M
moresound
Loud Sun Studios
I have both MAC and PC ... It's just a slight difference in mindset to get to the final destination.
Steenamaroo
...
Tell the truth Henry; Your PC burned down, fell over and sank into a swamp, didn't it?
M
moresound
Loud Sun Studios
Yes but I rebuilt it. And that one burned down, fell over and sank into a swamp.
Steenamaroo
...
But the third one.....THAT stayed standing!
grimtraveller
If only for a moment.....
I agree and I disagree.
I agree that you can find any number of people that agree. But I disagree that you'll find the same number that disagree. I reckon there's always 8 more people that will disagree than the number that will agree, of which any number can be found.....
Steenamaroo
...
I agree and I disagree.
I agree that you can find any number of people that agree. But I disagree that you'll find the same number that disagree. I reckon there's always 8 more people that will disagree than the number that will agree, of which any number can be found.....
Actually, I agree.
I've got nine buddies who'd say otherwise though.
M
moresound
Loud Sun Studios
And one day all of these drapes will be yours.
M
moresound
Loud Sun Studios
I agree and I disagree.
I agree that you can find any number of people that agree. But I disagree that you'll find the same number that disagree. I reckon there's always 8 more people that will disagree than the number that will agree, of which any number can be found.....
I find myself disagreeing.
grimtraveller
If only for a moment.....
The classic freudian slip ?
Steenamaroo
...
LMAO!! Post edited.
Bobbsy
Boring Old Git
Sorry.
I've just been out running round the neighbourhood finding 8 people to disagree.
Er...what are we disagreeing with?
Hmmm...wonder if it was wise to bring in that guy I found outside...the one wearing all black and carrying a crowbar. It's 1:15AM here and I'm not sure I believe his story about being here to fix the swings at the park opposite us.
I've just been out running round the neighbourhood finding 8 people to disagree.
Er...what are we disagreeing with?
Hmmm...wonder if it was wise to bring in that guy I found outside...the one wearing all black and carrying a crowbar. It's 1:15AM here and I'm not sure I believe his story about being here to fix the swings at the park opposite us.
M
moresound
Loud Sun Studios
kidkage
Bored of Canada
I went there and am suspended? I've never been there before! Sober at least.
Dang. Really?
What about now? Still locked out?
Chili
Site Moderator
I've been contemplating the Big Switch to Mac.
I've been PC forever and recently upgraded to I7 and at the same time, bought the UAD Apollo. Nothing but problems. It could be any of a variety of causes and it's been extremely painful to troubleshoot (which I'm good at doing!!). I know the Apollol works straight out of the box with Mac's, so I just might spend the fortune and (hopefully) lose the headache.
I'm not at the point yet. Still have to go through UAD support for some more testing. But I don't think they're going to do anything different from what I've already done.
This is a very narrow view of the PC/Mac debate.
I've been PC forever and recently upgraded to I7 and at the same time, bought the UAD Apollo. Nothing but problems. It could be any of a variety of causes and it's been extremely painful to troubleshoot (which I'm good at doing!!). I know the Apollol works straight out of the box with Mac's, so I just might spend the fortune and (hopefully) lose the headache.
I'm not at the point yet. Still have to go through UAD support for some more testing. But I don't think they're going to do anything different from what I've already done.
This is a very narrow view of the PC/Mac debate.
