I thought i would never say it...

sei046

But I am thinking of moving to mac....... I am going to put a few pound in the studio and dont really wanna upgrade to another PC so for sh*ts and giggles i think i may move to Logic and Mac. Now my question...

What sort of specs should i be looking at/are you using?

What would a G5 iMac Dual core with 2 gigs of ram be like???

Thanks for any help

frobisher

'tresting! I'd love to get a blow by blow account of it all from you as you go through it all, good and bad. Keep us posted.

sei046

you said Blow by blow... lol...... but seriously

MrVestek

sei046 wrote: »

But I am thinking of moving to mac....... I am going to put a few pound in the studio and dont really wanna upgrade to another PC so for sh*ts and giggles i think i may move to Logic and Mac. Now my question...

What sort of specs should i be looking at/are you using?

What would a G5 iMac Dual core with 2 gigs of ram be like???

Thanks for any help

Exactly like a PC to be perfectly honest, you'd notice a slight increase in performance due to the fact that there's no BIOS layer for all the hardware to go through and the OS can pretty much talk to the hardware natively which is a good thing, especially with music productions considering there'd be less lag which can be vital when trying to timeline something properly, even milliseconds count.

Beyond that? Not alot to be honest, you'd be much better off going with a very stripped down Linux distro and running some production level software on that (that would also happen to be free). I'm not talking the likes of audacity (as good as it is) I'd be talking more along the lines of the Planet CCRMA package.

Research it, it'll cost you a hell of alot less and offer you the same, if not increased productivity.

sei046

I dont know... But i use a lot of plugins. It will be a steep learning curve going to mac.. nevermind a lino distrobution

cornbb

I'm also hoping to make the move myself soon. I'm very, very impressed with Logic 8 and its price, i suspect Apple have priced it so as to tempt PC users over. iMac would probably be a good choice, its more affordable then the Mac Pro at the expense of expandability and humongous power. I'll go for a Macbook Pro myself as I need the portability.

The G5 iMac uses a PowerPC architecture and has been discontinued though, maybe you meant one of the new Intel iMacs?

I've tried the Linux audio route myself (check out Ubuntu Studio, it has a kernel optimised for low-latency audio), it is undoubtedly cheap and powerful but I found myself spending far more time tweaking the damn thing and trying to get it to work then I did actually making music!

PaulBrewer

I think there's going to be a lot of 'moving' in the next year. Logic is a much more 'useable' piece of software than it was when I started at Logic 4.8 was it?
That, the price drop, and the power of the macs now make for a particularly attractive system.

But really what's important from a 'sound' point of view is the interface. I'd argue on a tight budget go for the highest quality interface possible even if that means going for the Mac below the one you'd like to have.

sei046

How decent are the imacs?

PaulBrewer

I've not used one myself but I know they have a pile of them in Athlone IT running Pro Tools without any grief.
However they're on their first year so the machines may not be being taxed too much.

The integration with Mac/Logic is obviously very tight.

unclebill98

An imac would be fine.

I've an old powerbook g4 and its does 16t at once. Co i can only imagine what some of the newer machines are able to do.

Unless your going to upgrade to DSP cards then the iMac should be fine. Also, most of the DSP cards are now out in firewire format!

dav nagle

sei046 wrote: »

But I am thinking of moving to mac....... I am going to put a few pound in the studio and dont really wanna upgrade to another PC so for sh*ts and giggles i think i may move to Logic and Mac. Now my question...

What sort of specs should i be looking at/are you using?

What would a G5 iMac Dual core with 2 gigs of ram be like???

Thanks for any help

I would recommend a Mac pro
2 x 2.66 GHz Dual core Intel Xeon
Perhaps 8 gigs of ram for a smooth loading time and tons of VST,RTAS power.

Check E-bay there are great Mac pro deals there.
Expensive but you will not need to upgrade for a long time.

