PC vs Mac For Recording

[Scar Symmetry]

I've used both PCs and Macs and I found Macs very hard to work with, though I would get used to them if they yielded better results and more reliability. thing is, for a fraction of the price, can PCs be just as reliable? I think they probably can be.

 

[arktan]

You know, one of the main problems (or the only one, actually) with PC's is the quality control. A lot of brands just throw in some hardware and don't optimize or engineer it enough so that the system feels "lame" (can't describe it).

I use a ThinkPad T500 (yes, the one with the switch-your-graphics-card-on-the-fly-without-restarting-your-comp-function) and it blows all the other laptops that i used and that my friends use out of the water in terms of felt working performance. Even the ones with reasonably higher specs than my ThinkPad... i blame the quality control and the engineering. And the Linux support of ThinPads is simply 1A.

That's the advantage of Macs too. HP, DELL, Alienware and so forth don't sell mac-OS's with their computers. If they did then the general view of Macs wouldn't be much different than that of Windows. Mac isn't just an OS, you get some quality hardware with it because not everybody can put it on an own configuration and sell it like Windows. But that comes at a price.

So generally:

If you want/need a good PC: go the thinkpad way (yes, i'm biased )
If you want a good Mac: almost any will do but avoid the new ones with those Nvidia 8400 and 8600 graphics cards! They're defective (the cards)!


BTW I use Vista64 for recording and gaming and stuff and Opensuse64 for work and stuff.

 

[GorillaSalsa]

When you say ridiculous price tag, have you look into them much?

Even the Macbooks are pretty damn good specs, and they start at £700. PC Laptops with comparable specs are not a lot less to be honest.

Ahem...

The cheapest Macbook as of today has:

Intel Core 2 Duo
2GB DDR2 Memory
120GB hard drive1
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics
a $1k price tag

This laptop has:

Double the RAM
Double The HDD Space
A better graphics card
A larger screen
A price tag smaller by $250

It was the cheapest laptop I could find on Newegg with equal to or greater than specs to the Macbook, and it was better. And it's not even made by some knock-off piece of shit company, either. Acer's pretty reputable.

In my experience though, yes, PC's are that unreliable. I deal with PC's day in day out at my job through working in IT, and have been using them since the days of Windows 3.11 and when DOS was the first thing you came to when you turned on, and its been a mess ever since Windows 95 came along as far as I'm concerned.

I run PCs reliably every single day of my life. Have I had PCs crash on me before? yes. Have I had a Mac crash on me as well? Yes.

Computers crash when you overwhelm them with processes. This is true for either Macs and PCs. Macs aren't immune to crashing, because if they were, the phrase "spinning wheel of death" wouldn't exist.

The thing you have to look at with Macs is, my current desktop and laptop may have been expensive, but I've had them 2 years now, and they STILL outperform many PCs and laptops that are released today, in terms of speed and usability. Throw in the fact they seem to be almost made for recording, and you start to see the advantages.

You can spend just as much money on a PC that will outperform future PCs for a few years in the future. You can also spend a little money for a decent machine that will still be decent in the future. I bought my current computer for $600 when I was 16. I'm almost 20 now and I'm barely replacing it, and only because I want to start doing more intense things like recording music and playing video games that aren't Half Life 2. Other than that, this PC will absolutely last another year or two just fine.

Heres another part. Stephen Platt from Collibus (he posts here) uses a Mac G4 for recording, with multiple tracks, lots of virtual instruments and the like, and doesn't have any problems with it. The G4's are about 4 or 5 generations ago and he's still using the latest software available, I don't know many PCs that old that could run the latest MSN without slowing down....

That's great and all, but G4s were available as early as 1999 and as late as 2004, so that statement could be either absolutely amazing or just expected. I bought my computer in 2005, and it runs things much more complex than MSN just fine, thank you.

I don't know what computer cave you've been in where the only PCs that exist are $300 eMachines, but good PCs can be just as reliable as Macs, and Macs can be just as unreliable as bad PCs. Price is what really should be the determining factor, and when I'm given the option to double my ram for ~$120 (worst case scenario)* on a PC or ~$1000 on a Mac, I'm going PC.

*worst case scenario being you have to replace every last stick of RAM in your computer, which is unlikely, so this price should really be cut in half.

 

[PlagueX1]

Mac is made for recording, creative things, enough said.