R
Rod Norman
New member
Your question is important for several reasons. Let's go to the most important reason first. The ease of use. None of us want to be held back by the interface. But until you become familiar with the interface, you have some work to do. Mac vs. PC. That is not the question. The software is the interface. The real question is ProTools vs Audition or Cakewalk or any other. At this stage some are better than others but everyone has awakened to the question. They have all tried to make the interface more "user-friendly". It is YOU that they cannot improve. You will have to do some work. If you do NOT sit down everyday and use the interface, you will become rusty. So, Do what I do. I study third party books on the interface, download all the tutorials from youtube (Use realplayer to do that) And I make up a little notebook on all the actions I am most likely to do. In the books you often have to look around a bit. I tried to find "punch in" in the manual for the DSP24 by Akai. Nada. I then began a line by line search through the index and found auto-punch. Obviously the move from analog to digital had not hit the writers very hard. Everyone in analog calls it punch in. It should have at least been listed under "P" as well as under "A". Once I had covered all of my actions like recording multitrack, simultaneous recording, selecting, deleting, cutting, aligning, click tracks and more, I had my own guidebook. (You can write down these references in the front of your manual or third party book as I used to do.) Now you also mentioned putting song ideas on your phone until you have a lot of them. TRy this. Go home, kiss the wife, pet the cat and then transfer the songs each day. Problem solved. Set up a click to go with the sample you sang and then build your song and mute your original song idea. Now to the Issue of mac vs PC. There is a lot of argument there. Let's end the arguing. I am a mac loyalist and I use a PC for video, animation and recording. The one thing I do NOT do? I never let my system get near the internet. ever. EVER...Did I mention EVER!!!!??? Use another computer or a laptop for that. Use flash drives to transfer things. Maintain a strong firewall. Most downloads that are tutorials will be fine. Stay away from free stuff or apps or emails or picture and other stuff. And do NOT surf the internet on your recording system. Good Luck,
Rod Norman
Rod Norman
G
gvdv
Member
Hi cusitny,
I would basically define myself as a 'PC guy', but about 8 years ago – after several years' research – I spent about CAN $3000 on a Mac Pro (bought a Samsung monitor, and 4 extra hard drives separately).
I chose to go with a Mac because, at that time, it seemed to me that there were too many potential conflicts between the Windows OS and the myriad of audio interfaces that were around.
And so began a semi-successful ability to record music easily.
WHAT I LIKE ABOUT THE MAC PRO
I am titling this section 'What I like about the Mac Pro', rather than talking about its ease-of-use, because I actually find the OS to be a bit frustrating, because I like the ability to 'get under the hood' in some ways (as one can in the Windows world), and that is not as easily possible in Mac world.
So, here are the things that I like about the Mac Pro, and to an extent, about the Mac OS.
1. GarageBand - this wonderful tracking program is included, free, with every Mac and is a wonder of its kind.
Once you have configured your audio interface, the GarageBand interface is so simple that youcan be up and recording in about 30 seconds, without having to resort to the GarageBand help files.
I think that the interface is really well designed, and the number and quality of onboard amps, effects and loops is really quite impressive.
2. The Mac Pro (and I do not mean Mac Book Pro - for some reason people always assume that I am talking about the latter, despite having clearly written 'Mac Pro'), is a very well designed computer – a large panel, comprising almost a whole vertical side of the Mac Pro's tower, can be taken off in a few seconds, giving access to 4 hard drive bays, which slide out very easily – this makes it much easier to install hard drives than in any of my experience of PC's.
3. Very few viruses - although I have This computer exclusively for audio (and to a more limited extent, video) recording/editing, and I hardly connected to the net at all, viruses are much rarer in the Mac world, although they are not totally absent.
WHAT I DO NOT LIKE ABOUT THE MAC PRO / MAC OS
1. One of my biggest fears when getting into audio recording on computers was that there would be some kind(s) of technical conflicts which would be chronic in nature and/or a pain to try to solve, and, unfortunately, I have experienced this with the Presonus Firestudio audio interface which I spent a significant amount of money on at the time that I got the computer.
This has only been important to me because I do really like the sound of the preamps in the Firestudio, and I have been able to get around this problem to the extent by using the highly versatile, stand alone Zoom R16 16 track recorder, which also doubles as a USB audio interface – however, the quality the preamps on the R 16 are nowhere near the standard as the preamps in the Firestudio.
After a couple of years of trying to make the Firestudio work with the Mac Pro, which involved uninstalling and reinstalling a couple of versions of the Mac OS ( which is a lot easier on Mac than it is on PC), I came to the conclusion that the chipset on my Mac Pro and that in the Firestudio I just incompatible with each other, and have chosen to not reinstall the Firestudio.
