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Emigtrating to Mac
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scobbah
Kiriyama
Started Topics :
35
Posts :
991
Posted : Jun 12, 2011 22:19:42
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I'm pondering the idea of emigrating to Mac and would like to hear if there's anyone here who'd like to share his or her experience. I'm a little tired of being confined, as it were, due to having one desktop computer and one laptop as I'd much rather be as mobile as possible. I'm therefore considering getting a MacBook Pro (2.2ghz/8GB ram/128 SSD hdd for OS) and keep my old flat screen monitor, thus being able to just plug it in if I'm at home or make music on the fly if I'm anywhere else.
I was on Mac back in '95 or thereabouts but have no experience with today's macs. Cubase has been my sequencer of choice whereas Ableton has been used in the context of live performances, but I've bought a license of PreSonus S1 and think I'm ready to start anew as far as sequencing goes, too.
Does anyone here have any experience with emigrating to Mac, or perhaps with the applications mentioned, I'd be happy if you shared your stories, please. There are a lot of websites that assess the pros and cons of emigrating to Mac, but I've yet to find one that is written from the perspective of music production, in particular the software mentioned here and not Logic.
Hoping to hear a lot of success stories. (Dare I hear anything else given the investment it is? Yes) Thanks in advance. 
All the best,
Alex
  Aural transmissions from the deep forests of Sweden
www.dvsmrecords.org - 'Patterns II EP' by Silent Horror out now! |
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Nectarios
Martian Arts
Started Topics :
187
Posts :
5292
Posted : Jun 13, 2011 11:57
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Unless you are a Logic user, you're wasting cash, imo.
I emigrated to a MacPro because of Logic. Been using it from version 4 and I have used Cubase, but Logic felt like home.
We also have a MacBook pro for the live sets.
Both work great, although to be honest, my craked version of Logic 4 on my 733Mhz PC crashed less than my legit Logic 7 and Logic 8 on my Mac.
But generally everything works great from the box and you don't have to be MacGyver to get your computer running nice and stable.
Peace out.
http://soundcloud.com/martianarts |
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monno
Grapes Of Wrath
Started Topics :
9
Posts :
454
Posted : Jun 13, 2011 12:15
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migrating to mac has been much easier since they changed architectures from PPC to Intel. Apple has made great efforts since 2006 to bring especially windows users aboard easily and with minimum hassle. That´s not to say that such a transition will be painless. If there are plugins you rely heavily on it´s worth first to check out if all your software will run in that environment. I am mostly thinking plugins here as all major sequencers worth their salt are multiplatform by design. The built in audio and midi capabilities are much more well thought out compared to windows, which seems to have these things bolted on compared to the seamless integration of multimedia drivers on the mac. Biggest plus in my book is true multiclient audio drivers and flexible midi routing. As far as using your programs the experience will most likely be the same, but the setup and housekeeping will not give you as many grey hairs as windows clients can sometimes do. There is one caveat though in terms of smartness....If you want to go beyond the simple point and click interface and thus get into the bowels of OS X then it requires occasional use of the terminal which is somewhat more daunting than clicking around until stuff works. I have owned several macs (the oldest is 7 years old and still working) and i have never had any issues except a few here and there that were easily fixed. Having said that they are not wonder machines that never crash or stop working (they are man made after all) and each model has had it´s own peculiarities, but at least for my part the user experience has been much more painless and i have spent a LOT less time on getting random stuff to work. As always with computers your milage may vary greatly, but most of that is with the human factor in mind.
Mastering available here:
http://www.bimmelim-soundlabs.com
http://soundcloud.com/onkeldunkel
http://www.myspace.com/onkeldunkelownz
http://www.parvati-records.com |
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Suloo
IsraTrance Full Member
Started Topics :
87
Posts :
2822
Posted : Jun 13, 2011 17:37
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+1 on monno
using cubase/nuendo and live on a mac..i really enjoy it.
most pleasent on mac osx is the driver and virus fight, wich is just not there on a mac..i wont ever switch back to a win machine..maybe just for gaming, but if possible i would stick to mac therefore as well.
Or i would build a hackintosh..
http://tonymacx86.blogspot.com/search/label/CustoMac
-------......-------...-..-..-..-.-.-.-.- |
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A.Rosengren
Solid Snake
Started Topics :
266
Posts :
4138
Posted : Jun 13, 2011 17:38
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I use both pc and mac, I have more troubles and investigationsessions with pc than I have with mac. With mac you dont have to do much, you plug stuff in and it works. In theory that is, shit can always change
A
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PoM
IsraTrance Full Member
Started Topics :
162
Posts :
8087
Posted : Jun 13, 2011 18:44
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i did exaclty like you want, i still have my desktop pc ,and i bought a mpb for production.i use logic9 and cubase 5 both work stable on snow leopard, still crash sometimes(most of the times cause of 3rd party plugins..)
imo if you still have a pc and use your mac for production you can t regret it!
i like to still have my pc for some stuff like games for examples.
some avantages of the mac..when something dont work usually it dont work for lot of ppl so it get fixed or you will find about it easy in forums (for soundcards,or softwares stuff like this..)
a other one is metric halo (also uad firewire and apogee come to my mind)
if i was you i would post a topic on gearslutz to be sure their is no issu with heat and noise! the 2010 is rock stable and silent but have no idea about 2011 except that it s a beast.
if you think about updating the cpu it might not worth it, the price is often way to high for little improvment on mbp,check benchmarks. |
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ansolas
IsraTrance Full Member
Started Topics :
108
Posts :
977
Posted : Jun 16, 2011 18:31
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I switched to Mac when Apple bought Emagic.
