MUTOOLS

pquenin · Post by **pquenin** » Wed Apr 11, 2012 9:30 pm

hello,
my PC is old and I have difficulties to run the demo songs.
I need more power.
And I'm tired of Windows.
So I'm looking for a Mac.
Is a mac mini with Intel dual core i5 2,3 GHz enougth to run Mulab ?
What about audio recording and latency on such a machine ?
How many tracks can I expect to run with Mulab internal synths and effects ?

Do you think a PC can do a better job ?
Do latest PC still need Asio drivers for recordings ?

Thanks

pquenin · Post by **pquenin** » Thu Apr 12, 2012 6:50 am

Wow, nobody with a Mac mini here ?

toxicoh · Post by **toxicoh** » Thu Apr 12, 2012 11:03 am

I thought Bonte has a Mac Mini.

The i5 2,3 Ghz version should "sing" with MuLab.

UltraJv · Post by **UltraJv** » Thu Apr 12, 2012 11:10 am

Most people who get Mac do so for Logic. ASIO drivers come with a proper sound card in Windows. How many tracks/synths you can run is down to CPU/RAM and not whether you have PC or Mac. Not many here will be using mulab on OSX but Im sure it will workk very well on mac mini.

pquenin · Post by **pquenin** » Thu Apr 12, 2012 11:46 am

Thank you for the reply. If I go for a Windows computer, it will be a laptop. So I will depend on the internal sound card, and I dont know if they all work fine with Asio for all. What latency can you expect on a laptop with the internal sound card ?
My actual computer is old but has a M-audio Audiophile 24-96 with a good Asio driver, I don't know if modern computers accept Pci cards...

I don't know for the mac mini, but it seems that apple's computer are ready for good audio performance...

I am also tempted by an iMac with i5 quadri core...

UltraJv · Post by **UltraJv** » Thu Apr 12, 2012 11:51 am

pquenin wrote:Thank you for the reply. If I go for a Windows computer, it will be a laptop. So I will depend on the internal sound card, and I dont know if they all work fine with Asio for all. What latency can you expect on a laptop with the internal sound card ?

I don't know for the mac mini, but it seems that apple's computer are ready for good audio performance...

I am also tempted by an iMac with i5 quadri core...

Be careful with Windows laptops. Dell are notorious for latency problems. Apple can have problems with wifi and audio depending on model. If youre going to buy PC/laptop with Apple quality for audio :

http://www.scan.co.uk/shop/pro-audio

http://www.adkproaudio.com/

pquenin · Post by **pquenin** » Thu Apr 12, 2012 12:08 pm

Thank you for the links...
That's pro stuff, but maybe too expensive...

liquidsound · Post by **liquidsound** » Thu Apr 12, 2012 2:31 pm

Thinkpads are awesome and they run for life like no other. ASUS and DELL (HELL?) being the worse in my experience, and I train people on all kinds of laptops.
MAC user from the very beginning but I prefer Windows anytime at any level

EvilDragon · Post by **EvilDragon** » Thu Apr 12, 2012 2:35 pm

Toshiba laptops are awesome for audio from my experience.

hr4kftb · Post by **hr4kftb** » Thu Apr 12, 2012 5:58 pm

I'm running MuLab on my iMac with no problems (see specs below). I also have Logic, and for some projects it's necessary, but MuLab is much simpler and easier for composing and fleshing out ideas. I often end up completing my project in MuLab even if that wasn't my intention starting out. The one thing you will give up is you will not be able to use PC VSTs on your Mac, and quite a few plugins are PC only.

iMac Specs:
Model Name: iMac
Model Identifier: iMac9,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.66 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 6 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz
Boot ROM Version: IM91.008D.B08
SMC Version (system): 1.45f0

plutonia · Post by **plutonia** » Thu Apr 12, 2012 5:58 pm

EvilDragon wrote:Toshiba laptops are awesome for audio from my experience.

yep, toshiba stuff is robust and high quality. one of my computers is an old toshiba satellite pro laptop running a pentium m 1.4 gig chip and only 512 mb ram and in song i'm working on i have it running 8 virtual instruments (5 mu multi-oscillator lab synths + idrum and 2 exsp24 vst's)an quite a few mu lab effects and it is on the edge of what's possible. that's very impressive for an old laptop tho!

don't touch hp laptops for music. all the mac stuff is very high quality and you should have no problems using them for music app's.

pljones · Post by **pljones** » Thu Apr 12, 2012 6:01 pm

Can you get PC laptops with decent Firewire ports? If so, there are plenty of good firewire soundcards around (Echo AudioFires, etc). Just a thought.

plutonia · Post by **plutonia** » Thu Apr 12, 2012 6:10 pm

pljones wrote:Can you get PC laptops with decent Firewire ports? If so, there are plenty of good firewire soundcards around (Echo AudioFires, etc). Just a thought.

have been using usb2 focusrite scarlett 2i2 on 3 diff pc's (netbook, laptop and desktop)and have had no issues at all;for usb i'm astonished at how reliable it is so i can recommend focusrite for usb if firewire for laptop is out of question.

The Kob · Post by **The Kob** » Thu Apr 12, 2012 6:51 pm

liquidsound wrote:Thinkpads are awesome and they run for life like no other. ASUS and DELL (HELL?) being the worse in my experience, and I train people on all kinds of laptops.
MAC user from the very beginning but I prefer Windows anytime at any level

just got an asus i5, up'd the ram to 8G for practiaclly no money and everything works fine so far.
.
i am sure i can come back and tell Liquidsound he was right in a few years... if he is

.

the only thing i would think about in Mac vs Win is that a new Win laptop will be 64bit, and so far not everything runs (smoothly) in 64. i have managed to crash Mu a couple of times, but i think that was VST issues.

liquidsound · Post by **liquidsound** » Thu Apr 12, 2012 6:56 pm

The Kob wrote:just got an asus i5, up'd the ram to 8G for practiaclly no money and everything works fine so far.

So far....

Upgrade eventually the BIOS and Drivers and .....

MUTOOLS

KVR Audio

Is a mac mini with Intel Core i5 2,3 GHz enought to run Mulab