 

[Scar Symmetry]

Mac is made for recording, creative things, enough said.

just because it's built specifically with recording engineers in mind doesn't mean it performs better.

 

[Fionn]

and I know Andy Sneap uses G3s and G4s so that speaks volumes for what they are capable of.

you must remeber that Sneap is using PT HD so the puter is pretty much just a host!!!

Mac is made for recording, creative things, enough said.

dumb comment!

You know, one of the main problems (or the only one, actually) with PC's is the quality control. A lot of brands just throw in some hardware and don't optimize or engineer it enough so that the system feels "lame" (can't describe it).

exactly, go buy a standerd PC and yeah you'll get shit! Saty away from DELL for sure, and HP infact all the shit pre made redy to use out of the box bulssshit PCs out there!

I've used both MAC and PC alot, used MAC with PTHD at the studio and Windows with LE at home trust me they both crash, one thing I have found is than when a MAC crashes thats it its need a hard re-start, PCs can if left alone for 2mins sort themselves out!!!

I find that my LE system at home is a bit jittery but thats cause i have loads of not quite legal plugins installed, try doing that on a MAC!

Personnaly I think that because people who use MACs just USE them they don't fuck around and install loads of crap they work better but if your careful and keep your PC lean you can get WAY more power for you money, espceially now MACs are just swanky PCs with a better operating system! I prefer OSX defo but XP is fine it works its pretty stable and its tweakable, which is what I want I don't want a OS that is difficult to potimise like OSX!

how many typos!!!!

 

[Scar Symmetry]

you must remeber that Sneap is using PT HD so the puter is pretty much just a host!!!

I don't know what that is

 

[stuh84]

I don't know what computer cave you've been in where the only PCs that exist are $300 eMachines, but good PCs can be just as reliable as Macs, and Macs can be just as unreliable as bad PCs. Price is what really should be the determining factor, and when I'm given the option to double my ram for ~$120 (worst case scenario)* on a PC or ~$1000 on a Mac, I'm going PC.

*worst case scenario being you have to replace every last stick of RAM in your computer, which is unlikely, so this price should really be cut in half.

Like I said in my post, 7-8 year old G4, so try reading what I'm saying next time.

Plus, the same DDR ram thats in most PC laptops is the same thats in Macs, you are looking at Apples site for it, not Crucial, or Newegg, you know, the same you would with a PC?

I've been building and repairing PCs since about 1998, and I just got sick of it. I've got better things to do with my time than research different motherboards, work out which works best, see if there are any chipset issues that could affect the hardware I want to use with it, and then wonder why when I've got it, installed XP/2000/Vista/98/NT or whatever it was at the time, I still think "you know, this doesn't feel any faster".

As I've said in the various other posts in this thread, Macs do crash, but I've had nowhere near as many problems with them as I have PCs, this is MY experience with them, through running, building, reparing and using them for 8 times longer than I have Macs.

All I wanna know is, that PC from 2005, how well does it run Protools LE 7.4, with DFH Superior 2, a virtual orchestra (can't remember which one the guy uses, possibly Garritan) and virtual synths...without falling over? This is what I'm talking about. And as I said, 7-8 years old, not 4....

 

[TimothyLeary]

I don't know what that is

Pro tools HD I think. Pro Tools|HD

The computer does the light job and pro tools interfaces do the heavy job.

 

[KaLeVaLA]

I used PC before, and have now switched over to Mac Pro.
I have worked on Mac for about 3 years (graphic designer).

I find Mac to be easier to work with, more reliable, faster, and believe it or not..but i got a better sound when recording the guitars..like...tha raw track sounded better. I have no idea why.

The pricetag on Mac is not THAT insane compared to a PC really...and Mac is something you will keep for longer than a year...AND if you want to sell it..you will get much more back than you would for a pc.

As said..i have a Mac Pro and i havent regreted it for one second!! It is an amazing machine. Oh..and its so silent running btw!!

 

[Konfyouzd]

this isn't COMPLETELY on topic, but i figure this is as good a place as any to ask the question: does anyone know of a good usb 1.1 compatible audio interface? (yes i have a stone age computer that i record on. i do what i can! )

 

[stuh84]

Roland U.S. - UA-101: USB Audio Interface

Thats the only one I actually know that will, and it'll only run at stereo as well.

