Moving to Mac - advise?

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girvan

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Hi,
I just upgraded from Sonar 6 to 8.5 - I didn't read the min sys req. and my now antiquated P4 2.4 with 1.5 GB of ram is kinda sluggish.

I could do a few things. Upgrade to a new PC running windows 7 (to get at lots of Ram....+- $1500) but then my Motu 2408 MK1 won't run. So then I'd have to dump another $700ish on a 2408 MK3 (or similar). I could eBay about $100 for the old 2408 but can't really expect to recoup anything for the old PC.

OR

I could uninstall 8.5, reinstall 6 and carry on.

OR

I could buy a used G5 for around $1K and switch to logic, cubase or protools.

I record live instruments (drums, guitars, vocals etc...) but being a keyboardist I need lots of Midi capabilities for orchestration as well.

I would rather finally move to Mac than pay the same for another loud PC and getting up to speed with another software platform isn't all that different for me than relearning Sonar 8.5 (to bad i can't sell it).

Enough rambling from me. If you have any experience or advice I would be grateful.

Thank you.
Scott.
 
I only know Macs and have a love/hate affair with them.

What I would look at is "are there features on Sonar 8.5 that are worth the hassle?".

For me I haven't wanted really any of the "improvements" they've made to software so I keep using an old version of Cubase. So for me the main thing would be if I really wanted the upgrade enough to go through the hassle.

Macs are real nice, but only a small fraction of the world uses them which results in higher cost (although us Mac users tend to keep them longer), almost complete lack of viruses but there is still are compatibility issues.

I anticipate huge, unprecedented changes in the next couple of years so I'm not trigger happy buying new stuff.

I was looking at a Markertek catalog yesterday... I didn't think it was that old, maybe a few years... and a 2 GB flash drive was $699.
 
If you already invested in Sonar 8.5, go for the new PC option. A DAW computer (quiet, big fast hard drives etc) can be made quite inexpensively if you feel ambitious and shop on Newegg, Tiger direct etc.

I put together my computer for under $500 (Win 7 extra mind you). It is whisper quiet, and smokin fast. I was able to get exactly what I wanted and needed.

The old MK1 was great in its day, but it is dated. Have a look at what audio midi interfaces are out there now for great prices.
 
Thank you both for your comments.

Washburn100 - I have no problem assembling a custom PC. Would you be able to run me thru the components you put into yours. I like the idea of whisper quiet, and smokin fast. If you have the time that is. Thanks.

I have dual 21" screens, wireless keyboard/mouse etc... Just need to piece together the whisper quiet, and smokin fast part.

After some investigating on Cakewalk's site I discovered a thread on the 'ultimate sonar pc'.
Specs are

Core i7 920 (or over clocked)
700w quality power supply
6 gig ram to 12 gig (12g only if you use a large and i mean large amount of samples)
SSD OS drive (this is a luxury not a requirement)
1TB 32 meg cache audio
1TB 32 meg cache samples/backup
optional UAD 2
 
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girvan said:
Thank you both for your comments.

Washburn100 - I have no problem assembling a custom PC. Would you be able to run me thru the components you put into yours. I like the idea of whisper quiet, and smokin fast. If you have the time that is. Thanks.

I have dual 21" screens, wireless keyboard/mouse etc... Just need to piece together the whisper quiet, and smokin fast part.
Click to expand...

My wife would be saying "Don't get him started!"

Well, let's start with the quiet part. One thing I did was pick a well built case. I was mostly concerned with fan noise obviously, so I made sure that the case had 140mm fan ports in and out. Then I chose 140mm fans with a maximum speed of 900rpm. Most off the shelf pc's use 80mm fans at 1800 or 3600rpm which are noisy. Large fans, slow speed move a lot of air but are extremely quiet.

For the processor, I went with a quad core intel which was a good deal at the time. (I built this a couple of years ago). Today, I would seriously look at the i7 or i5 processors. They have really come down in price. But Quad core is still a good option and you can get great deals. Once you have decided on the processor, pick a motherboard with the proper socket for that processor and make sure it has a tons of slots for ram. Even if you don't use them right away, if you go with win 7 64 bit, you can go up to 192 gigs of ram (sounds stupid just saying that).

Again, look at the fan/heatsink for the processor. Lots of choices that will give you great cooling with low noise.

Stay away from a motherboard with built in video. Iam using an ASUS P5Q board and I got a Nividia GT9800 video card cheap ($64.00), but it is more than enough video for a DAW and it made setting up dual monitors a snap.

Personally, I like Newegg for components, but have also used TigerDirect for a lot of stuff as well.
http://www.newegg.com/Store/Computer.aspx?name=Computer-Hardware
http://www.tigerdirect.com/sectors/pccomponents/index.asp

Not sure what else to tell you. Did you have any specific questions. I am by no means a computer expert, more just a hobbyist and geek.
 
Thanks. I'm on the hobby/geek side too. I've put together a custom audio pc years ago but I'm kind of out-of-date with the latest and greatest. Thanks for the advice, I appreciate that.
 
Buy what you really need

Whisper quiet PCs begin with well noise dampened cases. Check out antecs lines for quiet computing
Add Scythe, Silenz-x etc etc for after market case fans to shave a tiny bit of noise of the case fans
generally the noisiest component in a PC is the cooling on the graphics card. Get and older generation card with passive cooling (no fans just a heatsink) and you'll immediately take away a lot of noise
Intel and AMD stock CPU cooling fans aren't bad but you can shave a little bit of ambint noise out with a good aftermarket CPU cooler such as Zalman, Scyhthe etc make

i7s are very nice CPUs but more than you'll likely need in the near to mid term and by the time you do actually need that much power something much faster will be available. If bleeding edge and bragging rights are important to you get one if not get a nice dual or quad core instead and save the cash for what you'll actually use to make music with

If you decide to go the used G5 route remember 1) they are not particualrly quiet and 2) apples latest OS Snow leopard has abandonned support for the older, non intel power PCs. the G5 can still be nice platform and can be forced to run Snow Leopard (althouh it can be a little glitchy). This is worth bearing in mind as more and more software is designed towards SL and it may become harder and harder to get newer software to play nice with a G5. There is a reason that so many of them are starting to show up for peanuts on the used market. Lack of software/OS support from the parent company is going to become more and more of an issue on these machines, which is a real shame!
 
girvan said:
I could buy a used G5 for around $1K and switch to logic, cubase or protools.
Click to expand...

Please note that the G5 uses a PowerPC processor which is being phased out.

All versions of the MacOS will be Intel chip only.

Most programs will stop supporting the PowerPC shortly and then you'll have no upgrade path.

Realize that any VSTs you currently have will not work with Macs, either.
(Mac VSTs use different code incompatible with Windows VSTs.)

DONT buy a system that is already antiquated.

(Before any Mac guys flame me, I've run Macs and PCs since 1984, run Mac graphics studios and programmed for Windows apps for 20 years....)
 
Thanks.
No I'm not interested in keeping up with the Jones. I simply would like to make music. I upgraded to 8.5 mainly because of dimension pro being included. I simply need a machine that will handle large track counts (say around 30) with soft synths, samplers etc...



After reading, i think I might as well stay in Sonar/PC land. If I could put together a system for around $500 - $700 CAN that would be awesome.

If anyone wants to piece together a wishlist system on newegg.ca or tigerdirect.ca ;) that would be quite nice. Seriously though (who has time for that???). I'm going to start digging into this in earnest and try to come up with something.
 
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