Mac or Window???

[Johnny-Boy]

Okay, I narrowed my choice down to two DAW's:

 

Mac & Digital Performer or Windows and Sonar 8 (I'll be using the Garritan Orchestra with either one I choose).

 

All opinions will be seriously considered.

 

Thanks for your help!

 

Best, John:cool:

[Phil O'Keefe]

I've never been a big fan of DP, but lots of people like it. Sonar is a good program IMO, but to be honest, you can do good work on either one, so it really comes down to your own working style and personal preferences. If you're more familiar with PC's than Macs, then maybe you should go the Sonar route. If you're more comfortable with a Mac, you can either go with DP, or use Bootcamp and run Windows on the machine and use Sonar...

 

Mac vs PC? I use both.

[Johnny-Boy]

I've never been a big fan of DP, but lots of people like it. Sonar is a good program IMO, but to be honest, you can do good work on either one, so it really comes down to your own working style and personal preferences. If you're more familiar with PC's than Macs, then maybe you should go the Sonar route. If you're more comfortable with a Mac, you can either go with DP, or use Bootcamp and run Windows on the machine and use Sonar... Mac vs PC? I use both.

 

Thanks Phil! Actually I have both Mac and a PC. Both are outdated though. So, I need to decide which direction to go.

 

I was told by an Industry pro (that uses both Pro Tools and Digital Performer) that the Digital Performer is easier to use. He said Pro Tools is more complicated with many features I'll never use. He uses DP most the time. He said Mac is the only way to go.

 

I've received a lot of advice through-out the Internet. Now it's decision making time. Sound quality-wise, I imagine both the DP and Sonar 8 will deliver top quality.

 

Maybe I'll flip a coin???

 

Best, John:cool:

[sethlover]

I worked with Mac's for years. That said as soon as PC were powerful enough I jumped ship over to PC. I've always had it in the back of my head to possibly go back to Mac until more recently, say in the past 3-5 years. Back in the day you could only get audio/midi software for the Mac platform, even later there was just slim pickings for PC. But with so much more software available for PC these days and with Mac's basically being PC's with their new Intel architecture I've moved on, and I think for good.

It's really a matter of preference, and what platform you are used to these days. Back in the day Mac's were like little super computers compared to PC's. Not the case anymore, both are using Intel chip sets (others AMD, etc.) and most of the time Apple is behind cutting edge PC development by 6 months to a year with releases. Back to platforms, it was very easy for me to make the jump. I remember for other friends and fellow Mac owners it was not.

 

Btw, I'm with Phil on the DP. I felt it was not as powerful as other native multi-track programs.

[Johnny-Boy]

Thanks Seth!

 

Have you had any experience with Sonar 8. I was wondering how that stacked-up against the DP???

 

Thanks again, you gave me a different perspective.

 

Best, John:cool:

[orbm1]

I would go for the mac. Why? #1 I own one. #2 you can run windows on a mac but not the other way around. So if you ever need to use a windows app you just can run it with parallels and you are set!

 

IMHO

[sethlover]

 

I would go for the mac. Why? #1 I own one. #2 you can run windows on a mac but not the other way around. So if you ever need to use a windows app you just can run it with parallels and you are set! IMHO

 

 

It does sound good on paper. I would be concerned about hardware compatibility, drivers etc., and native support. That aside my big issue with Mac was upgrading hardware. Back in the day you could not get a Mac for less than $3,000 and it was obsolete within a few years. When that narrowed to being obsolete within about a year or so and with PC's becoming as powerful if not more I felt that dropping that kind of cash on something that was going to be obsolete in a short period was just not worth it to me.

I upgrade my whole (DAW) system these days every two or so years usually for under a few hundred dollars tops. Every time I do I always go pretty much the latest and greatest so I know it won't be obsolete in a week or two. I cut costs by using the same case and peripherals.

[Johnny-Boy]

Thanks Seth, you've giving me more to think about.

 

I've been finding out on the Internet that there are so many different opinions on the subject.

 

After I've weighed all this info I've gotten (tons of it), then I suppose I'll just jump in and swim or sink.

 

Best, John:cool:

[Phil O'Keefe]

FWIW, I run a Mac for my Internet machine (less vulnerable, and as a site admin here, that's important to me), and I run my Pro Tools HD Accel rig on a PC.

 

Why? I mean, after all, most HD users are running it on a Mac... Well, for me, it's the potential downtime issue. Macs are great - no doubt about it. But a close friend had to send back two new Macs to Apple last year, and one of them went down twice. In one case, Apple sent him the parts to DIY the repair, but in the other two cases, he had to do without those computers for about two weeks. Fortunately, he has multiple computers... but I don't really want to spend three grand times two for a Mac that can run HD and a backup for it, and with my DIY built PC, if something does go wrong with it, I can source replacement parts locally - if not same day, then next day... which means that, worst case, I can have it back up and running within two days. I can deal with two days without my DAW, but not two weeks...

 

YMMV.

 

Oh, and as far as Sonar vs DP, I'd rather run Sonar. As far as DP vs PT, I personally greatly prefer Pro Tools, and IMO, it's possibly the easiest of all of the "big five" (Sonar, Digital Performer, Logic, Pro Tools, Cubase / Nuendo) DAW programs to use, and yet paradoxically, extremely powerful and complete - especially PT8.

[Majoria]

I've had a variety of Pro Tools setup (still do) but my main set up is PT8 on an 8 core Mac Pro. I have boot camp with XP Pro and PT 7.3 on there. A few things to consider:

 

* A Mac will recognize and allow higher amounts of RAM whereas a PC will not use more than 3 GB in most cases no matter how much is installed.

