Mac vs PC

G

GtrGtrGtr

New member
Hi all I am building a small studio and as I make way I find many saying Mac is the way to go. That said I am considering replacing my PC either with a newer faster PC or a mac ,having never owned a Mac I am a bit hesitant to move forward on acquiring one unless the advantages are very good. What are the benefits to using a Mac vs a PC ? Is it worth the initial investment as they are a bit more expensive to obtain? Is it worth the extra cash to add the mac over a PC? The PC I was looking at was an i7 16GB ram 2 TB hard drive .Thanks again for your advice as you guys already have saved me from myself as far as making purchases I really didnt need. I do listen when you comment as you are the pros in my book Thanks again-Steve :guitar:
 
I don't personally see any advantages of a Mac over a PC unless you are going with Thunderbolt. But if you are staying with USB, then I don't see an upside with a Mac.

The spec on your computer looks good, I think the 2TB HDs are not that fast, you may want to put in a 480 SSD for your applications and your active projects, use the larger HD for your archive. SSD performance will make a difference. If you go PC, make sure you set it up for audio, remove sleep mode, HD shut down, etc. There are places that will tell lyou what settings to change, just do a search on this site on on the net to give you the settings.

Many on this site use a PC, a few use a Mac, but we rarely talk about the OS and more about the application (DAW) itself. You could go either way and once you are comfortable, you should be good.
 
Hi,
I guess you'll find a lot of people saying mac is the way to go because of the associated simplicity. You buy it and that's that. No real hardware choices, no real options to mess it up.
You either buy peripherals that are mac compatible or you don't, pretty much.

Specific chipsets and configurations are much less of an issue whereas you'll be required to be more careful with a MS PC setup, especially if you're building it.
Does that warrant buying a mac?
For many, it doesn't.

I like 'em. Many don't. You'll find good and bad stories about either platform.

If you're honestly on the fence and have no real sway either way, start making lists of all the software you know and would like to use, then research compatibility.
Research cost and think about compatibility with friends or colleagues, if that's a consideration.
Let the facts make the choice for you.

Also consider that you have a few options on the mac side.
You can look at i7 mac minis, iMacs, or even mac pros(xeon). Price wise, I'd still be looking at 8-12 core tower instead of the new trash can model. I think that'd have to be used?!
If your sessions aren't ridiculously demanding, you can even look at macbook pro models, if portability is a factor.

The bottom line is either platform is 100% capable in the hands of the right user.

I'd +1 the SSD motion on any setup. :)
 
If you're used to PC, I'd stay there. I run both - But if I had to choose one, there's little doubt it'd be a PC.

Not just because my main DAW is PC only -- But that if something goes wrong with the PC it can usually be fixed relatively quickly from "at the store" parts in many cases. I've gone through more "really awesome" Macs that wind up being paperweights because you can't even upgrade the OS after a certain point...
 
Thanks MMaster I am also a bit bent on what software to use with my Tascam US1800 as many seem to ..well.. frown at pro tools ? I have no idea what so ever when it comes to this style of recording so everything helps thanks!- Steve
 
GtrGtrGtr said:
Thanks MMaster I am also a bit bent on what software to use with my Tascam US1800 as many seem to ..well.. frown at pro tools ? I have no idea what so ever when it comes to this style of recording so everything helps thanks!- Steve
Click to expand...

The US 1800 was not usable by earlier versions of ProTools because of the drivers and their conflict with the way the drivers setup latency/buffer settings. Or was that a Mac/ProTools thing? Not sure that has been remedied as I haven't been paying attention as I upgraded my interfaces and system quite a while ago. The US 1800 is definitely something I would still recommend.

As for the 'frown at pro tools', well to each their own. Use what is comfortable for you. :)
 
GtrGtrGtr said:
Thanks MMaster I am also a bit bent on what software to use with my Tascam US1800 as many seem to ..well.. frown at pro tools ? I have no idea what so ever when it comes to this style of recording so everything helps thanks!- Steve
Click to expand...

If you're building around a Tascam u1800, don't go mac.
This is what I'm talking about when I say research.

I can't remember the specifics, just like Jimmy, but there are/were definitely documented issues with Tascam interfaces and OSX.
 
Have used both. But I like pc more because, like Massive Master said, most of the problems that arrise with PC you can fix by yourself. Whereas repairing macs is very costly and often very difficult...

Otherwise both OS's need time to get used to. I could work on either apples and windows computers and I guess everyone can.
I don't really like the apple way of marketing and taking over the universe but I guess that's personal :P. Would go with UBUNTU if you could run useful software on it...
 
Yes I have reached pot to Tascam about this issue and will post here of their answer asap but I do believe cubase comes with it when it was first released Thanks guys for the direction.
 
GtrGtrGtr said:
Yes I have reached pot to Tascam about this issue and will post here of their answer asap but I do believe cubase comes with it when it was first released Thanks guys for the direction.
Click to expand...

Thank you. It'd be good for us to be up to date on us1800 issues. Good luck. :)
 
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