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Subhuman

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Might buy a Mac?

I have an interest in sound editing/mixing/recording, and I've been told that a Mac is better than a PC for this kind of thing.

Comments/suggestions/etc, anyone?
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nax

I was just curious what a 0 point question would contain...

.... anyway, what you heard about the Mac is true. I've been using Mac and PC for years for video, audio, animation, programming, etc. and I always find the Mac more stable and faster.
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>I was just curious what a 0 point question would contain...

*chuckles* I spend a lot of time in The Lounge, zero point questions are quite common. :)

Since I have no idea what might or might not come of this thread, I refrained from classifying it's difficulty (by assigning points) until I can see where it's going... when I have a more definitive idea of what direction this thread may take, I'll throw in some points for whatever I find most useful. Since, being a student in high-school (well, for a couple more months, anyway:), I have limited access to monetary resources, so asking something specific like "What Mac/Software should I get?" is a bit premature, since it will probably be quite some time before I come across money to be buying a second computer. :)
Ouch, bad grammar - "I refrained from classifying it's difficulty (by assigning points) until I can see where it's going..." should probably read "I've refrained from classifying it's difficulty (by assigning points) until I've seen where it's going... " :)
Macs r used extensively in movie editing and audio recording. The Grateful Dead Hour is assembled on Macs. That is one example out of thousands. Star Wars was remastered on Macs.

do what ever u want. macs r best.
*chuckles*   I'm not going to get into a Mac vs PC battle here, so I won't take the bait. ;)

Thanks for the opinion. :)
Your question is all about a Mac vs. PC de-bait. You probably cannot afford the Software required for editing your garage band anyway, so why are you asking about the Hardware?

Thanx for wasting our time.
Thanks for wasting *my* time. I'm sorry you felt compelled to return to my "waste of time" thread to post that "answer".

I said I'm *not* looking for a battle.

Editing my garage band? lol. I'm not *in* a band. I *write*, my playing is not good enough to play in a band that I could be proud to be a member of. Besides, being in a band involves seeing *people*. Uggh.

For someone who's been here since '97, you sure seem unfamiliar with ee-etiquette. Who are you to judge me, when you don't know me? I could be *anyone* in the world, you don't know me or my motives, so don't presume to.

>> You probably cannot afford the Software required for editing your garage band anyway, so why are you asking about the Hardware?

What does that matter? I'm asking a question, and hoping for some kind of *useful* response. Up until you sought to judge me, I had considered your comment useful. Now I'm not so sure.

I'm here to get your opinion on computer hardware, not your opinion on my skill as a musician, my financial situation, or what you believe to be *my* tastes in computers/music/whatever.

Please leave this thread and stop "wasting your time".

*Other* experts' opinions are quite welcome, I will assign some points and accept a comment in a couple of days.

Thanks for your patience. :)
We're havin' fun now!
No comment
come on guys, we're here to share knowledge not exchange snappy smart-talks... or kill each other.

like my grandmother would say "if you don't have anything good to say, better not say anything at all".

regarding your question, i'd say "Mac is better, PCs are cheaper" so the choice is yours.

peace!
Thanks nax, at least someone has their head screwed on right. :)
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Last I heard, Trent Reznor uses a Mac.  That's all I needed to hear.
For what it's worth, in the past, I have worked with a number of graphic artists and designers, all of whom preferred the Mac for their platform of choice. I don't know if this is because it is what they were trained on or if there was more to it. Also, the PC market may now have caught up or surpassed the Mac with faster CPU speeds.

There are actually a lot of much faster machines but obviously speed is not the only consideration, like what gmichels pointed out that graphic artists and designers prefer Macs -- precisely because they're designers and artists and they don't want to think about technical problems anymore. The Mac alone is a piece of art by itself!
>Last I heard, Trent Reznor uses a Mac.  That's all I needed to hear.

lol, I'm sold!! :)

Thanks guys/girls/whatevers, for the opinions. I'll give this another day or so then start throwing some points around.
Get a G4 Tower, Fast and Wide SCSI, Raid Software. IDE/ATA HD's will drop frames on Video projects because it is not fast enough and you will lose Data because it is not safe enough.

