in a laptop with the best factory sound I've ever heard! sorry, but PC's just rock!

astromass · Post by **astromass** » Thu May 08, 2003 4:47 am

i switched to mac a year ago and i never regret it. although macs are not as powerful these days, i STILL get a lot more done on my mac than i ever did on pc. osX seems to talk to my brain in a good way, and i never felt that way about windows...i am 99% more productive now in osX.
+

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu May 08, 2003 8:05 am

If you are looking for a competent rewire host for Live on the PC... take a look at TRACKTION.

Uhhh - there's no mention of rewire on the site that I can see...

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu May 08, 2003 5:00 pm

it's funny that it doesn't mention it becuase it has EXCELLENT rewire support! You can even play reason instruments from midi clips in tracktion just like cubase SX. It ROCKS for a rewire host.. I've had ableton slaved to it, and it's absolutely my favorite combo!

download it and try it! It's not even a 2M download...

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu May 08, 2003 5:22 pm

So I just went back to the site.. and it's there, you just have to read it.

http://www.rawmaterialsoftware.com/products/tracktion/

scroll down and read it... I quote

"ReWire 2.0 support for integration with applications like Propellerheads' Reason, Ableton Live, etc"

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu May 08, 2003 11:14 pm

my question to everybody so passionate about the platforms is this, what difference does it make, osx and xp are very stable, nobody says osx is not stable but alot of people are lying about xp being unstable, I don't understand that because it's usualy coming from mac users who would hate a windows machine even if god made it, so why even offer an opinion? anyway Live, and Reason look the same on both machines, people act like they don't even use the programs, like they're only using the os. it's stupid. I think Live looks the same on your powerbook as it does on my very stable xp machine, it's just that I can have more tracks and efx, so what most pc users I know don't even max out their usage in live.

tjwett · Post by **tjwett** » Thu May 08, 2003 11:43 pm

Well it's come down to the final hour. Tommorrow morning the dude comes over to buy my PowerMac and Studio Display, and tomorrow afternoon I hit the store to buy a new machine. I still haven't decided what to get. All I know is that I'm getting a portable for sure. I'm leaning towards a 15" PowerBook, which seems silly since I hated my 550 when I had it. I'd like the 12" PowerBook but it has no L3 cache and that's not gonna work. The 17" would be wonderful but I know I just don't deserve it. On the PC side I'm liking the VAIOs and Toshibas alot. I'm thinking maybe I'll turn to some sort of new age ritual to help me with my purchase. I'll stand outside my apartment with some crystals hanging from a string and hopefully they will pull me to the appropriate store. Thanks for all the input and I'm glad this thread didn't get too bloody.