Mac VS. PC

[theliverevolution]

Okay, after trawling through SOFT and the Internet as we know, I'm still confused.

I'm choosing between building a PC or buying a Mac for recording purposes. Problem is, different sources swear by PC/Mac without balancing the arguments properly, which makes it hard for me to properly decide and make an informed decision.

So, asking those who have worked with PCs and Macs for recording, which one would be a good idea to do some recording in a bedroom. It doesn't have to be fanastically good, just able to do some simple recordings that are good enough to listen

Thanks. Cheers!

P.S:
A little off topic, but any good studio monitors are around that is bang for the buck and would match the PC/Mac?

 

[bigblackbear]

funny thing is that most schools that have media/music/sound/video related courses make students buy macs. and even in most schools when recording is involved, they use macs.

but since most softwares are able to run on windows and mac, i think it's up to you to choose which you're more comfortable with

 

[theliverevolution]

Hmm. The reason is why. Is it because it already comes with Garageband, the hardware being built for the Mac, etc.

 

[kerplunk182]

This is pretty irrelevant but check out this video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNnX6XRQBec

 

[Hito]

Buy mac, i'm using windows now but whenever i met up with my friend who uses mac, i'm always tempted to get one myself.

Not just recording, the interface and stuffs too.
On top of that, macbook includes line in jack and most laptop doesn't.

If you're getting desktop, hang on for a few months? window 7 is launching soon,.

 

[scylla019]

mac for firewire and garage band. its practically made for artists.

 

[Gr3yF0x]

windows 32bit only can use up to 3GB of ram, mac which is a 64bit OS can have up to 8GB.

 

[kerplunk182]

mac for firewire and garage band. its practically made for artists.

The new macbooks don't have the firewire jack. That's Apple's marketing strategy to direct people to get the macbook pro.

 

[gutturalpiss]

Very simple choice to make.

1) Are you a nerd?

If NO to the above, get a Mac.

2) Do you want a portable solution?

If YES to the above, get a Mac.

Here's why:

The main arguement behind building a computer over buying a Mac workstation is that you get more bang for your buck. Well, that's partly true. If you don't know enough about computers, it will NOT be worth the effort and cheaper Total Cost of Ownership. In fact, your headaches will bring up the TCO.

Laptops are not modular. It's not cheap to get parts and DIY your own notebook. In light of that, considering the arsenal of tools available out-of-the-box from a Mac solution, getting a Windows-based PC is stupidity. Unfortunately, businesses profit from stupid people.

And last but definitely not least:

http://createdigitalmusic.com/2009/...ing-from-mac-os-x-to-ubuntu-with-kim-cascone/

$1.20-$1200 worth

 

[Cheez]

windows 32bit only can use up to 3GB of ram, mac which is a 64bit OS can have up to 8GB.

Not true. 32-bit Vista use up to 4GB, but because resources are reserved for graphics etc, it usually ends up with 3.25+GB in the end. And 64-bit Vista runs up to 8GB of RAM - at least mine does.

And by the way, Logic in Mac is not true 64-bit.

I would go for the Mac if you have the money. If tight on a budget, building a PC is cheaper. My quad core PC with 8GB RAM is a fraction of the cost of the Mac with equivalent specs.

Platforms are now a lesser concern, since most plugins are both Mac and PC compatible. There are some DAW which are specific to platform - eg Sonar for PC and Logic for Mac.

So...if your main consideration is for recording, then you would not want a notebook. And you can forget about garageband. If $ is not a concern - go for the Mac (desktop) and get Logic. But do note that Protools is the choice for many who are mainly into recording. Logic is good for recording and if you are also doing sequencing and using softsynths. But that's the software part...

But...if you are into simple recording, then PC or Mac, notebook for desktop, won't matter. Suggestion will be to decide base on your budget, not for the hype.

 

[Kw1q51lv3r_Vorian]

I'm currently using a macbook pro, and all I can say is that with Logic Express, I can set up to record guitar tracks in my bedroom faster than perfecting whatever I'm gonna record. I've never used Garageband, so I don't know how that fares up.

Anyway, Logic on a mac is the way to go if you can only play one instrument, but want to record a full band, due to the software synthesisers built into Logic, like the EXS24 module. If you merely want to do simple recording and mixing, I'd suggest just getting a portable laptop not necessarily a mac and using Audacity.

 

[theliverevolution]

Thanks for all the replies guys
Okay. Hmm. Now I'm more confused. Perhaps I should be a little more specific.

I'm looking into building a PC, or buying a Mac Mini to do simple home recording, track by track, or maybe a few people/whole band at one shot. I know a MacBook is tempting cause you can bring it over to another person's place and do recording, but it is out of my budget, and notebooks aren't something you can do heavy stuff on.
budget is about $1000.