The G4 (SCSI, MacOS 9, ASIP) Server is an excellent choice. Someday you may need the AppleShare IP (ASIP) Software (it will run on most Macs).

No hard feelings,
-TheHub

:)
You sound like a salesman, telling me to get the biggest, baddest computer on the block. ;)
for personal use, iMacs are practical, G4 cube is best.
Thanks nax, I was going to ask what the iMac is like for this kind of thing. What are they like? I read a few reviews of them when they first started popping up, and while the reviews sounded alright as far as performance goes, I'm not sure if I like the idea of having the whole thing in one case. And what's with the colours? *chuckles* :)
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trenchdigger

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I have a pIII 500 at work and an older Mac upgraded with a G3 @ 400mhz(50mhz bus UGH!) and slow memory and I swear, Photoshop and my audio apps seem faster on my old Mac.  I use SoundEdit and Deck.  Beyond that, the Mac just doesn't feel like work.  It's a beautiful OS, and it seems more natural to be creative there.  There is definitely a feel factor.  Throw in the stunning case design of the newer G3/G4s and you've got a beutiful box to go with the OS
The reason for the speed differences is simply the kind of processor... it's simply compare the Motorola to the Intel. Motorola's major capability is the graphical/sound stuff, Intel is more into the numbers.

Interestingly enough, "left brained" work is numbers and the like, and "right brained" work is with the gfx/sound - the creative types (excluding me...) tend to lean towards the Macs.
Thanks all. :)

trenchdigger - I was planning on keeping my PC handy, if only for something to use until I'm used to Macs. :) It's funny, no matter how many people say that Macs are easier to use than PC's, the fact is, I struggled to use Mac's all through primary school, because that was what they forced on us. A week after meeting my first PC, I was suddenly comfortable with computers. Although even funnier, after stuffing around with a Mac at school a month or two ago, I discovered I was more proficient with the damn things than the teacher who'd been using Macs since god knows when. Maybe I just needed a kick start, who knows. :)

Although I must admit I don't know how a person can cope with only one mouse button. ;)

I've also noticed the lack of software around the place, although similarly I rarely venture into computer stores - My PC's hard disks are pretty much full-to-bursting, so looking at new software is essentially a pointless exercise. :)

>Curious: what kind(s) of music do you write, and how?

Pretty much whatever I'm feeling at the time. I'm primarily a lyricist, I suppose, although that might just be a reflection of my lack of equipment. I come up with rhythms and melodies at seemingly random times - eating dinner, walking the dog, posting on EE, whatever. I try to keep them buzzing around in my head until I get a chance to grab my bass and screw around with it a bit until I can replicate the tune I'm hearing in my head. Sometimes I grab my guitar and whack some chords in there, sometimes I head for my keyboard (actually I'm borrowing it from school, but hopefully they'll forget that :) and play around with that, put in a drum riff here or there and screw around with the pathetically weak synthesiser to get an interesting sound, although lack of equipment prevents me adding the kind of instumental depth I would like to acheive, because I have no way to get several different "instruments" playing simultaneously. My music tends towards a kind of hybrid of Nine Inch Nails, VAST, Tool, Metallica, with some elements of big-band jazz and a touch of classical thrown in for good measure.
So you're the play/sample/mix kind of person?
Also, you didn't mention midi - good =)
*chuckles* I guess you could say that. :)

I've experimented with MIDI, and while it's ok for hearing a whole bunch of different parts at once, I have no power over the quality/texture of the sound, which is important to me.

Not to mention the MIDI support on my PC's sound card is pretty crappy (nonexistant would be a better word, though), so I leave it alone. :)
>the MIDI support ... is pretty crappy

Unless you have a $3500 specialized setup it will not sound good... and then, only the midis created with the same setup sound decent!