* Most viruses are written for Windows.

* PC's are generally cheaper and easier to find parts and people for repair.

[Phil O'Keefe]

* A Mac will recognize and allow higher amounts of RAM whereas a PC will not use more than 3 GB in most cases no matter how much is installed.

 

True - except for 64 bit versions of Vista. Pro Tools is able to run on Vista now, but since it's still only 32 bit, I have not bothered to hassle with it, and honestly, I hope to avoid Vista entirely. I'll just keep using XP Pro and hope that the next windows OS doesn't suck. But Sonar, and possibly other DAW programs, are now doing 64 bit, so it is possible to have a PC Windows computer and a DAW program that can access more than 3-4 GB.

 

 

PS You should upgrade to PT8. It's a HUGE improvement over 7.3. Tons of new features... you'd love it.

[Johnny-Boy]

Thanks Phil and Majoria, you've given me more to consider. Especially about the Mac downtime.

 

Best, John:cool:

[Majoria]

PS You should upgrade to PT8. It's a HUGE improvement over 7.3. Tons of new features... you'd love it.

 

As I said, I do have PT8 running on Leopard.

 

All things considered, I prefer the Mac. It's given me less problems than PC and allows me all the Mac-only things outside of the DAW arena. Add boot camp and you've got all you'll ever need.

[Johnny-Boy]

Wondering if this Dell will be sufficient to run Sonar 8, Garritan Orchestra, etc...?

 

 

[Phil O'Keefe]

I'd get a second dedicated HDD for audio recording, but other than that, I'm not seeing anything there to worry about with Sonar.

[sethlover]

 

Wondering if this Dell will be sufficient to run Sonar 8, Garritan Orchestra, etc...?

[Phil O'Keefe]

 

Thanks Phil and Majoria, you've given me more to consider. Especially about the Mac downtime. Best, John:cool:

 

 

 

I don't think that Macs are any less reliable than PC's are, but anything electronic can fail, no matter how well designed and built. If you're not using it daily, or relying on it for daily use in a commercial environment, the possibility that it may fail and have to be sent in for two weeks to be repaired may be less of a concern for you.

[Johnny-Boy]

Thanks again guys!

 

To get this closer to being finalized, I'm going to a business that customizes DAW studios on Wednesday. I'll actually be able to see them in action with my Motif ES8. Nothing like hands-on to speed up the decision making.

 

I'll let you know how I made out on Thursday.

 

Best, John:cool:

[orbm1]

 

Wondering if this Dell will be sufficient to run Sonar 8, Garritan Orchestra, etc...?

[Johnny-Boy]

Wow, that was a nightmare Orbm1. I guess I better take plenty of time to decide on this.

 

Thanks, John:cool:

[Coschi]

Hi John,

 

I've been using PCs for audio for around 8 years. I always made sure I got a stable system which usually consisted of as much ram as the mobo would handle, always top quality parts (asus motherboard with intel chipset, asus video card, western digital hdds, and good quality ram). I never had any major problems, and could always do what I wanted (typically +20 track logic pro projects)

 

I just bought a Mac (MacBook Pro 17", 4GB RAM, 2.93GHz, 320GB HDD) running Logic 8 and Ableton 7, and I can honestly say I'm never going back to Windows. Everything just works, doesn't need tweaking (well, maybe just a little), etc.. OS X simply rocks, everything about it is so simple and sooo much smarter than the windows registry type setup

 

That's my 2 cents good luck whichever way you go!

[Johnny-Boy]

Hi John, I've been using PCs for audio for around 8 years. I always made sure I got a stable system which usually consisted of as much ram as the mobo would handle, always top quality parts (asus motherboard with intel chipset, asus video card, western digital hdds, and good quality ram). I never had any major problems, and could always do what I wanted (typically +20 track logic pro projects) I just bought a Mac (MacBook Pro 17", 4GB RAM, 2.93GHz, 320GB HDD) running Logic 8 and Ableton 7, and I can honestly say I'm never going back to Windows. Everything just works, doesn't need tweaking (well, maybe just a little), etc.. OS X simply rocks, everything about it is so simple and sooo much smarter than the windows registry type setup That's my 2 cents good luck whichever way you go!

 

Thanks Coschi!

 

From all the info I've gathered from several websites, it appears Mac is the logical choice.

 

Best, John:)

[Coschi]

Thanks Coschi! From all the info I've gathered from several websites, it appears Mac is the logical choice. Best, John:)

 

I guess there's good reason that pretty much all professional studios use use them hey

 

Perhaps the same could be said for the ns10s then couldn't it ..

 

 

...

 

naaah I'll leave that one alone

[Johnny-Boy]

I guess there's good reason that pretty much all professional studios use use them hey Perhaps the same could be said for the ns10s then couldn't it .. ... naaah I'll leave that one alone

 

Or 20/20bas. Maybe in the future, for now I'll stay with my Yamaha monitors. The Mac alone will set me back 3 grand.

 

Well, at least if I go down, it will be in style. Maybe Obama will bail me out? No, let's not go there.

 

John:cool:

[ew_]

I guess there's good reason that pretty much all professional studios use use them hey

While that used to be the case, it's definitely not as true any more.

 

I'm with Phil here- I use a Windows box for my studio because of the downtime aspect. The other big reason? Compatibility issues. It's very rare that an OSX update doesn't break compatibility somewhere with the apps I use. With a Windows box, I have enough control over it so I can tweak or modify my way around the issue; with a Mac this often isn't the case, and I'd have to wait for Apple or the vendor to address the issue.

 

ew