Mac vs PC

I am going to be scrapping my old Windows XP recording box, I never really got it to work well with Sonar and BFD.

I'm going to be in the market for a new recording set up. I was thinking simple. Mac and Garage Band. I am not sure which audio interface I will be using but it will probably be digidesign or MAudio (w/ at least 8 inputs.) The MBox does not have enough inputs.

Does anyone actually prefer a PC to a Mac when recording?

TimeSignature said:

I am going to be scrapping my old Windows XP recording box, I never really got it to work well with Sonar and BFD.

I'm going to be in the market for a new recording set up. I was thinking simple. Mac and Garage Band. I am not sure which audio interface I will be using but it will probably be digidesign or MAudio (w/ at least 8 inputs.) The MBox does not have enough inputs.

Does anyone actually prefer a PC to a Mac when recording?

Click to expand...

The new iMac for sure, I just got the $1500.00 one and it's perfect for recording, I have the E-MU for interface and the sound is pretty decent,

iMac

Mac + logic + apogee = best.

Went from pc to mac years ago. If they stop making macs I'll stop using computers :lol:
It's a no brainer.

I use pc and Sonar 6 and love it. It definetly has it's quirks at times, but is very reliable. You just need a really good sound card to keep latency to a minimum. I've never used a mac to record tho, but I do think macs are seriously over priced. Flame on! I know all the top guys use pro tools, I'm just saying that for home use, you can save a lot of money buy building your on PC and you can build a monster for the price of Apple.

I'm not entirely sure about the overpriced factor but macs are very expensive. On the other hand tho, there is alot that comes with the package. I was using pc with a cubase before I bought the mac. Now I'm using garageband and a toneport ux2 and the ez drummer program. More than enough for my needs.

I just went through this same situation about a month ago. Went with a MacBook Pro and Logic Studio 9, with a PreSonus Firestudio Mobile interface. I spent a bit more for the MacBook than a comparable PC, but this thing is bulletproof.

Thanks, I think Im going to go with a Mac! I hope to get one within the next 3 or 4 months.

Do it!!!

If you know what your doing just build your own pc.. its not that hard. Ive been building pc's for 10+ years. The money that you save by going the pc route could land you some good preamps or mics.. Macs nowadays use Intel hardware, so basically your getting a pc that is using a different operating system.. and using a mac limits your selection of interfaces. I use a pc to record professionally with and it never lets me down.. and it will run rings around a mac any day of the week. A quad core intel running at 4.0ghz is very hard to beat. And a Mac does not sound any better than a pc.. or vice versa .. pro tools doesnt sound any better than sonar or adobe audition per say... The only reason macs *were* yes were industry standard is because didgidesign/midiman made the hardware for mac's first. Because they were idiot proof... back then it took alot of tinkering with hardware on a pc to get it right .. thats just not the case anymore.

^ What interfaces don't work with Macs? I know you can't use anything from Cakewalk or Sony on a Mac (which means Sonar and Acid Pro), but you can't use Digital Performer or Logic on a PC, but that's software. I haven't even heard of an interface worth getting that didn't work with both.

I'm definitely a Mac guy. I can run every program I foresee myself ever needing, including Logic (which I use now), DP6, Pro Tools, Cubase, and Nuendo. And throughout my experience, there's almost no issues with Macs once it's set up, assuming everything's up to date. I mean, hell, my computer is a G4 from 2001, and it works better than both of my grandparents' relatively recent PCs combined! OS X is far and away a more stable platform for important stuff like recording, it's definitely easier to use (I haven't used Windows 7), and I think it's cleaner.

And yeah, add some Apogee converters with Logic, and you'll be set!

Those are not interfaces, those are sequencers ( your recording programs ) By interfaces I mean the hardware you use .. Like m-audio / digidesign ect ect .. If you are using pro tool HD/LE then you are limited to which interfaces you can use. And I didnt say wouldnt work with macs I said wouldnt work with pro tools
You can use logic yes, because its not pro tools

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pro_Tools

http://www.gearslutz.com/board/music-computers/181130-will-protools-m-powered-work-non-m-audio-interfaces.html


Im running a purpose built intel based pc ... Q9650 quad core running at 4ghz / 8 GB of 1200mhz ocz memory / 4 1tb hard drives / 750 watt pc power and cooling power supply... Next is a dual cpu i7 based on a dual socket x58 motherboard.

while pc vs mac doesn't create a difference in sound.. the audio recording programs most certainly do. all things considered, using cakewalk vs protools vs sonar will yield a slightly diffferent result. There is processing and and the after effect from the program, and there are people with great ears that can tell the difference from the different programs.

that said.. mac vs pc, there is a memory managment difference in the way the OS work. also macs are overpriced or more expensive because they controll everything and only allow specific products in their machines. you can build a pc with 1000's of different parts from different manufacturers, and they can cause conflicts within the PC (not necessarily but it happens.. oh BSOD) Macs test and only put in a certain pieces of equipment in their machines, that being said it can still have issues, i have froze my mac laptop and seen funky things happen... but its on the lower end mac book.

