The New Mac Mini. What do you think?

[scottmd06]

I was in my local Apple store and saw the new mac mini starting at $699 and wondered if that would be a terrible idea to use as my home DAW. I could invest in a protools rack that would feed into the mini via firewire, right? I would be doing simple sessions, maybe 8 simultaneous tracks at a time for drum kits and such. Maybe some Logic projects as well. Let me know what you think..

 

[scottmd06]

I would start out using my Lexicon Omega interface pumped through my Cubase LE more than likely, but I would definitely save up and get my hands on a Digidesign 003 Factory and make the switch to ProTools. Right now Im using Sonar through an analog sound board into my Pentium 3 HP with 384mb RAM lol

 

[dintymoore]

A friend of mine recently bought one and he likes that when he leaves town he can throw it in his safe. He loves it.

They seem cool and I can't imagine it wouldn't work for what you describe.

There are probably lots of cheaper alternatives like a PC or a used Mac off of Craigslist but you probably know the plus's and minus's of those choices.

384 MB RAM - it takes me more than that to get out of bed each morning!

I'm using a dual 1 GHz 1.5 GB RAM G4 I got for free from a buddy. That's the El Cheapo method - I see them on Craigslist for around $150. The good thing about big computers like that is that you can get hard drives for pretty much free from any ol' computer and they'll work in the Mac (yes, even Dell's, Gateways etc...). For recording you don't really need a big hard drive but the more RAM the better. What I have (1.5. GB) would be the very minimum.

 

[scottmd06]

Its pretty amazing that my main rig has been an HP desktop with a Pentium 3 500mhz with only 384mb of ram. Its completely maxed out too, Ive made all possible hardware upgrades in the course of having it. I also record on a Zoom MRS802 digital studio that I will bounce to and from in combination with the HP setup running an older version of Cakewalk Sonar. About a year ago I picked up a used iBook G4 on eBay for $300 and a Lexicon Omega interface and sometimes Ill utilize all 3 means in various ways to work on a project.

 

[dintymoore]

I have a G4 iBook that I use for gigs. A friend of mine got an Omega and I thought it was a bargain. I really liked the Pantheon reverb that came with it.

 

[GarethC]

I have always been a windows guy, however next month I will be purchasing a Macbook Pro Aluminum. It will be weird using one after all these years of windows.

 

[rayc]

I did some really good work on a PIII with 250ish RAM.
Check out my soundclick connection & listen to Sewer/Night Out.
It all depends on what you want to do.
I've had to use Macs at work up until fairly recently so I REALY, REALLY HATE them.
If you can a 2nd hand G3 or 4 you can do an awful lot with them & as Dinty said - HDDs are easy to manage.
Then again you can get cheap really powerful PC's that'll do it all for you too.
There are reasons that there are Macheads & PCheads & that mainly comes down to what one is used to. Though there are some things said about how macs do Vid better etc or how the machine runs a speciific function etc.
The current gen. of macs are just expensive PCs in the main anyway.
Good luck either way you go!

 

[LisaH]

I have also always been a Windows person. Been thinking of getting one of those multi core Macbook Pros though. See how finances go.

 

[scottmd06]

ive always been a bit of both. started analog of course with mixers and cassette tapes, moved to pc and cakewalk software, and now i use both mac or pc sometimes both to get stuff done.

 

[m.jerrick]

ive always been a bit of both. started analog of course with mixers and cassette tapes, moved to pc and cakewalk software, and now i use both mac or pc sometimes both to get stuff done.

Which would you say is easier to operate tho? What are each systems pro's and con's?

 

[LisaH]

I hear that the main selling point for apple is their ability to work well with music programs.

 

[CFox]

I hear that the main selling point for apple is their ability to work well with music programs.

I hate using the word sheer but I am going to have to.

The sheer number of pc users ( because of affordability ) means that numerically there will be more problems reported with pc's. How this translates statistically as a percentage I dont know, I do know of friends having problems with their macs and they dont even do anything rather than casual surfing and word processing. The mac users I know are trendy, like to prove it and dont do anything with their investment. In addition, I was in a real studio the other day and the owner was cursing his Mac for freezing mid process. So there you go.

Mac as the go to machine for music is a myth. If you set up a pc properly and dont surf for pornography or download every appealing free app that takes your fancy then you can have a fault free user experience.

With the money you save you can buy - well, that's up to you

 

[benherron.rrr]

I hate using the word sheer but I am going to have to.

The sheer number of pc users ( because of affordability ) means that numerically there will be more problems reported with pc's. How this translates statistically as a percentage I dont know, I do know of friends having problems with their macs and they dont even do anything rather than casual surfing and word processing. The mac users I know are trendy, like to prove it and dont do anything with their investment. In addition, I was in a real studio the other day and the owner was cursing his Mac for freezing mid process. So there you go.

Mac as the go to machine for music is a myth. If you set up a pc properly and dont surf for pornography or download every appealing free app that takes your fancy then you can have a fault free user experience.