By the way, I agree with what you said earlier: what's the deal with the one mouse button?
ok, that sounds like Seinfeld :)
*chuckles*  Yes it does. :)

MIDI is about as hardware independent as Java is. :)
My music is "tracker" format (mod, s3m, it, xm) - sounds basically the same anywhere, even with the built-in PC speaker... I can't quite figure out why it's so much less popular than cheesy midi's.
Just to stick in my 2 cents.

yes Trent Reznor uses macs for all his music. You should have seen the specs for the box he had ordered from apple....*WHOOOOIEEEE*.

And while not provoking a Mac vs PC debate ill say this. Using a Mac isnt just just about choosing a platform and using it. Its a completely different state of mind. (Kinda like driving a mint condition classic VW bus, you know youve got it good but it takes a little humor and Zen to get from A to B) For some unknown reason right brained people prefer macs and lefties like PCs. I couldnt tell you exactly why that happens but it does. Perhaps its the look and feel, perhaps its a self perpetuated cycle, i dont know. BTW lefties are generally the artists and creative folks while the righties are analytical calcilating folk.

On the performance side it was mentioned that PCs may have cought up to Mac performance. With the addition of the Dual G4 450 and 500s the Macs have the lead again. Thats not to say that you need a full system but its always nice to dream..;P..A G4 cube would probably do ya just fine and an iMac would be fine if youre on a tight budget.
>lefties are generally the artists and creative folks while the righties are analytical calcilating folk

uhh, I think you got that backwards...


Subhuman - if you get a Mac you might want to get SoftWindows or the like, and go buy a 2-button mouse (or 3, if that's your style) - that way, you have everything on one system.
Plus, if you do this and find a lot of sound software you like that's for the PC you'll be able to use it AND you'll be using the Motorola processor that's more oriented toward that sort of thing.
Just a thought, a.u.
no, left handed people are generally right brained, right brain is the creative side. Hence, lefties. One is generally designated by which hand they prefer to use rather than which side of their brain they gravitate towards correct? Which is why people are called ambidextrous and not "wholebrained"...Sounds like a cereal doesnt it.

BTW SoftWindows has for the most part been replaced by Insignias RealPC which is a lesser counterpart to VirtualPC which is faster and easier to use.
>wholebrained... sounds like a cereal doesnt it?

LOL! :)

trenchdigger, yeah I saw your website (yeah some people actually *do* read profiles:), I downloaded that app and a file called trois.it (interesting to note, IE *insisted* it was an html document, don't know why:) but either it won't play or I need to read the documentation of that program. ;)

SoftWindows, etc: is that an operating system in it's own right, or an emulator? Interesting idea, but if I'm gonna go Mac, I might as well do it properly. ;)
Hmm, interesting. WinAMP says that "trois.it" is an invalid module. :(
Wow! Listening to "This is not a song"... very nice. ;)
sub: SoftWindows is an emulator. I think they quit at windows 95. Real PC and VirtualPC actually run true versions of windows so im not sure whether to call them an emulator or an OS. Virtual PC provides the framework for a PC onto which you can install any PC os including RedHat linux, windows 2k (or any windows version), BeOS PC, etc. Rather handy to have. I think RealPC limits you to windows.
Winamp sucks for playing modules. :)
I tried trois.it, and yeah, it won't save... hmm. I'll look into that.
Thanks for your comments, too.

Plus, I know some people do read profiles, since I was looking through the questions you asked to find this thread in the first place as I wouldn't ever have gone into the Mac area otherwise...

all right then.
-td
*chuckles* yeah,  you didn't seem like a Mac Area regular. ;)

*curious* Why drove you to venture into my profile?

weed -  thanks for the info. :)
I usually read everyone's profile. If I'm posting a question I check the profiles of the people who are giving comments; if they've answered lots of questions on the topic before and their answers are good, I'll value their comment better than the people who ask 11 questions, answer 3, and ... oops, wait, that's me :)
Thanks for your input. :)

Oh and by the way, I *love* your music, make that *4* questions answered. ;)
Wow, thanks! I wasn't expecting that... I'm pretty close to 1000 now! If only I could raise my *question* points... I have an amazing total of nine... hm.
*chuckles*
1946 expert points
452 question points

Most of my "questions" are 0 point lougers ;)
What are you, an elephant?
huh?

no, just you have points and i don't
*chuckles*