Switch to Mac or stay with PC?

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Piewackit1
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Switch to Mac or stay with PC?

Post by Piewackit1 » Wed Sep 28, 2016 5:29 pm

My PC is starting it's slow crawl to death. I am going to replace it soon. I'm thinking Mac as they are supposed to last longer. This is more of a technical question rather than a "which is better" debate.

All of my songs are in PC format. I use Studio One Pro, which can be used on either computer. How likely is it that I can use the saved songs on the PC, with all the automation, effects, etc., on the Mac? OR...do I have to send the stems for every song in order to import them into the Mac?


Any help on this will be appreciated. Thanks.

Jeff

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Re: Switch to Mac or stay with PC?

Post by Russell Landwehr » Wed Sep 28, 2016 6:07 pm

You might not need to replace it... just start it over from scratch.... reformat and reload.
If you are comfortable with and accustomed to PC then there is no need to switch.

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Re: Switch to Mac or stay with PC?

Post by Len911 » Wed Sep 28, 2016 7:16 pm

Studio One Pro format, not pc format. Shouldn't be any difference between mac and pc versions as far as that goes.

Technically, you have more options for pc than mac and cheaper options.

Lasting longer?? Nothing based in fact. There is no evidence at all. Just google "mac design flaws".
In October of last year, court documents surfaced showing Apple was facing a class-action lawsuit over the 2011 MacBook Pro GPU issues. The lawsuit claimed a defective AMD GPU that did not function correctly because of lead-free soldering causing short circuiting and other problems. In addition to the lawsuit, the graphics problems have been a frequent complaint among a large number of users in Apple’s support forums and petitions online garnering thousands of signatures from users demanding Apple fix the widespread graphics card related issues. The graphics bug often results in screen-tearing and other display artifacts, as pictured above.
https://9to5mac.com/2015/02/19/macbook-pro-repair/

Why was a class-action lawsuit necessary? :shock:

Twenty or thirty years ago, there were more compelling reasons to go mac over pc, those reasons don't apply today.

There was a time I would strongly recommend building your own, though today, you can either find solutions already built, or even the reconditioned used computers that make me question that, because of the price point. Micro Center, Newegg, have a lot of choices.
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Re: Switch to Mac or stay with PC?

Post by andygabrys » Wed Sep 28, 2016 9:27 pm

as was mentioned above Studio One like Pro Tools or Cubase or Ableton should work 100% cross platform with no difficulties. These DAWS depend on that cross platform compatibility as part of their marketing too. They want to have a leg up on Logic no doubt.

On the computer - my 2 cents:

There is no real reason to switch. For some, MACs work, for others PC's do just fine. in 2010 or earlier, there were reasons to use PCs for virtual stuff (as not East West had a 64 bit play engine for PC but not MAC etc) but these days that's not an issue.

At one point, you could argue that one or the other was "more powerful for the money" but since most CPUs are intel I would think in raw price per performance they are very similar. Now you might be able to buy a PC at Best Buy for what seems like really cheap money - but how powerful it actually is is a question. There always seems to be a catch. A motherboard that only will host 16 GB ram, or some other thing. So many people build their own.

if you want to build a pc, go crazy. But there is a reason why Vision DAW and other places exist though - cause they have builds that work, and you pay extra for them. Not every PC build is great or totally certified to never have compatibility issues. I think most would agree.

If you want to buy a new mac, go crazy too. Of course Apple makes a few colossal mess ups here and there too, so buyer beware.

but I think the smart money is on 2010-2013 Mac Pro 5,1 used off eBay or similar sellers You can get a 12 core, with 32 GB ram, that will power you a LONG TIME for not much. Check them out.

Careful not 4,1 with upgraded processor trays and firmware hack although those will also work as they are a little older and a little sketchier.

Naturally not everybody who has already responded (Len LOL) will agree, and you might not either, but I am talking a solid build and bang for your buck. They are proven. There are bazillions of them around so you can find spare parts, they are user serviceable and upgradable, with the only drawback being that you can't use Thunderbolt peripherals with them, and there are no PCI thunderbolt cards out there (although you can get PC's with those on board).

Overkill? Perhaps depending on how much virtual stuff you run.
Robust? Certainly!

Just to add fuel for the ensuing debate.

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Re: Switch to Mac or stay with PC?

Post by Len911 » Wed Sep 28, 2016 11:34 pm

If it wasn't for lack of support for the most part of third party vst's, Linux would probably be the OS of choice,lol!

It's funny, I finally upgraded my old Windows XP computer I use for the internet. :shock:

I know, xp hasn't been supported, and browsers tend to keep dropping out, etc. So I backed up my tutorials I've downloaded and cleared the whole disk and installed Debian Linux. Now I can use Chromium again, much faster.

Also a couple of programs I've used on this computer like Audacity and Sonic Visualiser, happen to have linux versions.

The weird thing is, I have an old AMD 64bit chip, that was only used as 32bit for xp, and now it is being used as 64bit in the linux os. :P :lol:

What are the specs on your PC? Is there any specific sign it is crawling to a slow death?
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Re: Switch to Mac or stay with PC?

Post by Len911 » Wed Sep 28, 2016 11:42 pm

[quoteOf course you can also exchange projects between Mac OS X and PC Windows systems. ][/quote]
quote from steinberg, which is also cross platform, mac and pc.
https://www.steinberg.net/en/support/kn ... /2020.html

Just a follow up from the earlier question if Project One Project files would be interchangeable.
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Re: Switch to Mac or stay with PC?

Post by Piewackit1 » Thu Sep 29, 2016 6:54 am

Thanks guys. It seems the files are interchangeable between Mac and PC. It gives me some things to think about. Maybe I should try Russell's idea first and reformat. I don't know. A lot to think about.


Jeff

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Re: Switch to Mac or stay with PC?

Post by mojobone » Thu Sep 29, 2016 2:16 pm

At this point in time, I see no advantage to sticking with Mac hardware, unless you intend to record your next opus on an iOS device.
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Re: Switch to Mac or stay with PC?

Post by Len911 » Thu Sep 29, 2016 7:26 pm

Piewackit1 wrote:Thanks guys. It seems the files are interchangeable between Mac and PC. It gives me some things to think about. Maybe I should try Russell's idea first and reformat. I don't know. A lot to think about.


Jeff
Jeff, posting your computer specs would give a lot of insight.
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Re: Switch to Mac or stay with PC?

Post by Piewackit1 » Fri Sep 30, 2016 7:05 am

It's an Alienware Aurora I bought about 6 years ago. 6GB of RAM 920@ 2.67 GHz. It is running Windows 10, but there are errors from time to time...becoming more and more frequent. The internet card no longer works(had to go wireless), the fans do funny things and the sound card for the speakers is not working properly. That is why I thought it may be time to say goodbye to it, but maybe adding some RAM and a reformat will give it more life.

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