ahem... www.osx86project.org
it's already been hacked. 
PC vs MAC
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- KVRist
- 48 posts since 16 Jun, 2005
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- KVRAF
- 4020 posts since 2 Sep, 2003 from Perth, Australia
Beware apple's upcoming swap to intel, I say. A doom of obsoleteness upon ye G5 oweners! (grabs end-of-world sandwich board, patrols street corner with ragged clothes shaking fist at passers-by)
SKoT McDonald
BFD | inMusic
BFD | inMusic
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- KVRist
- 169 posts since 14 Aug, 2004
I strongly doubt that there is any unbiased opinion on this topic available 
There are about 100 000 000 threads on internet forums on this topic 80% of them being trolling attempts and most totally uninformative.
Having said that I'll tell you my experiences with Tracktion 1.6 on my 1100 Mhz Celeron PC and my 1250 Mhz Mac Mini.
Gui responsiveness is better on the PC with a 32 MB Matrox Millenium.
There is not a great difference in overall performance. The Mini might be slightly stronger. But I'm not really interested in benchmarking.
My Motu 828 works far better with the Mini. On the PC I have to restart the audio driver from time to time although I have the recommended firewire chipset.
Playing my external synth over midi works far better with the PC. T. on the Mini is very buggy with external midi out. Midi in works well though.
There are more very nice freeware plugins available for the windows platform. Guitar Suite is what I miss most on the Mac.
Exchanging files over network between the platforms works totally great without any problems.
I have to add, that the PC has the Intel BX chipset (hailed as the most stable chipset available at the time) and I NEVER connect to the internet with it. No service pack 2 or anything. All in all it runs just as stable as Tiger on the Mini. Still, OS X is my preferred OS for its usability and Unix power.
And there is one more reason one might consider a Mac for audio and that is called Supercollider. It's free and it's a monster software but this probably doesn't belong here.
Greets,
Axl[/url]
There are about 100 000 000 threads on internet forums on this topic 80% of them being trolling attempts and most totally uninformative.
Having said that I'll tell you my experiences with Tracktion 1.6 on my 1100 Mhz Celeron PC and my 1250 Mhz Mac Mini.
Gui responsiveness is better on the PC with a 32 MB Matrox Millenium.
There is not a great difference in overall performance. The Mini might be slightly stronger. But I'm not really interested in benchmarking.
My Motu 828 works far better with the Mini. On the PC I have to restart the audio driver from time to time although I have the recommended firewire chipset.
Playing my external synth over midi works far better with the PC. T. on the Mini is very buggy with external midi out. Midi in works well though.
There are more very nice freeware plugins available for the windows platform. Guitar Suite is what I miss most on the Mac.
Exchanging files over network between the platforms works totally great without any problems.
I have to add, that the PC has the Intel BX chipset (hailed as the most stable chipset available at the time) and I NEVER connect to the internet with it. No service pack 2 or anything. All in all it runs just as stable as Tiger on the Mini. Still, OS X is my preferred OS for its usability and Unix power.
And there is one more reason one might consider a Mac for audio and that is called Supercollider. It's free and it's a monster software but this probably doesn't belong here.
Greets,
Axl[/url]
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- KVRian
- 663 posts since 28 Feb, 2003 from out
Supercollider is also available for windows, (and for linux as well, I thought.)
I use both a powerbook and a pc, and I have to say, T2 runs better on the pc, but the comparison is not fair, because it is a 3.4ghz machine, as opposed to a 1ghz powerbook G4.
Still, I'd say if you are not going to run Logic, get a pc, at the moment is far better value for money.
On the other hand, nothing beats the mac experience
I use both a powerbook and a pc, and I have to say, T2 runs better on the pc, but the comparison is not fair, because it is a 3.4ghz machine, as opposed to a 1ghz powerbook G4.
Still, I'd say if you are not going to run Logic, get a pc, at the moment is far better value for money.
On the other hand, nothing beats the mac experience
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- KVRist
- 169 posts since 14 Aug, 2004
Supercollider is being developed on OS X with Alpha Linux and Windows versions available. While it's not exactly easy to use for me on Tiger it must the geekiest thing imaginable to use on those other platforms with features and docs missing everywhere.
One more thing I forgot to mention in favor of the Mini is the size and noise factor. There is nothing comparable at this price on the PC side.
But if one doesn't mind big ugly and noisy boxes, a PC gives you more dsp for the money.
Axl
One more thing I forgot to mention in favor of the Mini is the size and noise factor. There is nothing comparable at this price on the PC side.
But if one doesn't mind big ugly and noisy boxes, a PC gives you more dsp for the money.
Axl
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- KVRAF
- 2938 posts since 18 Jul, 2005
What I don't get is how people can so rarely just leave their preferences as preferences. They always seem to feel some overriding pressure to evangelise to others that the choice they made is the well informed one, the best choice to make and not just a different one.
Not directed at anyone in here [yet].
Not directed at anyone in here [yet].