2. As I mentioned above, there are times when I would like to have much more of an ability to have some manual control over the Mac interface; to tell the truth, this is not made a huge difference to my experience tracking audio, but has involved having to learn how to go through – what for me are - laborious processes in order to achieve a fairly simple result.
3. iTunes.
I hate it, and I try to avoid it whenever possible. Cannot stand the interface, cannot stand how all audio files on the Mac are related to iTunes (although I understand the manufacturer's intention of iTunes and all the other 'apps' being integrated into the OS so that, in theory, they are easy to use).
On balance, I would be ecstatic if I could find an audio interface which has preamps of the same quality, or better, as the Presonus Firestudio, because I really appreciate the flexibility that recording and editing on a computer provides for audio recording.
And I have to say, also, that overall I am really happy with the Mac Pro as a piece of technology that allows one to get to grips with recording.
POTENTIAL DISADVANTAGES OF GOING WITH MAC AS AN AUDIO RECORDING SYSTEM
A couple of months ago (early 2013), I did to venture into a couple of Mac stores, and do a bit of research on the Internet as a way of becoming re-acquainted with the current state of audio recording on the Mac.
I was surprised to find that the other Mac computers now have poorer specifications and fewer options suited to audio recording that was the case previously. For example, the Mac Pro is the only computer currently in the Mac range to which one can add memory and/or hard drives (internally). I should say here, that I do not know much about the Mac Book Pro, so my comments might not be relevant to that product.
This means that going PC for audio recording is the route which provides versatility and variety in almost all respects.
Something that I have read in the past couple of months is that Logic - a much more sophisticated audio recording program in the Mac world than GarageBand – might not continue to be supported; this may be an issue for some people who are thinking about using a Mac to track their music.
These are just my opinions, and I hope that they are helpful.
I would basically define myself as a 'PC guy', but about 8 years ago – after several years' research – I spent about CAN $3000 on a Mac Pro (bought a Samsung monitor, and 4 extra hard drives separately).
I chose to go with a Mac because, at that time, it seemed to me that there were too many potential conflicts between the Windows OS and the myriad of audio interfaces that were around.
And so began a semi-successful ability to record music easily.
WHAT I LIKE ABOUT THE MAC PRO
I am titling this section 'What I like about the Mac Pro', rather than talking about its ease-of-use, because I actually find the OS to be a bit frustrating, because I like the ability to 'get under the hood' in some ways (as one can in the Windows world), and that is not as easily possible in Mac world.
So, here are the things that I like about the Mac Pro, and to an extent, about the Mac OS.
1. GarageBand - this wonderful tracking program is included, free, with every Mac and is a wonder of its kind.
Once you have configured your audio interface, the GarageBand interface is so simple that youcan be up and recording in about 30 seconds, without having to resort to the GarageBand help files.
I think that the interface is really well designed, and the number and quality of onboard amps, effects and loops is really quite impressive.
2. The Mac Pro (and I do not mean Mac Book Pro - for some reason people always assume that I am talking about the latter, despite having clearly written 'Mac Pro'), is a very well designed computer – a large panel, comprising almost a whole vertical side of the Mac Pro's tower, can be taken off in a few seconds, giving access to 4 hard drive bays, which slide out very easily – this makes it much easier to install hard drives than in any of my experience of PC's.
3. Very few viruses - although I have This computer exclusively for audio (and to a more limited extent, video) recording/editing, and I hardly connected to the net at all, viruses are much rarer in the Mac world, although they are not totally absent.
WHAT I DO NOT LIKE ABOUT THE MAC PRO / MAC OS
1. One of my biggest fears when getting into audio recording on computers was that there would be some kind(s) of technical conflicts which would be chronic in nature and/or a pain to try to solve, and, unfortunately, I have experienced this with the Presonus Firestudio audio interface which I spent a significant amount of money on at the time that I got the computer.
