Mac or PC for music production?

Discussion in 'Mac / Hackintosh' started by Dave McBoof, Nov 6, 2020.

  1. JMOUTTON

    JMOUTTON Audiosexual

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    You can delete all your property list files, and when you restart the computer/program you'll just have to reset your preferences. Try deleting every entry in your registry and see what happens. They might perform a somewhat similar function but they operate from two different paradigms.
     
  2. The Freq

    The Freq Guest

    Never assume anything.
    What I have said stands and it is stupidity to segregate platforms when the world is geared into interchangeability. I hear what you are saying and it's not something I did not know, dude. If they alienate their third part developers they are screwed. The current MAC O/S has caused grief everywhere with many things not working properly so they are fully aware they have to get it right or their usefulness will decrease and nobody wants that, no matter what anyone uses.

    MAC has to be careful not to alienate the Adobe's and other developer's who helped make them globally renowned by introducing entire new addressing systems, thereby forcing them to completely rewrite their code. They will get a middle finger if they do from a lot of third-party corporations.
     
  3. taskforce

    taskforce Audiosexual

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    :rofl::hahaha:
    :dont: :dont: :dont: :dont: :dont:
    Sure, Digidesign discovered there is something called MIDI in 2000 and Apple has decided that Logic needs to resemble Garage Band more.

    @Dave McBoof
    The advantage of a Mac is with their audio interface aggregation and native support for low latency but that's it. Not with anything else. If you are intrigued by Logic you can always go Hackintosh. If you 're doing vst plugs and never worked with Logic you will be better off with a pc and save some money for more ram and large ssd(s) and/or external display etc.
    I can. "Buy a Mac, look no viruses". Mehhh. We will be seeing more and more stupid people using Macs because they brand it as a leisure-lifestyle comp. So morons with dad's money can show their friends how they got a Mac. Oh and it's called MacOS again nowadays not OSX lol.
    Btw i moved from Mac to Pc like before OSX. I can live with Windows clunky registry. Any smart user keeps a clean system image anyway. I can't live without constant upgrades to my hardware. It's my life and passion. And also fkn Acid.
    Cheers :)
     
    Last edited: Nov 9, 2020
  4. The Freq

    The Freq Guest


    I imagined Dave Smith from Sequential Circuits in 1985. It must have been 'muddy' instead of 'midi' I was using :rofl:
     
  5. Colin

    Colin Producer

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    I say this on so many posts. There is no one size fits all answer.
    What we are in the business of (hopefully) is creating and recording music, and in some cases ART.
    There are so many variables.
    So often it, in fact all the time, it gets boiled down to sue this operating system, or use that hardware.
    re: operating system. Use one you are already comfortable with.
    re: hardware. do you need mics? buy something as decent as you can afford that will cover the bases you need covered. 2nd hand if you are on a budget.
    re: DAW. if you are already familiar with DAW's, just get one that does what you need it to do.
    re: monitoring. do you need speakers or room treatment. can you do it on headphones?

    This isn't all about "the tools" at all!

    It's about you. It's about how good your ears are. It's about what you need. Not what is the latest and greatest.

    It's about the end product, not what you used to make it.
     
  6. 23322332

    23322332 Rock Star

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    Most developers already have to write tons of code for each Mac OS update, so your assumptions are little silly. It's not like these developers have any choice as long as Apple's products are popular and their stuff is getting only more popular.
     
  7. Moonlight

    Moonlight Audiosexual

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    And this time it gets even more to rewrite. No AVX, OPEN CL/GL, SSE on ARM. I dont know how tricky it is to rewrite theses to similar ARM technics, tho. In the Vengeance Avenger Group on Facebook, someone asked if they willl get Avenger for ARM Macs. The admin answered that he doubt that the developer will do the extrawork since it might be to much work. Exciting times !
     
  8. Bitmonkey

    Bitmonkey Producer

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    True but they have literally ONE developer who works on their product or something (or seems like it as he also seems to do support) so I'm not sure they're an accurate reflection of a lot of developers.
     
  9. tzzsmk

    tzzsmk Audiosexual

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    ah what a lovely sight seeing this debate over and over again....

    of what I understand, you'll be getting a versatile device to meet all your needs, music production being just one of many tasks,
    so there's quite a few things to consider,

    1) what systems does your college use, how you access network (WiFi), online storages etc.., what software you'll be required to use?

    because last time I was at college, it took me few minutes to get a fully working Eduroam access, while friends with Windows 10 took over and hour to make it work, similarly making Microsoft Project software work in Parallels (since it's not available for MacOS) took me about half hour including entire Windows 10 install in Parallels, while fellows with Windows 10 took few days to catch up all the compatibility dependencies and conflicts with their currently used Microsoft Office suite,
    on the other hand I learned the hard way for ex. Excel on MacOS lacks some core functionality compared to Excel on Windows - shame on you Microsoft! and limitations of SMB/CIFS sharing in MacOS are sometimes a bit more pain..

