Have you made the switch? (desktop->laptop, pc->mac)

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Steve Henningsgard

Steve Henningsgard

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What are your thoughts on using your laptop vs. a desktop to record? I've got a Windows-based desktop right now and I'd really like to get a laptop for mobile recording/live recording on the road. So far, I've been leaning very strongly towards switching to a mac, as they're more stable, much smoother/cleaner OS (I can't stand Vista & XP takes days of tweaking to not suck), and in general they just feel more like a real computer vs. a monstrosity of random hardware/software.

Any thoughts from people who've made the switch (either desktop->laptop and/or PC->mac)?
 
I do both. I have a Delta 1010/RME ADI-2 at home, an Edirol UA101/RME ADI-2 and use Reaper with both. If your laptop is relatively new it is likely you should have no problem with speeds. The biggest bottle neck is laptop hard drives. Make sure you do a little research with that, then you should be fine for tracking.

As for OSes, its you choice. (Newer) Macs and PCs, while based off the same architecture, will continue being a personal preference and bang/buck decision. That said if you have bad browsing habits on your recording PC then you reap what you sow.

If you own a legitimate version of XP then I would recommend downloading an "unofficial" version called Tiny XP. It is tweaked to hell, tiny, fast and stable. Let your ethics decide what is right but I can't see how owning a license and using a better version can really be anything but a good idea.
 
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Been there, done that on both counts.

I honestly don't miss having a desktop now that Firewire audio interfaces are widely available. All my DAW apps and softsynths run well on my laptop as well.

I just bought my first Mac this month. It is a cheap little Mac Mini, but it sure does pack some power! It boots up in about half the time my XP laptop does and my Mackie Onyx 1220 w/ Firewire card runs trouble free - OS X even already comes with drivers for it! I installed all my softsynths on the Mac and they don't skip a beat even with 512Mb of RAM. Garage Band does choke on more elaborate projects with lots of tracks, but more RAM apparently will fix that.

All in all, I am very pleased and will probably pick up a MacBook once my Gateway laptop kicks the bucket.
 
As much as it pains me to say... if I get another notebook it will be a Mac.

Ive gone desktop to laptop back to desktop. Theyve actually all been great because I know how to build a great recording computer. I have no complaints on the PC side at all. I still use my P3 Toshiba laptop for recording mobile and its just fine. My work is in process of becoming Mac dealers for pro audio and it will give me the opportunity to buy one for a little less dough. I'd just like to brush up my Mac skills.
 
yup and yup to both questions. I think judging from what you said you'd be happier with a mac. I switched for the same reasons. I just want it to work, and not give me any lip, so to speak. I have owned desktop PCs and now Desktop macs and I have also owned a laptop PC (it's in my closet gathering dust) and now a new MacBook Pro. Just for music, try for the upper systems. You can make due with iMacs ans MacBooks but really when you start to get into MacPros and Macbook Pros (Even powermac G5's if you want to get one used) it'll take you a lot further.

and yeah what kirstin said... get the fastest drive you can get, or it'll drive you nuts, even if it's a little smaller (you can always get a firewire drive for extra storage)

My macbook pro does just fine for a lot of stuff. I've been able to use it to run Logic Pro 7, running a few tracks of audio and about 4 or 5 VI's with about 5+ effects and it still doesn't max the system out. I haven't tried it yet in a full on studio setting, as my G5 is allready set up for that, but from what I've seen it'll kick ass and turn around saying, hey come on don't you have any more asses for me to kick? You'll like the OS I'm sure, more streamlined for creative people, without a doubt. Works better. It's not true that macs never crash, but they don't very often (My studio computer is sometimes on for almost month between reboots). When they do crash, your never SOL (at least that I've seen). No viruses or spyware, regardless of what skeptics say, I had viruses, spyware, adware all that BS when on a PC, even after virus scanning more would pop up, never had a single one since.

What recording software are you thinking of using?
 
i use a macbook with pt and its great the os is easy as hell but one thing to note is that you dont need a big hard drive, why? because for audio its best to use an external through firewire if you google it youll find out why (too long to explain in txt) but get one 7200rpm with <10ms seek time i recommend the lacie big disk 320gb on thomann if your in europe otherwise look else where! its about €200 and well worth it!
on the note book front my macbook handles anything i throw at it and im one of those usless people that forgets to bus the reverb and just doubles the plugin! the note book Will Do!
 
mac vs pc ??

