Caliente123
Which is Best: Mac or PC for a Music Computer
Straight Talk from Tweak
Go to any computer gear-head forum, including studio-central, and simply ask this troubling question. Suddenly the air changes around you. For a moment, you sense a cold scrutiny from everyone around you, the same kind of vibe the significant other gave you last year when you forgot valentines day (again!). Senior members, moderators, and administrators rush out of the dugout to say "You didn't really mean to ask that question, right?" "We're not going there, Sorry!" But its usually too late. You already stuck your finger directly in the crusty wounds left by a two decades long platform war.
Apple Mac Pro Dual Quad-Core 2.8GHz Xeon Desktop Computer
The Apple Mac Pro is the fastest Mac ever produced to date - perfect for all your audio and video needs. Eight-core processing power was once only top-of-the-line. Now it comes standard. This time around, performance is more phenomenal than ever — up to two times faster than the previous standard-configuration Mac Pro. And with the multicore technology enhancements of Mac OS X Leopard, the new Mac Pro is a force to be reckoned with.
Experienced forum users know that nothing starts a major brawl as quickly as a PC vs. Mac debate. Its kind of like being in my least favored neighborhood tavern on the south side of Chicago. As soon as some idiot shouts out, "I used a Mac for music AND IT SUCKED!" (substitute "PC" if you are already offended). It is as if someone just smashed a beer bottle on the bar! Mayhem ensues. Somebody fuels the jukebox with 30 plays of Elton John's Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting. The internet traffic on the forum dramatically rises and people around the world login just to watch the impending bloodbath. In this corner, we have the Mac wine-cooler sniffers, noses high in the air, holding up placards of Steve Jobs, the messiah of Macdom. In that corner, we have the Microsoft quarter-beer slammers, brandishing the banner of Bill Gates, with the evil subculture of code hacks already behind the scenes concocting a virus to slip into their own team's beer. You have the guys that would rather fight than switch, the ex-hippie peacemakers who try to break it up and make us love each other, the guys that don't care what side they are on as long as they get to kick some A.. and "Big Al" type bouncers that start kicking people off the board and into the alley. Why? Every person feels they have the intelligence to spew the magic utterance that can end the war for eternity. The next person retorts with an insult, and both end up on the floor, rolling in the spilt beer and broken glass. Mac or PC? If you are lucky, a few cogent arguments might make it through the din that actually makes sense.
Deciding which computer platform is more of a far reaching decision than which mixer, mic, monitor or who you want to go drinking with. I am taking you here because you guys that are new really need to know the issues and I am equipped to answer it in a somewhat balanced way. I have and use both. I'll tell you straight off, this is another one of those areas where there is no "best", no definitive answer. It is different for everyone. A computer is just a tool, not a religion. Use what you like. Everyone can have their own opinion. For what it is worth to you, here is mine.
But rather than just tell you what the strengths are of each platform, which would be dreadfully boring and incomplete, I'm going to tell you where the major irritations are on both, and both platforms have their share. This may help reveal where "the bottom line" is for you on this decision. Rather than focus on what is best, you might consider what is going to bug the heck out of you once you get it. Here's the stuff you realize after you invest in a platform, often after its too late.
Cost Factors
Though Macs are getting cheaper for the more basic machines like the iMac, a full-fledged powerful desktop Mac is going to cost more than a PC of equivalent power. Expect to pay $2500-$3000 for the better PowerMacs without any add-ons like extra drives and memory that you will want if you are serious about making full-scale productions. So add another grand. Macs have always been more expensive. Adding to this cost is a hefty future cost of ownership: There is no way to substantially upgrade your Mac, other than adding memory, drives, and peripherals. You won't find motherboards, new CPUs, power supplies, cases and other parts you can snap together to give you a new Mac out of your old one.
That makes the Mac a disposable machine. You can't buy a "bare-boned" Mac without a mouse, keyboard, drives. When you want a faster processor, you buy a new machine. If you are lucky you can salvage the hard drives. Of course, you can keep your USB and Firewire drives. The memory might not go over too well. Cards that are PCI based could be trouble. The Mac Pro, for example, has dropped PCI support in favor of PCIe. Apple switches gears a lot. They got their users hooked on expensive SCSI drives, then dropped them. Developed monitors with special ADC connectors, then dropped those. Now PCI is going away, much the chagrin of those of us depending on PCI slots for our UAD-1 cards and SCSI connection to our older Emu and Akai samplers. Sigh. When you go Mac and want to stay Mac you are committing yourself following Apple through these often expensive changeovers. So you may have to pay in more than one way when you feel your computer has gotten old and slow.
