From PC to Mac, Article Options

[Presto]

If you want to "cheap out", you may find with Apple its just as cheap if not cheaper than PCs for making and listening to music, particularly nowadays. Plus of course you get all the other advantages of the Mac including absence of viruses etc. You can do alot from the MacMini at 499$ (no keyboard/mouse/screen) but as with all systems for music and/or pics, you should add a nice RAM chip. Don't bother paying extra for a bigger HD. You'd be better off getting a fast external HD, when and if the need appears, that you can dedicate to music.

http://www.apple.com/macmini/

I don't know what you want to do but you can always start with Garageband and iTunes included in iLife05 that comes bundled with all Macs. If you wait a few weeks you'll probably also get bundled the latest operating system called Tiger (129$ if you had to buy it). Still, what's the point waiting for a RollsRoyce for the price of a bicycle when you can have a Bentley for the price of a bicycle now.

Macs are really so much less hassle than PCs and they'd have been the #1 computer in the world without Apple's historical distribution snobism (IBM would also have done very well without their initial snobism too). That problem's always been so obvious to us buyer's that it seems strange that Apple's taken 20 years to start understanding just how much they've lost. Ignore the Apple snobism and just look at quality and price for your music and whatever else you want to do.

If you want to do recording with microphones, and pianissimo is important, you should consider the noise the computer makes whether it's a PC or a Mac. I've not heard the MacMini so I can't advise on that. I use an old ibook/Mbox/ and a pair of good mics for recording, and silences are silent.

Listening is the most important factor to me, so if you can't pay for a pair of active monitors at triple the price of a MacMini (or you've got sensitive neighbours), get a good pair of headphones. The better the quality, the lower you'll set the volume, and the easier it is on your ears.

This sort of cost has no relation to what computer you use.

The computer is only the base but if you economise by choosing one of the cheapest computers on the market: a top quality Apple, you can't go wrong.

Not all of us are PC or Mac fanatics so do listen to advice, but in the end just make sure you get some hand's on experience then use your head. Then you'll choose a Mac and become a MacMusicFanatic

This post has been edited by Presto: Tue 19 Apr 2005, 11:54

[HumanError]

Is everyone retarded?
I say that you pay more attention on the music than on the media . Everybody these days is so obsessed with what kind of ïnstrument' must use and the peripherals and the sound cards and ... and ... . If you really have a talent and love about music you do not deal with that staff more than a day.
www.humanerror.gr
tell me if I have any talent because I am full of love for sure
(I made everything on a PC with cheap soundblaster and a cheap midi and my cheap guitar and a really chip microphone and a copy of reason software and audition for final processing and recording)
Peace

[Broadwood Music ...]

A great article!!

I have been a PC user for many years. I understand them pretty well and used them in the first days of my studio. I bought Logic Audio when it was at version 3 and upgraded at every release. Ecerytime I upgraded Logic I had to upgrade items on the Pc to suite, and it was never enough. The most available RAM, biggest drive, different video cards, they all had an effect on performance and there were always limitations. I came to Logic version 5, what a superb program that was, but I was increasingly frustrated with not being able to have enough platinumverbs running or the PC just crashing and losing the last half hours work i'd done. (good backing up intentions sometimes get lost in the creative workflow).

Then the crunch came when Emagic sold out to Apple. No more updates! I was livid! I persevered with V5 until I could stand it no longer. The last PC crash where I lost an hours work was the straw that broke the camels back!!!!!

I got out a loan, bought the latest G5 at the time, bought the latest Logic V7 (the crossgrade path was just to much of a pain in the ass), got a new Motu HD audio interface and motu midi interface, set it all up and I was away.

A couple of weeks of this was like a dream come true. Everything I asked of it it did. Until......... yes............ithe G5 crashed mid session. With a sinking feeling, i rebooted the mac only to find that.......................It had saved my logic file before it went tits up!!!! OH JOY!!!!!!!! I LOVE MACS!!!!!!!!!!!