I've got one question for you who have changed from PC to Mac....

Have you found any evidence to support the view of a PC being more flexible...more customizable....more tweakable and a Mac to be pretty much a narrow set choices and if you dont like those choices youre pretty much fucked? Does my question makes sense?...oops that 2 questions.... :D
 
nope i found the mac infinatly more customisable ie multiple docks put what you want wherever you want ie stuff in the menu bar (albeit with thrd party software thats free)

if you want something different in the way the mac operates just do a google with Free added on the end and you will find it
if somethings pissing you off then send me a pm im sure its annoyed me too and have found the plugin. (just look at webmailer as an example!)

i dunno if people want it i can post an essentials for new mac users but only if you want it

any way thats my 2cent on the question,
just trying to help
-Josh
 
Yes, i've done exactly that.


I went from a PC lapyop do a Mac desktop (MacMini). Like brzilian, i'm amazed at how fast this lil beast is (i updgraded to 1gb RAM btw), and astonishing value-for-money. I can run OSx for everyday uses, and can boot up in XP for the few progs that aren't out for OSx (also stops me from having to buy ANOTHER copy of MS Office).



Frickin unbelievable! i simply LOVE OSx, much prefered over XP. Also its FAST! no waiting around whilst it loads/closes, its done in a matter of seconds. Took a while to get used to the instal/uninstal business (can it REALLY be that simple?!?!)



Anyways, very happy that i've got this mac! and very happy i don't have to spend a few hrs every week making my PC laptop work properly!
 
MessianicDreams said:
Took a while to get used to the instal/uninstal business (can it REALLY be that simple?!?!)
Click to expand...

Yeah, that just blows my mind too. Even though its just a matter of dragging the app icon into the trash, I still feel uneasy with the process. Must be due to years of unnecessary MS Windows complexity. I've grown so accustomed to Windows and its overly complex BS that I've been scarred for life! :D
 
Zed10R said:
I've got one question for you who have changed from PC to Mac....

Have you found any evidence to support the view of a PC being more flexible...more customizable....more tweakable and a Mac to be pretty much a narrow set choices and if you dont like those choices youre pretty much fucked? Does my question makes sense?...oops that 2 questions.... :D
Click to expand...

Not too much, really. It's less feasible to create your own computer piece by piece from scratch, but if you're buying a mac, why would you do that?

macs are just as tweakable in the software end, and do have hardware tweaks as well (not as many, but doesn't really require tweaks to run well) THe choices are more than you would think. Alot of peripherals are mac/pc especially since macs are gaining more of a market share these days. There are definately enough choices, so as to not make you fucked if you don't like a particular componant.

Especially with pro audio, video, etc...

It's a common misconception that everything has to come from apple to work in a mac. My G5 has a different dvd burner drive, I have PC ram, PC hard drives, Logitech mouse, still ahve the apple keyboard tho (it works just fine). I've heard of people switching the graphics card out on the tower macs, but I haven't done it personally so couldn't say what the results of that are. (most likely fine)

Really, a mac is just the same as any other PC, just with componants that are tested to work together with the OS perfectly, oh yeah and without BIOS har har.

So no, not really. It sucks that there is a lack of games, but in the pro media world, it's tweakable enough, and what can't be tweaked I find ususally doesn't need to be.
 
MessianicDreams said:
Frickin unbelievable! i simply LOVE OSx, much preferred over XP. Also its FAST! no waiting around whilst it loads/closes, its done in a matter of seconds. Took a while to get used to the install/uninstall business (can it REALLY be that simple?!?!)
Click to expand...

yes every thing is Contained in the application (just right click and show package contents if you dont believe it, everything's there!)
 
brzilian said:
Yeah, that just blows my mind too. Even though its just a matter of dragging the app icon into the trash, I still feel uneasy with the process. Must be due to years of unnecessary MS Windows complexity. I've grown so accustomed to Windows and its overly complex BS that I've been scarred for life! :D
Click to expand...


exactly.



brilliant.







and, i feel all fashionable and shit :cool:
 
Went from laptop to desktop. Built my desktop. Never had a problem with it.
 
legionserial said:
Went from laptop to desktop. Built my desktop. Never had a problem with it.
Click to expand...

never had a prob with laptop just get a decent processor clock speed when you buy.
 
