Hi people!

First of all excuse my terrible ESL.

I've posted the same thread in the Mac section since this is a Windows or Mac OS issue. You can reply here of course, but the Mac section thread is http://audiosex.pro/index.php?/topic/18924-mac-os-or-windows-for-dawing-with-only-2gb/ . Admins and mods you are welcomed to correct/move/warn this post if it's in the wrong section or duplicated.

I'm a Windows veteran with a Quad Core Extreme 3.5Ghz 8GB desktop PC. Recently I got an old MacBook Air as a gift. Damn, so cute and still useful for non demanding apps with that killer trackpad. But I want to use it for make music and this is when problems come. It's a 2010 Mac. I know, use your desktop PC best advice hands down, but I have no time for using it and the few I've is mostly reserved for big display things: movies, shows, and so on

The pros:
- Quite good (for a laptop) 13 inches 1440x900 display. Enough for basic DAWing.
- SSD drive 128GB about 200MBs
- I'm a novice, I don't need Waves plugins quality nor a complete DAW
- I can plug an external SSD drive (256GB, about 400MBs)
- Aside from guitars, I can use if needed very tiny virtual instruments, even loops/rexs/wavs etc if it's absolutely necessary (I promised myself years ago no loops ever LoL)

The cons (almost everything else lol):
- Core Duo 1.86Ghz
- 2GB RAM, this is the biggest issue no doubt. It gets worse, 300MB used by the GPU
- Only USB2 ports and no ethernet connector. This means I can only take advantage of the near zero latency of the optional USB external SSD drive, the speed won't pass 40-50MBs.
- I use only virtual instruments and I need to use Kontakt at least for the guitars, I'm a metal head, that's no negotiable LoL (or another sample based virtual guitar like MusicLab's RealLPC or the 8 strings one).

Other considerations:
- I'm a windows tweaker but a Mac OS X newcomer, so advanced optimizing for Mac OS X would be too much for me. I'd love to apply Copylefter's wonderful guide, but at the moment I can't. There are other considerations, my Mac OS is legit and I want to take profit of the nice included tools, syncing calendars and files with other Mac friends, etc...

- Although I'm a Mac newcomer, I know universal tips for low resource usage with DAW (no VST oversampling or quality mode except in the mixdown, 32 bit apps use less RAM, use stock DAW plugins, freeze tracks exhaustively, disable visual effects, etc...)

So I have two choices:
1) Windows 7 partition with a Windows lite version. I know, lite versions can be evil. The one I'm using gives 1.3 GB free at startup, which is quite good, only 400MB used with all the drivers installed including boot camp ones.

I'd use Studio One as DAW. Reaper is lighter but I'm used to Studio One. For VST. For easiness and low resource hungry I'd use EZMix 2 for effects when needed.

2) Mac OS X partition. I've Yosemite at the moment but clearly is way too much demanding. Like I said before, I'm no Mac tweaker but I can downgrade to Snow Leopard or Lion.

I'd use Studio One or GarageBand, again EZMix 2 (Garageband alternative?) for effects.

The Kontakt problem belongs the the Kontakt section and it's complex. But if you guys can give me tips would be very appreciated. I'm a medium level Kontakt user, I can simplify multis. I know that the first step would be convert the samples to uncompressed format since I've slow CPU but SSD drive. Better said, I think I know these things lol. An alternative virtual guitar tip would also be appreciated. Again, these questions doesn't belong to this section.

Which choice do you recommend me? Another tips?

Many thanks in advance, I know it's a complex problem. I've tried googling and searching but it's hard when you've no time and you search information for a 2Ghz Core Duo with 2GB RAM computer.

Cheers,

Luis

 

looks like a dub post

 

I'd always rather use Windows for working with audio because in my test about 2 years ago Windows XP showed to be about 20% more CPU efficient than OS-X as DAW. That's with Reaper. Cubase is also more efficient on PC, but I wouldn't know about Studio One. However, since Presonus is generally "Windows company" [like MOTU is generally Mac company] same as Steinberg, I'd expect it to be more efficient in Windows, too.

But ultimately it's up to you to decide, of course. Maybe you feel more comfortable working in OS-X? I would possibly trade efficiency for comfort, too, if there was something, in my opinion, better than Windows for working with audio and multimedia in general. I'm still using Windows XP for audio on my main computer, which is a bit more efficient and easier to manage than Windows 7. My Windows XP "Lite" consumes only 70MB of memory upon fresh boot. Regarding memory consumption of W7 and XP, it's hard to compare because W7 uses memory a bit differently and caches programs and "stuff" in memory, but when you work with a DAW memory gets released for DAW usage. However, it is a good practice to make some optimisations to W7 for DAW work, as well as to XP, like disabling unnecessary services and background tasks.

Cheers!

p.s. btw there's no "Mac OS" any more. The last Mac OS was OS 9. It is now called OS X - "O. S. Ten", or "oh eh sex". Whatever you prefer...

 

Actually I am much more comfortable working with Windows since I only use Mac since two months ago. But the CPU and specially RAM are so limited that I want to know if using Mac OS can be lighter than Windows. My first thought was installing Windows XP. Unfortunately it's completely impossible to install a 32 bit Windows on my Mac Air without an Apple superdrive DVD unit (most Macs can).

Easiness is also important for me, that's why the only DAW I've used is Studio One, a good compromise for easy but powerful DAW. I'd use Cubase 5, but besides being more complex I think is more resource hungry (please correct me if I'm wrong). Reaper would be an option if there are big improvements in performance on my old computer compared to Studio One. That's another big question for me.

I'm aware of the different memory management since Windows Vista, a lot of memory is used for cache but is available when it's needed. The Windows 7 Lite I use eats only 400MB after booting, and I'm happy for now, because there's quite room for improvement if needed. It would imply disabling important services but I've Mac OS in the other partition.

Cheers

PS: I know about the proper name being "Mac OS X" since the switch to UNIX functionality, I'm just too lazy typing lol