Hello

I have decided to try Parallels on my Macbook Pro after trying VMWare Fusion and finding that it was very laggy even when doing simple things like browsing...

Parallels on the other hand seems to work just like an actual Windows machine would, and so far I am impressed...It has been years since I last owned a windows machine (The reason I transitioned to Mac was because of the constant blue screens on Windows)

Anyways, my question is this...How many of you use a Mac machine but use Windows on it instead?

How does it perform? Does the Mac cope with the workload you give it?

My Macbook Pro 2015 is Quad-Core i7, 16GB with 2TB SSD.

Would this be enough?

I am planning to use Cubase 12 with it, or at least try out Cubase 12 before the err...'mac version' comes out *wink wink*

I guess I am just getting impatient eh

I want to make sure I like Cubase 12 before actually committing money to it.

 

your MacBook is on the aging/slower side by now. You are crazy to run something heavier than Logic , and then in a janky vm setup? If anything, you would want something lighter. Like Reaper. Or basically, anything besides Cubase. Put the "500$" to a new cpu of some method.

This one sort of takes the cake. If you would rather run Cubase which you don't even need, obviously; because you even asked this_ in a VM, instead of the excellent DAW made by the company that made your computer natively, then you should learn either one of them first.

 

Last edited: Apr 17, 2022

Using Windows (or any otherOS) in a VM for making music or even recording is a no go because you can't get any low latency audio drivers to work. Connecting a USB audio interface to a VM works in theory but not in real life, it's got something to do with synchronisation and stuff.

Booting Windows directly using Boot Camp on a Mac is the only solution for getting real time low latency audio.

But to be honest, Macs with Boot Camp are the worst machines to run Windows on. Apples Windows drivers are very buggy so it seems Windows itself is unstable. Surprise, surprise! For example, my MBP16 (2019) completely crashes with a blue screen, if an application quits and releases the audio driver. Only solution is to have a DAW open and running all the time to prevent the audio driver from crashing. And of course there are no updates for Boot Camp drivers anymore.

And also the internal speakers sound a lot different and much worse in Windows because the driver lacks the processing which is done in macOS to make the speakers sound really impressive for a notebook.

 

but why? just use your windows machine

 

There has just been released a trial of Cubase 12

 

quad core i7, 16GB ram and 500GB+ ssd is the sweetspot for any current system,
but, if you wanna go Windows, you can get VERY cheap computer with such specs (and perhaps sell the MBP instead)?

 

I don't recommend using Parallel Desktop to do any heavy task job. Due to a multitude of technical details, your machine will have much lower performance and you will soon reach the limit. I also add that the issues of using asio in a computer that works with coreaudio (latency / crackle) will make you want to throw the laptop out of the window.
The use of Parallel is limited to those lightweight apps that do not require heavy CPU / ram usage

 

if it's 2tb internal it's not ssd. That will be something to probably consider.

"quad core i7, 16GB ram and 500GB ssd is the sweetspot for any current system"

It's why they have never offered a 2tb internal SSD upgrade, officially. They also get exponentially expensive still. obviously

 

Last edited: Apr 17, 2022

The whole reason I am trying to run Windows on a Mac is because I don't have windows machine

 

HA! I went the OTHER way. I sold all of my Apple gear, found a free Windows laptop on CraigsList and Hackintoshed it. It works so well AND has touchscreen that I may never switch back. Big Sur with touch screen is a dream to use. It's a Lenovo Yoga 260 with i5 processor. I found a guy offloading 9 that's right 9 Windows laptops free of charge on CraigsList. I gave 3 to a thrift shop (they were too old and underpowered) sold 5 of them on eBay and kept the best one for myself. I produce music on it with Studio One 5, video content for YouTube with Final Cut Pro and NFT's for OpenSea with PhotoShop. I highly recommend using MacOS for all of your creative needs and skip Windows unless you're a gamer.

 

thats not an answer, the software surely is available on your mac isnt it?

 

there is no underpowered, you just need to strengthen your workflow and methods :D thats my take