Mac vrs PC

Drenlin said:

Oh I know it...the music industry is pretty tough to make a profit in. The thing is, not all big name bands do their work in a studio...the ones working at home are usually a bit smarter about things.

Also, Audio isn't like video...it doesn't take that long to process everything. If you're using a DAW, you usually apply the effects and tweaks one at a time, one track at a time...or in many cases even in real time as the song plays. Adjusting the whole mix doesn't happen as often(though it's definitely a factor) If you're using analog or outboard equipment, which is still VERY common, then all the computer needs to do is record the final or near-final product in digital form, which is relatively easy, and possibly control some of the equipment. The longest you should have to wait on the computer to work is when you're waiting on the file to be converted from a project to an audio file. Having a virus scanner in the background would make almost no difference in productivity. You're not going to be plugging in external drives while you're working anyway...

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well I am not an expert in audio engineering, and hell I couldn't even cut a few tracks in garage band, let alone pro tools, DP, or logic....I could fumble around and maybe after reading a few tutorials catch on to it. I catch on pretty damn fast.

However, I have a vast amount of computer and network knowledge and I set this stuff up for studios all the time, including configuring network back ups, audio hardware (digidesign, and other name brand stuff) M-audio cards, set up switch boards, and other I/O....

When I was doing work for a buddy who was recording there I got to hang out and watch them record, and they had songs that were manipulating multiple tracks at once, and I mean multiple over 50+.... Now if you use DP, it has a feature called freeze track, which allows you to freeze tracks if you are done messing with them, thus telling the computer hardware to not render that track until it is unfrozen. Allowing for people to record and manipulate audio with much lower hardware specs. However, nothing beats doing it all at once in real time. You have a valid point, and maybe I am talking above what the home brew recording studios do, and I am comparing them to a professional that would charge you for their time, on a professional level as in the guy pays his bills doing that.

This was one of the songs off their album they recorded, and it was like 2 years ago maybe...

[YT]96Th-o5mh8s[/YT]

True, professional-grade DAW's with huge amounts of tracks can take up massive amounts of system resources, but you'll often only use 15-20 tracks unless there's a lot of layered pieces. Even an old single core can usually handle that...a C2D of any sort will make short work of it. 50+ tracks all being edited at once can get slow though, you're right. Most newer rigs with 4+ cores can handle it pretty well though.

Cool song, btw. I like the bass.

tlarkin said:

Recording studios are all a bunch of cheap skates, and they hated when I told them if they wanted to be serious and professional they need to spend some money. None of them use best practices either.

I would not want virus scanner stuff running on my main rig when I am rendering multiple tracks of digital audio.

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Like Drenlin said, there's no money in the industry. The days of the record label giving £50k+ to a band and telling them to make an album are over. It's not unprofessional, it's just how it is.

And to be fair, many engineers were recording with reel to reel tape 15 years ago, when pressing the wrong track arm button during a take could wipe that 'once in a lifetime' vocal that took weeks to achieve. When you dropped in to replace a line in a take you had to allow for the physical distance between the record and playback heads, and get it perfect or risk cutting off a previous line. It's easy to see why setting up a RAID may appear an extravagance to these people.

Hi,
Some people say that mac computers are easier to use. I personally own a mini mac and don't know if I'm missing out by not having windows.

Thanks

PunterCam said:

Like Drenlin said, there's no money in the industry. The days of the record label giving £50k+ to a band and telling them to make an album are over. It's not unprofessional, it's just how it is.

And to be fair, many engineers were recording with reel to reel tape 15 years ago, when pressing the wrong track arm button during a take could wipe that 'once in a lifetime' vocal that took weeks to achieve. When you dropped in to replace a line in a take you had to allow for the physical distance between the record and playback heads, and get it perfect or risk cutting off a previous line. It's easy to see why setting up a RAID may appear an extravagance to these people.

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+1 to that. Analog recording does have its benefits, but redoing parts of a track is not one of them.

markpeterson said:

Hi,
Some people say that mac computers are easier to use. I personally own a mini mac and don't know if I'm missing out by not having windows.

Thanks

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Unless you want to play games or something, you're probably not missing anything.