Audiobus: Use your music apps together.
What is Audiobus? — Audiobus is an award-winning music app for iPhone and iPad which lets you use your other music apps together. Chain effects on your favourite synth, run the output of apps or Audio Units into an app like GarageBand or Loopy, or select a different audio interface output for each app. Route MIDI between apps — drive a synth from a MIDI sequencer, or add an arpeggiator to your MIDI keyboard — or sync with your external MIDI gear. And control your entire setup from a MIDI controller.
Download on the App StoreAudiobus is the app that makes the rest of your setup better.
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Still got to investigate this bootable drive thingummy. Switching is just a reboot away? Does it get confused about which drive to install or save to when you are booted to the external?
If you’re not entirely sure about getting a Mac (and I recommend it, I’ve only ever used Macs since 1984, and Linux since 1999) you could always try and build a Hackintosh.
Then you’d never get anything musical done – you’d be babysitting the bootable state of the Hackintosh every time some minor update occurs.
@MonzoPro buzzing speakers could be the sample rate:
https://www.cultofmac.com/670356/how-to-fix-16-inch-macbook-pro-clicking-speakers/
Windows 10 has been great. Everything just works on the new computer. Plug and play - just like a Mac. I use Tracktion - easiest and most sensible DAW I've ever found, though not always the most stable (hugely better in the latest version!). And then I export and mix in Mixbus32C, which sounds fantastic.
One thing people forget - and probably shouldn't have to care about - is that when Windows DOES get "fiddly", it's usually because of drivers and old hardware, and drivers are made by other companies because it isn't a walled garden like Apple. And even if it is Windows, it's because it's supporting a zillion times more hardware combinations than Apple could possibly conceive of. Not excuses. Just reasons.
In my experience, Macs can be as annoying and troublesome as PCs. Just in different ways. Apple's arrogance is certainly a part of that. A person's reaction to walled garden's certainly factors in - I can barely tolerate it. I don't expect to ever go all-in on Apple, for example.
The main thing is to not assume that one platform is better in general than the other these days. However, for specific use cases, which may be your own, one or the other may work better.
If you're excited by the thought of getting a Mac because it'll help you be more productive and does what you want how you want, then get one! At the end of the day, being frustrated with your tech is not something people need (well, not most people) - especially if it interferes with making music.
As for waiting. Well, as you said, both Apple and Microsoft make mistakes, so who knows the state of the OSes will be when you're ready. Just dig in before clicking the Buy button and get a lay of the current landscape.
I must again thank everyone for their kindness and insights! For some unfathomable reason, I find myself drawn to websites selling the Mac Pro, while my fingers furtively scamper toward the buy button. It's a bit overwhelming where to get the best price / performance. I do have a couple of Samsung 1TB SSD's collecting dust and I noticed the up-charge on the Mac Pro for an OEM 1TB is pretty steep.
Suggestions on what / where to buy the Mac Pro i.e. new, used, refurbished, educational, upgrade it myself in terms of RAM and/or SSD, port requirements, etc?
You don't. The licence gives you both windows and Mac.
Unless you really want to use Logic specifically I legit don't see the point of going Mac when you already own a decent enough pc. The only reason you'd need asio4all is if you were using an onboard soundcard. But if you're serious about music you probably already have an audio interface. I've been using my ica4+ for years with no problems whatsoever.
Ableton works much better at integrating iOS stuff specially apps like gadget,patterning, etc that have Ableton export. You can literally just save to Dropbox and import into your daw without even connecting your iPad to the Pc/Mac.
That being said. If the reason you want to get a Mac is specifically all the Mac exclusive apps and IDam then yes. Go for it. For me since I have an ica4+ IDam isn't a factor.
Unless you really want to use Logic specifically I legit don't see the point of going Mac when you already own a decent enough pc. The only reason you'd need asio4all is if you were using an onboard soundcard. But if you're serious about music you probably already have an audio interface. I've been using my ica4+ for years with no problems whatsoever.
Ableton works much better at integrating iOS stuff specially apps like gadget,patterning, etc that have Ableton export. You can literally just save to Dropbox and import into your daw without even connecting your iPad to the Pc/Mac.
Not that it's important, but just to keep the record straight: Windows PCs can also be booted from an external drive. Before the MacBook I was dual booting Linux MX on the Windows PC from an external SSD. Worked great. Booting two copies of Windows might lead to activation / licensing issues though, which you wouldn't have from a Mac.
