W
word_play
New member
is the Apple really that much better for recording purposes?
Blue Bear Sound
New member
Define "better"....!
Apples computers are the dominant computer used in production facilities - probably by a 10:1 margin (guessing!)
They "tend" to be easier to setup and configure, and there's usually a much higher degree of compatibility with peripherals while the PC is more difficult to configure and setup, and "plug 'n play" is more "plug 'n pray"....
PCs are getting better though, and the differences are now more blurred in terms of config/setup....
PCs also tend to be somewhat less expensive than Macs, although Macs performance tends to be higher than an equivalent PC...
If you're trying to choose between the two, look at your s/w needs and your budget and see which platform provides you the most flexibility for your needs.
Apples computers are the dominant computer used in production facilities - probably by a 10:1 margin (guessing!)
They "tend" to be easier to setup and configure, and there's usually a much higher degree of compatibility with peripherals while the PC is more difficult to configure and setup, and "plug 'n play" is more "plug 'n pray"....
PCs are getting better though, and the differences are now more blurred in terms of config/setup....
PCs also tend to be somewhat less expensive than Macs, although Macs performance tends to be higher than an equivalent PC...
If you're trying to choose between the two, look at your s/w needs and your budget and see which platform provides you the most flexibility for your needs.
Chris Shaeffer
Peavey ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ditto.
PC's are great at doing common stuff. Plug and play works for the everyday things almost flawlessly on most modern PC's with modern OS's.
Multitrack audio is hardly common, though, so that's where you run into incompatibility issues and ragged performance. I've personally never experienced unreliable performance with my PC's but I do my homework before buying stuff and I know how to set them up to run lean.
Macs generally just work. From the start, they've been more oriented toward the high end, both hardware and useage-wise. They were designed for multimedia so they tend to be more reliable in that role. And you pay for it.
Chris
PC's are great at doing common stuff. Plug and play works for the everyday things almost flawlessly on most modern PC's with modern OS's.
Multitrack audio is hardly common, though, so that's where you run into incompatibility issues and ragged performance. I've personally never experienced unreliable performance with my PC's but I do my homework before buying stuff and I know how to set them up to run lean.
Macs generally just work. From the start, they've been more oriented toward the high end, both hardware and useage-wise. They were designed for multimedia so they tend to be more reliable in that role. And you pay for it.
Chris
O
OnTheBlackRock
New member
Mac all the way
Yes. you go to a tv production station you will only see macs. It is a fact that Mac's are much better for gaming/audio/visual purposes while PC's are better for user freindly everyday work enviroment that need word processing, drafts, or just IM in the home... Mac's have always been the choice for most musicians in recording studio's over the years because of how quite they are over PC's... when you have condenser mics all over they pick up every little sound and when you hear the hard drive of the PC clicking and clacking and humming it's terrible...macs are extremly quiet and dont do this. that is another reason why they are better. This is just not my opinion but a stated fact. If a top of the line recording company could choose a Mac G4 ( what i use
) or a gateway or dell I garentee you they would always choose the G4.
Yes. you go to a tv production station you will only see macs. It is a fact that Mac's are much better for gaming/audio/visual purposes while PC's are better for user freindly everyday work enviroment that need word processing, drafts, or just IM in the home... Mac's have always been the choice for most musicians in recording studio's over the years because of how quite they are over PC's... when you have condenser mics all over they pick up every little sound and when you hear the hard drive of the PC clicking and clacking and humming it's terrible...macs are extremly quiet and dont do this. that is another reason why they are better. This is just not my opinion but a stated fact. If a top of the line recording company could choose a Mac G4 ( what i use
) or a gateway or dell I garentee you they would always choose the G4.
W
WashburnGuy
New member
Blue Bear Sound said:
As a computer professional, I'd have to agree.......somewhat. I work in the public school system and am (unfortunately) faced with supporting both platforms.
Plug and Play has greatly improved to the point of almost being flawless. It's a far cry from the Win95/98 days.
As far as the config differences, PC's are, IMO, more easily customized and configured to a specific need. The MAC platform is definitely geared toward graphics and audio applications and not "realwork" situations. My definition of "realwork" is the kinds of tasks performed in a corporate/educational environment. I guarantee you that if you were to custom build a PC with all the necessary hardware for the purpose of A/V use, the MAC would pale in comparison. The cost of such a PC would most likely approach or exceed the cost of a MAC.
