To Mac or not to Mac?

[mazz]

Apple certainly had a corner on the pro audio and video market for a long time, mainly due to the fact that their gui was so user friendly compared to what else was available at the time and the computers, for the most part, just worked when you booted them up.

What they still have going for them is amazing industrial design. They may not have the most bells and whistles, and they may be less geekable for folks that like to do that kind of thing (a small minority), but what they always seem to do is to design stuff that makes people want it. Some of their stuff is really great looking, feels good in the hand, the scrolling feels natural and it usually just works (if you don't count ATT into the picture!!). I think that's where they shine. They will probably continue to go down the "i" path and will continue to tightly control their hardware and software, for better or worse, precisely so that when folks turn it on, it will work. I'm not defending them, because some stuff they do pisses me off, but they don't piss me off as much as Microsoft does, or that absolute garbage HP laptop that I was issued at work. I tend to have good luck with Macs, they stay viable for many years longer than any PC I've ever had or used, but I know folks that just can't seem to wrap their heads around the Mac and have lots of issues with them. I think it's a matter of preference and taste, really.

If I was a die hard Sonar user, I might be tempted by a Mac but it wouldn't make sense to make the hardware and software switch because the interruption to my workflow would be too drastic. I love Digital Performer and it's Mac only, so unless MOTU goes out of business, I'll probably be a Mac guy until the end. But I have a slave PC in my studio and am considering adding another at some point and retiring the older Pentium. The Windows machines make great secondary machines, but my Mac is still my go to workhorse.

In the end it doesn't matter what tools we use as long as we can make the music we hear in our heads come to life. When was the last time someone who wasn't a musician or in the business heard your music and asked you what compressor you used on the vocal?

[Len911]

"In the end it doesn't matter what tools we use as long as we can make the music we hear in our heads come to life. When was the last time someone who wasn't a musician or in the business heard your music and asked you what compressor you used on the vocal?"

I agree. Or anyone who wasn't a hair stylist, ask what shampoo you are using,lol! It amazes me how many vitamins, minerals and nutrition supplements are contained in shampoo to feed dead hair cells that no one will ask about anyway,lol! As many flavors as there are now to choose from, I would think they could also be used for a sport shake/digestive cleanser.

[billg1]

Bill, for what it's worth, I have a pc and bought Corel video pro x3, and it crashed quite a bit, though I haven't used it that often. I noticed a lot of other folks on the internet have had the same problems. It might be that video editors are just temperamental,lol!

Mazz, I think I went from windows 3.something to a mac because of all those crappy problems, and thought the mac was the cat's meow, until I bought some version of e-logic or e-magic, whatever the predecessor was to logic. What a nighmare. It was hardly functioning, and they had a supposedly cool reverb program that always crashed the computer. Then the next time I went to windows xp, and have been there ever since,lol! I missed out on all the vista problems. Remember the mac clones? Thank goodness I didn't get one of those. I'm not beholden to either really, just whatever version of whichever works, and is the least problematic. Apple's focus at one time was more of the "pro" type applications, but they seemed to have changed their focus to gizmos in the i line, and because they are such control and domination freaks, will probably never retain market share on anything very long. The i-phone was great, I had one for awhile, but now that the "open source" type of phones are catching up, they'll probably fade out of that into the "next big thing". The i-phone was great when I was trucking, I had the internet in the phone, and could get my next loads without having to stop and breakout the laptop, plug in the antennae, wait for the software to come up,etc. Could even go to the restroom and still be connected and not miss an opportunity,lol! Things are much better now, but I remember, and even occasionally recently, whenever a new software program or a new plug-in comes out, there are always people asking when the mac version will be available. I don't think I'll ever fall in love with any particular computer type, unless one came out in chrome, and that might be hard not to fall head over heels in love with,lol!!