I'm not keen on using Windows cause Vista (and from what I heard, 7) sucks up a lot of power of the memory modules, so I'll probably use XP if that's the case.

Macs are good, but I feel that its like we're paying a prenium for the brand name. But its got Garageband out of the box, so I could use that till I saved enough to upgrade my DAW

Any balanced arguments out there that can help

 

[Cheez]

For that budget, you'll be looking at a PC. Windows 7 will be out soon - you should be going for that. I'm using Vista and if you remove all eye-candy, it doesn't take up as much resources as you think. The key is to dual boot. One boot paritition for your everyday use (office, internet etc), and one partition for nothing except music. Keep your music boot partition clean and remove all eye-candy, and you get an extremely fast machine for a very low price. Do a search on SOFT for dual boot if that's new to you - it's been discussed many times.

Notebook nowadays are pretty high-powered. You can do quite a bit of recording on it, provided you use firewire audio interface and a fast external HD instead of the built-in drive. And of course, if you dual boot it, it's even better. Don't look down on notebooks. However, it all depends on your needs. Because you are tight on budget, you need to throw in other considerations - like what you would like to use it for other than DAW purposes.

 

[theliverevolution]

Thanks Cheez. Any thing to point out hardware wise though? definately need quite a fair bit of RAM, but what about the rest?

 

[junkiemanxl]

1k for a mac is rather difficult.
i use both mac and windows.
Mac primary and windows secondary. If for recording puroses, i will highly recommend mac not because it looks pretty. The mac platform is more stable compared to windows. Windows tend to use up more ram to run. (e.g you will need around 4GB to just run a vista platform normally). And if i might add, windows crash far more often as well.

Get a mac, dual boot it. then you'll have best of both worlds. You can hantam a linux into it for triple boot if you know how to go about doing it. I use mac for recording and windows for work.

Macs can be a little more expensive compared to the regular windows platform PC. Save up and get a mac for the long run if you have recording in mind. no mistake about it. You'll never look back again.

 

[gutturalpiss]

$1K DIY a PC. Mac need at least $1.6K.

And I noticed someone mentioning external USB HDD over internal 2.5" mobile disk. That's flawed advice; the 7200RPM is bottlenecked by the USB transfer rate, which is equal to or worse than 5400RPM's practical 50MBps avg (against the theoretical maximum of 40MB/s USB 2.0 High Speed).

My WD 5400 is even faster than the typical Hitachis:

Timing buffered disk reads:  178 MB in  3.03 seconds =  58.80 MB/sec

 

[Cheez]

That may be true. But (again theoretically), the internal HD will be utitlising Windows, page file etc, and may tax the read/write time if recording is added into the equation.

Still having said that, I still use firewire HD. For the audio interface - I would still prefer PCMCIA/Expresscard which will free up the firewire port. And the only Expresscard interface I know is Echo Indigo.

 

[teleholic]

if you're willing to go second hand, many core 2 duo deals out there for about 1k..my black book was about 1k, many white books out there under 1k and mac minis as well..not to forget powermac g4s with dual processors..get a mac, and never look back..

 

[kongwee]

Get a mac!

 

[teleplayer]

Get a mac if you got money...

Get a windows if you don't care about novelties...

Okay, I am a mac user. I was a windows user. I bought a macbook pro. It looks freaking nice and one inch thick only and things like that. It is very tempting. (and the backlit keyboards). If you are going to use the boot camp, it is kind of troublesome because the older macbooks and MBPs only got a left click. so you need to install some programmes to use the right click. and since there are lesser buttons, you need to press the Fn button to use some other keys.

If you are going to use that for recording, just get a big screen laptop and get the jamvox or toneport blah blah blah. If you are buying the mac for the garageband, then it is not very practical. Unless you dig its speed and the startup speed and the looks of it, it is really not practical. If you are planning to upgrade to more professional upgrading softwares, the macs are practical.

The garageband isn't that good. It's my opinion.

Remeber... if you are using the computer to record, the screen needs to be big... at least 15". Or else, it will be very difficult for you to see the screen, especially garageband.. well at least, it appears small to me for macbook.

AND

theliverevolution: notebooks like macbook pro are able to handle intensive stuff. They are like desktops. That's why it's called a notebook and not a laptop. It's meant to be a foldable desktop. the Macbook pro is powerful. In my opinion.

In conclusion, just get what you need. And not get what others are getting. A lot of musicians use mac. But it doesn't mean that you have to use a mac to record your guitar or bass or drums. If you need the Mac OS, then get it. IF you need to record your guitar, you can record with other cheaper and better softwares as compared to garageband.

If you are the type of person who will regret spending a few thousand bucks on technology, just get a cheap windows laptop and get a vox or line6 recording software.

Hope this helps.