• SONAR
  • The SONAR Mac Prototype, a collaboration between Cakewalk and CodeWeavers (p.30)
2017/06/26 20:42:30
brconflict
Brian Walton
jamesattfield
Rain
 
This is anecdotal but if there is one thing which seems a constant in every studio I've visited and among the people who work there, it's that they tend to always be a few versions behind and usually avoid upgrades and updates as much as possible (OS and DAW software - I don't think I know anyone who runs Pro Tools 12).
 
When the computer is but one component and when there is a lot of hardware involved (AVID control surfaces, DSP cards, etc), people often seem to value a stable, working configuration over the lastest/fastest.
 
Of course, that is just my personal observation. But still... Most Mac owners I know don't really care for the latest/fastest. They have many other priorities before that.
 
As I mentioned earlier, the fact that Abbey Road decided to equip its 2 new studios with Mac computers - despite them being a few generations behind - illustrate just that. It's certainly not because they couldn't afford killer PCs.
 
Obviously, that's just one segment of the industry. But in my personal experience, that attitude is not uncommon in other segments too. 



This is not uncommon in many industry segments. Many enterprise databases run one or two versions behind the curve for reasons of stability and resource management - constant upgrades can be quite expensive but more importantly can be high risk. To characterise Mac owners as being happy to settle for 'last season' stuff I find a quite ill-informed comment. It applies equally to users of other PC's as well. We all want the sweet spot of performance with maximum stability and predictability.
 
In any event, older Mac's tend to be much more useful for longer not being shackled as they are with a slug of an OS. My Mid-2011 iMac happily out-performs my 'killer PC' which on paper is superior in all areas except intense online gaming (difficult to beat a pair of Cross-fired Radeon's) even though the PC runs the last reasonable version of Windows, 7 Pro. It also does this using a fraction of the disk and memory resources the PC demands. It is also noticeably more stable, boots faster, is not virus prone and the colour rendition is superb 'oob' which is great for my photography. The PC is now retired and on cold standby awaiting de-commissioning.
 
I'll be leaving you now as I take the view that I have been shafted by Cakewalk with their U-turn on Mac support so won't be following up on this. Good luck!
 
James
 


Win 7 pro is the latest reasonable version of Windows?  According to who?  
 
That OS came out 8 years ago!
 
Numerous resources suggest Apple is not keeping pace with the professional A/V market (look up ProTools users jumping the Mac ship).  
 
Macs are notorious for an upgrade in an OS requiring a program overhaul due to lack of backwards compatibility.  



ProTool users jumping from Mac? Surely not for PT on Windows but for other DAW's? I tried PT on Windows a few times, and immediately was disgusted. It's like trying to run Adobe Flash. It runs so poorly on Windows--at least on my machines.

IMO Apple isn't interested in the DAW market as much, but the DAW market (the industry) is still holding onto Macs with cold-dead hands. They're still out there in massive numbers. Anyway, dead subject now, I'm afraid. :)
2017/06/26 21:24:23
tzzsmk
"Win 7 pro is the latest reasonable version of Windows?  According to who?  
That OS came out 8 years ago!
...
Numerous resources suggest Apple is not keeping pace with the professional A/V market (look up ProTools users jumping the Mac ship)."
 
this really gave me a good laugh, because it's primarily AVID not keeping up, ProTools users are slowly jumping off the AVID ship since PT11 release "RTAS death", which was launched 4 years ago:P
2017/06/26 21:28:42
Sanderxpander
It's strange how Apple has gravitated way more towards the consumer side of things and at the same time still gets "pro" credits based on what they used to stand for.
2017/06/26 23:55:16
Brian Walton
tzzsmk
"Win 7 pro is the latest reasonable version of Windows?  According to who?  
That OS came out 8 years ago!
...
Numerous resources suggest Apple is not keeping pace with the professional A/V market (look up ProTools users jumping the Mac ship)."
 
this really gave me a good laugh, because it's primarily AVID not keeping up, ProTools users are slowly jumping off the AVID ship since PT11 release "RTAS death", which was launched 4 years ago:P


 
You are talking about a different issue.
People that are staying with PT, but ditching MACs is documented. 
http://www.pro-tools-expe...e-ditching-their-apple
2017/06/27 01:24:41
cparmerlee
This is not just a Cakewalk issue.  I don't know all the ins and outs of the Mac OS releases, but fairly recently Presonus pulled support of the Universal Driver for some of their current audio interfaces, most notably 1818VSL.
 
