to mac or not to mac...help!

[Greg Dee]

so the time has come where i must decide whether to beef up my PC or go with a 1.8 ghz imac g5. here are some things to consider:

-my school teaches entirely on macs. pro tools, logic, final cut, shake, reason, and cubase are all a part of the program. having a Mac would allow me to work on my projects at home and at school, giving me one up on my classmates.

-i dont have a huge need for a spectacular soundcard. at least not at this point. the tracks i produce will be played thru a serato scratch live setup, which i hope to get in the next 8 months or so. no super crazy sound quality is needed because none of my tracks will ever get pressed.

-im tired of my device drivers on my PC becoming corrupt. im not sure if this is an issue for mac users, but ive had to format my hard drive 3 times in 6 months for corruption issues, all of which happened after i installed windows security updates.

-this machine will serve as my production machine for the next 2 years. the machine after that will be the most badass comp i can buy at the time, with no expense spared.


with that said, im leaning towards the mac at the moment. any input from you guys would be really helpful.

[RDR]

Horses for courses.

You've opened up the can of worms me thinks. From my perspective I love both my PC and my Mac. I run the same programs on both (SX) and they both have stability issues.

It really does depend on what you expect to be doing with the computer.

The mac functions very well as standalone for music apps, and networks well with other macs. But my 2.4 gig p4 runs like a dream as well, and is used constantly for live work.

The biggest lesson you can take from this is.....if it aint broke, dont fix it. I presume that your PC is connected to the net? This IMHO is a mistake. All my music computers have their network components removed as much as possible, they all run SP1 with no updates, ever. And have yet to let me down in any major way.

I use the macs at work (eMACs) and i hate them, but a friend of mine has a G5 and it rocks! Expensive tho. If you want to spend money on a machine to create music you really do need to get a good soundcard, as this is probably the most important part of your setup, dont overlook it.

Software for the PC is more widely available than the mac, and if you use warez'd stuff constantly the PC is probably a better choice. MAC appz are infrequent and usually unreliable. Logic on the MAC is defo a good choice, SX for the PC - so it comes down to which sequencer you use.

Sorry for the ramble, hope you aren't confused too much!

[audioinjection]

if u got the cash for a mac, and will be satisfied, go for it, i think macs are better for recording anyway, but as far as sequencing and basic stuff, i'd say just use a pc.........but then again, both are just as good nowadays

[MARKEG]

-my school teaches entirely on macs. pro tools, logic, final cut, shake, reason, and cubase are all a part of the program. having a Mac would allow me to work on my projects at home and at school, giving me one up on my classmates.

Well then you should definitely get one in my eyes. This will help you immensely. It's like if you're a DJ and you have a certain mixer at home - you're much better when you get to the club and use that exact mixer than you would be if it wasn't at home.

-i dont have a huge need for a spectacular soundcard. at least not at this point. the tracks i produce will be played thru a serato scratch live setup, which i hope to get in the next 8 months or so. no super crazy sound quality is needed because none of my tracks will ever get pressed.

Well I use my laptop Mac for producing stuff and at least one of two things were pressed up from just the internal sound card cause my motu went in for repairs. It's not the best output, but it's more than workable.

-im tired of my device drivers on my PC becoming corrupt. im not sure if this is an issue for mac users, but ive had to format my hard drive 3 times in 6 months for corruption issues, all of which happened after i installed windows security updates.

In my experience, Mac is certainly not the stable workhorse it's made out to be by all the Mac devotees. BUT it is a damn site less complicated to get music software up and running and feels much 'cleaner' than a PC in terms of stupid shitty 3rd party drivers that you have to use from crappy graphics card etc companies. If you have to format a MAC cause it goes corrupt, it's up and running for me with a load of music software on in about 2 hours. With a PC it takes all night. 1 BIG tip I'm teeling you is to get a cloning program with whatever platform you choose. For the mac I use Carbon Copy Cloner and/or Superduper, and for the PC I use Paragon Drive Backup.

-this machine will serve as my production machine for the next 2 years. the machine after that will be the most badass comp i can buy at the time, with no expense spared.

Well I'd say Mac. But remember this. If you're into cracked software, the mac is VERY hard to get stuff for. Not impossible, but certainly not easy. But the one this I find is that my studio PC has nearly every plugin going on it and sometimes takes me ages to decide which ones to use, but my Mac is clean and tidy. If you want a certain thing to happen to your sound, you've really got to think properly instead of just bunging a shit load of plugins over the top and hoping for the best. And I really like that way of working.....

Good luck!

[Greg Dee]

Mac it is!

thanks for the input guys...Mark's being the most helpful.

finding software isnt really a concern because i can get it at a severely discounted rate thru my school.

Logic Pro 7 for $299 USD aint too shabby IMO.

[RDR]

299$???

Can you get more than one copy????

Very lucky indeed!!! :clap:

doesnt work like that for me tho' :cry:

[MARKEG]

$299?????????????????????????????????????????????

****in get me a copy too.

[Greg Dee]

ill find out.

[FILTERZ]

HERES MY TUPPENCE WORTH

Either is very capable , macs are probably more elegant , pc`s are cheaper and software is more plentiful cracked or otherwise.

[Craig McW]

I'm a mac user. It's probably too late, but I'd actually say go with PC. I'm a Graphic Designer so I make money back on my $6,000 purchase plus I can claim it on tax..... if it were just for music, I'd go PC every time....

Don't get me wrong, Macs are fantastic and I love mine...... just damn expensive.

[fresh_an_funky_design]

GET A MAC

not only do they never crash, you dont get virus's, there easy to use
an they look cool as ****.

i converted to mac for my design work about 2 years ago an i hate using pc's now, to me they seem so unefficient and slow, and in production terms there excellent as my mates that produce on pc's are always having probs with them crashing. etc

[Dave Elyzium]

I ****ign hate MAc..my girlfriends got an iMac for graphics / web design and when my PC dies I tried installing my broadband modem on her mac - took 2 hours of fiddling about with network settings / domain names all that pish, then i couldnt get the damn CD out the drive, took an hour of swearing at the damn thing to realise i needed to go into iTunes and press the eject button just to get the CD-Rom out...

now I know this is all because im crap and cant use the Mac properly but I hate them..and i swear at the piece of shit everytime i walk past it now...

[g]

hilarious. and the most un-mac experience i've ever heard about.

i have two of em. but also an AMD laptop because of how certain apps perform on x86 vs. mac. they're just tools. you can make either do what you need.

[AcidTrash]

Macs are a total pain in the arse.

[fresh_an_funky_design]

at the end of the day is one of those time long arguments

like:

coke vs pepsi
etc


get what you want, you'll generaly find pc users swear by pc
and mac users swear by macs

just another point that has nothing to do with performance etc

no one can deny that macs look better than pc's

g4 powerbook is a work of art!

[MangaFish]

i think mark had the most valid arguments in this thread. if it was down to personal preference i would get a PC. but its not. its down to practical issues, and a mac is more practical for your school work than a PC is (and after all, isnt that what your getting it for?)