PC vs Mac for music software

[2elliot]

I've recently purchased a second hand IMac(£350) that came with Logic Pro X. It's relatively straightforward to start recording,  but noticeably not a PC which is all I'd previously used.  No latency issues from the off using a Focusrite interface.  Boat loads of videos on YouTube to help you get started. It just works. 

[Shambo]

Ah, the age old internet fight of Mac versus PC.

An emotive issue for sure and one that needs to be delicately handled.

PC is the correct answer. Apple owners make me sick. 🤢

[Cuzzie]

17 minutes ago, Shambo said:

Ah, the age old internet fight of Mac versus PC.

An emotive issue for sure and one that needs to be delicately handled.

PC is the correct answer. Apple owners make me sick. 🤢

What if you own both - does it cancel out?!

[EBS_freak]

Isn't the the stock answer for this generally as follows -

Music apps - Mac

Photo apps - Mac

Video editing/rendering apps - PC

Gaming - PC

VR - PC

Everything else, doesn't really matter

 

EDIT : Coffee shop socialite - Mac

Edited May 23, 2020 by EBS_freak

[sammybee]

3 minutes ago, EBS_freak said:

Everything else, doesn't really matter

You forgot professional software development - Mac/Linux

[EBS_freak]

4 minutes ago, sammybee said:

You forgot professional software development - Mac/Linux

Well, that all depends what you are developing. There will be a load of MS developers that will disagree with you!

[Woodinblack]

31 minutes ago, EBS_freak said:

Well, that all depends what you are developing. There will be a load of MS developers that will disagree with you!

I develop windows software. I have both. Windows for developing software, Mac for everything else. Well, normally, this post is being written on a PC, as my mac is playing a version of 'I can't go for that' in Logic Pro X on the mac mini, that I am going to send to my group to give them a template for what we are working on.

[EBS_freak]

7 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

I develop windows software. I have both. Windows for developing software, Mac for everything else. Well, normally, this post is being written on a PC, as my mac is playing a version of 'I can't go for that' in Logic Pro X on the mac mini, that I am going to send to my group to give them a template for what we are working on.

Same - I develop on both *nix and windows platforms. As a preference, I go for the Mac unless I absolutely have something that can only be done in Windows. (I can't be bothered with running up VMs).

[wateroftyne]

1 hour ago, Shambo said:

PC is the correct answer. Apple owners make me sick. 🤢

Sorry.

[sammybee]

1 hour ago, EBS_freak said:

Well, that all depends what you are developing. There will be a load of MS developers that will disagree with you!

Lots of Windows developers use Macs

[Shambo]

1 hour ago, Cuzzie said:

What if you own both - does it cancel out?!

Not round my house young man

 

29 minutes ago, wateroftyne said:

Sorry.

Condescendence? From a Mac user? Who'd have believed it!

[EBS_freak]

8 minutes ago, sammybee said:

Lots of Windows developers use Macs

Indeed they do. But they are the minority.

And of those, a percentage are running their Windows environment in a VM. 

[EBS_freak]

1 minute ago, Shambo said:

Condescendence? From a Mac user? Who'd have believed it!

If you want to flex on a Mac user, just start uttering words like Bitcoin or Video rendering. Most Macs will not cope or be totally weedy compared to a PC... thats if they haven't suffered thermal issues in the process.

[Shambo]

1 minute ago, EBS_freak said:

If you want to flex on a Mac user, just start uttering words like Bitcoin or Video rendering. Most Macs will not cope or be totally weedy compared to a PC... thats if they haven't suffered thermal issues in the process.

These threads always seem to follow the same path.

OP asks should I buy a Mac or PC. A load of Mac users turn up and say buy a Mac because they're much, much betterer than a PC. A load of PC users turn up and say, " actually I've got Apple Marketing from 2006 on the phone, and they want their old advertising campaign back".

I was just trying to have a bit of fun with it.

[EBS_freak]

21 minutes ago, Shambo said:

These threads always seem to follow the same path.

OP asks should I buy a Mac or PC. A load of Mac users turn up and say buy a Mac because they're much, much betterer than a PC. A load of PC users turn up and say, " actually I've got Apple Marketing from 2006 on the phone, and they want their old advertising campaign back".

I was just trying to have a bit of fun with it.

The correct answer is... buy whatever you feel... because people tend to do that whatever others say anyway.

Its like Reaper, Cubase, Ableton, Logic whatever whatever... they all do the job. The main factor will always inevitably come down to price.

 

[BassBus]

...and as a result I'm going to make one side very happy and the other side very unhappy. 

Mods, as this thread has served its purpose maybe it should be locked before Harry Hill appears. 😄 

[Woodinblack]

23 minutes ago, BassBus said:

...and as a result I'm going to make one side very happy and the other side very unhappy. 

Not sure there are sides. You asked for advice, you got some, noone on here really cares what you use (none of the grown-ups anyway!), the only person it matters to is you.

