My DAW research

[jetspeed747]

Yeah I'm well aware of Hackintosh, but to be honest, there is no problem running PT9 under W7. We aren't planning the move to HDX until next year, at which point PT10 HD should be out for W7 as well. As I've switched to Cubase. there are no Mac-only apps left. All of my VIs migrated to W7 without a hitch.

As far as Cubase, man it ROCKS! I could never go back to Logic now.

Just a curious question so please don't take this the wrong way. I totally get the move to PC. The thought of being able to pick and or change/replace components and do so at a reasonable price is very enticing indeed but doesn't using Pro Tools kind of lock you in the way Mac does? I'm not a Pro Tools user so I don't know if this is true. It just appears to me that when someone uses Pro Tools they are kind of locked into all the Avid products (digi etc.).

 

[Reincaster]

Just a curious question so please don't take this the wrong way. I totally get the move to PC. The thought of being able to pick and or change/replace components and do so at a reasonable price is very enticing indeed but doesn't using Pro Tools kind of lock you in the way Mac does? I'm not a Pro Tools user so I don't know if this is true. It just appears to me that when someone uses Pro Tools they are kind of locked into all the Avid products (digi etc.).

Pro Tools 9 and the current Pro Tools 10 is no tied to any specific hardware. But then you have to deal with avid, unfortunately.

 

[funny_polymath]

STUDIO ONE: The word here is "elegant". This is a tool designed from scratch in recent times and it shows. All the legacy hangovers are gone and there is clean, efficient simplicity. If it had had a score edit window I would have gone for it. It is the cheapest of the three, yet I can't find any weakness. It is also very simple to use, without compromising functionality. It has a multi-channel piano roll, and anyone who has had to constantly switch piano roll windows in Logic will know how cool that is. I highly recommend that people give it a look.

CUBASE: This is the most familiar choice for an ex-LOGIC user, and that was a huge factor in why I bought it. Cubase does everything, but there is a learning curve that goes with that. Version 6.5 is quite elegant as well. It comes with a huge array of sounds. I own enormous libraries of Virtual Instruments, and Cubase supports this well.

Other elements - I've just received my i7 Windows machine with a 256GB SSD, two separate 1TB RAID arrays and 24GB of RAM, and paid considerably less than what I paid for my i5 Macbook Pro. Oh my, that feels good.

Love Live, but don't forget... SAMPLITUDE. The FIRST object oriented DAW. The first with 32 bit math (I don't even know what it's up to now). Rated the best sounding in multiple European contests, comes with an excellent suite of signal modification/mastering tools including an outrageous convolution reverb. Used for many, many symphonic recordings and movie scores. Built by detail-obsessed Germans... I have used it for many years, for all of my CD releases, and I still have only scratched the surface of what this program can do! It is DEEP, POWERFUL, incredible GREAT SOUNDING. Cheers.

 

[Strataxe]

I've been led to believe that they've got their own set of quirks though and the bonus is that you get zero support from Apple. I mean if stability is his primary requirement I don't know if that would be a good route to go down. Plus I believe that there is a pretty limited set of drivers that have been hacked to make it work properly. Its all community driven in that regard isn't it?

Yes it has it's own quirks just like a PC running Windows. With the right hardware it can run pretty stable.
I have a PC with Windows and MAC OSX with both Operating systems working well. Although the hardware is the same, when I use audio programs in Snow Leopard I don't have to do anything, it just works. In Windows, to be able to do the same without any problems, I have to disable some features in the BIOS and some times tweak the OS.

 

[Strataxe]

I would never use a Hackintosh for anything in a business or production environment. MediaComposer and Protools are funky enough when it comes to hardware environments. Using non-standard hardware is asking for trouble.

Well, if it was for a business I probably wouldn't use a Hackintosh too. I use it at home and in my case it works really well. Note that I have a Macbookpro. I built my Hackintosh because it's much more powerful than my Macbook an a lot cheaper than a MacPro. when I do some work on my Macbook and I need more power I can continue working on my Hackintosh.

 

[Manning]

Just a curious question so please don't take this the wrong way. I totally get the move to PC. The thought of being able to pick and or change/replace components and do so at a reasonable price is very enticing indeed but doesn't using Pro Tools kind of lock you in the way Mac does? I'm not a Pro Tools user so I don't know if this is true. It just appears to me that when someone uses Pro Tools they are kind of locked into all the Avid products (digi etc.).

Yeah I'm locked in to Avid. I regard it like Methadone, it's unpleasant, and you're hooked for life but you can at least get through the day.

You can't run a commercial studio without Pro Tools sadly. Sure there are some enlightened customers out there, but the majority know little to nothing about recording and all they do is mouth "Pro Tools" like the "deltas" in Aldous Huxley's 'Brave New World'.

Pro Tools suits my engineer as well, he's ultra old school and he's got it set up in a way that makes sense to someone who used to splice tape together. (Our hard drives are even named after old multitrack tape machines). We also do most of our mixing through an analog console - a glorious old Auditronics 740, the desk that "Under The Milky Way" was recorded on. (And by that I mean it's the actual desk, not just the same model).

Sometimes I fantasize about moving to a different platform, but the financial cost, plus the hassle of trying to retrain my engineer (who resisted using Pro Tools until 2006) makes it unfeasible.

