Mac or PC ?

Marilyn Taylor · **Voice Talent** Joined: 30 Oct 2006 Posts: 400

My Del is on her last leg....she's ancient.... she's been a faithful friend but it's time to put her out to pasture...I'm sure this has been asked a gazillion times but here goes...which is better Mac or PC for a home studio?

Jacob Ekstroem · **Voice Talent** Joined: 23 Jul 2007 Posts: 721

MAC IS BEST!

NO, PC IS BEST!!

NOO, MAC IS BEST!!!

NOOO, PC IS BEST!!!!

NOOOOOO, MAC IS BEST!!!!!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, PC IS BEST!!!!!!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, MAC IS BEST!!!!!!!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.....

Prepare yourselves armata

Marilyn Taylor · **Voice Talent** Joined: 30 Oct 2006 Posts: 400

Thanks Jacob that was so helpful Laughing

Greg Littlefield · **Voice Talent** Joined: 06 Oct 2004 Posts: 13

Unfortunately, he's hit the nail on the head. It all comes down to a couple things:

1. what software & hardware you're going to use
2. what else you plan on doing with the machine

Find out what you need from a COMPUTER first, then decide which one will suit your needs best. There is some software for the PC that isn't available for the Mac and vice-versa. I have both at my house because of different software needs.

I'm sure this doesn't seem like a BIG help, but it's important to know where you want to be once you've unboxed the beast and have it all set up. Will you find your needs are met?

Diane Havens · **Voice Talent** Joined: 09 Jun 2006 Posts: 1281

Here ya go, Marilyn -- enjoy!
http://voiceoversavvy.com/ftopic5625.html

Caryn Clark · **Voice Talent** Joined: 27 Mar 2005 Posts: 1000

When I was making this same decision, I was told to go with what I was comfortable with.... which was a PC. I run ProTools on it, and am able to do everything I could on a Mac.

The next time I'm in the market for a computer, I will likely go with a Mac... just to give it a whirl and see.

But, really, I think you can accomplish the same tasks for vo with both, for the most part.

Michael Harszlak · **Voice Talent** Joined: 30 Jun 2007 Posts: 27

How old is your Dell?

I'm a MAC user - and have been really impressed with the value the old machines retain - I purchased a PowerBook G4 500 many moons ago (for roughly $1400), used it for about 4 years - sold it for $500 - rolled that into my new MacBook Pro - expect to use it for 3+ years, and sell it for whatever the going rate is at that time. If you go with a MAC - get the additional AppleCare warranty - you can save $$ on it buying it from eBay.

Keep all your original packaging if you plan to resell someday.

Lance Blair · Posted: Sun Jun 01, 2008, 20:49 (GMT) Post subject:

I absolutely hate Macs, frankly I think they're girly (*ducks for cover as the masses hurl stones*)...and yet I'm probably buying one the next time round because they work well for recording. You have to be really choosy to get a good PC for recording or blow a lot of money for a high end one. A so-so Mac will git 'er done for audio recording no probs.

I'll get a Mac, spray paint it black and green and put Motorhead stickers on it.

In the end, I'm going to wait to see what Windows does post-Vista which could be sooner than you think.

Marilyn Taylor · **Voice Talent** Joined: 30 Oct 2006 Posts: 400

My Dell is 4 years old...it runs slow, though I've had it restored twice, it always says 'low disk space' though I clean it up twice a week and it has a small screen...I now need readers..yikes! Shocked

When I upgrade I want to do it right....
Any suggestions for 'low disk space'? there is nothing I've downloaded and no unnessesary files...in fact I keep very few files...

Steve Anthony · Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2008, 14:15 (GMT) Post subject: Mac Mini

I just picked up a Mac Mini, the 2ghtz model and upgraded the memory to 2gigabytes. I had a lot of PC software, so I went with a program called Fusion by VMWare. Fusion lets you install Windows on the Mac. Plus, you can have both operating systems running at the same time. I like to edit in Sound Forge, so with Fusion, I can run ProTools on the Mac side, record, save the session in a shared folder, open up the wav files on the Windows side in Sound Forge. Edit, then save back.

It's something to consider. The best thing about the setup, for me, is how quiet the Mac Mini is. No more computer fan noise.

Steve

Marilyn Taylor · **Voice Talent** Joined: 30 Oct 2006 Posts: 400

Thanks everyone for your pc vs. mac advise...I heard one more thing on the Kim Zomando show Sat...wait till 'back to school' sales to buy a computer.....

Michael J. Schoen · **Voice Talent** Joined: 21 Jan 2008 Posts: 198

Marilyn,
P-C -- and I don't wish to enter the fray on whether PC or Mac is better. There are considerations other than how you do audio files...
But for the low disc capacity problem, I recommend a second hard drive...which could be connected via USB if your machine is a few years old.
If you keep all your audio on it, it won't effect your main disc.
I keep audio, photos and documents on a 500 GB drive. Depending on how old your machine is, it may not take one so large.
If you get a new one, make sure it has enough memory, at least 1GB -- and I still recommend a separate hard drive...and a hi rez monitor that will protect your eyes.

Marilyn Taylor · **Voice Talent** Joined: 30 Oct 2006 Posts: 400

Thanks for the info Michael, that helps allot... I was out last night looking at different options...heading ot Best Buy today.....

David Oxford · **Voice Talent** Joined: 09 Feb 2007 Posts: 505

I've weighed in on the PC/Mac debate more than once...but I'll make this one more succinct.

I agree that you should use the platform you're most comfortable with. I started out back in the late 80's on Mac....gravitated to PC's until around 2005 when I returned to Mac via their new OS X operating system. I was shocked at how easy it was to transition - virtually no learning curve, at all.

Despite Mac's brilliant marketing via their "Mac/PC" commercials, there is a lot of validity in there. I wish I had a quarter for every minute that I struggled with all the problems I had with PC's...from the endless hardware conflicts to software updates to viruses and spamware and corrupt .dll files to tweaking settings all over the place to freezing/restarting - andonandonandonandonandonandonandon - I can't tell you how happy I've been since returning to Mac. I have three now and despite all the stuff I see people write about having the same kinds of problems with Macs they do with PC's, I can't fathom it - because my personal experience has been completely otherwise. Macs just work.

I don't have any reason to promote one more than another because I don't get paid by either one of them - just sharing my personal experience. I do have, on my studio computer (an iMac) Parallels, which allows me to run Windows XP, only because I still prefer Cool Edit Pro/Adobe Audition for editing, along with the various other functions it allows me to do (I still don't understand why Adobe hasn't released a Mac version, especially since Adobe's Mac products for other professions, like Graphic Design, were originally developed for Macs and are still on the cutting edge.) And I will tell you that my virtual PC, running XP on my Mac, has never once crashed - and I've put it through all kinds of gyrations over hundreds of hours of use.

So, yes, use what you're comfortable with - but, at least as far as my experience is concerned, if you want a hassle-free machine that just does what you want it to do without having to have an IT degree to just keep it running, you might be well-served to seriously consider a Mac. Again, it just works...and works well.

So much for being succinct.
David