Guitar Gear Forum

Looking at picking up a new computer for the Studio ASAP.

I've always been a PC guy but am considering moving to the dark side.

Obviously at my budget of roughly $1,500, I'm going to be sacrificing some performance, but the stability may make up for it...I don't know, I'm not a big-time computer guy.

Can any unbiased people give me a pros/cons layout of making the switch? I'll be tracking up to 16 simultaneous inputs, mixing, processing...etc., and need low-latency monitoring.

Is that even a possibility in my price range for a MAC?

Thanks amigos.

EDIT: Doesn't have to be a laptop either.

Possible? Yes. I've bought two iMacs at the $1200 price point, tossed in memory for another $100, and been extremely satisfied with them. If you already have the interface, totally doable and you'd still have $200 left to grab Logic.

There's some latency with my focusrite, but it's so minimal that it barely sounds like a tiny delay when tracking. And if you know the speed I play sometimes, it's never interfered with tracking.

I never had much luck recording on Windows, and I tried for years, so I can't offer an opinion on what's technically better other than I like the workflow with Logic and it makes sense to me. My old iMac never ran out of tracking possibilities, it just got long enough in the tooth that during mixing if I had more than three plugins on every track with twenty plus tracks the CPU could start to bog a little. It was a 2007 model and I gave it to my wife as a writing machine late last year so it got plenty of mileage. Stability was never a problem.

nightflameauto wrote:Possible? Yes. I've bought two iMacs at the $1200 price point, tossed in memory for another $100, and been extremely satisfied with them. If you already have the interface, totally doable and you'd still have $200 left to grab Logic.

There's some latency with my focusrite, but it's so minimal that it barely sounds like a tiny delay when tracking. And if you know the speed I play sometimes, it's never interfered with tracking.

I never had much luck recording on Windows, and I tried for years, so I can't offer an opinion on what's technically better other than I like the workflow with Logic and it makes sense to me. My old iMac never ran out of tracking possibilities, it just got long enough in the tooth that during mixing if I had more than three plugins on every track with twenty plus tracks the CPU could start to bog a little. It was a 2007 model and I gave it to my wife as a writing machine late last year so it got plenty of mileage. Stability was never a problem.

I have an interface, but will be upgrading soon. I don't factor that into the computer budget though. Logic? Do I need that? Is that a DAW? Was planning on keeping Reaper...changing the OS and DAW at the same time is too much for me to handle.

I was looking at something like:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/apple-21-5- ... Id=5851991

It's just so hard to justify, when I could get a tower with 16 GB of RAM, a 2 TB HDD + SSD, i7 quad core....etc.,

I've been looking for a couple weeks now and I'm driving myself insane. I've never had issues recording or mixing on a PC, but my current laptop is just starting to reach its limit.

I'm running 8 gigs RAM on last years model and as a test ran 45 tracks + 12 MIDI instruments, all with multiple plugins, and never saw an issue. The thing I love about using a Mac is you don't have to upgrade every couple years to keep up. Like I said, my last one ran me seven years solid and if I hadn't gotten so demanding during my mixes it'd probably still be working fine for me.

Logic is a DAW, yes. But if you have a DAW you're already familiar with, you'd probably want to stick with it. Not sure how Reaper performs on Mac OS as I've never tried it. I'm sure someone here has though.

NFA, you being a Mac guy is very surprising to me. When you rant, you sound like a PC guy all the way I will never own a Mac as my computing gear has always been and always will be poverty class.

nightflameauto wrote:I'm running 8 gigs RAM on last years model and as a test ran 45 tracks + 12 MIDI instruments, all with multiple plugins, and never saw an issue. The thing I love about using a Mac is you don't have to upgrade every couple years to keep up. Like I said, my last one ran me seven years solid and if I hadn't gotten so demanding during my mixes it'd probably still be working fine for me.

Logic is a DAW, yes. But if you have a DAW you're already familiar with, you'd probably want to stick with it. Not sure how Reaper performs on Mac OS as I've never tried it. I'm sure someone here has though.

Pretty much everything I've read about Reaper on a MAC has been positive.

I may just pull the trigger...it'll probably take me some time to get used to it, but this way I can say I've gone PC and MAC, and after a couple years I can then definitively say which one I prefer to use. Now it's just picking the model...a laptop would be nice...but not necessary.

Any suggestions? Comments on the one I posted?

seriously. fuck that . buy the i7 Apple is so goddamned annoying.

