Getting a Mac
Yeah, the hard drives must be very fast and have good cache! (I use 7200RPM, 8mb cache) (forgot about that)
I use mac. I must note though, as Pedro did, a huge con of mac is the price tag. ESPECIALLY IF:
You are already a PC user. The cost of switching software and hardware (due to incompatibilities) can run you an extra 800$. I recently had a friend that wanted to switch to mac. Although the initial price tag was in the 2400$ range, by the time he swtiched software and interfaces, it would have ran him into the 3K mark.
If you get the pieces at the right time, you can build a very nice PC for around half the price.
You are already a PC user. The cost of switching software and hardware (due to incompatibilities) can run you an extra 800$. I recently had a friend that wanted to switch to mac. Although the initial price tag was in the 2400$ range, by the time he swtiched software and interfaces, it would have ran him into the 3K mark.
If you get the pieces at the right time, you can build a very nice PC for around half the price.
Quote:Original post by Pedro Camacho
Yeah, the hard drives must be very fast and have good cache! (I use 7200RPM, 8mb cache) (forgot about that)
I also use the 7200, and have found them to be sufficient, especially if the processors can keep up with the multiple drives :)!
Yes a PC can be really cheaper than a mac. Also the good thing about a PC is that almost everyday a new free VST is coming out (most of them are useless but there are some pearls now and then).
We use PC's at our dev, but every new sound designer/musician we get always moans and trys to get us to switch, hey, i did it too :) We now have 2 G5's in addition to all the PC's, but we rarely use them. When all the dev teams are using PC, the video guys are using PC and our audio tools are based on PC it becomes rather counter productive. Like has been mentioned, you have to replace all your software and relearn a lot of things. We just don't have time for that when the difference is ultimately apples and oranges. PC's and Mac's are both great, the software is all pretty similar too, it's not as polarised as it used to be, so for us it really isn't worth the hassle.
What exactly was wrong with your Dell? We have a lot of dells and they're all incredible for audio work, it tends to be certain audio card drivers and firewire/audio card combos that cause any problems we have. Because we're a large business they don't install all the crap on ours like they do with the consumer machines, did you have a big clean out when you first got the machine? I know the comsumer ones come filled to the brim with crap, i think it's how they manage to sell them at such low prices...
What exactly was wrong with your Dell? We have a lot of dells and they're all incredible for audio work, it tends to be certain audio card drivers and firewire/audio card combos that cause any problems we have. Because we're a large business they don't install all the crap on ours like they do with the consumer machines, did you have a big clean out when you first got the machine? I know the comsumer ones come filled to the brim with crap, i think it's how they manage to sell them at such low prices...
Yeah, I started off on a PC and then transitioned to a Mac at work. Both systems have their pros and cons.
My major beef with Dell is the customer service. It is frustrating to me that when I call a company that is based in the same state I live (infact I'm only three hours away from their HQ) I only talk with Customer service reps from the other side of the globe. Plus, I've had to wait more than two weeks for something to ship to me when I can drive there and back easily in one day.
Problems with my computer:
1) My first mistake was not swiping the drive clean and starting fresh. I should have done this from the start. Now I've back everything up and am going to swipe it clean.
2) Using one hard drive. This was making it really hard on my CPU since I'm using Sonar and several East West plugins at one time. I just purchased a faster hard drive for my secondary. I'll have more space and speed.
3) RAM: I started with 1.5 and then upgraded to 2 Gigs. When I get more cash, I plan to upgrade to 3 Gigs. I'm not planning on doing 4 Gigs of RAM because I've done research about Windows XP only supporting up to 3 Gigs- past that and you're wasting space and money. I've checked this with several of my computer science PhD friends and they confirmed it. If doing these things doesn't help well.... I'm not sure what will.
I have decent specs:
Pent. D 2.66 Ghz
2 GIG DDR2 RAM
256 Nvidia card
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Plat (I might need to upgrade my audio card sometime).
My Mac at work has its own issues...and since Dell says I'm past my 21 day return policy, I'm stuck with this XPS. (That return policy is crap).
I hope swiping it back to a clean slate- having two hard drives to split up the duties (i.e. one for OS, one for samples and comps) and more RAM will help make my computer perform better.
Thanks for all of the input guys!
My major beef with Dell is the customer service. It is frustrating to me that when I call a company that is based in the same state I live (infact I'm only three hours away from their HQ) I only talk with Customer service reps from the other side of the globe. Plus, I've had to wait more than two weeks for something to ship to me when I can drive there and back easily in one day.
Problems with my computer:
1) My first mistake was not swiping the drive clean and starting fresh. I should have done this from the start. Now I've back everything up and am going to swipe it clean.
2) Using one hard drive. This was making it really hard on my CPU since I'm using Sonar and several East West plugins at one time. I just purchased a faster hard drive for my secondary. I'll have more space and speed.