I honestly can't say I've had any of the issues people have described with Windows updates, drivers, etc. that affected anything music wise. My DAWs continue to work fine, with totally acceptable latency on Windows 7. I just greatly prefer the Mac at this stage.
Thanks to all who responded about Ableton Live sharing licenses between platforms. Good to know!
One of the best investments I ever made in my home life and marriage was buying my wife an iPad. It seemed like every damn night I'd come home from supporting seething PC users at work for 10 hours to a seething wife at home ready to throw the PC out the window, and resenting me for it for some reason. That stopped the day the iPad got switched on. She still freaks out when stuff doesn't work, but that's about three times a year, not every damn night.
It must be some sort of inherent wifely trait as mine also gets angry at me for computer problems not of my making, alas she's not that enamoured with the iPad I got her either, as it does not have a keyboard (of course), and she does not want to use a Bluetooth keyboard (for reasons best understood by other than me apparently).
I like the idea of ease of integration with a Mac and iOS music apps, and I like the idea of less fiddling on a Mac vs. PC, and I like the idea of using Logic. Whether these three ideas turn into useful realities versus the time and cost to get there is anybody's guess, I guess.
I went to mac years ago and never looked back. Great kit if you can afford it.
Mine tries to do everything with Siri. The entertainment value there is enormous. 😂
Last night's comedy theater was listening to her try over and over to get her watch to send me a text telling me she needed something upstairs.
Are you sure? I looked into this when my PC died a few months back, as I’d hoped to boot from an external drive, and then access the files on the internal drive that way.
Searched pretty hard but couldn’t find a solution, so would be very interested to know how you do this - might help me resurrect it.
Hold down the option key when you boot, and it’ll display the available bootable drives, so you can just select the external SSD.
Seems to work very intuitively when installing, automatically picks the booted external drive, yet you still have the advantage of accessing the internal drive.
Ah ok, thank you, I’ll try that
Sounds right, only certain loops made the clicking sounds (couldn’t hear it through headphones), so if it was a speaker issue I’d hear it across the board. Only happened in Logic too - no clicking in YouTube or iTunes audio.
Aside from that, the sound from the speakers is incredible, clearer than anything else I have here, even my studio monitors.
Might give it a try later. Am just nervous of trashing anything on the main HD as it is my work Mac.
A friend set the SSD up for me as my internal drive is crap, but I’ve seen instructions and it seems pretty straightforward.
I’d like to try it with the new Mac, but the T2 chip throws in an extra few steps before I can boot from an external SSD, so haven’t been brave enough to test it. Piece of cake on the old one though.
12 years ago I switched to Mac and haven’t until recently been back on windows. Windows is still a nightmare...with its...I know you sat down to do music work...but right now I’m updating so pheck off. I immediately sighed a sigh of relief...handed my homie back his windows pc...and thought aloud thank heavens I am no longer using windows! Never again. The difference is quite large, people can talk all the shit about windows being a great music platform, but I laugh at that notion. It’s not true for me in any way.
Asbsatively. Been doing this for years. Any even remotely recent PC should be able to do it. I set the boot order in the bios so that USB is first in the order, but that might not be best option for everyone. For me it works nice because the PC boots to Windows without the drive plugged in, and to the other OS when plugged in, without me needing to do anything.
If you don't do that then you have to hit the right key at the right time to interrupt the boot. You have to hit it right between when the hardware comes to life and before Windows kicks in. Usually, but not always, that key is F11. Depends on the hardware.
There are some advanced Bios settings that could get in the way of booting from an external drive, but these are rare.
Sorry to re-post this, but it got lost chatting about wife-tech-ness:
I have a two Samsung 1TB SSD's collecting dust, and I noticed the up-charge on the Mac Pro for an OEM 1TB is pretty steep, can I just switch one of those big boys into a Mac Pro to save some dough, and is there a viable place for the second Samsung 1TB SSD in a Mac Pro setup?
Can I update the RAM myself to similarly save some dough on a Mac Pro?
Recommended port configuration on the Mac Pro for music purposes?
So, is there a way to permanently disable auto updates on win10?
I'm happy with my 8yo dell on win8.1...boots in seconds (<10), low latency, no hiccups. My mac mini is hooked to the tv as multimedia centre. Luckily lately I have less and less reasons to use desktop. I'm just worried that once it dies which way should I go? Not fan of many aspects of mac osx, but I also can't see myself using win10 if auto updates can't be disabled permanently - always done updates manually if there was a very good reason, max twice a year.