Frankly the more interesting question is what DAW you are going to use, and if you are going to use software instruments. Not sure what platform you are going for but if you end up with a mac, its well worth getting MainStage, its great value. 

[fiatcoupe432]

In my studio a ran a mac tower 5.1 6 core 3. 2 ghz and 64 gb ram

Plenty of very heavy session and some with 85 100 tracks and vst and not a problem at all, it run so smooth...

had it for 3 years and only replaced the psu £80.

if I want I can upgrade more ram.

very easy to dissamble if something goes wrong.

I also I have a mac pro 2016 and the login board has died after a year! Sended back (insurance) got a new one in 2017 now there is no sound even with tge headphones (no insurance) and now is good for the bin.

mac tower 5.1 I reccomend it to everyone powerful  and super reliable

You could get one for 500 600  pounds

[Richard R]

One consideration,  if the mac/pc/linux box will be in the same room as you are recording is fan noise. Gaming PCs are rather loud when the fan kicks in, and quite capable of ruining a take, so I would hesitate at buying one. Scan computers build dedicated music PCs with low latency components where it matters, and some entirely silent machines. Not cheap, but utterly reliable. 

As others have said, if you like Mac, buy Mac. If you haven't used a Mac, stick to a PC. Pretty much anything will cope with 16 tracks and a few plugins.

 

[BassBus]

17 minutes ago, Richard R said:

One consideration,  if the mac/pc/linux box will be in the same room as you are recording is fan noise. Gaming PCs are rather loud when the fan kicks in, and quite capable of ruining a take, so I would hesitate at buying one. Scan computers build dedicated music PCs with low latency components where it matters, and some entirely silent machines. Not cheap, but utterly reliable. 

Fan noise is not going to be an issue as I go direct with all my recording. Thanks for the heads up on Scan computers. Will look into them.

[Bass Culture]

Slight tangent this, but can anyone point me in the direction of a decent (physical) guide for using either Logic Pro X or Garageband?  I've a Macbook Pro I originally bought to run theatre lighting software but - like many of you - have been 'inspired' by lockdown to do some home recording.  I quickly lose the will to live trying to wade through online Help to find out how to turn the metronome up on Garageband so I'd really like a physical manual I can refer to more easily...before I lose the will to live trying to find out how to turn the metronome up in Garageband. 😀

[Woodinblack]

26 minutes ago, Bass Culture said:

Slight tangent this, but can anyone point me in the direction of a decent (physical) guide for using either Logic Pro X or Garageband?  I've a Macbook Pro I originally bought to run theatre lighting software but - like many of you - have been 'inspired' by lockdown to do some home recording.  I quickly lose the will to live trying to wade through online Help to find out how to turn the metronome up on Garageband so I'd really like a physical manual I can refer to more easily...before I lose the will to live trying to find out how to turn the metronome up in Garageband. 😀

Can't help with a manual as I am not one for such things, but the metronome volume is in Preferences->Metronome!

[Bass Culture]

1 hour ago, Woodinblack said:

Can't help with a manual as I am not one for such things, but the metronome volume is in Preferences->Metronome!

That's a start - thank you!

[EBS_freak]

1 minute ago, Bass Culture said:

That's a start - thank you!

https://www.musictech.net/guides/essential-guide/logic-pro-x-the-beginners-guide/

[adamg67]

On 24/05/2020 at 09:03, Richard R said:

One consideration,  if the mac/pc/linux box will be in the same room as you are recording is fan noise. Gaming PCs are rather loud when the fan kicks in, and quite capable of ruining a take, so I would hesitate at buying one. Scan computers build dedicated music PCs with low latency components where it matters, and some entirely silent machines. Not cheap, but utterly reliable. 

As others have said, if you like Mac, buy Mac. If you haven't used a Mac, stick to a PC. Pretty much anything will cope with 16 tracks and a few plugins.

Quiet PC also build... you guessed it... quiet PCs! https://www.quietpc.com/

I have one of their silent UltraNUC boxes but not for music (and not running windows, it's a linux box). I run a Scan gaming PC for music. That can be noisy when running lots of plugins which normally doesn't matter as I'm not using a mic. When I'm using a mic I just bounce everything to one track and turn the plugins off and it goes quiet.

I have a PC because Linux is part of my job (and I love it), although to be fair now you can just run Linux in a VM on either Mac or Windows, and in recent years it's become a lot more usable as people aim more and more hardware and software at both platforms. Everything has worked out of the box for me. I might try a macbook if I need a smaller lighter laptop sometime, mine is pretty beefy as I don't usually take it anywhere (and it has a desktop class processor instead of a mobile one). I like my iPad Pro, works a treat with iRig, so I'm not an Apple hater at all.

When I got my current laptop it was about twice the spec of the best MacBook Pro for about 2/3 of the price, although I think Apple have caught up a bit on specs since then. I've never had the performance meter in my DAW above 50% and I like double tracking things with seperate tracks for separate sections. For my amateur attempts at mixing I dont even bounce the tracks so I end up running a lot of stuff and it has never struggled. It's a couple of years old now as well.