On the topic of platform choice for studio use, the worm is turning. At least on the Graphic Arts side of things.
Over the years, I've worked with MANY graphics companies that were solely MAC based. All that's changing. If for nothing else, as a matter of survival. Many of the graphic houses are now sporting high-end PC workstations to accomplish tasks that were once the sole domain of the MAC platform. Don't get me wrong, they haven't abandoned MAC's, they've finally realized that 98% of the computing world is PC based. That translates to whole lot of work that they don't get because they refused to adopt the PC platform. The lack of that work means reduced revenue. ANY large graphic house worth it's salt will have both platforms available to it's customers.
So you see, it's Apples and oranges. The basic PC is configured off-the-shelf to do "realwork". It can also be custom-configured for the A/V world as well, though that's not its primary purpose. The MAC is targeted at the A/V market.
Like I tell my clients........"Apples are for eating. PC's are for computing."
Flame away boys!
L
lomky
New member
Plus there is waaaay more warez available for PC
SPINSTERWUN
Active member
WashburnGuy said:
I TOTALLY agree with you, on this point.
Chris Shaeffer
Peavey ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As a side note, I met a TV producer the other day. He and I geeked about gear for a while and I was surprised to find that his entire team uses PC's for editing and producing the shows.
Why? Does the job just as well (or almost as well) and costs less. He's definately the exception rather than the rule, but he made a good case for the PC's as a budget/performance choice.
We use both here at the office. I have a PIV 2gig lappy with 512M ram and Win XP. The video machine is a Mac G4 with a Gig of ram. I have no idea what processor the Mac is, but it was top-o-the-line a year and a half ago. In everyday use, they perform about the same. At crunch time (video rendering) the Mac wins hands down, but not by so much that I'd declare it tons better than the PC.
That Mac (with a 23" Cinema screen) cost nearly 3 times as much.
Take care,
Chris
Why? Does the job just as well (or almost as well) and costs less. He's definately the exception rather than the rule, but he made a good case for the PC's as a budget/performance choice.
We use both here at the office. I have a PIV 2gig lappy with 512M ram and Win XP. The video machine is a Mac G4 with a Gig of ram. I have no idea what processor the Mac is, but it was top-o-the-line a year and a half ago. In everyday use, they perform about the same. At crunch time (video rendering) the Mac wins hands down, but not by so much that I'd declare it tons better than the PC.
That Mac (with a 23" Cinema screen) cost nearly 3 times as much.
Take care,
Chris
Rimshot
New member
Now this is a topic that I happen to know a little bit about. My first trade is that I am a graphic artist. I am one of those old fashioned type of graphic artists that works by hand. As times changed in the industry, I had to change also and learned to work with computer graphics. I am very well versed in all of the Adobe programs and working with Macs. (BTW I hate computers, and stopped working in the industry because of them. They are mindless tools that make inadequate people feel skilled.)
Macs ARE the industry standard and don't let anyone else mislead you or tell you otherwise. Macs operate graphically (what you see is what you do) as opposed to PC's which are data driven. If you are a creative person, the Mac will seem like an extension of yourself and a PC will feel like a great big calculator.
If you are a technical and data oriented person, the Mac will feel like an expensive video game. But even so with all of the exceptions taken into consideration about how in rare cases some professional houses may on occassion use PC's, the day is still ruled by Apple. They just work better at this type of thing. Sure you can configure a PC to this stuff and you can configure a Mac to do mailing lists and time sheets, but each of these units has their own specialties and with Mac it is graphics,audio and video. It just works better.
If the Mac that your company had was purchased a year and a half ago it's possible that it has a G4 processor, it was about that time that they were introduced (maybe a little earlier) and the newer G5 processor just came out this month. I'm still working with my older G3 processor with OSX installed and it works just fine.
For the past 15 or more years I have made my living as an art professor in a local college here. My students are all training to be computer graphic artists and my job is to make sure they can also draw with hand tools. I have professionally done a number of jobs using the computer, but I will never put my name on any of that work, it's just not right somehow.
I have far less difficulty with the idea of using the computer to record music. The creative work is still done outside of the box.
My much more than $0.02 worth.
-Jeff
Macs ARE the industry standard and don't let anyone else mislead you or tell you otherwise. Macs operate graphically (what you see is what you do) as opposed to PC's which are data driven. If you are a creative person, the Mac will seem like an extension of yourself and a PC will feel like a great big calculator.