    2) what storage/backup solution will you use?

    catching virus on Windows is practically inevitable, especially when using various public and school networks, fellow usb sticks, shady software etc.., and on top of that any device can die or get stolen - your thought of "transferring a majority of the files I have on my pc right now to the new laptop" is rather scary actually, I personally ended up with NAS which lets me access my files anywhere like as if it was a Cloud service, while having them physically at my own place

    3) going to college, you feel wasting so much money on an overpowered laptop is worth it?

    from my own experience, laptop should always be about portability, reliability and okay-ish performance,
    maybe you can get refurbished MacBook Pro from 2015 (16GB ram and 500GB SSD preferably) or so for around 1K, and have another PC with Windows for any more demanding tasks for another 1K - for a fraction cost compared to fancy XPS? and still have 1K left...

    4) maybe it's just me getting old, but I realized this never-ending fight over Win vs Mac might have roots in desire for change - mostly when I see topics like that it's Windows or Mac user in desperate urge of trying something different, hoping for lack of their own discipline and knowledge to make things just work, they think changing platforms, DAWs, hardware etc.. will result in better content created, better music made etc...
    if you are considering MacBook, then perhaps you crave change, potentially learning something new, reaching new experiences or maybe sort of uniqueness (because truth to be told, Windows PCs dominate the market, and Macs will always be something special on their own) - that I totally understand, and would encourage it, but also be prepared for disappointment and return to Windows PC - reason for which I wouldn't spend that much money on any laptop

    5) and then there's the music production thingy - are you planning to just click mouse around, listening on mediocre earbuds?

    for me, music is about real instruments, audio interface, and proper speakers - none of which I could afford to carry around "on the go", so from this perspective, the mindset about music production on the go for me is merely catching up ideas and saving them for later - for this purpose, an average phone can suffice though, so advantage of having a dedicated laptop for something I would end up making on a desktop later (no matter if PC or hackintosh in my case) is questionable at best,
    if you take a look at pictures from "studios", many have macbook on side of desk with dongles all over the place - might as well just get a Mac Mini when they don't even use MacBook screen and keyboard...
    MacBooks and recently especially iPad Pro's are very popular among graphic artists, because they can meet with clients and do changes on the fly, seeing results of changes immediately - but in audio world, things don't really work that way I'm afraid...

    6) about ARM and Apple Silicon - we'll see tomorrow, I expect okay-performing laptop with 16-hour battery operation which would be a dream for anyone working away from electricity grid, but again, audio production is one of those heavier tasks which will require some serious optimizations on software side of things, we'll see if Apple shows Logic Pro and Final Cut Pro during the event...

    :chilling:
     
  10. Moonlight

    Moonlight Audiosexual

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    Yaeh but there are a lot Single Man Developers Vengeance is just one example
     
  11. taskforce

    taskforce Audiosexual

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    I dunno what your experience of midi is or how old you were in 85 but in my book, midi just worked from day one. Some early sequencers had a bit of a trouble programming/sending sysex but that was all and it was secondary anyway. So i don't understand what your muddy quote refers to.
     
  12. The Freq

    The Freq Guest

    Humour - I was into MIDI from day one too. Older suffices for both of us - We're only old when we stop playing...:) (He is credited with inventing MIDI by the way).
     
  13. The Freq

    The Freq Guest

    The third-party app developers write cross-platform and I gather you are a die-hard incredible lightning-fast coding programmer. You must be to call someone silly without asking where they come from or how old they are or what they've done, or bothering to ask if they actually know something. Assumptions are the mother of all screw-ups.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Nov 10, 2020
  14. taskforce

    taskforce Audiosexual

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    Yeah, i understood your quote as funny np :)
    I just thought you might had a problem with a Sequential machine so you referred to it as muddy. Btw speaking about midi, it was Roland's communication implementation that contributed perhaps 60-70% of the original first midi protocol. But surely the idea was Smith's alright and very early on. Ahh at least he's still around with Tom Oberheim to bring us cool toys to play with. Bob Moog went fairly young. Don Buchla left us in '16 at almost 80 y.o., Kakehashi has stepped down from Roland's leadership so it's these two old guys left from the pioneers scene.
    I know i am far away from the thread's subject but i can't help mentioning a really smart person who's rarely remembered and he played a key role in the evolution of modern electronic music, Peter Zinovieff, whose EMS company pioneered synthesizers from the late 60s. And let's not forget Zinovieff invented the digital sampler in 1969 the EMS Musys.
    All the best and one advice, don't get pissed with the youngsters hehehe. You will find too many peeps here jump to conclusions before conducting a proper dialogue, so i humbly suggest to take it with a grain of salt mate.
    All the best, stay safe :)
     
