Mac or PC for music production?

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

  1. Moonlight

    Moonlight Audiosexual

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    AN suxx for its ratio, I am talking about msj which is macOS exclusive, no windows stuff there
     
  2. Moonlight

    Moonlight Audiosexual

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    Dont get me wrong guys , I use both Windows 10 and macOS (hackintosh since my MBP is outdated)
    Both have their strength and weakness
     
  3. Vader

    Vader Platinum Record

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    Go Windows... Soon Apple is on ARM, making any Macbook useless.
     
  4. Moonlight

    Moonlight Audiosexual

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    Not only macBook but all Intel Macs. On the other hand Apple keep supporting Macs at least 7 Years.
     
  5. keygen.exe

    keygen.exe Producer

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    I gave you AN as an example for both platforms since we are comparing not just one website that has only Mac stuff.
     
  6. Olymoon

    Olymoon MODERATOR Staff Member

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    @Dave McBoof Please dont create 2 threads for one question, thank you.
    Your threads have been merged.
     
  7. quadcore64

    quadcore64 Audiosexual

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    If you do not require a system right away, consider waiting to see what Apple has planned later this month. Could be the ARM based systems launch & Big Sur.

    Also. If you just need a laptop for audio/music production, there are Windows based laptops/notebooks coming on line for under 2K U.S.

    The ZenBook Pro Duo is an innovative dual display Windows system that is designed for creators. Starts at $2,100.00 roughly for the i7 16GB model. The 32GB model sits around $2,800.00 U.S.
     
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  8. Valnar

    Valnar Rock Star

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    try hackintosh :wink:
     
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  9. Bitmonkey

    Bitmonkey Producer

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    Pure speculation though since you've got zero final silicon benchmarks to go on to confirm how good they will or won't be on ARM.

    Personally I'd go Mac purely for the less audio and graphics driver woes (no ASIO hassle for starters), less update woes (running your DAW offline for Windows - huh?) and generally less hassle with OS upgrades too.

    However if you wanna use a load of cracked software then you may prefer Windows and if you're into gaming then Windows will probably be better for you. If you're technically savvy then hackintosh is most definitely an option.
     
  10. Polomo

    Polomo Guest

    Buy ATM:

    https://www.amazon.com/Zephyrus-GA502IV-PH96-4900HS-Windows-Notebook/dp/B08K8PH9J3/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=ASUS+ROG+Zephyrus+G15+GA502IV-PH96+(AMD+Ryzen+9+4900HS&sr=8-1

    https://laptopmedia.com/review/asus...2iv-2020-review-same-look-different-hardware/
    Why :

    PRO ASUS
    1.
    CPU
    (Video Music Production heavy us of VST Effect or synths )

    https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+Ryzen+9+4900HS&id=3694
    19877 (Better than an i9-9900k in Passmark )

    Macbook Pro uses:
    https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i9-9980HK+@+2.40GHz&id=3451
    15272

    2. HDD
    (Video and Sample Library will need this )
    Two Hard disks (the bigger laptops.)
    Easy to replace
    In terms of upgradeability, the ASUS G15 GA 502 does a good job. There are 8GB/16GB (in our case it’s a 3200 MHz memory) soldered to the motherboard but at least there is another DIMM slot that can be used for future system memory upgrades. In this way, you can take advantage of the dual-channel memory mode that will boost the CPU performance additionally. Storage-wise, we are happy to see that there are two M.2 slots.

    (MacBook 1 Bay )
    Keep in mind that MacBook Pro storage is not user accessible. If you think you may need more storage capacity in the future, consider upgrading at the time of purchase.
    3. GPU
    (Specially interesting if you work with Video this is a must-have )
    https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=GeForce+RTX+2060+(Mobile)&id=4085
    11355

    Macbook Pro uses:
    https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=Radeon+Pro+5500M&id=4165
    6741

    4.Price :
    ASUS :1599$
    Apple: 2999$ (For an in all important things slower system.)

