The only advantage of a MAC based system is if you are using the built-in audio device (CoreAudio) it will give you very good latency.
I think about 3-5 ms without crackling it's crazy.

In Windows if you use your built in card Realtek/etc, they gonna give you 18-22 ms without crackling.
Yes I know you can use ASIO4All BUT and it's a big brazilian butt.
You have to choose between "only using your DAW and making music" or you want to run something else in the background like video player with a tutorial running because the biggest problem with ASIO4All is that you can not use windows audio at the same time.

And under WIndows you have to tweak your Windows so much to get a very good audio workstation and cracked stuff exist for PC since 1999 for mac I think they started to crack plugins from 2007 or something like that.
So there will be 10x more cracked (mostly useless) plugins and software.

The only things you need pluginwise is Serum and for "real sounding instrument" Omnisphere with Keyscape and Trilian.
For drums Ableton Suite's built in drum racks are very good but for "real sounding drums" you need Toontrack EZ or Superior.
That's it.

The biggest mistake you can do (what I did for years) is you just downloading & downloading new plugins and tutorials and instead of making music you just collecting useless garbage.

Serum is the holy all-around GOD of electronic instruments it's able to produce any electronic style EDM/Trap/Techno/Pop everything.
Because of the WaveTable-based system you can do everything you won't need Sylenth/Nexus/bla bla bla all the usless & outdated crap.
I really hated Serum before because of it's "default skin" and now there are so many cool skins and you can make your own.
Once I learned how to use Serum I was so pissed of missing so many years/time downloading new VSTi's and testing them instead of making music, huge huge mistake.
And if you realise every VSTi has like 2 or 3 oscillators all the basic waveforms and a Filter+Modulation section and that's it.
Why would we download new stuff all the time once you are comfortable with 1 very good synth you don't need any you crap.

 

Last edited: Oct 13, 2019

correction: a former user

Sooooo true.
It's like an infection or an addiction you can't stop. And if you wake up, a year or two has gone by without making music or progress in learning

If you have too much VSTs you don't really need, you will have a lot of work just to install and keep them current.
Quick and dirty solution:
To get rid of unnecessary VST instead of uninstalling you can use a folder e.g. "Disabled VST" outside the VST search path and move all VSTs you didn't use for the last 3 months or so to this folder. This way you are able to easier maintain a VST if you wnat to reactivate it just by moving it back. I did it and it worked well for me.

 

Last edited: Oct 13, 2019

its all mac. And ive already got huge medical bills, so its very unlikely ill be using stuff i bought

 

dude you are so right about the need for downloading all that shit too. ive got hundreds of synths downloaded , but really only use a handful regularly. Its like i will try them out to see whats up with it and then just abandon it. I could definitely survive with just Serum, Fabfilter Bundle, and a bundle from someone like unfiltered audio, I do however enjoy collecting creative effects plug ins. Im all about getting weird. Im starting to think getting a pc is the right way to go.

 

Anyone have anything bad to say about purchasing upgraded refurbished laptops? I found this
Dell Latitude 5580 - i7-7820HQ Quad Core - 32GB RAM - 512G and it is right in a good budget range, I wish it had 1tb ssd but ive got a 512 glyph box already. Or there is a lenovo thinkpad with 2tb ssd 32g ram, i7 quad extreme cpus for $1100

 

Last edited: Oct 13, 2019

If i had to choose from the two, i'd go for the Lenovo since they are more sturdily built from the getgo. Of course since they 're both refurbished products, it means something happened to them, so it's good to know what led to refurbishing before you buy. Just know that both machines can be Hackintosh hybrids with some effort, so your stored soft will be put to use asap.

For real ? Oh lol, i honestly didn't know. Thnx for telling me.

Absolutely with you guys. I guess the somewhat older of us have been through this at one point in our digital lives. I used to have a name for it back in the pstn days : "downloaditis nervosa" .
Meaning that not only you are addicted to downloading everything 24/7, but if some days pass and there's no 0days avail or you haven't donwloaded anything, you start getting nervous and anxiety kicks in.