I've had great luck for video with a NewTek VT5 hardware/software system and later their standalone editor SpeedEdit. Not a single crash in 10yrs. migrating through four PCs! I've also used Sony Vegas without problems. Apple just got it wrong with FCP X. It's not just the crashes, the complete application is seriously flawed. I'm sure they'll address the problems with some fixes, otherwise they'll lose their segment of the pro video editing market (which I read was about 58%!).

Other than the video editing side of things I'm digging the new computer & can't wait to dive into it for audio.

[marcblack30]

Bill, what an awesome gift! Sorry to hear FCP X is not cutting it. I was actually looking forward to buying that right away and digging in, my stuff would be pretty amateur stuff for youtube, i figured it would at least be good for that, and I don't know much about video editing, maybe iMovie will be fine for me, I'll start there and see. Mine is scheduled to be delivered this Friday so I'm looking forward to it, I believe (or at least hope) it's shipping with Snow Leopard and a free upgrade to Lion, I'd like to hold off a bit on Lion until some of the fixes are in place. Nonetheless, still excited!

[fusilierb]

You're gonna love it Mark!

I believe that Bill is a pro video editor and those guys were all very disappointed with the latest rewrite of FCP. Although down the road I'm pretty sure it will be much better than what they are used to working with. The new interface is a dramatic change and many features pro's need aren't in this new version (yet). But they were all warned, so it shouldn't be that big of a surprise.

But for us mere mortals, it's a dramatic step forward. iMovie is pretty damned powerful for a free editor. FCP is the new steroids version. I'm getting it because I've outgrown iMovie. But I'm far from a pro video editor.

Enjoy your new machine. It's some pretty sweet kool aid those guys are peddling.

[billg1]

FCP X is perfect for youtube, facebook, etc. In fact it looks like that was certainly the intended market & it should be a huge success in that regard. IMO they should have released it as an iMovie update and not charged for it, it's absolutely not worth $300. I've been on it for most of the past three days. If you do get it this free tutorial will help a lot
http://www.izzyvideo.com/final-cut-pro-x-tutorial/


If you really want a killer inexpensive video editing program Vegas Movie Studio (v11) is MUCH better. Even with the windows 7 install for bootcamp on a Mac it would still be a lot cheaper, & who knows . . . it could come in handy to have windows 7 on your Mac. I downloaded their version 11 demo and for a consumer program it really blows my mind with it's features & I've been editing video either for myself or a broadcast station as my main gig since 1988 (remember Amigas? LOL). It's simple enough for consumer use but has a lot of features found in pro packages too.

I feel like I have accumulated about a zillion $$ in video editing gear but could probably get a great deal of work done with this $100 software-
http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/moviestudiope

[marcblack30]

Well, my new iMac arrived, and now I'm kinda wishing I had either ordered it sooner or not at all because it shipped with LION and as it's been pointed out, there are many compatibility issues and I'm experiencing them all or so it feels like it I installed Boot Camp and have W7 running very nicely, but now I just have a super expensive PC!!! So I'm wondering if I should just hang in for while and use Boot Camp until the compatibility issues get resolved or return it. Stylus RMX is a big one that does not work so I'm super bummed about that.

[Len911]

I'm just curious, doesn't Apple keep their 3rd party developers informed in advance about changes so they are able to be prepared when a new OS is released? Or do they purposefully leave them in the dark giving their own software a strategic advantage? I-Mao or I-Mac?

[marcblack30]

One strange thing I noticed is that if i have my external HD's connected, it takes nearly 4 minutes to boot up, with no drives it only takes about 45 seconds, is that a normal thing for a iMac?

[eeoo]

Marc my imac boots up in about 30 seconds. I have it hooked up to my digi 003 and a firewire external drive. 4 minutes seems like forever. I dodged a bullet with the lion thing, I just got a macbook pro and it shipped with snow leopard, phew! Sorry for the hassle, I've had nothing but smooth sailing with my imac. I'm imagine the compatibility issues will get ironed out relatively soon, don't you think?

eo