The only time you can tell a difference is when its a Pro Tools HD rig which an entirely different animal than Pro Tools LE and M-Powered. As far as BSOD and hardware not jiving.. Ive been using my m-audio delta 44's since XP , now im on windows 7 and havent had one BSOD. Hardware conflicts such as your talking about are pretty much a thing of the past.. I am a die hard pc builder tweaker/overclocker. Maybe I just know what Im doing? And nowadays Macs are using Intel motherboard/cpu's there is nothing special about the architecture of the hardware. ( like it used to be ) Its just the OS. You can run any mac OS on a pc if you know what you are doing and save a TON of money.

I just got a laptop for recording basic stuff for back tracks. I built a pc and use sonar 6 last year with lots of plugins including ezdrummer. Once in a while it would crash but no big deal as I'm a ctrl S freak anyway. But, now on my laptop I'm using windows 7 and sonar 6 producer edition definetly became unstable once I starting installing my plugins especially ezdrummer. It's an ok laptop T6600 cor 2 duo 4 gig memory but I do wonder now, if sonar 6 is friendly with windows 7. I have about 1 week left to return it and was considering macbook. But then new DAW, plugins, etc, ontop of the inflated mac price. Big $ in the end. The computer I built last year has xp on it whcih seems to work great. I like windows 7 thought, just not sure about sonar.

For decades the Mac's ruled the studios. Well before "home sudios" were way too common.
In the '80s through most of the '90s it was even hard to get software for Windows PC's.
Now, there is alot of software that I would never have thought would carry the MAC/Windows in the specs.
I cannot speak for the major recording studios, but I would suspect they are still mac orientated.
Yet, with anyones bedroom now a "recording studio" , given most households own windows pcs, I am sure
the demand for hybrid software was a simple chain reaction. If a someone won't make a program for the
windows pc, someone will. Thus the software change began.

burnstudios said:

If you know what your doing just build your own pc.. its not that hard. Ive been building pc's for 10+ years. The money that you save by going the pc route could land you some good preamps or mics.. Macs nowadays use Intel hardware, so basically your getting a pc that is using a different operating system.. and using a mac limits your selection of interfaces. I use a pc to record professionally with and it never lets me down.. and it will run rings around a mac any day of the week. A quad core intel running at 4.0ghz is very hard to beat. And a Mac does not sound any better than a pc.. or vice versa .. pro tools doesnt sound any better than sonar or adobe audition per say... The only reason macs *were* yes were industry standard is because didgidesign/midiman made the hardware for mac's first. Because they were idiot proof... back then it took alot of tinkering with hardware on a pc to get it right .. thats just not the case anymore.

Click to expand...

Great info and great post.
Could not agree more. Save your money getting a high end windows pc, and spend the
saved cash where it makes an audible difference.

iFreedom said:

I just got a laptop for recording basic stuff for back tracks. I built a pc and use sonar 6 last year with lots of plugins including ezdrummer. Once in a while it would crash but no big deal as I'm a ctrl S freak anyway. But, now on my laptop I'm using windows 7 and sonar 6 producer edition definetly became unstable once I starting installing my plugins especially ezdrummer. It's an ok laptop T6600 cor 2 duo 4 gig memory but I do wonder now, if sonar 6 is friendly with windows 7. I have about 1 week left to return it and was considering macbook. But then new DAW, plugins, etc, ontop of the inflated mac price. Big $ in the end. The computer I built last year has xp on it whcih seems to work great. I like windows 7 thought, just not sure about sonar.

Click to expand...

Have you tried installing and running those programs with windows xp compatibility mode on? Just right click on the exe of said program and go to properties and then compatibility , select xp sp 3 and see if that helps.

LerxstLee said:

burnstudios said:

If you know what your doing just build your own pc.. its not that hard. Ive been building pc's for 10+ years. The money that you save by going the pc route could land you some good preamps or mics.. Macs nowadays use Intel hardware, so basically your getting a pc that is using a different operating system.. and using a mac limits your selection of interfaces. I use a pc to record professionally with and it never lets me down.. and it will run rings around a mac any day of the week. A quad core intel running at 4.0ghz is very hard to beat. And a Mac does not sound any better than a pc.. or vice versa .. pro tools doesnt sound any better than sonar or adobe audition per say... The only reason macs *were* yes were industry standard is because didgidesign/midiman made the hardware for mac's first. Because they were idiot proof... back then it took alot of tinkering with hardware on a pc to get it right .. thats just not the case anymore.

Click to expand...

Great info and great post.
Could not agree more. Save your money getting a high end windows pc, and spend the
saved cash where it makes an audible difference.

Click to expand...

I completely agree with these two guys.

Building your own PC is easy especially if you have a friend who has done it before. You can build yourself a $2000 computer for $1500, instead of buying a Mac worth $1000 for $1500. If you learn how to do it, it will last longer and you'll never need to take your PC in to pay for hardware servicing. You'll be able to knock it out yourself. Even if you buy an XP loaded comp instead of building it, you'll still be paying noticably less for the same quality of computer.

A lot of people say Macs win in ease of use, but I disagree. I don't think they're any easier or harder to use than an XP loaded computer. You can't beat the amount of programs with XP compatibility, either.

And there are a ton of how to vids on youtube.. and alot of great forums like this one, with people who can guide you in the right direction.