Old 09-03-2010, 11:15 PM   #1
LFO
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Default Reaper on Mac Vs Reaper on PC

Greetings,
I have zero intention of starting a Mac vs PC flame war. I love my Mac and and I love my PC. Kind of like I like brunettes and blondes.

I've just moved to a new place and part of the move was to completely tear down my DAW. I need to put everything back together, but now that everything is apart I am seriously considering migrating back to PC. Reason being, I need more horsepower. I've built my own boxes since 1984 and I use a PC as a VEPro slave to my iMac. I love the iMac, but it has become too limited, mainly in expansion capabilities. If I were to upgrade the iMac I would have to go with a Mac Pro. Problem is, the damn things are sooooooo expensive! Now before Mac people jump in and say a PC would cost just as much I will preemptively say that I know for a fact I can build the equivalent for 1/3 the price of a Mac Pro. Let's skip that argument, it just doesn't hold water. So the Mac Pro is much more expensive. But it does have OSX and that is the ultimate Siren's song. Hence, I am not sure what to do. A few conclusions I've made:

1) I can live without Logic and (especially) Digital Performer
2) Cubase, that I use a great deal, runs well on both PC and Mac
3) I've been careful with hardware component choices to avoid compatibility issues if I build a PC.

There are more considerations, but those are the big three. The only unanswered question I have is about Reaper. I've only used Reaper on Mac and it has been fine. However, Reaper on Intel/Windows may be better for some reason or another than it is on Mac. For instance, do all add-ons work on both PC and Mac? Is Reaper more efficient on PC than Mac? Or vice versa? Can anyone give me tangible reasons why I might migrate from OSX to Windows 7? Although opinions are always interesting, I'm really looking for facts. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Kevin
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Old 09-04-2010, 12:00 AM   #2
blitze
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Default Windows 7

Not sure how reaper works on OS-X as opposed to Windows 7 but for what it's worth - I support both platforms and find that on the whole Windows 7 easier to deal with.

The Achilles Heal of Windows OS's is their file system NTFS. Look after is with something like Auslogics Defrag and you'll have a good system.

I've been running 7 x64 since the public beta releases and upgraded to Windows 7 x64 release from them. 2 main systems were also upgrades originally from Vista x64 and I have not had major issues. Audio is well supported and Reaper x64 runs very well for me with a mix of x64 and x86 VSTi's.

Problem with OS-X is it can be a difficult thing to work with in a mixed environment and the hardware costs to run it. As you pointed out, one can build a Windows PC at a cheaper rate than the same configured Power Mac.

Horses for Courses as they say.
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Old 09-04-2010, 01:26 AM   #3
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I think you've hit on one of the important points yourself : upgrading. Next time you want to upgrade (and you will!), if you had moved to PC, it would be reasonable to expect that you'll have an easier and cheaper time of it. I'd also suggest you remember that a Mac is a premium computer, but many (most?) PCs and PC bits are really rather cheap'n'nasty. If you look around and source top notch bits, get a nice case, nice quiet fans, quality peripherals and a tasty screen, the straight up price difference is a lot less ...though still less.. and you'll have a much more comparable (and, IMO, YMMV, etc etc better) user experience.
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Old 09-04-2010, 10:33 AM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by White Tie View Post
If you look around and source top notch bits, get a nice case, nice quiet fans, quality peripherals and a tasty screen, the straight up price difference is a lot less ...though still less.. and you'll have a much more comparable (and, IMO, YMMV, etc etc better) user experience.
Absolutely...
If you make the right choices, you can assemble a custom PC that's better than a Mac.

Macs are nice computers...
But I prefer to choose the components used in my DAW... rather than letting the board at Apple (or any other company) decide.

All this said, if you really want to run OSX or a Mac application, IMO that's the reason to use a Mac.

I think the idea of a Hackintosh would be fun... but I certainly wouldn't want that in any kind of professional environment.
What are you going to do if you ever need support... or when you go to report a bug/problem with the software? Mention that you're running a Hackintosh... and the conversation is over.

It's just like every other tool (software, instrument, etc).
You can make great music on either platform.
I just like the complete control/flexibility on the PC side.
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Old 09-04-2010, 10:59 AM   #5
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Quote:
Absolutely...If you make the right choices, you can assemble a custom PC that's better than a Mac.

Hi Jim,

Just wanted to say I'm loveing the PC you put together for Sonny. I've got it in my studio right now putting tracks together for his gigs.

It's so fast and smooth and so far no hicups. Had some issues with Win7 but got them all pretty well resolved.

Speaking for both Sonny and myself, thanyou very much.

Tod
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Old 09-04-2010, 11:26 AM   #6
Kundalinguist
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Earlier this year I built and legitimately operated my first ever PC for audio. I had been using two Mac G5s that I now use only for graphics - meanwhile, Digital Performer 6.0 is long sitting idle.

Happily, the PC has become my new audio machine, thanks to Reaper. I also bought good components including a Gigabyte board that allowed me to hook up my trusty (old) RME PCI card and UAD-1. It was all custom fitted to my needs and what I preferred (silent PS/fans, etc.) All my Apples are noisy. My PC is way quieter than any of them. Apple's machines haven't allowed me to use my old PCI stuff since early this century. And they have always cost me a fortune to buy new - $5000, $3800, etc. In comparison, my newer, faster PC cost me under $1000 to build.

I would definitely go for a PC, if only for audio using Reaper.

Admittedly, I still prefer OSX - the GUI, the ease of usability. But when using Reaper I feel no difference in a PC, except that it's much faster now. For everything else...I still love Mac stuff.

As for the Hackintosh stuff, I REALLY looked into that and it looks TOTALLY unreliable unless you want to be tweaking constantly with each update, etc. I spend enough time not creating music. I don't need to waste any more on "kext" file issues.
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Old 09-04-2010, 11:32 AM   #7
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Reaper runs rock solid on my PCs, no need to worry, and it supports all my plugins and allows for large projects.
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Old 09-05-2010, 11:57 AM   #8
Jim Roseberry
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tod View Post
Hi Jim,

Just wanted to say I'm loveing the PC you put together for Sonny. I've got it in my studio right now putting tracks together for his gigs.

It's so fast and smooth and so far no hicups. Had some issues with Win7 but got them all pretty well resolved.

Speaking for both Sonny and myself, thanyou very much.

Tod
Hi Tod,

Glad the new DAW is working well for you and Sonny...

When you step back and look at how the technology has progressed the last 10+ years... it's amazing. We've now got the tools to run heavy projects at ultra low latency settings.
ie: I never move my audio interface off the 64-sample ASIO buffer size.

I remember back when it was exciting to be able to run 8 channels of 16Bit/44.1k audio! Had to have a SCSI A/V tuned HD to pull it off.
$600 for a 2GB HD that sustained 7.5MB/Sec... and that was blazing fast.
We live in crazy good times...
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Old 09-04-2010, 02:35 AM   #9
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If it matters to you, there are a TON more free VST's, VSTi's and such for Windoze over Mac OS X.
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Old 09-04-2010, 04:54 AM   #10
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build a hackintosh - that way you get the best of both worlds in terms of osx and upgradeability.
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