As a system builder myself (win and macos np), i'd say that while you can't predict how a user will interact with his machine and OS of choice during a period of time, hardware stability and main software like DAW and plugs can be thoroughly tested for stability in a matter of a 2-3 workdays, if you know what you are looking for. From my pov, troubleshooting from the get go under the worse possible scenarios leads to a healthy, no worries usage of the system in the future. With that said, no one can guarantee/predict if i.e., the next Win10 update will break your sys for some reason. Which only means if you want a healthy DAW workstation machine, you will not update your OS without a proper full system backup, never ever, no matter if you are on Windows or macOS. That is of course if you are serious about it. If a client is feeling adventurous then it 'll be nobody's fault but their own, if after a Win update their H-Reverb crashes the DAW every time they load it (true case with original Waves pack). They 've been warned :D

Errr, really sorry for being the negative prick here, but no, no and no. If i make a product and name it pro it doesn't mean it fits the description. Advanced hardware ? Where ? Imac and Macbooks use standard pc hardware and peripherals and not of the highest grade if you want to know, which -as stated a billion times before- technically makes them no different than any other pc. And be sure that without even getting to the server segment of computing just in the middle enthusiast HEDT platform there are much more powerful machines. More durable ? I get this quote a lot, the explanation is simple. If i pay 3000 for a machine, i will make sure that i'll be using it for a good period of time. But this is not durability, it's just common sense mate. My Intel QX6700 extreme with 8gb ram still runs perfectly with Win7 x64 after 13 years. But it did cost me 5 grand in total to built it back in Jan '07, and i upgraded hdds/ssd/gpu many times too. Anyway in the Apple camp, especially the Macbooks are prone to a number of well known hardware faults. Look around, the answers are out in the open. Here: https://www.youtube.com/user/rossmanngroup/videos
Cheers
EDIt: I just remembered. This pc of mine with the Intel QX6700 and a Gigabyte board was also running macOS for about 2 years heheh.

 

Last edited: Oct 13, 2019

totally agree, I don't have even enough spare money to buy the stand

how aboy this @200% :
https://iiyama.com/gl_en/products/prolite-xb2779qqs-s1/
5120 x 2880 -> 2560x1440
It is quite cheap here in EU and if the fonst get crisp as an iPad, that would be awesome

Do you thing this could be readable or is that still to small ?

 

PC lately by a mile, but I wouldn't pick it just for that. There is plenty for mac to keep you busy for years as well.

 

linux will be never adequate to make the big industry guy and impress schicki micki customers but it will be adequate for the 1%ER artists and engineers and get more audio devs , just look to catalina lol...this is altering some minds

these days apple is only good for remote ipads and apps thats it...


blacmatic how bout some pro mac input ?

 

Last edited: Oct 13, 2019

@Moonlight

Hey i'm in EU too so np. We get about the same prices i guess. To answer your question, the edge of readable content should normally be around 95-105 ppi, depending on what you are used to seeing and how sharp is your own eyesight of course hehe. This useful calculator will do the math automatically: https://www.sven.de/dpi/
So yes @200% scale this IIYAMA will be readable ok.
Just do not expect iPad cripsness on a -sort of- cheap ips monitor brother. The 12.9" iPad Pro is about 265 ppi and its Retina display with ~550-600 nits brightness is about 2x brighter than any cheap IPS monitor. Also something overlooked but important, the ipad pro display is 120hz and supports variable refresh rate for smooth scrolling, gaming etc.
I don't understand buying a 27"@5k really since you can't use it in its normal res for productivity/desktop work/daw etc, the fonts will be on the edge of invisible lol. The benefit will be only on graphics, ie. if you are a Photoshop artist then by all means it is a good selection.
As i said in another thread, my next monitor of choice would be the Philips 436M6VBPAB Momentum. It's a 4k,VA panel with 1000nits brightness/HDR 1000 support. At 42.5" and 103 ppi it's perfectly readable with no scaling whatsoever. And you can enjoy a movie on it just like having a good 4k tv. The only donwsides of the monitor is it's 60hz and its stand is not very adjustable, but it supports standard vesa mount so changing it wouldn't be a prob. For anyone who wants to do work and have large real estate for productivity, the 43" format for 4k res is inevitable imho. With anything smaller, you'll either struggle to see the fonts or scale it to a larger perspective. But scaling (at least for me) is a no-no, since it defeats the whole purpose of buying a hi res monitor in the first place, hehehe. And this Philips, now costs about 670 euros, which makes it quite affordable for what it offers.
Here: https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/philips-436m6vbpab-momentum-4k-freesync-monitor,5921.html
Cheers mate

