Question about buying a mac

This is not a sarcastic post, or one meant to like beat around the bush taking jabs. It's a legit inquiry.

How come people buy apple? What makes an apple computer the choice of producers? Is the latency between external hardware and the computer lowered? a better array of processing utils? Higher compatibility? Better DSP?

There has to be some reason that i am oblivious to.

My current set up is 100% stand alone audio gear, and i'm super happy with it i dont have to deal with a finnicky machine in the topography of my array when i want to make music i just hit some power buttons and make music and the process is super quick. However, i dont know everything, would never claim to know everything and it seems like everyone is doing it. What am i missing out on?

audio+midi are at a higher priority on a mac. you dont deal with a lot of bullshit because a lot of things are built in with coreaudio and all that. i personally use a windows laptop cuz it was cheap af, but i was using a macbook pro for ages and loved it. they both have their pros and cons and honestly, i feel macs are way overpriced now, but if you happen to end up having one for whatever reason, they're great machines. but the main thing (for me) is that audio/midi is at a higher priority. on windows you can have all sorts of shit introducing latency and jitter. usb and wifi devices can **** up your sync, etc etc. this is a non issue on macbooks.

One thing to keep in mind with Macs is that they don't give a **** about backwards compatibility so one needs to be vigilant when updating OS for example

handthrow wrote:One thing to keep in mind with Macs is that they don't give a **** about backwards compatibility so one needs to be vigilant when updating OS for example

yeah when i read the horror stories people tell about using a pc or mac it tends to push me further into avoiding the use of one. I used to use acid pro and reason for years and despite me becoming proficient with them they would enrage me and id find myself being distracted trying to fix my computer just so i could make a song. I dont want to go through that again, but if theres some element of audio processing / design im missing out on i would consider the investment.

eight_trx wrote:audio+midi are at a higher priority on a mac. you dont deal with a lot of bullshit because a lot of things are built in with coreaudio and all that. i personally use a windows laptop cuz it was cheap af, but i was using a macbook pro for ages and loved it. they both have their pros and cons and honestly, i feel macs are way overpriced now, but if you happen to end up having one for whatever reason, they're great machines. but the main thing (for me) is that audio/midi is at a higher priority. on windows you can have all sorts of shit introducing latency and jitter. usb and wifi devices can **** up your sync, etc etc. this is a non issue on macbooks.

great answer, i forgot about coreaudio. yeah im not sure i want to spend 1200-1600 on an arm computer. intel stuff of the same price range has a ridiculous amount of computing power it just seems like a terrible investment for me to make unless theres something vital it does.

I get so fed up with windows sometimes. I go out buy top of the line components and PC runs greats. Then windows auto updates and auto updates and auto updates then my computer slows to a crawl. And I have to keep reinstalling windows and all my programs settings etc etc etc. Window updates are constant and constantly breaking things. I've been on the fence about buying a mac forever but lately I've been closer to pulling the trigger because I'm sick of Windows breaking my once super fast computer.

for me its an issue of environment. if you are using 99% plugins then the investment in a mac makes sense. if you're using mostly hardware and tracking out to a DAW, windows all the way imho. its only when you start trying to do hybrid hw/sw setups that shit gets wonky on windows with sync.

Ultros wrote:

eight_trx wrote:audio+midi are at a higher priority on a mac. you dont deal with a lot of bullshit because a lot of things are built in with coreaudio and all that. i personally use a windows laptop cuz it was cheap af, but i was using a macbook pro for ages and loved it. they both have their pros and cons and honestly, i feel macs are way overpriced now, but if you happen to end up having one for whatever reason, they're great machines. but the main thing (for me) is that audio/midi is at a higher priority. on windows you can have all sorts of shit introducing latency and jitter. usb and wifi devices can **** up your sync, etc etc. this is a non issue on macbooks.

great answer, i forgot about coreaudio. yeah im not sure i want to spend 1200-1600 on an arm computer. intel stuff of the same price range has a ridiculous amount of computing power it just seems like a terrible investment for me to make unless theres something vital it does.