  15. Bitmonkey

    Bitmonkey Producer

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    Or just wait and get the much faster ARM Macbook Pro which will be much faster than an Intel i9 for single core speed given that the new Air beats the i9 and that's fanless....

    https://www.macrumors.com/2020/11/11/m1-macbook-air-first-benchmark/
     
    Last edited: Nov 12, 2020
  16. Colin

    Colin Producer

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    When you listen to a piece of music or a song, do you wonder to yourself "was that Mac or PC?"

    I don't.
     
  17. WillyA

    WillyA Producer

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    I think that I can solve this dilemma for you.

    I have a very good friend who lives in the USA, who used to work for Apple until he retired. He's forgotten more about Apple MacOS than most of us will ever know. I received this from him last evening when I asked him a question.
    "After 36 years, I am migrating to Windows. I am sick of Apple's policies. Also, since they will be producing Macs with ARM-based processors, they will devote less and less time to macOS on Intel. Soon, new hackintoshes will be unlikely".

    This will be Apple shooting themselves again, this time, not in the foot, but in the head. Their flagship was Apple ][. They had thousands if not millions of users. Then they "upgraded" to Apple III and most of the software that Apple ][ users had bought, wouldn't work on Apple III, then the upgraded yet again to Apple LISA, which was totally incompatible with everything, grossly overpriced and was a total flop. They "downgraded" this to Apple MAC. The originals, you couldn't even open but they did learn and managed to keep some degree of compatibility.

    I did remark not long ago that Intel are planning new CPU's and so are Apple, I'm pretty sure (and so is my friend) that the new ARM Mac will be totally incompatible with any current Mac Software and making a Hackintosh will be OUT as will being able to install ANYTHING that isn't bought from Apple.

    This means that you will have to buy new hardware (again) and all the Mac software you have spent money on will be useless and you'll have to buy complete new versions of everything and it certainly won't be upgrade prices.

    The only one clever thing that Microsoft did was make backward compatibility, so even Windows 95 programs and Windows 3.1 will (mostly) still work even on new systems.

    So you have to make a choice. You can build a Hackintosh, but if your hardware crashes. the chances of being able to build a new Hackintosh, seems remote.

    You can buy a (grossly overpriced) Mac and all the software, only to find in the next couple of years, that you will only be able to get software and support for the new ARM Macs, so you can trash all your hardware and software and buy new hardware and software.

    Your best bet is to go to Windows. I detest Windows and especially that satanic Bill Gates and his wife / boyfriend but at least Locic 2 will still work on Windows 10 and they certainly won't make the same mistake with new systems as Apple have done. My LGA775 system still runs Logic 4.8 with no problem it's only the fact that I'm stuck with only 8GB RAM that gives me a headache and that's why I decided to run a VM version of High Sierra with 16GB RAM on VMWare Workstation on my ASUS Prime B250 Pro.

    The only other option will be to hope that software houses (like Presonus, get wise and start migrating to Linux. The problem with Linux is that there are so many flavours and so-called "open source" like SuSe isn't even the slightest bit "open" and what runs on CentOS probably won't wrun (without hours of work) on Ubuntu and vice versa

    Hope this helps.
     
  18. Hareesh S

    Hareesh S Producer

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    From what I can tell, the OP's question isn't about performance, it's about the experience on both platforms. Recommending an Apple Mac isn't as easy cause we don't know how developer support will be, and for a production machine, you can't risk that. It isn't clear if you should opt for an Intel one or an Arm one now in this overlap period. Will developers take longer to develop for ARM, or will they drop support sooner for intel ones? How long will apple support the intel Mac's? these are the factors to consider primarily, atleast as far as I'm concerned.
     
  19. Moonlight

    Moonlight Audiosexual

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    it is also about the ease of using, dealing with windowss can be pita
     
  20. GT33

    GT33 Kapellmeister

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