Originally Posted By: beatmaster
Has anyone changed to mac and is it any better than windows for audio , Biab etc.

i have bought a mini mac and thought is it worth the 199.00 to change over ?.

Looking for thoughts and advice from forum members who know both .

Also what is the best Daw software for the mac ?>


I switched to Mac full time around 2007 when I was given a broken G5 iMac (power supply failure, but I was able to fix that). At the time I was sick of Windows XP and Vista and wanted a change. Never looked back! I've since had a number of other Macs - Mac Minis, MacBook Pros, iMacs, and Mac Pros, and currently own a heavily upgraded 2009 Mac Pro tower (8-core 2.93ghz with 48gb ram, 512gb SSD, 2tb HDD, Geforce GTX 960, and USB3 card), a 2012 15" Macbook Pro Retina, and a 2009 iMac 24" (I think 2.8ghz dual core with 6gb ram and a 250gb SSD).

I also have a Windows desktop (mostly for gaming as it's connected to my TV) which has a 6-core i7 and 16gb ram with a Geforce GTX 1060 6gb, 512gb SSD, and 2x1tb HDD's in a RAID-0 - and while this is newer and faster than my Mac Pro (on paper at least), the Mac is able to get more done.

The audio system on a Mac is far superior to Windows, in that things typically "just work" as they advertise - I know, there definitely can be problems, but I personally experience far fewer problems in my day-to-day work with macOS than with Windows.

There is no such thing as a "best" DAW, only what works best for you. I personally use Logic Pro X for my songwriting, and I use Pro Tools for recording full bands, editing, and sound design for video. It's not that one is better than the other for each function, it's just that I'm used to each specific workflow in each program.


Originally Posted By: Janice & Bud
Its big brother the excellent Logic Pro X costs $199 for life including frequent upgrades and additions to the vast effects and sounds library.


Logic Pro X is $199 for life - that is, until they come out with Logic Pro XI. If I remember correctly, there was no upgrade price discount when they moved from Logic Pro 9 to Logic Pro X - but regardless, $199 is an absolute steal.


Originally Posted By: beatmaster
Thanks for all the advice , I do have access to a copy of pro tools first ,through hardware I just bought.

Eddie are you saying you use bIAB to generate your tracks etc , then over to a Mac for final mixing ,recording as biab for Mac will now set me back 199 to cross over !!

Also the mini Mac I have recently got is a 2011 one , would that be a problem ?, willing to upgrade it in the future if it works out better for me .

Mini Mac has an i5 . 16 ram !


So you're aware, Pro Tools First does not support 3rd party plugins at all, meaning the BIAB plugin will not work in it. You'd need to purchase the full version of Pro Tools for that. This is also true of some other DAWs - Studio One Prime for example. The free GarageBand and Reaper (trial) programs do not have this limitation.

Shouldn't be an issue using a Mac Mini i5 with 16gb of ram.


Originally Posted By: eddie1261
I'd ring Simon up on this question. I don't know Mac at all. I do know that I'd probably enjoy having a Mac for everything BUT music since Real Band isn't available for Mac. Again, I have never used, or even booted, BIAB.


Thanks for the endorsement Eddie!


Originally Posted By: VideoTrack
There are two schools of thought and often very protective defenses for each O/S platform.


Yep. Many people who have never used a Mac will happily deride it for whatever reason they can find (price, "inability" to play games, etc), while many Mac users who haven't used Windows at all since XP will tear apart anything they don't understand in Windows 10. I personally use both Windows and Mac in my day-to-day work here at PGM, and while I still personally prefer Mac I'm not generally unhappy with Windows 10.


Originally Posted By: Matt Finley
Reviewing the thread, I see we haven’t mentioned that you can run a Windows emulator like Parallels on a Mac and use the Windows programs you like. Peter Gannon has said he develops the Windows version of BIAB on his Mac. So if RealBand is important to you, you can still use it.


Parallels tends to work quite well for most apps. I personally use VirtualBox on my Macs, although I don't use BIAB on that so I can't comment much on how well it may or may not work.

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