First off, I want no one one jumping down my　neck on this question (Emerald T - you have been warned! ). My gut instinct is that, no it isnt possible, at least no without clicks, glitches, and latency.

I only ask because the guy who is repairing my PC, and who is far more knowledgeable about computers than I will ever be, AND has both PCs and Macs, tells me that it is possible to download software that will allow PC software to run flawlessly on Macs. This may indeed be true for the likes of Office, but music stuff???

If this is really true this must be one of the best kept secrets in the universe.

Can anyone here confirm or deny this with 100% certainty?

Flawlessly, no. What else can I say... it's pretty logical why, so your instinct is very good!

YEah there is a windows bridge for mac PCs. I installed it on my friends MAC G3 400Mhz. It was slow, unreliable and generally only useful for office and web browsing. Yes is was just a G3 and 400 Mhz and yes it was windows 98. IT is definitely about 1/2 as fast as running it natively at best

I've run audio software in VMware/Virtual PC on PC (Win2K as emulated OS). As you would expect the latency of the emulated sound drivers is not very good, at least with standard DirectX (and no ASIO) - I didn't try WDM KS apps or the new Asio4ALL driver, but even then you need low latency on the host side too.

TBH I think the machine emulation apps are optimised for speed more than latency - maybe you can change this, dunno. You could try running an FX teleport server within a Virtual PC host though
I doubt the virtual networking is designed for low latency either though, but you could try raising the priority. Intrigued to hear the results anyway.

P.S. if you are looking for free x86 emulation software, 'Bochs' might be worth a look - processor-independent open source virtual x86 PC.

On the other hand, I've run audio apps under WINE in Linux (way back) and they've run faster and smoother than on Win98 (I said way back ). If someone made a hybrid of VST server and Bochs, capable of running virtual x86 processes at low latency, it might be easier to get PC plugins to run on the Mac.

it may be tricky just to get OSX, Mac native, Panther optimizes Audio apps to work "flawlessly" on a G5.

Yes, they will run GREAT, but flawless? You mean perfect? good luck getting PC music apps to run "flawlessly" on a 3.0 gz P4.

Seriously, though, Virtual PC 6.1 (used to made by Connectix, then Microsoft bought out the program or the company) is a fantastic emulator & will run VERY well on a dual G5, due to the sheer speed & RAM.

But there are problem with Midi, Audio, timing, Core Midi & Audio drivers, as well as issies with otehr more advanced (and timing related) operation, like Video capture, compositing and animation.

Read through this forum and you will see many users complaining about PC music apps and plug-ins not working properly. You can check out the posts at osxaudio.com to see some of the issues with Mac.

Best advice: Get a Mac and a PC to do music. Macs are superior machines for creating music, while PC's are more cost effective machines for creating music. Many of the best programs and plug-ins (Protools, Live!, Reason, Native Instruments) are cross-platform anyway. Many marquee programs, like Logic, GigaSampler, Sonar, Digital Performer, etc. only support 1 of the operating systems and are well worth checking out.

Good luck getting a Mac. I have a G4 and want a G5, but they are really, really expensive. I also have a Dell P4 running Giga & it is way better than my Akai samplers ever were.

Sorry if this is a little OT but is it possible to emulate a MAC on PC too - I'd love to run Logic 6 for example.

Certainly 680x0 Mac emulation is available in the form of Basilisk and SoftMac Xpress (
http://www.emulators.com/softmac.htm ). PPC emulation is trickier, not sure if anyone does this, so this rules out most recent Mac software. It seems Emulators Inc. were forced to pull out of their bid to emulate PPCs on PC due to legal pressure. I don't know the details, but this is what I surmise from the updates info. I'm pretty sure that rules out running Logic 6 on PC.

UrbanEric wrote:

Macs are superior machines for creating music

Why are they superior? I haven't got a Mac so I don't know...

UrbanEric wrote:

Macs are superior machines for creating music, while PC's are more cost effective machines for creating music.

I'm so sick of hearing this. It may have been true 10 years ago but not anymore.

a teaser

(not quite necessary audio-only related, but nevertheless touching areas of life-style and aesthetics, et cetera ... )

(they are extremely fast, but that's quite irellevant here):
which one would look better on your desk: G5 or one of these? And they are supposed to get the job done.

http://www.boxxtech.com/swf/index.asp

so - get one of these and system or otherwise link it to your G** machine if you need something to run PC only soft.



bye, bye

mauseoleum wrote:

http://www.boxxtech.com/swf/index.asp

Haha, that's not fair!

it is.

mauseoleum wrote:

it is.

I know, but you know what I meant! (hint: irony)

why bother?

why would one buy a mac to run software on it that runs definetly better on pc(which is much cheaper)?



run it on a handheld - thats could be faster!

eelizah

eelizah wrote:

why would one buy a mac to run software on it that runs definetly better on pc(which is much cheaper)?

The most important reason is - I think - Logic 6.

ehmm......no!