Help me blow a couple grand on production stuff

neddez said:
Thanks for all the responses so far, but I'm curious:

Many of you seem to prefer a mac over a PC... what are your reasons for this?

Thanks a lot.
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For me, it comes down to four factors: function, aesthetics, Logic, value.

Function. I've owned many PC's, both desktop and laptop. They're great for about the first month until you factor in your installed programs, the many (many!) OS updates/service packs, and the ultimate failure of the misc. hardware that's underneath the hood. With PC's, there's a million different companies producing varying machines with varying hardware, which ultimately is going to present a compatibility problem. When you buy a Mac, you know what's inside it because it's one company, with one set of fixed specs. PC's also have a great deal of background processes running at all times which require lots of tweaking, which in turn will create more processes telling you that you're not running said processes. Yes, I know a Mac has processes running in the background as well, but every piece of hardware I've used with a PC has always resulted in "pops," multiple crashes, and many instances of being generally pissed off.

Aesthetics. As dumb as it sounds, I like the look and feel of the Mac, from the glass monitor to the extra responsive touch pad (which is VERY handy with Logic) and the illuminated keyboard.

Logic. I know we all have a different flavor when it comes to our taste in DAW software, but for me, Logic is - to put it bluntly - the shit. It's made for Macs by the same company (Apple) who creates the machine running the software. Yes, I know it doesn't run VST's, but I only have a handful of plugs (i.e. NI Massiv) because most of Logic's plugs are amazing in terms of functionality and quality. Does it have its problems? Of course, but what DAW doesn't? And then there's the sweet touch pad integration that makes composing/arranging/zooming in Logic very fluid.

Value. Travel to ebay or the Apple store and check out their prices of the refurbished/used gear. You'll notice they hold their value quiet nicely over time. This will come in handy when you feel it's time to upgrade your Mac, as you will actually be able to sell it for a nice chunk of change whereas a PC will lose it value significantly, at a much faster rate.

Phew. Sorry for the long winded post. I'm a long time PC user who converted to the Mac world about a year ago and have never looked back since.

Cheers.
 
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mac,

logic,

saffire 6 usb interface,

hr824 mk2,

push the boat out...

Access virus ti2 polar,

you get some silly inspiration from a piece of hardware...
and the whole integrated software thingey is nuts.
if you really have money to blow get one.
i did and OH MY FUCKING DAYS IT"S SICK
 
motion audio said:
Cables are important too. So many people spend thousands on monitors, interfaces, and a mac so powerful it could put a goat on the moon, and then waste it all away by linking it together with shoe laces. Happens far to much.
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How would you know which cables to buy then..? D:
 
Macs are terribly overpriced and less powerful than a PC, especially if you're willing to build your own. I had to because I wanted to use the Linux realtime kernel so that I can create live EDM and still play instruments through the computer, apply effects, play keyboard, etc, all under a 5 ms latency.

Linux is the main reason to get a PC. But even if you're just using Windows (which I hate, duh) your computer will still be cheaper and faster than any Mac. People talk up the mac sounddrivers (which are better than ASIO but pretty weak compared to Linux real-time sound) but the fact is that Cubase is PC native, as well as tons of other programs.

But yeah if you're using Logic, spend 3 times the money on your computer.

Oh and if you're getting a lappy get a mac, IMnotsoHO. I still use my 7-year old powerbook, it's a brilliant little machine.

I'm sorta an AMD guy cause I'm cheap, but damn, the new series of 6-cores from intel are looking pretty nice! I still use a Phenom X2 at 3.2Ghz/core and have never had any slow downs while producing - naturally, Windows would not be able to handle my pure data patches, lol.

Sorry to rant but I just noticed all the Mac love in here and had to jump in.
 
Lucider said:
Macs are terribly overpriced and less powerful than a PC, especially if you're willing to build your own. I had to because I wanted to use the Linux realtime kernel so that I can create live EDM and still play instruments through the computer, apply effects, play keyboard, etc, all under a 5 ms latency.

Linux is the main reason to get a PC. But even if you're just using Windows (which I hate, duh) your computer will still be cheaper and faster than any Mac. People talk up the mac sounddrivers (which are better than ASIO but pretty weak compared to Linux real-time sound) but the fact is that Cubase is PC native, as well as tons of other programs.

But yeah if you're using Logic, spend 3 times the money on your computer.

Oh and if you're getting a lappy get a mac, IMnotsoHO. I still use my 7-year old powerbook, it's a brilliant little machine.

I'm sorta an AMD guy cause I'm cheap, but damn, the new series of 6-cores from intel are looking pretty nice! I still use a Phenom X2 at 3.2Ghz/core and have never had any slow downs while producing - naturally, Windows would not be able to handle my pure data patches, lol.

Sorry to rant but I just noticed all the Mac love in here and had to jump in.
Click to expand...

Interesting. I'm currently in the process of installing ubuntu on a notebook anyway. But do all the DAWs run on linux? Through Wine or whatever?
 
AFAIK, you will not want to use any DAWs under ubuntu other than those that are designed for it (Ardour being the "protools" equivalent). WINE will yield very poor results though I've never tried it.

You'll need to make sure that drivers are available for your preferred sound card - most are.

On a dual boot system you should install Windows first. Make sure to get Ubuntu Studio 64 as it comes pre-packaged with 1,000s of digital media editing programs...

...which will most likely not work as you'd expect until you dig into them a bit.

One nifty thing is Jack (also great for OS X) allowing you to send audio from one program to another, much like ReWire, except that it's all customized (AKA takes a while to get it working.) Reroutes MIDI as well, indispensable.

I installed Ubuntu on a dedicated live digital music PC and sorta just installed Windows for the hell of it. Then I decided to get into production again and never even tried using Ubuntu, though many people do. Linux is fun but it's probably not going to be the ideal EDM production machine for most people.

Sweet Water has cheap cables and a good guide to cable buying (and free shipping?). My only experience with cables nosoudinggood would be on my 1200's - seems to me that with cables it's either working or it isn't, no significant sound issues until you get into longer runs, power supply issues, TS (unbalanced) vs TRS (balanced), etc. Main thing is find out if you can use balanced TRS cables and use those - they aren't designed for guitarists like many other cables so they should be OK quality.
 
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