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- KVRist
- 488 posts since 2 Mar, 2004
At my home I have a Windows desktop, a Windows Notebook, an Apple iBook and juts recently purchased a eMac for my son. We had been looking at a Mac mini for him but with a price of $799 cdn for a new eBook with DVD/CD burner I couldn't pass it up. The PC desktop is dedicated to music. I have yet to try Tracktion on the Mac but my son and intend to give it a try soon. He spends a lot of time with Garageband and can do quite a bit with it so I'm not sure he will move to Tracktion. I would like my next computer purchase to be a Mac but I have some reservations as some plugins I use aren't available on the mac platform (the important one being Jamstix). I guess if I could find a suitable replacements I would have less reservations but that means spending more to get functionality I already have today. If it wasn't for this single issue my next computer purchase would definately be a Mac. My daughter has had her iBook for 2 years now and has not had any instance of Spyware or Virus even though she has really done nothing to protect it. I find myself cleaning my other daughters notebook monthly even though we have an anti-virus program running, although we are not running any active anti-spyware. However my music machine has been free from such issues for the better part of year but it runs somewhat isolated.
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- KVRist
- 117 posts since 22 Jul, 2005
Bang for buck = PC
Noise, both the high end G5's and Intel PC's are noisy but the low end Apples and AMD's 64 CPU's are quiet. Go with a low end dual core AMD64, build it with low noise components and have a kick ass audio machine.
Noise, both the high end G5's and Intel PC's are noisy but the low end Apples and AMD's 64 CPU's are quiet. Go with a low end dual core AMD64, build it with low noise components and have a kick ass audio machine.
Leave ones footprint in that of the mind not the physical world. We have screwed it over enough.
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- KVRer
- 20 posts since 11 Aug, 2005
Personally, I've had much better luck using Macs for audio recording. I tend to have less driver compatibility issues, and things just work. I've been productive on both platforms, but I prefer to use the one with less headaches. My PCs require more maintenance as well....spyware and virus checks especially.
I also don't believe someone needs a top of the line Mac to do productive work. I still use my 400MHz G4 and although I need to freeze tracks, and keep plugin count under control, it works fine. I have recorded 8 tracks simultaneously to an 828 over firewire using the internal drive while tracking drums...again, no problem.
Everyone's needs are different. I don't mind working with limitiations. In fact, I think my music is better when limitations are imposed. I'm sure a Mac mini would feel like a supercomputer compared to my G4 as long as it had 1GB of RAM, and an external firewire drive. 20 tracks should be easy to achieve, and if a song I record in my bedroom requires more than 20 tracks, it must suck pretty bad.
regards,
BC
I also don't believe someone needs a top of the line Mac to do productive work. I still use my 400MHz G4 and although I need to freeze tracks, and keep plugin count under control, it works fine. I have recorded 8 tracks simultaneously to an 828 over firewire using the internal drive while tracking drums...again, no problem.
Everyone's needs are different. I don't mind working with limitiations. In fact, I think my music is better when limitations are imposed. I'm sure a Mac mini would feel like a supercomputer compared to my G4 as long as it had 1GB of RAM, and an external firewire drive. 20 tracks should be easy to achieve, and if a song I record in my bedroom requires more than 20 tracks, it must suck pretty bad.
regards,
BC
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- KVRAF
- 3419 posts since 26 Mar, 2002 from london
bchamp wrote: but I prefer to use the one with less headaches. . .
I still use my 400MHz G4 and although I need to freeze tracks, and keep plugin count under control, it works fine.
Every day takes figuring out all over again how to f#ckin’ live.
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- KVRAF
- 2417 posts since 17 Jun, 2003
What about if you run OSX on a pc? Like the one I can see over the other side of the room?
"my gosh it's a friggin hardware"
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- KVRist
- 268 posts since 11 Nov, 2003 from kentucky
Chico,
I don't want you to have to say anything to get in trouble but I'm dying to know...
I checked the X86 articles and links ModuLR and Doffenheim posted. That looks very promising. I assume that's what you're doing. I'm also assume (to avoid drawing any legal attention) that you have one of those developer transition kits
Here's my question, don't apps have to be rewritten to run on a Mac using the Intel processor? Are you tried using the Rosetta software to run Tracktion?
I don't want you to have to say anything to get in trouble but I'm dying to know...
I checked the X86 articles and links ModuLR and Doffenheim posted. That looks very promising. I assume that's what you're doing. I'm also assume (to avoid drawing any legal attention) that you have one of those developer transition kits
Here's my question, don't apps have to be rewritten to run on a Mac using the Intel processor? Are you tried using the Rosetta software to run Tracktion?
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- KVRAF
- 2417 posts since 17 Jun, 2003
Hey ... it isn't mine
But i can see it. It's currently struggling as it tries to run Checkpoint's SecureClient vpn software. Doubt i'll get a chance to see it running any music software, unfortunately ...
But i can see it. It's currently struggling as it tries to run Checkpoint's SecureClient vpn software. Doubt i'll get a chance to see it running any music software, unfortunately ...
"my gosh it's a friggin hardware"
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- KVRAF
- 10815 posts since 26 Nov, 2004 from UK