JiveTurkey wrote:NFA, you being a Mac guy is very surprising to me. When you rant, you sound like a PC guy all the way I will never own a Mac as my computing gear has always been and always will be poverty class.

I have to use shit PCs all fucking day. I go home I want a computer that's functional and I don't have to spend five hours fighting it to get it to do half an hour of work.

That may explain why I rant like a PC guy.

nightflameauto wrote:

JiveTurkey wrote:NFA, you being a Mac guy is very surprising to me. When you rant, you sound like a PC guy all the way I will never own a Mac as my computing gear has always been and always will be poverty class.

I have to use shit PCs all fucking day. I go home I want a computer that's functional and I don't have to spend five hours fighting it to get it to do half an hour of work.

That may explain why I rant like a PC guy.

see, that's how i feel about any apple product. if you're not fighting some 'update' that cripples functionality, you can work, but they come at such an alarming pace that who can keep up?

pc's are equally annoying, but at least they have the decency to lubricate the axehandle they break off in you.

PC has better t0an

Markdude wrote:PC has better t0an

t0an is in the OS? Learn something new everyday

newholland wrote:

nightflameauto wrote:

JiveTurkey wrote:NFA, you being a Mac guy is very surprising to me. When you rant, you sound like a PC guy all the way I will never own a Mac as my computing gear has always been and always will be poverty class.

I have to use shit PCs all fucking day. I go home I want a computer that's functional and I don't have to spend five hours fighting it to get it to do half an hour of work.

That may explain why I rant like a PC guy.

see, that's how i feel about any apple product. if you're not fighting some 'update' that cripples functionality, you can work, but they come at such an alarming pace that who can keep up?

pc's are equally annoying, but at least they have the decency to lubricate the axehandle they break off in you.

I honestly would be all in if someone offered to sponsor my Mac ownership

newholland wrote:

nightflameauto wrote:

JiveTurkey wrote:NFA, you being a Mac guy is very surprising to me. When you rant, you sound like a PC guy all the way I will never own a Mac as my computing gear has always been and always will be poverty class.

I have to use shit PCs all fucking day. I go home I want a computer that's functional and I don't have to spend five hours fighting it to get it to do half an hour of work.

That may explain why I rant like a PC guy.

see, that's how i feel about any apple product. if you're not fighting some 'update' that cripples functionality, you can work, but they come at such an alarming pace that who can keep up?

pc's are equally annoying, but at least they have the decency to lubricate the axehandle they break off in you.

I find it exactly the opposite, myself.

And my main recording Mac doesn't get updates until I've run the update on my Laptop for a while. I barely touch the web with that system and it's behind a firewall so I don't worry much about it so long as it's working for me.

Markdude wrote:PC has better t0an

probably does.

tbh, i dunno why anybody'd have issues with pcs-- cripes, my i5 has been a rock and haven't had a single problem with it since 2011.

i just joke, 'cause i hate ipods and ipads. the computers seem to be fairly robust critters.

My problems with PCs started in 95. In 2003 I finally gave up entirely on Windows for home use. God damn useless crashy buggy pieces of shit.

Of course, then XP came out and was actually usable, but it was too late to get me back.

newholland wrote:tbh, i dunno why anybody'd have issues with pcs-- cripes, my i5 has been a rock and haven't had a single problem with it since 2011.

i just joke, 'cause i hate ipods and ipads. the computers seem to be fairly robust critters.

I'm the same way. I just keep hearing about MACs superiority in the audio field, and my brain starts to hurt.

I just want someone who knows what they're doing to pick me out a computer for $800-1,500 that will run whatever audio shit I throw at it. I'm too indecisive.

nightflameauto wrote:My problems with PCs started in 95. In 2003 I finally gave up entirely on Windows for home use. God damn useless crashy buggy pieces of shit.

Of course, then XP came out and was actually usable, but it was too late to get me back.

You got out at the wrong time. 7 is rock solid. By far the best OS I've ever used.

newholland wrote:

Markdude wrote:PC has better t0an

probably does.

tbh, i dunno why anybody'd have issues with pcs-- cripes, my i5 has been a rock and haven't had a single problem with it since 2011.

i just joke, 'cause i hate ipods and ipads. the computers seem to be fairly robust critters.