 

Last edited: Oct 13, 2019

what software? windows software? mac software? multiplatform stuff like Kontakt libraries?
if you're getting refurbished device then price isn't a problem even for a Mac - it will be smoother experience than Windows for sure

 

Pretty much spot-on; my Win7Ult. audio PC is strictly that; fully offline and with almost solely DAW/audio related material. It makes everything *way easier. I test most stuff out on my online laptop first so that if I trip across some King-Hell virus online or in a download that cripples my PC (well, cripples it more than the useless Win10 crap already does,) it'll be my I-bought-it-used, Win10 PC.

 

ive got enough to divide with 20 people for eternity, Its all mac installers. But i always get vst2 and vst3 as well as aus so i dont know if you can configure them over to laptop or not. Ive decided that this is a golden opportunity to scale it down

 

1999? 2007?? Audio software has been cracked for whatever platform its been on since audio software existed period. Ever hear of a group called Radium? The old Hotline app for Mac? Dialing up BBS's in the late 80s/early 90s? Cubase and Logic have both been cracked since they were called Pro24 and Notator and existed on Atari. I started with Cakewalk 4 for DOS and I sure as hell didnt pay for it. Still got tons of software that runs on Mac OS7/8/9. The cracked Cubase VST24 helped me move from PC to Mac on OS 9.04 until I decided to try out the cracked Logic Platinum 3.5 long before 2007. Still remember getting the ACID 1.0 beta. The beta even came with a bunch of drum loops Sonic Foundry would've gotten the shit sued out of them for if they released it to the public hah.

 

on MacOS you can use AU, VST2, VST3 - this depends on DAW (for ex. Logic only accepts AU, but Reaper can do all)
be aware VST2 and VST3 for Windows are different files, so you cannot let's say copy Mac VSTs and use them on Windows (!)

 

I wana say mac cause Truely love mine since i switched but for cracked.... PC Hands down
They have everything we been waiting a year for...but R2R looks like they are catching up for some lost time so we'll see.

 

Yeah... I just.. i just still wouldn't trade my mac. I don't know about stability issues.
as far as performance and stability from my time as a PC user Mac is a lot better. Les tinkering.

But oh, woe's me.
What I wouldn't give to not have to pay for Black Box, Or the Eiossis De-Esser i just for some reason like in slate.. Or The rest of the soundtoys that I have had to buy yet... Current PT..

But F*v*K it im stable lol

 

Yeh it is about scaling here and use it at 200% so that you get super sharp fonts 4 physical pixel form then 1 virtual pixel as far as I understood.

 

Well, i understand this of course, but not all applications are written with high dpi/ppi in mind. Meaning that any application that is not high dpi aware, (in my experience) may present visual artifacts under scaling, like blurry graphics. One area where Win10 is better than previous Win Oses (unbelievable, right?), is it has many improvements towards high dpi displays, but it still needs to get better on this. MacOS seems to be better in scaling but still no OS is perfect on this yet imho. If you are on macOS and your apps of choice can scale properly on high dpi displays, then go for it mate
Me, i am a sucker for vertical res. My never ending quest is to be able to view as many DAW channels as possible without having to scroll up & down hehe... But i'm flying off topic so i 'l leave it here.
Cheers