I know this is an old thread, but I figured I'd update as I've got some thoughts to add! I switched from my Desktop PC/Sonar/MOTU rig to a MacBook Pro/Pro Tools/002 rig, and I couldn't be happier! It took me all of a month to get just as good (in fact, much better) at recording/editing in Pro Tools as I was in Sonar, and the ability to track drums at one studio, track guitars at my band's practice space, and track bass/vocals at my friend's home studio, all completely seamlessly, has been just brilliant!

As for missing my PC: let me say this very clearly:

I will never purchase a Windows-based PC ever again, unless for gaming purposes.

This is coming from a guy who built his own PC's for nearly 12 years.
 
Thanks for the update.

I've been having the same dilemma for a while now: switch to Mac, or not? With these new Apogee Ensemble and Duet units, I've been considering it even more because I've heard nothing but rave reviews about them and have heard of a lot of guys ditching their PT rigs to get one of these. Of course, I've always heard about Macs being more stable, more efficient, and not as unnecessarily complex and convoluted with useless crap like Windows, so that is another reason I've considered going that direction.

I’d say at this point though, the thing that is really making me lean towards Mac’s is the Apogee units, but we’ll see what happens when other companies start utilizing the bandwidth of PCI-e (hopefully soon). This Tiny XP sounds pretty interesting too, might check that out.
 
I'm a PC user, through and through... though I've used Macs in the past, albeit when they were on OS8, and it was for graphic design purposes (plus I was a system administrator for a small firm who used macs on the network)...

Not tried a mac with recording software, nor have I tried OSx... so I can't really comment on their suitability for recording work.

I do, however, know PCs inside out. I have issues, like everyone else, but I can usually sort them out pretty quickly. I've found XP Pro to be the most stable Windows I've used yet... I had my first XP BSOD a few weeks ago with my new recording rig (been using XP since SP1 came out) - which I found to be a windows update. Yeah, it wasn't easy to fix, and it shouldn't have happened (the hotfix should have been tested thoroughly), but as I've been doing it for years, I understand the way the system works better.

I have to admit this (but don't tell any of my friends or collegues!), but I might be leaning towards getting a mac in the future for recording purposes only, but that's only if I can try it out first - compare the two systems doing some high load stuff etc.

Can you get Nuendo for the Mac? Is it supported well? How about hardware - could I just install my interfaces in there and off it goes?
 
Dude, take it from me, a long-time gamer, PC builder, and Windows user: get a mac and never look back. Seriously dude, just play with one at a mac store and then go home with it and throw your PC in the corner for gaming and masochism purposes only.
 
I use both mac desktops and laptops... they're great for it. I have an oldish macbook pro that I use to run my live shows... it can handle a pretty decent amount. I run about 16 - 18 tracks of audio(with limiters and EQs and stuff like that to make the live mix a bit more suited for live performance), and about 5 softsynths with effects...granted, I'm runing my live rig at 16bit 44.1kHz, but it does me fine. For live perfomance, I'd be scared to death to bring a windows laptop on stage...what if it crashed, got the blue screen right in the middle of a song. Macs do crash, but not nearly as often, and not nearly as severe.

As far as my desktop, I have a dual core G5. It can handle a bit more than my laptop, but I have a shitload more ram in the desktop. I can usually run at 24bit (32bit floating point) 96kHz about 20 some odd audio tracks, with effects, and usually about 10 or 15 virtual instrument tracks on top of that before my computer starts to complain in a big way.. *sigh, I hate stem mixing*

I would def. recomend MAC, esp if you're sick of windows in that way (that's part of what made me switch). I can't say that I miss windows at all, and with the intel macs, you can install windows along side of MAC OS if you want to play games, or use windows only software. so.. you buy a pc, you get a pc, with only hackintosh if you want to use OS X, which from what I've heard is probably about as bad as using a broken windows OS, but you get a mac and you get both mac, windows, or I believe you could even install linux (although you could install a few versions of linux on the old PowerPC macs as well).

I feel like going insane when using windows for anything now. It's just clunky, annoying, too fragile, unsecure, and god damn it, as much as I knew how to tweak my system to hell, it's nice using an idiot proof OS for once.
 
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