It was the highest waste of time and money I have ever made. I loved the fantastic look of OSX compared to gray windows (XP theses days I guess.)
My g5 was so LOUD(especially in a treated studio) (poor 2 dollar 6cm Fans which cant be replaced by youself) and was replaced 3 Times.
Logic crashed each day(multiple times) and it felt totally unreliable like a timebomb.
The result was that I sold Logic and the G5.
Same story with my iBook those days, after the one year warranty was over, the screen died boom....
Me dumb guy bought a Macbook Pro after this failure, with extended warranty.(*uck u apple)
After one year again , the PSU began making noises.
They replaced the Mainboard 2 times ....
After that the screen died and I got a new Unibody Macbook poo which I am typing right now on.
It's the best Apple I had so far, but the fans starts making noises again...
(I hope that there are soon better looking PC notebooks around)
Meanwhile where I was spending a lot of money for nice looking bad working computers and software, a lot of friends were making music with 100% reliable hacked free software. how ironic huh?
I have built now a PC with windows 7 which runs 99.99% stable with Studio One.
I can finally work a whole day without any crash and the new AERO transparent GUI looks even more appealing than the Gray OSX
which even get more gray with Lion.
I've tried Studio One with FXPansion Geist! (best spend money! this year) on OSX and after some time, beach ball of death
This is my experience with OSX and Apple.
http://facebook.com/ansolas
http://ansolas.bandcamp.com/music
http://myspace.com/ansolas
http://soundcloud.com/ansolas
http://ansolas.de |
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ansolas
IsraTrance Full Member
Started Topics :
108
Posts :
977
Posted : Jun 16, 2011 19:25
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Nickberber
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
13
Posts :
15
Posted : Jun 16, 2011 19:39
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Quote:
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On 2011-06-16 18:31, ansolas wrote:
I switched to Mac when Apple bought Emagic.
It was the highest waste of time and money I have ever made. I loved the fantastic look of OSX compared to gray windows (XP theses days I guess.)
My g5 was so LOUD(especially in a treated studio) (poor 2 dollar 6cm Fans which cant be replaced by youself) and was replaced 3 Times.
Logic crashed each day(multiple times) and it felt totally unreliable like a timebomb.
The result was that I sold Logic and the G5.
Same story with my iBook those days, after the one year warranty was over, the screen died boom....
Me dumb guy bought a Macbook Pro after this failure, with extended warranty.(*uck u apple)
After one year again , the PSU began making noises.
They replaced the Mainboard 2 times ....
After that the screen died and I got a new Unibody Macbook poo which I am typing right now on.
It's the best Apple I had so far, but the fans starts making noises again...
(I hope that there are soon better looking PC notebooks around)
Meanwhile where I was spending a lot of money for nice looking bad working computers and software, a lot of friends were making music with 100% reliable hacked free software. how ironic huh?
I have built now a PC with windows 7 which runs 99.99% stable with Studio One.
I can finally work a whole day without any crash and the new AERO transparent GUI looks even more appealing than the Gray OSX
which even get more gray with Lion.
I've tried Studio One with FXPansion Geist! (best spend money! this year) on OSX and after some time, beach ball of death
This is my experience with OSX and Apple.
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Well i guess you r unlucky...i have my macbook pro 3 1/2 years now..the one with the silver keys...never had a problem...somedays i leave it on for 4-5 days(stand by) and its all good...
everything runs smoothly and sometimes under difficult situations(very hot in summer here).... |
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ansolas
IsraTrance Full Member
Started Topics :
108
Posts :
977
Posted : Jun 16, 2011 23:00
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Monib
Started Topics :
6
Posts :
49
Posted : Jun 17, 2011 09:25
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I love my Mac Book Pro, yeah I paid a little more then my wife's Lenovo, but it was worth it.
Also Logic is well worth it (even though I still use Ableton, from my PC days). I'm slowly transitioning over. Logic for students in the States is $150 so you can't beat that.
The only thing I'm missing are some of my PC plugins. No z3ta+, and had to shell out for Mac version of KarmaFX. Point being make sure all your software/licenses transfer over. |
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Larrikin
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
44
Posts :
367
Posted : Jun 17, 2011 17:26
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ansolas
IsraTrance Full Member
Started Topics :
108
Posts :
977
Posted : Jun 26, 2011 14:12
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Larrikin
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
44
Posts :
367
Posted : Jun 27, 2011 07:39
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ansolas
IsraTrance Full Member
Started Topics :
108
Posts :
977
Posted : Jun 27, 2011 19:13
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