They said that the reason was "Mac OS changes made it impossible to support the control panel."  And that cascaded into the same regression of Windows software.  The upshot is that if EITHER Windows or Mac users need to use the on-screen mixer (control panel) for the 1818VSL (which is practically a necessity), then you must fall back to a 3-year old version of the drivers and separate control panel app. 
 
Apple seems to be messing up quite a few things in the music world, and ironically, it seems that Windows is making big investments in their Windows 10 platform to make it a great foundation for DAWs.
 
I know it sucks to see this Cakewalk project not result in a commercial Mac project, but maybe that really is best for everybody.  It seems to me Apple has been pretty unreliable as an OS vendor for the past 3 or 4 releases.  The "punishment" is that by going with Windows, you will spend half as much money and have a better solution.
 
And re: the Presonus issue, I ended up selling my interface and upgraded to a Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 gen2.  Very nice.
2017/06/27 14:10:55
AT
I find trying to keep 2 windows machines updated is a pita.  I can't imagine trying to keep a Win and Mac machines going.  "Damnit Jim, I'm a musician not an IT guy."
2017/06/27 16:08:03
FCCfirstclass
Anderton
http://www.prosoundnetwork.com/blogs/2433/view




That's a good article Craig.  I can see Apple setting up an iPhone and using it as the DAW platform with plenty of octo cables for the mics, sends, bigger monitors, etc.
2017/06/27 16:27:28
Brando
FCCfirstclass
Anderton
http://www.prosoundnetwork.com/blogs/2433/view




That's a good article Craig.  I can see Apple setting up an iPhone and using it as the DAW platform with plenty of octo cables for the mics, sends, bigger monitors, etc.


Shades of Brazil -

2017/06/27 18:10:21
cparmerlee
Anderton
http://www.prosoundnetwork.com/blogs/2433/view

That article contained a line particularly interesting to me:
You never know what rabbit Apple will pull out of a hat, and perhaps a mind-blowing generation of workstation computers is just around the corner.

That certainly is a possibility, but IMHO, Apple long ago decided the whole world wants everything to exist on screens that are no more than 1/4" thick and 10" on diagonal -- and seriously, keyboards and mice are so 1980.  Certainly there are many things humans want to do that work well with such a format.  There might even be some mini-DAW cases where that is a good thing.  But I do not believe that anybody in any position of authority at Apple appreciates that there are some applications that really do work best with big, powerful desktop platforms and lots of glass.
 
That same thought process almost ended the consumer-facing side of Microsoft, and probably would have if they had tried to survive another year with Steve Ballmer in charge.  Under Ballmer's watch, he pushed Microsoft to believe that people actually wanted desktop machines to work exactly like phones, and that whole "Metro" app thing almost did Microsoft in. (I am talking the end user side of Microsoft.  The "corporate" side was always strong, anchored by SQL server and related products.)
 
But it does seem that Microsoft has learned an important lesson.  That is, while desktops may not be sexy or a high growth area, they are vital to a large number of applications and failure in that area reflects badly on everything else Microsoft tries to do.  Not coincidentally, about the same time, Microsoft figured out nobody even wanted phones to work the way Microsoft envisioned them, let alone forcing that framework on the desktop systems.
 
Who knows where this will all be 5 years from now?  It seems to me that Microsoft has learned their lesson and Apple has not, so Microsoft looks like the better bet to me.
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