Any Vista Users out there?

[vermeer]

Dave,Even as a technically-enclined person (I'm a programmer), I can't justify the time I'd loose fidling with Vista settings. Notice that most helpful Vista audio advice come from fellow users, not Microsoft. As far as they know, everything is fine.Life is too short. In the time it takes to troubleshoot Vista, I could have written two new songs. The iMac is a nice machine, but if possible, go to an Apple store and try one yourself by launching GarageBand and playing back the demo song. Then, try a MacMini and see if it makes a diffence for you. It's really surprising what you can get for the 3rd of the cost of a iMac .Vermeer

[53mph]

It's been interesting reading peoples experiences with Vista. I was thinking of upgrading to Vista in the future, but, now I've been really put off. After reloading my old XP settings from several years ago, I'm more than happy with my XPlaptop combo.Has anyone got experience of running 64bit processors with Vista?I've been wondering for a while now if there is a marked increase in audio performance with a 64bit machine or whether it was all just hype.Personally I'd like to change to an apple system but the cost of changing all the software and losing all my old sessions just doesn't make it feasible.

[vermeer]

53,The main advantage of 64-bit is that you can adress more than 4 GB of ram. For speed, the only way up is with multi-core CPU. 64-bit is not a factor currently mostly because the software is not there yet. The audio software with the most to gain from 64-bits are software samplers such as BFD and GigaStudio since they could hold more in memory and have more bandwidth. Sessions will remain at 24-bit. Most softsynths will remain at 32-bit internally since the added precision is not used by current optimized algorithms. As for the cost of switching, if you use ProTools, sessions are totally transferable from Mac to PC. The plug-ins are a different story.

[davekershaw]

Thanks Vermeer.I don't know much about Macs, so I will look into the MacMini when I can justify upgrading again - or if frustrations with xp crashes get the better of me.Unfortunately, I only got this HP pc last November, and only then because that's all I've ever used. One thing for sure - this is my last pc.I hear Macs never crash. Now that would be a novelty!Dave.

[vermeer]

Dave,I know I sound like such a fan boy, but I just cannot believe how long these things last. I'm just amazed that Apple does not forc me to upgrade but instad just keep on supporting 6-year-old systems. I can attest that not only have I never got a crash but I've never had any virus or a need for a Virus checker. This is mostly because most viruses are developped in Russia and China where Macs are not very common. Also, online theives don't bother targeting a platform that has "only" 7% of the market. Also, as a programmer, I can tell you that the inside is a whole lot cleaner and stable than Windows. I could go on and on but I'll end by mentionning that Macs can now run every Windows software, sometime even faster (MacBook Pro portables) than comparable PCs. I was sceptical until I tried it myself in mid-2006 and never went back Vermeer

[slideboardouts]

Quote:Personally I'd like to change to an apple system but the cost of changing all the software and losing all my old sessions just doesn't make it feasible.For the most part, you'd be surprised how little it costs and you probably wouldn't lose any old sessions unless you used something like sonar that is exclusively a windows program.The software cost for me when I "switched" a year ago was $0. My audio stuff all worked on macs as well, and instead of buying microsoft office I downloaded neo office for FREE and thus far have had no problem with it playing nice with microsoft office. I'm sure I'll eventually run in to something, but so far (its been nearly a year) I've had no problems in the office I work in. I did buy iwork '08 for keynote though Thats only about 80 bucks though.Quote:I hear Macs never crash. Now that would be a novelty!Don't believe what you hear. I have had one complete OSX crash on my mac. I will say this though, the crash, and pretty much every other funny thing I've had happen with my mac, happened while working in keynote '08. I'm starting to think they haven't had all the bugs worked out with keynote '08.The other thing I will say about crashes or freezes is that I would much rather it happen on my mac. When software freezes on a mac, you can still work in other programs no problem. When software freezes in windows... generally thats it. You might as well get up and make a sandwich because the whole OS will be locked up until the program starts working again. Or you can press ctrl-alt-delete and try to terminate it.That has been my experience with both macs and pc's. Neither are perfect but I do prefer the mac -Steve

[53mph]

Quote:Quote:Personally I'd like to change to an apple system but the cost of changing all the software and losing all my old sessions just doesn't make it feasible.For the most part, you'd be surprised how little it costs and you probably wouldn't lose any old sessions unless you used something like sonar that is exclusively a windows program.-SteveGuess which DAW I have?

[slideboardouts]

Quote:Quote:For the most part, you'd be surprised how little it costs and you probably wouldn't lose any old sessions unless you used something like sonar that is exclusively a windows program.-SteveGuess which DAW I have? lol...well, then yeah switching to a mac WOULD be quite costly for you. Both time and money wise -Steve

[dabresk]

Well, I have basically given up on Vista (hey vermeer...I'm a programmer too...actually an IT Director at a hospital). Anyway, I got Vista for free to test for the hospital and remote users, so I thought that I would give it a whirl on my HP at home. I have tried everything, and no go. You're correct, wasting too much time messing with it. Snap, crackle and pop. I'll wait for Windows 7 I guess. Should not be too long, 'cause the enterprise is not adopting Vista.Too much invested in the PC to switch to a Mac now (I worked for Apple for about 6 years.....I really do love the Macs, but my day job needs a PC and I work a lot at home).I'll just have to start a "Mac" kitty and save up!You know though, we have a Mac G4 at work sitting in a closet (they are planning on dumping it). Its a dual proc 1.6 with 256meg memory. Hmmmmmmm. But I would still have to get all of the software and obviously more memory.Thanks for all of the commentsBresky

[vermeer]

Speaking of Cakewalk...you may have to upgrade eventually...They recently announced a major investment from Roland.The rumor is that the transition to Vista has hurt their sales in a major way and that they needed that investment to survive. Now Cakewalk has been around for 15+ years but unlike the other DAWs (yes, Logic used to be cross-platform), they've always totally relied on Windows. In any other business (CAD, animation, accounting, etc.), that should have been a great move, but not in audio.I guess there's hope: they recently started producing their softsynth for the Mac, so who knows?Vermeer