I switched from PC to Mac and feared a steep learning curve but the nature of Mac Osx 10 or Leopard makes it in fact easier to get setup and recording in no time in comparison to Windows. I.E no driver installations and great Core audio driver that switches between applications very smoothly. I also use Logic and also just recently bought it. Logic is very straight forward and has an abundance of great plug-ins so I would highly recommend Logic studio 8. My workflow is far greater than it has ever been on my Mac. I am cool with Windows but had spent way to much time keeping it running smoothly and tweaking it. I hope that advice is of some use to you my man.
Remember Macs do not get viruses so keep that in mind and as far as I know Ad-ware and spyware free too. On the other hand a computer is a computer they all have their moments of WTF!

ICN

dav nagle wrote: »

I would recommend a Mac pro
2 x 2.66 GHz Dual core Intel Xeon
Perhaps 8 gigs of ram for a smooth loading time and tons of VST,RTAS power.

Check E-bay there are great Mac pro deals there.
Expensive but you will not need to upgrade for a long time.

I switched from PC to Mac and feared a steep learning curve but the nature of Mac Osx 10 or Leopard makes it in fact easier to get setup and recording in no time in comparison to Windows. I.E no driver installations and great Core audio driver that switches between applications very smoothly. I also use Logic and also just recently bought it. Logic is very straight forward and has an abundance of great plug-ins so I would highly recommend Logic studio 8. My workflow is far greater than it has ever been on my Mac. QUOTE]

Agree with you 98% Dav.

I've a similar Mac Pro. Great Machine. Its taken me 6months to get to where I want to be with "The Mac" and actually making music. Everything is cool now that the teething problems are gone.

Ebay is good. You definitely get more for your money.. but I've considered some similar Ebay Mac Pro's before, and even though they were good value for what they were, great spec - but they were too expensive for my budget regardless about the value in shillings and pence..

I've seen those Mac's come with "installed" software only and no original disks. Who the actual owner/s of the original disks are would be anyones guess. Thats why I would be unsure about an Ebay purchase.

Better off getting the Mac - and the basic supplies that you need - then add to it as you continue..

Finally - I too have had my workflow speeded up as a result. Took 6months mind.. but its all been worth it. I'm developing more each time I turn it on.

One last bit of advice I would give (I've mentioned it before..) is do a lot of research before you switch for compatibility issues. Watch out for issues with USB and firewire before you invest your cash. Have a good read of the Logic forums to get a feel for the "bugs" in 8.

jtsuited

Moving to Logic from Protools was the single greatest decision i ever made. Logic alone really justifies getting a mac. well for me, anyway. saying that i love macs anywho. err.. nevermind.

dav nagle

jtsuited wrote: »

Moving to Logic from Protools was the single greatest decision i ever made. Logic alone really justifies getting a mac. well for me, anyway. saying that i love macs anywho. err.. nevermind.

A good friend of mine back in school used to always waffle on about how great macs are, to be honest I pretended he was talking out his A@£h%^). When I made the switch I realized he was right. No FU%@£;% Bu%$^$%^^. Micro%@£;%% make computers for 95% of the market and considering that is such a huge portion of the market they are hardly going to create a 100% bug free operating system. Mac on the other hand charge a little bit more but the value is worth the extra cost. I know XP like the back of my hand and in all reality it is a fuc£$%% piece of sh@±. Do I want the infamous blue screen of death? No thanks. Do I want viruses on my hard drive? No thanks. Do I want Ad-ware and spy-ware? guess what, no f@£$% thanks. Do I want to be a cheap skate and crack all my plug-ins on windows ? No f$££$^^ thanks. I would rather pay for them and get updates and the real deal and make better f%^$&$% recordings.

jtsuited

dav nagle wrote: »