    Neutral

    (Both got 16 GB RAM)

    CONTRA ASUS


    (Downside on the Asus would be the Batteries) 76Wh vs 100Wh

    (Only real reason for Mac is Logic (Alchemy, Sculpture as Instruments inside (I miss them:wow:)) , Final Cut, Motion and some few AU only Plugins ( like https://www.sinevibes.com/mac/)
    And Co-Ops with other Mac users
    ..... also who ever needs this premium feeling

    But my experience with AU vs VST was that VSTs are more flexible (MXXX as AU can't be used as an Instrument as VST no Problem )
    So Logic is a nice DAW
    But if you got experience with some other DAW it's a lot of relearning (Specially FL Studio and Ableton are totally different to Logic )
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Nov 6, 2020
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  11. Bitmonkey

    Bitmonkey Producer

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    It's a lot easier to install Windows via bootcamp on a Mac (since its 100% fully supported by Apple) than try and cludge OSX onto a random PC configuration which may have incompatible hardware unless you're doing it inside a VM - so that's complete rubbish. Apple have supported this for over a DECADE in fact.

    People who don't clearly actually know anything about this stuff as you've proven here should probably keep quiet.
     
    Last edited: Nov 6, 2020
  12. Gyro Gearloose

    Gyro Gearloose Audiosexual

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    this last sentence is inappropriate !!
    he knows his shit very very well and a lot of his comments (and uploads) were unblvbl helpfull to the community
    whenever you may right with that , which i dont know
     
  13. junh1024

    junh1024 Rock Star

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    PC, unless you have a specific need for mac (software/daw/maybe better audio-midi routing for apps)
     
  14. 5teezo

    5teezo Audiosexual

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    For Music and MultiMedia Production hands down macOS all day.

    • No Audio Driver conflicts. You won't see any " This driver is already in use by device xyz" in CoreAudio
    • No messy Plugin Management (ONE Location for plugins not 1 gazzillion)
    • Lower latency possible
    • No Blue Screens
    • No Registry
    • No Virus-Infested Programs that can kill your sysem since all mac apps run in sandboxes
    • No Ransomware
    • No Malware
    • no shitty apps and services running all the time stealing CPU performance
    • better power management
    • No overkill telemetry
    • more relaxing working environment
    • Class compliant USB implementation > no shitty driver conflicts.
    • runs super stable
    • no 20 page long thread for optimizing the system with all these bullshit little tweaks for audio necessary
    • No extra specialized, manually stripped down install of the OS necessary just to make it usable
    • LogicProX
     
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  15. r4e

    r4e Audiosexual

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    Calm down boi, I didn't talk about using Boot Camp to install windows as a second OS, I talked about installing any OS directly to the disk/hardware. Btw. MacOS doesn't support Windows 100% via Boot Camp. It depends on the MacOS version what kind of Windows version you can install. Since Mojave, Boot Camp only supports Windows 10.

    Installing an OS directly to the machine would give you the freedom to choose between Windows 7, 8 or 10 or even Linux and
    that is where it starts to become complicated.
    Ps.: Boot Camp doesn't even support Linux / never did. That's what I meant with "any other OS", it's not just about Windows.

    And when Apple goes fully ARM, Boot Camp will not be available anymore, even if there's already an ARM version of Windows 10 available.
     
  16. lasteno

    lasteno Platinum Record

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    the result is always MUSIC right? so?..
     