If you are a technical and data oriented person, the Mac will feel like an expensive video game. But even so with all of the exceptions taken into consideration about how in rare cases some professional houses may on occassion use PC's, the day is still ruled by Apple. They just work better at this type of thing. Sure you can configure a PC to this stuff and you can configure a Mac to do mailing lists and time sheets, but each of these units has their own specialties and with Mac it is graphics,audio and video. It just works better.
If the Mac that your company had was purchased a year and a half ago it's possible that it has a G4 processor, it was about that time that they were introduced (maybe a little earlier) and the newer G5 processor just came out this month. I'm still working with my older G3 processor with OSX installed and it works just fine.
For the past 15 or more years I have made my living as an art professor in a local college here. My students are all training to be computer graphic artists and my job is to make sure they can also draw with hand tools. I have professionally done a number of jobs using the computer, but I will never put my name on any of that work, it's just not right somehow.
I have far less difficulty with the idea of using the computer to record music. The creative work is still done outside of the box.
My much more than $0.02 worth.
-Jeff
B
boardman
New member
Bottom line, buy whatever your budget will allow and what ever format your comfortable with. If your a mac user buy that. If your a pc user buy that, and if you like the all-in-one systems, buy one of those, and tape (digital), buy that. In the end, they are all digital and the sound will be as good as the equipment and person using it which by the way is true about anything.
Peace out
boardman
Peace out
boardman
therage!
Wicked Machine
Rimshot said:
Huh?
You must be living in the past or something. XP is a GUI based OS that has never made me think of it like a calculator.
On the other hand has Apple started shipping two button mice with their systems yet?
Rimshot
New member
Actually, most profession artist Apple users including myself don't use the Apple mouse. We use the wireless mouse that comes with the Wacom tablet.
By all means, go and prosper and use you PC. I'm sure that you love it and have every right to. BUT it is not the industry standard and no amount of whining about it will change that right now. Possibly this will change in the future, but right now, all professional studios, graphic and audio are primarily Mac users. There will be a few exceptions and rebels, but they are just that. As for being behind in the times, I have already worked with the new G5 processor, I work with most of the new programs when they first come out or even before, it's part of my job to be up to date on new hardware and software.I may even like PC's better, but I cannot in all good conscience reccommend that a student train on a PC when all of the jobs that they will be getting are in houses that use Macs.
Did I mention that I absolutely HATE computers and see them as a major cause of the "dumbing down" of the population?
Not for the wonderful avenues that they provide for communication and research via the net. But for how certain programs can make incompetents feel like masters.
By all means, go and prosper and use you PC. I'm sure that you love it and have every right to. BUT it is not the industry standard and no amount of whining about it will change that right now. Possibly this will change in the future, but right now, all professional studios, graphic and audio are primarily Mac users. There will be a few exceptions and rebels, but they are just that. As for being behind in the times, I have already worked with the new G5 processor, I work with most of the new programs when they first come out or even before, it's part of my job to be up to date on new hardware and software.I may even like PC's better, but I cannot in all good conscience reccommend that a student train on a PC when all of the jobs that they will be getting are in houses that use Macs.
Did I mention that I absolutely HATE computers and see them as a major cause of the "dumbing down" of the population?
Not for the wonderful avenues that they provide for communication and research via the net. But for how certain programs can make incompetents feel like masters.
therage!
Wicked Machine
Rimshot said:
I have quite a bit of history with Macs from when the Mac II came out in the late 80’s and was a huge supporter of Macs back then because the Mac II when it came out was vastly superior in a number of ways to PC’s of the time. I was involved in getting Apple into the CAD business world and their was a lot of support initially but it eventually died. I didn’t want to get off track here and what I was involved with in the 80’s I only bring up because I am not against Apple and Macs at all and in fact I often recommend them to people.
