laptop just died :( now the question is mac or pc? to use w/axe and for recordings

laughyouraxeoff said:
On this site, the majority of users who have issues are Mac users so go figure:)
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'Majority' might be a tad strong... I, for one, don't have any such issues
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I own both Mac and PC devices because I use them for different things. For live work/recording/anything music or arts related it's a no-brainer for me, Mac hands down. My Mactop is 4 years old and still runs fast, never had to take it in to get work done on it, never had a crash, the list goes on. It's just a solid product. People say "Oh you're just paying for the name" and that's ridiculous, you're paying for QUALITY, CUSTOMER SERVICE and RELIABILITY. I've never had any reason to use a PC over a Mac except for when I've wanted to game.
 
For me, it's a Mac hands-down. I have owned both platforms over the years, but I've had the same Mac Pro for at least 10 years and it's still fast and efficient. I have never seen a better platform for music and graphic production. Their computers are an industrial design work of art and will offer years of dependable service.
 
I switched from a PC based music computer (that worked find for over 10yrs) to a mac last year. It's been a great switch for me. Find myself spending less time fiddling with the computer and more time getting things done. Impressed with the engineering as well as how things just work. If you're going with a laptop I'd opt for one with both headphone and line-in jacks.

I use Windows and Linux for work so I'm no stranger for fiddling with the computer but glad I don't have to futz with the mac.
 
What I'd like to know from the ones who made the switch from PC to Mac is what PC's they had.
I hear a lot of people complaining about PC's when switching to Mac.
But a lot of them had PC's costing a fraction of the Macs so you couldn't expect the same quality.
So it's like comparing Apples to oranges or lemons ;)
Plus the Windows operating system has evolved. Not sure about Windows 8, but 7 is very good, stable and easy to work with.
I have a Dell Vostro 1700 and it's been running fine for over six years now without a glitch.
I'm currently looking at some options amongst which are a Macbook Pro, a Dell Precision 6800 a HP Elitebook 8770 and a V Music Pro DAWbook.
The last one is a custom PC made by a Dutch company.
They all cost about the same.
But the V Music Pro is highly customizable and can easily be upgraded. The BIOS is optimized for DAW and it even has USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt.
It's even Mac OSx ready ;)
I like a 17" screen and a numeric keypad.
Both can't be had on a Mac.
 
wow looks like its leaning toward the mac side here. for those of you who are using the macs. what specs do u recommend i.e. screen size/RAM ? cuz that stuff affects the price range as well. would like to know before going out and checking it out :)
 
I'm in a bit of the same position as the OP, slightly less acute. My laptop of 5 years died last summer, having been used daily for hours, but I revived it with a new video card. I have been thinking of replacing it, though.

In the band we have 3 iPads for music reading and two Androids. Of course it's no comparison but i keep running into limitations with the extremely closed ecosystem on the iPad, which is the only Apple thing I have experience with. That and our keyboard player that is always the last one setup with his Nord /MacBook Pro/Motu setup that always seems to take a while before he gets sound out of it... I got the 16Gb ipad, that was a mistake. It's filled up pretty fast.

The osx doesn't suffer the same constraints, does it? Like file formats (divx), not being able to view flash websites... I know... Security... But having only 16 gb I would like to put some movies on there for long journeys and with .mov it would fit, like, 2? There is an app that will play them, fortunately, but it was a hassle to find it.

On another note, the one thing where Apple is behind is touch screen functionality that Win 8 offers. That looks interesting too. With the ipad we are currently so used to tapping the screen, above mentioned keyboardist found himself tapping the screen on his MacBook two weeks ago. He has a company for which he needed software that was windows only and got a Surface for that. He was surprised at the ease of use of it.

Also I don't like the reflective screens. My current laptop screen is matte and I much prefer it over my ipad which I'm constantly moving around to get it readable. I tried a matte screen protector, but that really cut into the sharpness of the retina screen. A lot.

Choices. Not like they're so cheap I could get both...
 
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This is an easy one. Buy a Mac. My last Mac I bought in 2006 and it is still working (daughter is using it). Just bought the retina display with the solid state hard drive and I can't be happier.
 
but notice - there is malware on the mac too.....I had a major issue with a trojan last week which uses my mail address for spamming. They suspended my website, my mail boxes, now it's up again.....well almost! :blue: Now I use Avira......

beside that - get a Mac - I had my MBP 17" since spring 2010, this was my first real issue! ;)

If your budget dosen't allow to get one of the newer models, the old machines were fine too. Here is a nice link: Wegener Media - Mac Sales and Service
 
adildo said:
wow looks like its leaning toward the mac side here. for those of you who are using the macs. what specs do u recommend i.e. screen size/RAM ? cuz that stuff affects the price range as well. would like to know before going out and checking it out :)
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I would go with the 13" retina, 256 solid state drive, 8 gigs of ram. Its portable, light, and plenty of ram to do anything you need. I use my mac for portable recording situations, and I have no issues with performance. I have monitor at home that I connect to and use if I feel I need a bigger screen. I have used a box with 16 gigs and there wasn't any noticeable upgrade in performance. I have heard it makes a difference in big film projects. I have not experienced any issues with performance, and I run multiple applications while recording. Plenty of room to grow. The 256 solid state drive is a must.
 
Mac only, Macbook Pro bought in 2010, I7 processor, I carry it everyday from my house to work, and from work to my house, plugging and unplugging every USB, Firewire and powersupply port with no problem. Good advice to get an SSD version, it powers up in seconds and is lightning fast. A pleasure to work and make music with, beautiful design and OS. Still on 10.6.8 like many musicians.
 