With the money you save you can buy - well, that's up to you

I agree with you there,

People see using a mac as professionalism, The amount of studios who put Mac with protools/logic as their first sententce on the website amazes me, although not as much as the people who want to do a recording and judge where they go on weather the studio uses macs with protools instead of the person who is recording them

 

[m.jerrick]

My wife is a Mac person and she uses hers for both personal and business use. She has NEVER had any problems with hers. I have always been a windows user and have always had one issue or another with my laptops. Admittedly, my latest Acer has been pretty much hassle free...so far. I will be going to Mac Book Pro next month tho. Am a bit apprehensive about it TBH.

 

[CFox]

My wife is a Mac person and she uses hers for both personal and business use. She has NEVER had any problems with hers. I have always been a windows user and have always had one issue or another with my laptops. Admittedly, my latest Acer has been pretty much hassle free...so far. I will be going to Mac Book Pro next month tho. Am a bit apprehensive about it TBH.

Ok, you know ONE person who hasn't had issues.I know plenty who do have issues with their current Macs. Like I said, there are more ( by volume ) reported issues with PC's because of the sheer ( there's that word I hate ) number of users.

Why the switch to Mac ?

 

[m.jerrick]

I meant no disrespect and am not doubting what you have said. Merely that my missus has had no issues with hers. My wife uses it for work and I will be helping her with the work and the programs work better with Snow Leopard.

 

[cyrano]

Ok, you know ONE person who hasn't had issues.I know plenty who do have issues with their current Macs. Like I said, there are more ( by volume ) reported issues with PC's because of the sheer ( there's that word I hate ) number of users.

Why the switch to Mac ?

I make a living doing support and installation, amongst other things. I have about 700 Macs and 300 PC's in my "park". There aren't any more problems with the newest range than there are with any other new range. New machines always give new problems, no matter which brand.

You can find threads with "Brand X sucks" on this board as well as on any other board. If you're not talking about a problem that is specific AND can be reproduced, you're not making sense.

So, telling someone that one happy customer means nothing because you know "several" others means nothing, nada, zip...

There is, however, one brand PC's I will avoid at all cost: Packard Bell. But they won't bother you in the USA, because they've left that market after being convicted of fraud and other things. They still are present on the EU market and do some projects for the government.

A problem with the PC scene in general is that most brands make "budget lines". And they often suck. We've seen stuff like that from HP and Dell recently. But you won't hear my comment that Dell or HP suck as a brand. Apple has made bad machines in the past too. But nowadays, machines out of Cupertino seem to be the best money can buy...

 

[CFox]

I make a living doing support and installation, amongst other things. I have about 700 Macs and 300 PC's in my "park". There aren't any more problems with the newest range than there are with any other new range. New machines always give new problems, no matter which brand.

You can find threads with "Brand X sucks" on this board as well as on any other board. If you're not talking about a problem that is specific AND can be reproduced, you're not making sense.

So, telling someone that one happy customer means nothing because you know "several" others means nothing, nada, zip...

There is, however, one brand PC's I will avoid at all cost: Packard Bell. But they won't bother you in the USA, because they've left that market after being convicted of fraud and other things. They still are present on the EU market and do some projects for the government.

A problem with the PC scene in general is that most brands make "budget lines". And they often suck. We've seen stuff like that from HP and Dell recently. But you won't hear my comment that Dell or HP suck as a brand. Apple has made bad machines in the past too. But nowadays, machines out of Cupertino seem to be the best money can buy...

I dont think anyone was expecting a stat fest* in here.
Ok, well what about price versus under the hood ? How does the Mac mini stack up as a DAW machine ?




*Traditionally, there have been more opps for pcs to crash due to the copious amounts of viruses written for them, is that true ? And most mac users dont surf for **** or download every free app that they come across.

 

[CFox]

I meant no disrespect and am not doubting what you have said. Merely that my missus has had no issues with hers. My wife uses it for work and I will be helping her with the work and the programs work better with Snow Leopard.

No disrespect experienced. I am interested in why mac users make their purchases and your reason is rational. My friends purchase decisions seem based on emotion only.

 

[cyrano]

I dont think anyone was expecting a stat fest* in here.
Ok, well what about price versus under the hood ? How does the Mac mini stack up as a DAW machine ?

Windows gives more performance and more problems.
Macs have less problems, but also less raw performance.

For every day use, raw performance doesn't matter that much. If you need lots of tracks in your DAW it does matter. If you run a webserver with 1.000 clients/min. it does matter. OSX isn't meant for such an application. It's meant to be a comfortable enduser machine with little or no problems. It's simple to see where MS went wrong with Windows in the past: they want it to be everything to everybody.

But performance can be added. It'll cost you some money, but it's easy. Stability can also be had. Only problem is, to find good PC hardware, you need to invest time. Money doesn't buy stability.

*Traditionally, there have been more opps for pcs to crash due to the copious amounts of viruses written for them, is that true ? And most mac users dont surf for **** or download every free app that they come across.

Malware is a real problem on Windows. Also, users that don't care about security are a real problem. They refuse to work under an unprivileged account and so give malware more chances to propagate. This will come to the Mac too, because there is no cure for utter and limitless idiocy.

But besides the malware, there's also the bewildering burden of choice. There are millions of configs. Some good, some not so good. That's also a source of Windows problems. And there's not much MS can do about it. There's simply no OS that can compensate for bad hardware.