Might be worth getting hold of a USB 2.0 PCI card to put in your PC? (unless its a laptop then no dice )

 

[Konfyouzd]

yea my computer may need some upgrades. i heard that the m-audio fast track pro will run full spec on usb 1.1. truth or myth?

EDIT: my computer is in DIRE need of upgrades

 

[sevenstringj]

Once you go Mac, you never go back.

I'm still using a 5-yr old G4 laptop. While it's not powerful enough to run today's super-intense stuff like 24-bit piano sample libraries, I can record direct in 24/96 no problem. And no viruses. Ever. Despite the porn.

Quick tip: Apple brand memory is way expensive. You can get one with less RAM and upgrade afterwards for way less.

 

[stuh84]

Looks like you can, I have to say its not something I've ever had to look for so I'm not greatly experienced in finding interfaces for that

I think that for the sake of buying a $10-15 USB 2 PCI card, its worth doing rather than restricting what you can actually use.

 

[Konfyouzd]

that's true. i didn't know they were that cheap.

i'll definitely look into that.

 

[synrgy]

I can only speak from my personal experience, so take it for what it's worth, which is very little:

I've never had a problem with a PC that I couldn't solve with little-to-no trouble.

I've never had a problem with a Mac that I COULD solve with LOTS of trouble. AND the 'experts' at the Mac store(s) are always pretty useless as well.

I still use a PC (not as my main machine) that's over 8 years old, with no trouble what-so-ever. My main machines (a rackmount and a laptop) are both PCs built by pcaudiolabs, and they're both ROCK SOLID.

My ex girlfriend is on her 4th macbook (all three previous broke or went tits-up for no explainable reason) in 3 years. One of my production parterns in Hawaii is on his 3rd macbook (2 previous had major unexplainable issues) in 4 years.

Apple designs their OS in such a way that it's quite difficult to do simple tasks such as formatting/defragging a hard drive or re-installing the OS itself. While living in Hawaii, I was working on an iMac 800MhZ, and it was the most miserable computing experience of my life. Out of the box, there was some error with the OS install that made it so that I could NOT drag icons -- AT ALL. This rendered several programs almost impossible to use. I tried all kinds of things to fix the problem, and the machine just refused to work with me. It wouldn't allow me to format the hard drive, it wouldn't allow me to reinstall the OS, etc etc, so I was just stuck with this machine that didn't fucking work the way it was supposed to, until we finally sold it.

I will NEVER buy an apple computer again. EVER. I love the iPods, but fuck their computers.

Again -- that's only based on my personal experience. I know TONS of people who own and LOVE their macs.

Once you go Mac, you never go back.

Exactly. I went Mac, and I'll never go back to it.

 

[Ze Kink]

I've been a PC user for all my life, but I bought a Macbook Pro about 6 months ago. No regrets. I really like how everything works so smoothly without any real effort. When I was still running a PC, I didn't have a problem with uninstalling the drivers of my Emu 1212m, disconnecting it, making a bios update, taking the battery out for a while, connnecting everything again and installing the older drivers, because updating them had made the soundcard output just a bitcrushed mess and not work at all. I didn't have a problem with installing my ex-FP10 on my MBP either, by just plugging the FW400 connector in and starting to record...

I'm happy with both, as long as they work. There's been a ton of laptops in our family, and from my experience with them, I would never buy an Acer laptop. Everything else has worked with pretty minor tweaking. I think I'd prefer having a desktop PC with great parts for "tough stuff" like gaming (I don't really game though), and then a Mac laptop for recording and as a mobile rig, and also bootcamped if I sometimes need to run some Windows stuff.

Why no Acer? The other one had fans that weren't powerful enough, so it would boot after about 3 hours running a game because it overheated. Pretty soon after the warranty ended, the graphics card melted because of the overheating, making the computer completely useless. We also have the Aspire One, which shuts down after being on for about 2 minutes; me and my dad both suspect it's the same fan problem again.

I also prefer to run Linux on my PC's BTW.

 

[Fionn]

I don't know what that is

Pro Tools HD its a PCI based DSP audio program, its what "the pros" use, it can handle 192 tracks at 192kHz etc etc, basically expensive as fuck! not worth it nowadays with 8core macs etc, Digidesign - The Industry Leader in Digital Audio and Live Sound if your interested

 

[darren]

Use whatever you're comfortable with. My band records on PCs using Sonar 8, and it's pretty reliable, and there are tons of plug-ins available for it.