PCs are cheaper, not only initially, but also in the long term because they are upgradeable. In fact, it is probably better to build your own from the very start rather than buy one off the shelf. Why? So you can control the quality of the components, and get the motherboard with the the slots and connections you need. You can still buy boards with legacy slots and connectors for old hardware, if you look. When the system gets old, you can usually get away with snapping in a new motherboard and CPU and perhaps new memory. You can sometimes get the equivalent of a whole new, much faster PC for around $400-700. At that cost you could upgrade your PC every two years and always have a fast machine. That has become an hobby in and of itself for many people, and its fun, but it does not help you make music, unfortunately.
Rain Recording Element X1 Quad Core Desktop Audio Computer
Introducing Element X, the most powerful Rain digital audio workstation ever. With a hardware configuration purposefully designed to prevent data bottlenecks, excess noise and audio engine seizure, Element X provides the ideal platform for your limitless creativity.
Performance vs. Productivity
That Macs are faster than PCs is a myth. Lets forget about benchmarks and MIPS for a second and let me be subjective. To me, they feel slightly slower in terms of how fast you can work. Is this a big deal? Not really. The Mac makes up for it by providing a more conflict resistant system, so in the end, the Mac comes out being more productive. The time you save by not tweaking and troubleshooting things on the system gives you more time to work on your projects. Yes, PCs can be tweaked and tuned for high performance. You can overclock the CPU, speed up memory, optimize things all the way to hard disk cluster size. You can add bigger fans, hyped up video cards and tweak BIOS variables for a week if you want and sometimes get it to give up superb performance. Yet all of this tweaking detracts in a major way from making music. The ironic thing is by giving more performance you get less productivity. But I will say that a fast well tweaked PC is f a s t! And if you tweak your windows installation performance screams. That is a thing of beauty in itself when you are working hard and your PC is not only keeping up with you but kicking you in butt to work even faster. That is something the Macfolk are least apt to understand (And also why hardcore gamers are all on PCs).
PCs are harder to deal with? Consider. With so many different motherboards on the market and several different chipsets controlling things, conflicts are more likely to arise. Vendors of PC parts typically release products before they are finished and expect you to update them when you uncover the problems. Because of this market tendency, you have no choice other than to try to troubleshoot and fix these problems all by yourself when they occur. Is it a hardware issue? BIOS setting? A driver? The PCI slot in which you installed the soundcard? Or is it in the registry? A virus? Worm? Service Pack incompatibility? You may have to check out "everything" and boot and reboot 3, 10, or in the case of a nightmare issue, 50 times before you get it solved.
With the Mac you get it one way, the way it works, right out of the box. All motherboards come from Apple. The OS comes from Apple. Apple puts together all the machines after a lot of testing. There is far less of a chance of failure. If things do go bad its not so hard to find the culprit. Adding a peripheral or installing software to a Mac is rarely difficult. It is rather amazing how little one does to maintain the machine. That alone makes the Mac "worth it" for many people and it more than offsets any gains made by tweaking a BIOS.
Macs don't have the problems that PCs have with viruses and worms, at least not yet. Some people don't use any virus protection at all, something that is unthinkable on a PC that is connected to the internet. You don't have to subscribe to an internet security regime and wait for it to load every time you boot your computer. You don't have to worry as much about your neighbors prying into your financial information or browsing your system. I think most Mac users don't even think about those issues, sort of like the way computing was in the early 90's, but now with nothing slowing down your internet travels.
Musical Considerations
Notice we have not said a word about music yet. So lets go there now, but be forewarned, these are general statements that might not always apply.
Both platforms share many software titles though important ones are exclusive, that is, they only run on one platform. The PC has Sonar, Sound Forge, Fruity loops, Adobe Audition exclusively. The Macs have Logic, GarageBand, Digital Performer, Peak, Soundtrack Pro exclusively. Of course there are more. Both platforms can run Cubase SX, Nuendo, and Pro Tools LE. Thankfully, many (though not all) of the softsynths and samplers and plugins are cross platform. I've compared these enough in other parts of TweakHeadz Lab, so I don't need to do it again here.
But what we can talk about is the raw processing power and speed of operation. In my experience, a fast PC running Sonar or Cubase is outstandingly fast, cutting through audio operations with ease. A Mac G5 has a tremendous reserve of power under the hood for realtime plugin processing, though it may not be as fast with the screen redraws. Its hard to say anything more meaningful than that, speaking generally. Every PC is a different cluster of variables. The important thing on the PC platform is getting these variables right.