This has only been important to me because I do really like the sound of the preamps in the Firestudio, and I have been able to get around this problem to the extent by using the highly versatile, stand alone Zoom R16 16 track recorder, which also doubles as a USB audio interface – however, the quality the preamps on the R 16 are nowhere near the standard as the preamps in the Firestudio.
After a couple of years of trying to make the Firestudio work with the Mac Pro, which involved uninstalling and reinstalling a couple of versions of the Mac OS ( which is a lot easier on Mac than it is on PC), I came to the conclusion that the chipset on my Mac Pro and that in the Firestudio I just incompatible with each other, and have chosen to not reinstall the Firestudio.
2. As I mentioned above, there are times when I would like to have much more of an ability to have some manual control over the Mac interface; to tell the truth, this is not made a huge difference to my experience tracking audio, but has involved having to learn how to go through – what for me are - laborious processes in order to achieve a fairly simple result.
3. iTunes.
I hate it, and I try to avoid it whenever possible. Cannot stand the interface, cannot stand how all audio files on the Mac are related to iTunes (although I understand the manufacturer's intention of iTunes and all the other 'apps' being integrated into the OS so that, in theory, they are easy to use).
On balance, I would be ecstatic if I could find an audio interface which has preamps of the same quality, or better, as the Presonus Firestudio, because I really appreciate the flexibility that recording and editing on a computer provides for audio recording.
And I have to say, also, that overall I am really happy with the Mac Pro as a piece of technology that allows one to get to grips with recording.
POTENTIAL DISADVANTAGES OF GOING WITH MAC AS AN AUDIO RECORDING SYSTEM
A couple of months ago (early 2013), I did to venture into a couple of Mac stores, and do a bit of research on the Internet as a way of becoming re-acquainted with the current state of audio recording on the Mac.
I was surprised to find that the other Mac computers now have poorer specifications and fewer options suited to audio recording that was the case previously. For example, the Mac Pro is the only computer currently in the Mac range to which one can add memory and/or hard drives (internally). I should say here, that I do not know much about the Mac Book Pro, so my comments might not be relevant to that product.
This means that going PC for audio recording is the route which provides versatility and variety in almost all respects.
Something that I have read in the past couple of months is that Logic - a much more sophisticated audio recording program in the Mac world than GarageBand – might not continue to be supported; this may be an issue for some people who are thinking about using a Mac to track their music.
These are just my opinions, and I hope that they are helpful.
Steenamaroo
...
Just thought this was worth rectifying.
You can upgrade ram and HDD on the imacs, and you can have two HDDS in minis and macbook pros, albeit at the cost of the optical drive pre 2013.
You can also upgrade the ram in these models.
Of course you're restricted to two slots, but 16gb is enough for most people.
My 2012 macbook pro currently runs 16gb 1333 and two SSD drives. I have absolutely zero need for a faster system for audio.
Sorry you had so many issues with your Presonus.
I've had a great experience so far with a firestudio mobile (I appreciate yours isn't mobile), and mac pros/macbook pros.
I took a quick google and it seems it's a supported interface so who knows. Maybe you had a faulty unit, bad cable, some other problem?
If you don't like iTunes, try VLC player.
All audio files on your computer don't have to open with itunes, but it is the chosen application by default.
Right click - >open with - > 'always use this app' will sort that out. Same as windows.
You can upgrade ram and HDD on the imacs, and you can have two HDDS in minis and macbook pros, albeit at the cost of the optical drive pre 2013.
You can also upgrade the ram in these models.
Of course you're restricted to two slots, but 16gb is enough for most people.
My 2012 macbook pro currently runs 16gb 1333 and two SSD drives. I have absolutely zero need for a faster system for audio.
Sorry you had so many issues with your Presonus.
I've had a great experience so far with a firestudio mobile (I appreciate yours isn't mobile), and mac pros/macbook pros.
I took a quick google and it seems it's a supported interface so who knows. Maybe you had a faulty unit, bad cable, some other problem?
If you don't like iTunes, try VLC player.
All audio files on your computer don't have to open with itunes, but it is the chosen application by default.
Right click - >open with - > 'always use this app' will sort that out. Same as windows.
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