^GOD YES. Who needs drag and drop functionality when you can get forced into using proprietary software you hate

Sex Panther wrote:

newholland wrote:tbh, i dunno why anybody'd have issues with pcs-- cripes, my i5 has been a rock and haven't had a single problem with it since 2011.

i just joke, 'cause i hate ipods and ipads. the computers seem to be fairly robust critters.

I'm the same way. I just keep hearing about MACs superiority in the audio field, and my brain starts to hurt.

I just want someone who knows what they're doing to pick me out a computer for $800-1,500 that will run whatever audio shit I throw at it. I'm too indecisive.

for real, a modern i7 full of ram will be pert near indestructible. i have a 4 year old i5 with 8 gigs of ram, and the thing NEVER bogs down. long as you have the hardware to support it. i'm using a 2007 focusrite 8 channel, a usb3 drive, and i'm half filled with ram, and for up to about 20 tracks of mixing, i've never even hit a hiccup.

audio recording isn't a problem. mixing BIG ASS projects in the box... that's where you run out of steam.. and i mean like 30+ tracks.

i'm not using some monster anymore-- it's more like a decent home system, and i still feel super spoiled by how stable this turkey is.

don't sweat the mega computer, seriously.. fast drive, plenty of ram, a decent processor, and you oughta be good unless you're really into track count.

Markdude wrote:

nightflameauto wrote:My problems with PCs started in 95. In 2003 I finally gave up entirely on Windows for home use. God damn useless crashy buggy pieces of shit.

Of course, then XP came out and was actually usable, but it was too late to get me back.

You got out at the wrong time. 7 is rock solid. By far the best OS I've ever used.

XP was good. There were transitory pieces of shit. 7 is good. And now we're back to transitory pieces of shit. It's the inconsistency in the Microsoft world that drove me batty as hell.

I have a Windows 7 laptop at work that I haven't had too many problems with. Certainly less than other PCs I've used. HATE the whole Windows 8 line, which I'm stuck using on a few systems around the building.

Markdude wrote:

nightflameauto wrote:My problems with PCs started in 95. In 2003 I finally gave up entirely on Windows for home use. God damn useless crashy buggy pieces of shit.

Of course, then XP came out and was actually usable, but it was too late to get me back.

You got out at the wrong time. 7 is rock solid. By far the best OS I've ever used.

absolutely seconded.

xp is the fucking worst. 7 really is great.

newholland wrote:

Markdude wrote:

nightflameauto wrote:My problems with PCs started in 95. In 2003 I finally gave up entirely on Windows for home use. God damn useless crashy buggy pieces of shit.

Of course, then XP came out and was actually usable, but it was too late to get me back.

You got out at the wrong time. 7 is rock solid. By far the best OS I've ever used.

absolutely seconded.

xp is the fucking worst. 7 really is great.

And I dug XP, in comparison to the crap surrounding it. Vista was the worst thing ever yet built. Holy fuck how did that get spun into existence?

I think you only need an ultra-machine these days if you're recording a lot of tracks and monitoring through software with plugins active. That's pretty much never necessary anyway. If it's a matter of overdubbing stuff over an already dense mix, then freeze tracks and/or bounce down backing mixes. If the plugins aren't absolutely vital to the vibe for tracking, use hardware monitoring. And if you're totally done with tracking and are just mixing a gigantic session, then crank the buffer size way up. Latency doesn't matter if you're not tracking or recording real-time automation (via MIDI control surface) or something.

Also make sure you're running the 64-bit version of your DAW. 32-bit can only utilize 4 GB of RAM, so even if you buy an insanely tricked out machine with like 32 GB of RAM, you'd only be making use of 4 GB of it if you're running the 32-bit version of your DAW.

nightflameauto wrote:

newholland wrote:

Markdude wrote:

nightflameauto wrote:My problems with PCs started in 95. In 2003 I finally gave up entirely on Windows for home use. God damn useless crashy buggy pieces of shit.

Of course, then XP came out and was actually usable, but it was too late to get me back.

You got out at the wrong time. 7 is rock solid. By far the best OS I've ever used.

absolutely seconded.

xp is the fucking worst. 7 really is great.

And I dug XP, in comparison to the crap surrounding it. Vista was the worst thing ever yet built. Holy fuck how did that get spun into existence?

phoo.. yeah.. that was kinda a stanker. that's why it lasted like 6 months

really-- if you get a chance to set up a recording system on 7? i will never migrate out to something modern yet.. it's just too daggone stable, and has been a dream compared to xp. it's still microsoft.. but if you don't gum it all up with other junk.. effortless.