Mac's In Music Industry, Are Macs the standard in Music Industry Options

[wildomac]

ok,

I've been using Mac for 14 years now and they ARE the best . . but as my job is in education and I need to be impartial, there have been conversations with colleagues (just below heated!) that Mac's are maybe not the standard platform for Recording studio's that it once was. While I haven't been active in the industry, such as working in professional studios throughout the country (UK) my colleagues are prosfessional sound engineers who have been there, seen it and done it . . . I. through working in the Music educational sector have worked with pc and mac's and found Mac's far more reliable and better equipt for professional useage. so . . to my question . .

ARE Mac's the standard . . . and if so, is there any survey of studio's or info to back that up . .

Cheers

Music Technology Lecturer
UK

[NBailey]

While I have no information to back this up, these are my observations...for what it's worth.

I do believe that your colleauges may be correct in stating that more music is now produced on the PC...if, and ONLY IF, you included anyone that is making music, amateurs and professionals. With technological innovations in the last decade, anybody can make or "produce" "music" at home. Most of these people have limited budgets and so chose to use PC's as they are significantly cheaper than Macs.

However, in the professional market, Macs are the dominate majority by far. I completely agree with you when you say that Macs are more reliable. If you are training your students to become successful professionals in the field, I would encourage you to urge those around you to go the Mac route. Rarely do I walk into a professional studio that is using a PC...or software other than Pro Tools for that matter.

So, I guess the distinction lies in what you define a recording studio as. If you count some Auralex foam and a couple low budget mics in someone's basement as a recording studio, PC's may very well be the leading platform. If you are talking about true, working professional recording studios Macs rule the roost.

Another course of action you may take is to call the top 10 or so educational institutions with a RESPECTED audio program. See what others are using, I'm sure you will find that most educators in the audio industry share the same feelings about Macs that you do.

Also, for what this is worth, I am a recording major at Columbia College in Chicago and you won't find any PC's in our studios or production labs...I wouldn't even go to an institution that used PC's in their audio program.

I hope that some of this helps.