3) RAM: I started with 1.5 and then upgraded to 2 Gigs. When I get more cash, I plan to upgrade to 3 Gigs. I'm not planning on doing 4 Gigs of RAM because I've done research about Windows XP only supporting up to 3 Gigs- past that and you're wasting space and money. I've checked this with several of my computer science PhD friends and they confirmed it. If doing these things doesn't help well.... I'm not sure what will.
I have decent specs:
Pent. D 2.66 Ghz
2 GIG DDR2 RAM
256 Nvidia card
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Plat (I might need to upgrade my audio card sometime).
My Mac at work has its own issues...and since Dell says I'm past my 21 day return policy, I'm stuck with this XPS. (That return policy is crap).
I hope swiping it back to a clean slate- having two hard drives to split up the duties (i.e. one for OS, one for samples and comps) and more RAM will help make my computer perform better.
Thanks for all of the input guys!
I don't know why everyone makes such a fuss about the mac single button mouse. I was using multibutton mice on macs years ago without any trouble. The mice you get with most PC's as standard are rubbish aswell so you end up replacing them too... what's the big deal?
Yeah, 2 drives and 2 gig of RAM are pretty much minimum spec for audio workstations, it's been that way for years and is only going to get worse the more software instruments and high res audio you use... and then you add surround and stab yourself in the heart all over again :(
We use RAID arrays across the board here and never have problems with HDs. If you don't get a RAID, i'd personally go for 3 drives. One for system stuff and apps, one for samples, softsamplers, synths, etc and one for your audio data. Videos can be put on whatever drive is being used the least.
There is always work arounds though. I remember running a quicktime movie in Pro Tools for the first time about ten years ago, everyone said it was madness. Maximum of eight tracks, maybe an EQ plug in if you were really lucky. We always managed to fiddle it to get the most out of it... nowadays people just chuck plug ins around with abandon and don't realise how lucky they are! ;D
I've also heard the rumours about problems having 'too much' memory, funny isn't it. I've never really needed more than 2 gig... but then i don't use softsamplers reading from RAM very much.
Have you been scanning your system for dodgey stuff regulary? I use (i think, i'm on a different machine right now) Search and Destroy, AdAware, CCleaner and Windows Defender (which is crap), plus use RegCleaner to clear out all the scum on my system. There may be a load of processes running in the background that you're not aware of... although i imagine you've probably done all this, thought i'd mention anyway :)
cheers
Yeah, 2 drives and 2 gig of RAM are pretty much minimum spec for audio workstations, it's been that way for years and is only going to get worse the more software instruments and high res audio you use... and then you add surround and stab yourself in the heart all over again :(
We use RAID arrays across the board here and never have problems with HDs. If you don't get a RAID, i'd personally go for 3 drives. One for system stuff and apps, one for samples, softsamplers, synths, etc and one for your audio data. Videos can be put on whatever drive is being used the least.
There is always work arounds though. I remember running a quicktime movie in Pro Tools for the first time about ten years ago, everyone said it was madness. Maximum of eight tracks, maybe an EQ plug in if you were really lucky. We always managed to fiddle it to get the most out of it... nowadays people just chuck plug ins around with abandon and don't realise how lucky they are! ;D
I've also heard the rumours about problems having 'too much' memory, funny isn't it. I've never really needed more than 2 gig... but then i don't use softsamplers reading from RAM very much.
Have you been scanning your system for dodgey stuff regulary? I use (i think, i'm on a different machine right now) Search and Destroy, AdAware, CCleaner and Windows Defender (which is crap), plus use RegCleaner to clear out all the scum on my system. There may be a load of processes running in the background that you're not aware of... although i imagine you've probably done all this, thought i'd mention anyway :)
cheers
Yes, it's worth making sure nothing like the MS Office quick start or the Indexing service is running on your PC for optimal audio performance. Also, things like virus checkers are probably a bad idea.
Interestingly it might be worth having separate hard drives for large sampled instruments (eg. the East West stuff) - if you have 2 separate instruments in one track on the same physical disk (or the same IDE channel, if you have older drives) then they're going to be competing for disk bandwidth. Buying a new SATA disk for an instrument might seem a bit excessive, but there's no reason you couldn't use it for storing backups and stuff as well. :)
Interestingly it might be worth having separate hard drives for large sampled instruments (eg. the East West stuff) - if you have 2 separate instruments in one track on the same physical disk (or the same IDE channel, if you have older drives) then they're going to be competing for disk bandwidth. Buying a new SATA disk for an instrument might seem a bit excessive, but there's no reason you couldn't use it for storing backups and stuff as well. :)
Yeah, both drives I have are Serial ATA, 7200 RPM with 16 MB cache.
I hope they'll work well.
Thanks for the input.
I hope they'll work well.
Thanks for the input.
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