The only reason I would choose mac for daw duties is midi jitter, but I read win10 improved quite some in that regard.
Hmmm...ok cheers Wim, I’ll have to look into this. Can you access files on the internal drive (as with a Mac) when booted from the external SSD?
It’d be nice to be able to keep the old PC running as a back-up if possible.
yes.
Were you thinking of running Windows or Linux from the external drive?
I see PC or Mac as a left-side or right-side of the brain scenario.. my creativity flows unrestricted when I'm using a Mac.. nearly everything is intuitive + where I expect it to be.. and if something doesn't quite work, it's usually operator error.. NOT the machine..
Whereas my brain immediately goes into a business spreadsheet mode if I sit down with a PC.. can't change it if I wanted to.. there is ZERO creative inspiration here.. mental block? Absolutely..
If I didn't have a Mac.. hmmm.. not sure what I'd be doing.. I suppose it would ALL have to be done on an iPad.. Windoze would be an absolute no-go.. and I'd be totally OK with that too..
@puppychumful If you have the time + means (funds), I say go for it.. if you've never spent any time on a Mac (or very little) I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.. give it a bit of time to figure out where things are and the general operations.. I think learning Logic Pro X itself would be harder than learning the Mac in general.. Throw Ableton on that puppy and you'll be in familiar territory.. What have you got to lose? What have you got to gain?
Good luck on your decision.. Do let us know how things go if/when you do get a Mac..
Ace. I’d run Windows - not sure if I could use the same Win 7 account - probably not I guess. I could probably download and install a trial of Win 10, though I’d need to do that via the knackered PC....which might be tricky...maybe I could do it via Mrs Monzo’s, though that’s her work laptop, so possibly not.
Sorry for derailing the thread, I’ll do a bit of online research.
hahahaha
Totally opposite of me. That’s cool. I use Macs for work all day every day. They don’t inspire me. Then again, either does Windows. They're just operating systems. As boring as can be. Making music inspires me - the apps and tools available for that are what make a difference.
The reminders on Mac about updates to install are annoying. I should find a way to turn those off. Windows never prompts me. I probably turned that off.
The difference in my world between Mac and Windows is minuscule. But that’s me. I don’t generalize to everyone nor conclude that Macs therefore suck.
I’m a lifetime PC guy, but I’ve used macs as my primary machines for the last 6 years for development reasons. (Both MacBook Pros and a 2017 iMac). The seamless integration with my iOS devices is really, really nice. But unless you’re already a Logic guy, (or want to become one), I personally see very little advantage for making music on a Mac over Win10. I don’t see any ‘’latency’ advantages, and my main music apps (Studio One and Waveform) were much more reliable in Win10: I would go weeks without crashes in Studio One, ...on the Mac, well, not so much. Of course, much will depend on your devices, etc., but I would advise thinking long and hard before making the leap. Bang for the buck, inexpensive expandability, backward compatibility... all are somewhat challenging in the Apple world. Don’t get me wrong, there are things I really like about my Macs, but unless you’ve grown up using MacOS, I just don’t see it as much easier to get things done musically than in Win10.
Hello Tovokas,
I’m unquestionably a lifetime PC guy. I've never owned, let alone used a Mac for any purpose whatsoever. The only Apple products I do own are a few iPads and iPhones, and only for the last few years, since I've come to use these inexpensive quirky iOS music apps (not so inexpensive when you start adding up their costs and ndividual learning curves). I do find iOS machines annoyingly limited when it comes to any sort of peripheral connections and file management.
I am fine with Windows machines generally, notwithstanding the fact that they can be fiddly given they support so much different hardware and software. I am interested in the Mac Pro because of its close integration with iOS, plus hopefully better latency, plus hopefully ease of setup, and maybe for Logic, however I can't think of an instance in which a similarly price Mac would outdo a similarly priced Windows machine, but I'm no expert in that regard.
I really do not know if I’d just find a Mac Pro one more machine to keep updated and to learn how to use, or if it would open up avenues of musicality presently closed to me. The pragmatist in me says I'm hardly using all the gear I have now, to anywhere near full potential, so why bother, and the nerd in me says cool-shiny-new, plus it talks to your iOS machines, plus it’s full of promises.
I can pretty much guarantee:
You know you're going to do this eventually. So now the trick is to find a way to ease your conscience over it.