I know this is hard for some to fathom but.. Some of us just prefer the MacOS over Windows.. I can get the same shit done in either one, but I like the way the Mac works better after 35 or so years of dealing with both Apple and MS in some form or another. Looks a hell of a lot better too when it comes to reading. Windows still sucks when it comes to font rendering. I feel like I stepped back 10 years or I'm looking at Linux when I look at text on my work Win 10 machine. When it comes to audio and midi, Apple is hands down the winner. Microsoft has nothing like CoreAudio or CoreMIDI inside Windows. It took a third party, Steinberg, to develop ASIO just to have a decent audio system and MIDI is a mess on Windows in general. They're just a tool to get a job done, and out of the box, a Mac is pretty much ready to go unlike having to optimize Windows for real time audio production.

this is me in a nutshell. i tried to use the mpc in a hybrid setup, hook it up to modular this and that. the second i go from idea -> troubleshooting, the entire vibe is gone. these days im just using my mpc and resampling my own recordings. shit just works.

Ultros wrote:

handthrow wrote:One thing to keep in mind with Macs is that they don't give a **** about backwards compatibility so one needs to be vigilant when updating OS for example

yeah when i read the horror stories people tell about using a pc or mac it tends to push me further into avoiding the use of one. I used to use acid pro and reason for years and despite me becoming proficient with them they would enrage me and id find myself being distracted trying to fix my computer just so i could make a song. I dont want to go through that again, but if theres some element of audio processing / design im missing out on i would consider the investment.

This is an old debate that belongs under “production techniques”
Search the web or youtube & will find plenty of answers.

Yep, posted in the wrong spot. Ooops!! didnt notice till you said that dok!

also lots of great answers and views. thanks folks.

i may pick one up eventually just cus, another tool in the collection cant hurt plus im more of a nix user than windows so it might suit my background a bit better. last mac i owned was a g3 powerbook.. lol thats a long long time ago.

Ultros wrote:Yep, posted in the wrong spot. Ooops!! didnt notice till you said that dok!

also lots of great answers and views. thanks folks.

i may pick one up eventually just cus, another tool in the collection cant hurt plus im more of a nix user than windows so it might suit my background a bit better. last mac i owned was a g3 powerbook.. lol thats a long long time ago.

I have both Windows for compatibility reasons and Mac's in my studio setup. I have a M1 MAC and a Intel iMac. I don't have any issues with either machine. But man the M1 Mac is beast to work with.

If you are worried about the prices , you can try a Mac M!1 Mini but you do have to get a mouse, keyboard and monitor separately. But as others said be warned that AKAI in particular is super slow to adopt to new MAC OS's.

I‘d say it‘s mostly practicability and focus. You can configure everything in Windows in 11,000 places, macOS is much simpler and user friendly. But yes, CoreAudio is far superior compared to ASIO systems. Latency is an issue there as well as modular configuration. Mac let‘s you create virtual interfaces combining multiple ins and outs into so-called „aggregate devices“ and stuff, while IAC let‘s you send MIDI data via wi-fi or LAN network to other Apple-Devices and also internally on your local machine between DAWs. Also, you rarely struggle with drivers or viruses. And it‘s a bliss with it‘s shortcuts. Combined with tools like BlackHole or SoundFlower there isn‘t anything you can‘t route on a Mac. Plus: the displays are amazing.

Sorry, I‘m a long time fan. I have a desktop PC for gaming, but „to get things done“ (not only music and audio or other media) I wouldn‘t want to swap my Macbook for anything else. It‘s a work horse.

As an ex-Apple employee my take was always one of tight integration.
The same teams make the hardware and the OS.
It results in a trustworthy and stable operating platform.

Microsoft have also tried this in recent years with the Surface devices with some success.
I have a couple of macs, both M1, a HP desktop, an older Surface Pro 3 and a number of iOS devices.

My daily drivers and Audio machines are the M1 macs, the HP runs Win10 and linux Mint.
The Surface is also Win10 and I'm also playing with Chrome Flex OS on it.

To be honest, in recent years Windows 10 has become much better than it's previous versions, the only real big issue as always is the stability of drivers and security.
Windows is still a bigger target for exploits but macOS is catching up.

My previous windows desktop was a 10th Gen i9 with 32GB ram and an Nvidia RTX2070.
As far as production performance is concerned the M1 macs hammer it in every respect all the while being tiny, cool and pretty much silent, it's hard to underestimate how important that is.

If you want to game, the Wintel machine was hands down better.
If you want to run Music software almost any of the current Apple machines are incredible, the 16GB Mac Mini being a standout considering the cost.

My two-penneth.
Peace.