Straight Talk from Tweak
Go to any computer gear-head forum, including studio-central, and simply ask this troubling question. Suddenly the air changes around you. For a moment, you sense a cold scrutiny from everyone around you, the same kind of vibe the significant other gave you last year when you forgot valentines day (again!). Senior members, moderators, and administrators rush out of the dugout to say "You didn't really mean to ask that question, right?" "We're not going there, Sorry!" But its usually too late. You already stuck your finger directly in the crusty wounds left by a two decades long platform war.
Apple Mac Pro Dual Quad-Core 2.8GHz Xeon Desktop Computer
The Apple Mac Pro is the fastest Mac ever produced to date - perfect for all your audio and video needs. Eight-core processing power was once only top-of-the-line. Now it comes standard. This time around, performance is more phenomenal than ever — up to two times faster than the previous standard-configuration Mac Pro. And with the multicore technology enhancements of Mac OS X Leopard, the new Mac Pro is a force to be reckoned with.
Experienced forum users know that nothing starts a major brawl as quickly as a PC vs. Mac debate. Its kind of like being in my least favored neighborhood tavern on the south side of Chicago. As soon as some idiot shouts out, "I used a Mac for music AND IT SUCKED!" (substitute "PC" if you are already offended). It is as if someone just smashed a beer bottle on the bar! Mayhem ensues. Somebody fuels the jukebox with 30 plays of Elton John's Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting. The internet traffic on the forum dramatically rises and people around the world login just to watch the impending bloodbath. In this corner, we have the Mac wine-cooler sniffers, noses high in the air, holding up placards of Steve Jobs, the messiah of Macdom. In that corner, we have the Microsoft quarter-beer slammers, brandishing the banner of Bill Gates, with the evil subculture of code hacks already behind the scenes concocting a virus to slip into their own team's beer. You have the guys that would rather fight than switch, the ex-hippie peacemakers who try to break it up and make us love each other, the guys that don't care what side they are on as long as they get to kick some A.. and "Big Al" type bouncers that start kicking people off the board and into the alley. Why? Every person feels they have the intelligence to spew the magic utterance that can end the war for eternity. The next person retorts with an insult, and both end up on the floor, rolling in the spilt beer and broken glass. Mac or PC? If you are lucky, a few cogent arguments might make it through the din that actually makes sense.
Deciding which computer platform is more of a far reaching decision than which mixer, mic, monitor or who you want to go drinking with. I am taking you here because you guys that are new really need to know the issues and I am equipped to answer it in a somewhat balanced way. I have and use both. I'll tell you straight off, this is another one of those areas where there is no "best", no definitive answer. It is different for everyone. A computer is just a tool, not a religion. Use what you like. Everyone can have their own opinion. For what it is worth to you, here is mine.
But rather than just tell you what the strengths are of each platform, which would be dreadfully boring and incomplete, I'm going to tell you where the major irritations are on both, and both platforms have their share. This may help reveal where "the bottom line" is for you on this decision. Rather than focus on what is best, you might consider what is going to bug the heck out of you once you get it. Here's the stuff you realize after you invest in a platform, often after its too late.
Cost Factors
Though Macs are getting cheaper for the more basic machines like the iMac, a full-fledged powerful desktop Mac is going to cost more than a PC of equivalent power. Expect to pay $2500-$3000 for the better PowerMacs without any add-ons like extra drives and memory that you will want if you are serious about making full-scale productions. So add another grand. Macs have always been more expensive. Adding to this cost is a hefty future cost of ownership: There is no way to substantially upgrade your Mac, other than adding memory, drives, and peripherals. You won't find motherboards, new CPUs, power supplies, cases and other parts you can snap together to give you a new Mac out of your old one.
That makes the Mac a disposable machine. You can't buy a "bare-boned" Mac without a mouse, keyboard, drives. When you want a faster processor, you buy a new machine. If you are lucky you can salvage the hard drives. Of course, you can keep your USB and Firewire drives. The memory might not go over too well. Cards that are PCI based could be trouble. The Mac Pro, for example, has dropped PCI support in favor of PCIe. Apple switches gears a lot. They got their users hooked on expensive SCSI drives, then dropped them. Developed monitors with special ADC connectors, then dropped those. Now PCI is going away, much the chagrin of those of us depending on PCI slots for our UAD-1 cards and SCSI connection to our older Emu and Akai samplers. Sigh. When you go Mac and want to stay Mac you are committing yourself following Apple through these often expensive changeovers. So you may have to pay in more than one way when you feel your computer has gotten old and slow.