The whole issue about Mac and PC is really stupid. Most of the time spent with a computer is doing your work and what’s under the hood or what GUI your using really doesn’t matter that much. Macs and Pc’s have very little to do with the music I make and they have nothing at all to do with the sound of that music. It comes down to the equipment your using not the CPU or the GUI. There is no difference in sound if I’m using Pro Tools on a Mac or using it on a PC. In my own situation and having to deal with a budget, I am using PC’s because I also need to do real world work that puts food on my table and the business I’m in you cannot use Macs because there is zero percent support of Macs. So when I bring work home from the office I need a PC. Also the price point for a Home recorder getting into a Mac may also mean the they might scrimp on other gear like a higher quality preamp or something. Or they may want to use something like Sonar as many (and I’m certainly one) feel that Pro Tools is way over priced. I use Sonar and can't even begin to think how much I would be annoyed by Pro Tools LE 32 track limitation. My point here is that this website is really geared for HR people and most of us have to deal with a budget. What is the entry price for a hot rodded Mac and price for a PC? And what can the HR on a tight budget buy with that difference in price? I could care less if ABC studio uses Macs, it has no meaning to me at all unless maybe they are using Pro Tools and I want to take my files into their studio. But again it doesn’t matter what kind of car I drive to the studio or what GUI I’m using to create my work. Of course one would have to look at the Logic issue and what has transpired with that if you’re a Logic user.
The new Macs really look nice with that Unix based OS and RISC processors and if the day comes when Macs somehow make my recordings sound better then I’ll buy in. But for many of us they are too expensive and at this point in time I much prefer Sonar over LE any day and I am curious as to what you can run on a Mac that has a price similar to Sonar with the same kind of features? I would have a hard time recommending a Mac to person getting into Home Recording that is on a budget and would have to sacrifice getting a quality Mic or preamp just to get Mac. The end result is the same and isn’t the end result what we really care about?
Funny you say you hate computers because a week doesn’t go by that I don’t make some comment like that. Although I’d have to say I have more hatred of TV because I usually look at computers as just a tool for a job. TV for the most part has nothing more than slime oozing out of it, borrowing from Frank Zappa there. Sometimes I think about just buying into something like an Alesis HD 24 system and get away from computers. But then I ‘m not sure how I would fix all my tracks! The editing capability of software is incredible.
F
Freeform
New member
if you have the money, apple all the way. i have NEVER walked into a studio and scene a pc anywhere except on the interns desk, so he could goof off.
Rimshot
New member
Hi therage,
It's interesting read what you wrote because I am one of the cheapest SOB's you're likely to meet and I never have any available money (2 ex wives).
I get most of my computer hardware 2nd hand from peopl hat have upgraded and I get all of my software for free as an educator.
Ya see? CHEAP!
I got my G3 processor and monitor
for under $200. I bought my scanner, printer, tablet and all of my peripherals at a college computer trade show (cheap).
I am probably outfitted for less than a person that bought an entry level pc.
I was very happy hear that the new G5 is out and it's wonderful. That means that 'l soon be able to get a G4.
BTW I use webtv (msntv) for my intenet browsing and email. I consider my computer to be a studio tool only.
It's interesting read what you wrote because I am one of the cheapest SOB's you're likely to meet and I never have any available money (2 ex wives).
I get most of my computer hardware 2nd hand from peopl hat have upgraded and I get all of my software for free as an educator.
Ya see? CHEAP!
I got my G3 processor and monitor
for under $200. I bought my scanner, printer, tablet and all of my peripherals at a college computer trade show (cheap).
I am probably outfitted for less than a person that bought an entry level pc.
I was very happy hear that the new G5 is out and it's wonderful. That means that 'l soon be able to get a G4.
BTW I use webtv (msntv) for my intenet browsing and email. I consider my computer to be a studio tool only.
B
boardman
New member
Have we beat this horse dead yet. I mean come on. At this point I doubt that the person who started this thread doesn't even give a shit anymore. Move on.
Peace
boardman
Peace
boardman
F
Fela
New member
NO!
I worked with both of them recording audio and doing video. My PC is faster than my mac but I still use the mac to record/edit audio. It's better. ProTools on a Mac is light years past anything else I have used. It cost more money and there is less stuff you can do with it, there are really not too many Mac games and warez are harder to come by.
What I like about it is that I don't ever think about the computer when I work on it. The PC was always fussing and stealing my attention.
OK. Nothing to see here. Move on. This thread should die now.
Absolutely nobody else post to this thread.
I worked with both of them recording audio and doing video. My PC is faster than my mac but I still use the mac to record/edit audio. It's better. ProTools on a Mac is light years past anything else I have used. It cost more money and there is less stuff you can do with it, there are really not too many Mac games and warez are harder to come by.
What I like about it is that I don't ever think about the computer when I work on it. The PC was always fussing and stealing my attention.
OK. Nothing to see here. Move on. This thread should die now.
Absolutely nobody else post to this thread.