Mac Or Pc? Convert Me!, also cubase v emagic logic 6 v protools Options

[alexlively]

Ok here's the deal. I've been a PC user all my life. I know they're not sexy and crash lots. That's what has brought me to this forum. I want to change, but I need to be convinced.

I'm a singer/ songwriter in the need of a fairly decent set up to be able to write/ record and down the line do live performances with. To date I have been using other studios but it is about time I got to grips with the production myself. Some mates use Logic Platinum, some use Cubase. However I go it will be in the portable direction -laptop/ notebook. I want to go to the cheaper end- if it will do a good enough job ie buy up stuff that is a couple of years old. I will be doing mixture of midi and audio, with up to 10 inputs although for the time being it will mainly be one instrument at a time. So:

Mac or PC
Cubase or Logic or Protools. Which versions for value for money.
Any probs going laptop route?
I've got an old (4 years ago) Maxi Studio Isis interface (I think that's what it is)- is that still suitable for what I need.
What other software would I need if I went for one of the above, or should that be all I need.
What should I expect to have to pay- I'm hoping to do the whole thing for within 2k. Can go more or less, but it will all be a loan to add to my ever increasing debts!!!!

I've wandered round sites, read others posts. I'm a little tired, and confused and I'm needing a bit of tender loving care. If you can help, please do!

Lots of love Alex,

[ebuddy]

I concede to the chief moderator. I'm a mac addict. As a forum subordinate, I'd like to be so bold as to suggest a format name change to musiComputing. I'm being a smart aleck. The above topic entitled "Mac or PC? Convert Me!" got the best of me. I have plenty of friends and family that use PC's and I'm just lashing out in retaliation from all those looks of disgust I get from them when they notice what computer I use and my brothers friend who said; "But does Apple offer services like DNS servers and hardware?!" . Though I must say, the super 16megazillion thingium sounds pretty cool, it requires water cooling-the G5 does not. And when I'm "jonesin" to use the Windows platform- I'll use Virtual PC for all those .exe files and I'll go to an arcade when I want to play games. What baffles me is Apple's ad scheme seems geared entirely to a small group of women and men who can't find the power button on a CPU. I wish they'd market their computers as "smarter". Okay, okay, I'm done. I promise
The main thing is the music anyway. I don't care what gear you have, can you play? Do you love it? As far as playing live, if I need 3 keyboards playing simitaneously-I'd rather staff all 3 keyboards with keyboard players and save the computer for lighting, sound check, or opening music for the audience while they wait for the show. There's nothing I love more than creating layers of music with a group of "like-minded" individuals and realising that you've created something much bigger than yourselves. Much better distraction than a dart-league at least. We should talk quickly about the music makers. I hope I didn't confuse the gentleman wanting to know more about Macs and PC's. There were a couple of questions you had that were left unanswered and I'm afraid I'm not familiar with the products. Protools is used frequently (and can also be "plugged-in") to DP4. Using Protools in any capacity would probably offer you a lot of online support via forums like these. The interface you're talking about I have no clue. I would definitely visit their website to verify you can use that gear. May need some drivers, but hey-what else is new. You can pick up a small MOTU 2port midi interface for darn-near nothing. I think laptops are just fine. I'm just now thinking about DP2 on my first gen, 233Mhz, Tangerine iMac. *sigh* For music-making I'd recommend at least 500mhz processing. The more here the merrier.