Macs have extremely good build quality and top notch support. That said, I do take issue with some of the newer Macbook Pros and the inability to user-add a new hard drive or RAM. That's just lame.

I use a 2010 Macbook Pro i7 most of every day. I'm a web developer currently building an ASP.NET MVC4 site, so at work I hop onto Windows 8 and use Visual Studio 2012. When at home, I'm using OS X Mountain Lion. I had to take my Mac in for repair last summer due to spots on the screen and a couple of fans that were going out. When I got it back it was like a new Macbook.

Probably next year I'll retire this Macbook for work duties and keep it as a home laptop. I've been very happy with it. When it dies, I'll buy another Mac.

That said, a lot of it is that I just like OS X and Logic X. Logic X is a phenomenal deal for $200 and is Mac-only. The virtual drummer feature alone is worth the price of admission.

You will pay 2X-3X as much for a Mac as an equivalent-spec Windows laptop. That's just the nature of Apple pricing.

If you have a lot of Apple devices in your house, your Mac will seamlessly integrate with them. That's another plus in Apple's favor. No hunting down drivers or compatibility packs. As I get older and crustier, I tend to like stuff that just works.
 
My $0.02 -
I think the debate has no obvious winner.. both have advantages and disadvantages, and like Cobbler - I own, and have used both. From the OP's perspective IMHO - the decision should NOT be based on "the Mac is better for..." but on "what do you plan to do with it?"
What DO you plan to do with it?
If the use is purely for home DAW/AE use and integration with other Mac-based devices... IMHO - Mac.
If the use is for AE, mobility, use at gigs, and integration into a non-MAc network environment.. then PC.

There's no right way on this decision... Neither camp will defer to the other..
If you like to tinker - PC
If you just want it to "work" - Mac (unless you are trying to mingle with a non-Mac network environment, and then you may have issues).

Budget ? PC
Stability - BOTH

Obviously.. YMMV.
 
I went from PC to Mac this year. Although I was very interested in buying a Mac in the first place, the main reason for me was that everyone around me in the music/studio business are using Macs so I saw a big + in using the same platforms/programs as them. Both for sharing and help.
Been using the Mac Mini for 4 months now and are really happy with it.
 
Severed said:
I like options and having full control, it's the reason I bought an Axe FX II and the reason I'll never buy a Mac, and not trying to cause a fight but most people with compatability problems seem to be using Mac. A PC with same specs costs only 2/3rd the price of a Mac. Saying a Mac lasts longer is just nonsense, if you don't manage the health of your computer it's not the fault of the hardware/software, and given the same specs one is not going to last longer.

These are just my opinions
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The reason a Mac lasts longer isn't due to the hardware Severed (in fact I had my Superdrive fail on my mac, under warranty). Its the registry in the PC OS software that causes (among other niceties on the mac) us to turn to a mac. Its not nonsense, its fact. But that doesnt mean a PC wont work for ya too. My advice for the PC user however is to keep it completely OFF the grid, and update it from another source only after using a trusted virus scanner, and then you still have the trouble of the OS writing over itself and fubaring your registry. Oh, and use System Mechanic faithfully as it fixes the registry overwrites in Windows... I have both. My mac is the DAW in 99% of my music. Thats my opinions ; )
 
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If you are looking at laptops the best bet is most likely a Mac Book Pro. It isn't because OSX is any better than Win or anything along those lines. There are a lot of crap laptops on the Windows side of the house. There are also some really good ones. The really good ones approach the Mac Book pricing. I have no idea why Windows laptop makes keep putting touch screens on their laptops. It is awkward when trying to actually use it. If you walk into a local store that sells Mac and Win laptops you probably will notice how odd Windows 8 feels on these things vs OSX. If you were going to get a tablet like the Surface pro it would probably make sense.

As long as the software you want to use is on OSX, I'd say grab the Mac Book Pro. You can probably find the current ones on discount as the new round of them should be here in October.

I use both Win 7 and OSX. I have a "Custo Mac" I built. It runs both OSes. Now a days, I play games on Windows and do everything else in OSX. Why? Because... That is the only way I can explain it.
 
I just had a look again at the macbook pro
I was comparing it to the DAWbook from V Music Pro.
The mac comes standard with a 500Mb 5400rpm HD, the DAWbook with a 1TB HD.
If I want to upgrade to a 500Gb SSD on the Mac it'll cost me €700 extra
On the V Music Pro it's only €325 and 400€ for an second 500GB SSD.
The Mac has 4 GB memory standard, the DAWbook 8 GB
For 8GB on the MAc you pay €100 extra, for 16GB on the DAWbook €84.
Talk about Apple rip-off.
Now matter how good they are, I refuse to be ripped off by them.
They have a virtual monopoly since no one is allowed to use their OS.
As I stated before, I've been using my Vostro for six years for everything and never ever had any issues.
I've got an HP envy running for about three years now, again without any issues.
Both are connected to "The Grid"
No problem.
But I refuse to be stuck in a cocoon and be forced to pay dearly for it.
If I want a phone or MP3-player or tablet, I want to be able to connect it to any other computer and move files.
Not be forced to use bloody iTunes.
I don't want to pay double for any upgrade just because there's an image of a piece of fruit on it.
That being said, I don't want Windows 8 unless it's for a convertible device.
But since they're not making them with big screens, I'm not touching it.;)
 
Mac requires less maintenance, so it saves you shitloads of time and aggravation.

If you want to tinker, get a PC and use Linux.
 
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