Also to be honest, the digital technology has a very small impact on the final result, it is trivial when compared to the impact that the mics, room acoustics, outboard equipment and the skill of the operator have. If you run a Rode NT1 into a cheap pre-amp in your bedroom, Pro Tools ain't going to magically make it sound good.

 

[luke]

PCs are 95% of the market place, so it makes sense developers have more and better options for the larger audience.

We have several Apples and I have to admit that we have had problems with them. I still own a G4 from 2001 that works ok for the internet, but functionally useless otherwise, and it too has a dead CD Rom drive.

A lot of Apple devotees are considering other options, which was unheard of a decade ago.

 

[Phostenix]

PCs are 95% of the market place, so it makes sense developers have more and better options for the larger audience.

Those numbers are more lke 85% now. Apple has made a lot of gains with the popularity of the iPhone & iPad. I'm finding that just about every new employee that comes into our business that's under 30 (probably all new hires under 25) is asking if they can get a Mac instead of a PC on their desk.

As consumers go more & more to mobile devices as their only computing devices, I really wonder what the OSX and Windows 8 market is going to look like in a few years. I can envision a day (soon) where PCs in the broad sense will be a market only for desk-bound business people and specialized markets like CAD and video/audio production.

 

[favance]

Running Studio One v2 on a Macbook Pro. I love it!!! Coming from years of Cakewalk on a PC what a breath of fresh air. Studio One has an awesome workflow and totally intuitive interface for me.

 

[iaresee]

Have you heard about Hackintosh?
Hackintosh is a PC where you can run MAC OSX or Windows or both, so, you can still use your favorite apple software without a MAC.

I would never use a Hackintosh in a commercial environment because it exposes your business to massive liability -- your EULA violations could get you sued.

See Ernie Ball's saga with Windows for why you shouldn't screw around with EULA violations if you like your business: Rockin' on without Microsoft - CNET News

 

[iaresee]

All up I've spent $36000 on Macs over the last ten years. My problems have overwhelmingly been due to bad hardware.

I'm wondering how much of that $36k is down to you being in Australia.

We're all Mac in our small company here, all developers, and we refresh our tricked-out MBPros every other year. They're maybe a few hundred dollars more expensive than the Lenovo or Toshiba or Dell alternatives. Often they're on par though.

They've been no more or less reliable for us than the Dells we used at my last place of work. We don't really bother with AppleCare. We just buy a spare or two and shelve them. When we're done, we sell them out at a deep discount to our spouses and kids or donate them. The point is: we treat them as commodities with limited life because they're central to our business. Rather then run them till they die, we depreciate them quickly and turn them out to pasture. If your work revolves around computers it's prudent to treat your hardware this way. Our data persists, our hardware changes all the time.

I'm of the opinion (based solely on my own experiences) that Apple is cutting corners on quality. Because I don't know what components they are using (apart from the CPU), I have no real control. With a Windows machine I can control every single element and make sure everything is top notch.

Are you talking Mac Pros then? You talk about MacBook Pros a bunch so I thought you were talking laptops. You don't have any more control over Windows-based laptop hardware than you do Apple -- that's the nature of the beast.

 

[Manning]

Yea, we used Mac Pros for the PT rigs. I do also have one Macbook Pro which I run Logic on, it has intermittent problems as well, regular random freezes and app crashing.

Macs are certainly more expensive here, so that's a part of the $36K definitely.

 

[Stratman68]

Why would you leave Sonar X1x64 out? There is a demo and you would do yourself a favor by at least trying it out. Contrary to what anyone may have told you. Certainly is the most feature rich 64bit Daw available.

 

[favance]

I own a copy of Sonar X1x64. After using Cake since the original v9 product, I just got tired of the constant change. Although X1 is a step in the right direction, I just got tired of dropping $179 every year for a bloated piece of software. I think Presonus StudioOne has come real close to what I'm looking for. Have you tired StudioOne? Great workflow and the mastering integration is sweet!

 

[Stratman68]

I own a copy of Sonar X1x64. After using Cake since the original v9 product, I just got tired of the constant change. Although X1 is a step in the right direction, I just got tired of dropping $179 every year for a bloated piece of software. I think Presonus StudioOne has come real close to what I'm looking for. Have you tired StudioOne? Great workflow and the mastering integration is sweet!

BS-it is not $179 every year. That's not true so why would you say that? I've had CW since the 80's so please don't tell me I am wrong. Your talking about going from different versions. The producer version upgrades are NOT $179.Anyway, since their is a demo don't you think the OP should make up his own mind? You say bloated, I say feature rich.
But anyhow the point is he may regret at least not trying it before he drops some cash-Don't you think? So at least give hin the right info.

 

[favance]

I would say...whatever does it for you. I'm just saying I bought the Presonus StudioLive 16.2.4 board. It came w/StudioOne. I tried it and really liked. It works well for what I'm doing...mixing/mastering live tracks mostly.

 

[Manning]

As I said in my OP, I was REALLY impressed with Studio One. I personally MUST have score editing which is why I went for Cubase, but if not for that Studio One would have been my choice.

Sonar - I never really looked at it, which is a shame. Fatigue is my only excuse, looking at DAWs closely is a lot of work. Some people suggested Samplitude as well but I needed to get on with my life.