A good friend of mine back in school used to always waffle on about how great macs are, to be honest I pretended he was talking out his A@£h%^). When I made the switch I realized he was right. No FU%@£;% Bu%$^$%^^. Micro%@£;%% make computers for 95% of the market and considering that is such a huge portion of the market they are hardly going to create a 100% bug free operating system. Mac on the other hand charge a little bit more but the value is worth the extra cost. I know XP like the back of my hand and in all reality it is a fuc£$%% piece of sh@±. Do I want the infamous blue screen of death? No thanks. Do I want viruses on my hard drive? No thanks. Do I want Ad-ware and spy-ware? guess what, no f@£$% thanks. Do I want to be a cheap skate and crack all my plug-ins on windows ? No f$££$^^ thanks. I would rather pay for them and get updates and the real deal and make better f%^$&$% recordings.

love a bit of swearing I do!!
Points well made. Just to let you know, you can get a crack version of (fully working) every plugin and app available on Mac at the moment. It has changed drastically over the past few months.
I guess a lot of those cracking guys made the switch over to macs as well.

edit: I presume this isn't against the rules to mention this fact. if it is, delete and my apologies.

dav nagle

Buy plug-ins, it is the way forward I say.


Just making a point, I know loads of F£$%£$% windows users will say 'well I get a great performance from my p.c.' but lads less face it they are unreliable pieces of S@!£$ when it comes to audio production.

However, They are better than Macs if you want to play video games and smoke weed for the rest of your existence .

At the the end of the day, f$%^ all the unnecessary negative s$£^ that is going down, we all are nice people with a genuine interest in the music business, lets extend our friendship, other wise I will get real nasty, which ultimately will cause me more pain than anyone else, I.E., I love shooting myself in the foot and head, its a learning curve!!!!

But before I get FEEDBACK, let me have a go at making people on the forum show some peace and understanding. I studied Physco- therapy under that F£%%£@ roebuck house cult for a year after all!!, and got taken for a spin, but I learnt how to communicate for F@£%@ sake.


Time for big willy to go to bed, 'Seven' is a great restaurant, the duck is outstanding, Sin-e was nice, nice girls behind the bar, bit of a hippy vibe all the same. Going to sleep now, looking forward to hear from the boards 'cult'!! in the morning/afternoon.... peace out 'DUDES'....

P.S Don't attack me in my sleep xx

frobisher

Ah sure there was no doubt that this thread was going to move this wat

My 2c to the OP; It's been a while since I used macs for pro-audio in any serious way but I have found them no worse or better than modern PC's. They have both done exactly what I needed with the odd problem, which is to be expected. But I'm very interested to hear about how the move goes for you. When I was last using mac's it was with Logic and there's a little bit of me considering a return, although that could just be complete gear lust.:D:D So even I dont do it I'm happy to live it vicariously through you.

sei046

thanks guys, some interesting advice. Well since i have decided not to go Imac so looking at some regular macs, I dont really want to dish out for a big mac pro TBH. Its a lot of cash for a curiosity really. My hardware seems to be mac compatible at least.

I have to say Pc hasnt really bothered me. Ok i did have some problems all right but Its more i want a change from cubase. Its not that its limiting me, its just I am using it for so long now!

sei046

guys can you use a pc monitor with a mac? like what input do they use

unclebill98

sei046 wrote: »

guys can you use a pc monitor with a mac? like what input do they use

Yes. There is various adaptors.

dav nagle

sei046 wrote: »

guys can you use a pc monitor with a mac? like what input do they use

In relation to your question you can use any monitor you like, Macs have the same graphic card outputs as the good old Pc. You can plug 2 monitors into any of the macs graphics cards too which is handy for dual screens.

If you really want to jazz up then you can buy the 'Matrox triple head 2 go' monitor expansion. This piece f hardware which retails from 200 up can extend your desktop to 3 or 4 screens at once! Be warned I bought one and you have to set the card up on a PC first and set the resolution before using it on your Mac. Why?? I have no idea but I got onto the company in the U.K and let them have it. Why would they not tell you in an instruction booklet that you MUST set it up on a PC before you use it with a Mac? I spent 3 days wondering what was wrong and ultimately never used the device. Some cash gets wasted in being a gear junkie from time to time I have learned to except that now..

http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/corpo/products/home.php