  17. r4e

    r4e Audiosexual

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    I have to correct some things.
    1. depends on the ASIO driver you use. Choose the right one and you'll never have conflicts
    2. On my Windows system I have 1 diskfor everything music related. you just have to link everything to that location
    3. latency depends mainly on the hardware. with my USB3 interface I'm driving very well in comparison
    4. Blue Screens are actually a good thing as they show you the error directly rather than showing a grey question mark folder screen
    5. Windows has the "registry", MacOS has the "library" - both have a similar purpose
    6. Microsoft has a pretty nice privileges system for that purpose
    7. No Ransomware... just google "ThiefQuest ransomware"
    8. Thats wrong, software with malicious behaviours exists on macOS
    9. You can uninstall/turn off/remove from autostart any app you don't want to be running
    10. you mean easier but easier isn't always better
    11. Every telemetry service on Windows can be turned off. From Big Sur on you're not even able to see if there's telemetry stuff going on on macOS as they're cutting the control about the connections that go the apples servers
    12. depends on the user and his preferences
    13. I'm using a device in Class compliant USB mode since I'm on Windows 8.1. Those devices exist for Windows since years
    14. runs super stable - same here
    15. nothing is neccessary, you can use your audio setup right out of the box but for me it's nice to be able to tweak every small bit as of my preferences
    16. same here. Out of the box it just works but beeing able to strip down and customize an OS is a kind of privilege to me. On MacOS you have to take what you get, on Windows you can adjust everything as you like it and save a lot of space by removing unused stuff. (if you know how to).
    17. LogicProX - is the only benefit but luckily there are pretty good alternatives out there.
    What I want to say is:
    Every OS has its pros and cons. It always depends on personal preferences, habits and experience.
    If you never worked on a PC, MacOS is the clear winner. If you never worked on MacOS, the PC using Windows or Linux is your winner.
    You have to decide and your personal decision will be the right decision for you.
     
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  18. Bitmonkey

    Bitmonkey Producer

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    I love that you're changing tack and trying to prove your point, but realistically 99% of people are not going to choose Linux as their main OS so that's a moot point - it's going to be Windows or OSX. You could install Windows 7, 8 or 10 on OSX via Bootcamp (which boots natively straight into Windows afterwards by the way) at any point pretty much in the last decade on any flavour of Mac hardware. Mojave is only 2 years old Apple stopped support for Windows 7 on Bootcamp just about when Microsoft stopped standard support for the same version.

    I agree that when ARM comes in it could a different ballgame entirely though but you don't know whether they will still allow Bootcamp since the silicon isn't on the streets yet, so that's pure speculation at this stage.
     
    Last edited: Nov 7, 2020
  19. Bitmonkey

    Bitmonkey Producer

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    I have to correct you here as well:

    1. The registry/library are not the same. Windows has one single point of failure with every single software/drive installed in one place in the registry. OSX has a mass of plist files doing the same thing for each app/driver etc. which is the polar opposite of a single point of failure and which is why you almost never get system OS corruption issues without an underlying hardware issue. I for one have never needed to do a OS reformat and restall in a decade on OSX across 4 separate machines and I did plenty before then on Windows over the previous 15 years or so (yes I used PCs since the 486 days well before I went to Mac).

    2. Ransomware on OSX requires (or has so far) a level of idiocy to install it - people who installed that particular strain were particularly stupid in the main by downloading Little Snitch (and a couple of other apps) from random websites and doing zero checks upfront. You can't really blame OSX for that level of stupidity. Compare this with the multitude of ransomware attacks from Windows via browsers, pdfs, or other basic email attachments it's not the same whatsoever.
     
  20. 8bits

    8bits Producer

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    Uhuhu...the dilemma for audio users...i guess new audio users.
    In my life i started with the atari, commodore, pc, then mac for logic and ptotoolz.
    Well, i can say that today win10 is a good choice, Apple is not more the old one, waiting for arm generation...and im not happy about Craptalina, infact i still on HS and Mojave in my studio machines.
    I used an hackintosh i9 and running on it also win10 wich to me performing well (using original software) and same hardware uad then my mac pro.
    No difference, not in this 2020 era, maybe studio one and cubase are performing better, less cpu usage. No logic pro in one side and no sequoia in the other (boot camp is not for sequoia) but i still have my intel mac here..
    So for music today unless you love Logicpro like a biatch, ill go for win10 also because we dont know what arm it will be for Apple side, so you can make always music, you can spend less and maybe invest in a good converters instead. Then when your music business will grow up and when arm apple will be real you can always switch...invest now on hardware. My 2 cents.
     
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