PCs are cheaper, not only initially, but also in the long term because they are upgradeable. In fact, it is probably better to build your own from the very start rather than buy one off the shelf. Why? So you can control the quality of the components, and get the motherboard with the the slots and connections you need. You can still buy boards with legacy slots and connectors for old hardware, if you look. When the system gets old, you can usually get away with snapping in a new motherboard and CPU and perhaps new memory. You can sometimes get the equivalent of a whole new, much faster PC for around $400-700. At that cost you could upgrade your PC every two years and always have a fast machine. That has become an hobby in and of itself for many people, and its fun, but it does not help you make music, unfortunately.
Rain Recording Element X1 Quad Core Desktop Audio Computer
Introducing Element X, the most powerful Rain digital audio workstation ever. With a hardware configuration purposefully designed to prevent data bottlenecks, excess noise and audio engine seizure, Element X provides the ideal platform for your limitless creativity.
Performance vs. Productivity
That Macs are faster than PCs is a myth. Lets forget about benchmarks and MIPS for a second and let me be subjective. To me, they feel slightly slower in terms of how fast you can work. Is this a big deal? Not really. The Mac makes up for it by providing a more conflict resistant system, so in the end, the Mac comes out being more productive. The time you save by not tweaking and troubleshooting things on the system gives you more time to work on your projects. Yes, PCs can be tweaked and tuned for high performance. You can overclock the CPU, speed up memory, optimize things all the way to hard disk cluster size. You can add bigger fans, hyped up video cards and tweak BIOS variables for a week if you want and sometimes get it to give up superb performance. Yet all of this tweaking detracts in a major way from making music. The ironic thing is by giving more performance you get less productivity. But I will say that a fast well tweaked PC is f a s t! And if you tweak your windows installation performance screams. That is a thing of beauty in itself when you are working hard and your PC is not only keeping up with you but kicking you in butt to work even faster. That is something the Macfolk are least apt to understand (And also why hardcore gamers are all on PCs).
PCs are harder to deal with? Consider. With so many different motherboards on the market and several different chipsets controlling things, conflicts are more likely to arise. Vendors of PC parts typically release products before they are finished and expect you to update them when you uncover the problems. Because of this market tendency, you have no choice other than to try to troubleshoot and fix these problems all by yourself when they occur. Is it a hardware issue? BIOS setting? A driver? The PCI slot in which you installed the soundcard? Or is it in the registry? A virus? Worm? Service Pack incompatibility? You may have to check out "everything" and boot and reboot 3, 10, or in the case of a nightmare issue, 50 times before you get it solved.
With the Mac you get it one way, the way it works, right out of the box. All motherboards come from Apple. The OS comes from Apple. Apple puts together all the machines after a lot of testing. There is far less of a chance of failure. If things do go bad its not so hard to find the culprit. Adding a peripheral or installing software to a Mac is rarely difficult. It is rather amazing how little one does to maintain the machine. That alone makes the Mac "worth it" for many people and it more than offsets any gains made by tweaking a BIOS.
Macs don't have the problems that PCs have with viruses and worms, at least not yet. Some people don't use any virus protection at all, something that is unthinkable on a PC that is connected to the internet. You don't have to subscribe to an internet security regime and wait for it to load every time you boot your computer. You don't have to worry as much about your neighbors prying into your financial information or browsing your system. I think most Mac users don't even think about those issues, sort of like the way computing was in the early 90's, but now with nothing slowing down your internet travels.
Musical Considerations
Notice we have not said a word about music yet. So lets go there now, but be forewarned, these are general statements that might not always apply.
Both platforms share many software titles though important ones are exclusive, that is, they only run on one platform. The PC has Sonar, Sound Forge, Fruity loops, Adobe Audition exclusively. The Macs have Logic, GarageBand, Digital Performer, Peak, Soundtrack Pro exclusively. Of course there are more. Both platforms can run Cubase SX, Nuendo, and Pro Tools LE. Thankfully, many (though not all) of the softsynths and samplers and plugins are cross platform. I've compared these enough in other parts of TweakHeadz Lab, so I don't need to do it again here.
But what we can talk about is the raw processing power and speed of operation. In my experience, a fast PC running Sonar or Cubase is outstandingly fast, cutting through audio operations with ease. A Mac G5 has a tremendous reserve of power under the hood for realtime plugin processing, though it may not be as fast with the screen redraws. Its hard to say anything more meaningful than that, speaking generally. Every PC is a different cluster of variables. The important thing on the PC platform is getting these variables right.
Posté Tue 12 Aug 08 @ 9:52 pm