Profile: Khuzarrz
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• • PC vs. Mac for Music Recording/Editing?

  • Frankly you're asking in the wrong place. Shoot over to a pro audio forum and ask the same question. Here you're gonna get a LOT of PC fan bois who've never used a PC and then a comparible Mac to record in their entire lives (exactly as they're arguing that musicians use macs because they've never used PCs).

     

    I'm damn good with computers, and still use one (my 23rd solo build) just because of the ease of use for gaming. I've been raised on windows since I was about 7, and I know it backwards. A little over a year ago I got a mac, and I have -never- looked back.

     

    I've got about £9000 of recording gear sat in my 'studio' (Ok, it's just a bedroom, but it would be a studio if I'd stop buying electronics and actually soundproof the bugger!), and the Mac completes it. I actually really suck on mac, I have to be honest. I'm so used to windows that it's quite an adjustment - fortunately windows stole most of mac's mechanics years ago so it's not toooooo unfamiliar ;) *flame retardant jacket*.

     

    I've -never- been into a studio in my entire life (nor at a live venue, or ANYTHING to do with music pre/post-production) that doesn't solely rely on Macs. And you have to ignore the idiots saying 'musicians don't know how to work PC's. Try going to one of the big studios, where pro recording takes place, for Dream Theater, or Dave Matthews Band or someone massive like that. They've got a whole fucking IT department, and those guys know computers. And they know the Mac will -always- come out on top for recording.

     

    As has been mentioned, noise is an important factor, but as is the OS itself, as well as software. Simply, Logic is the best commercial recording software in the world. A price tag to match, but it no longer uses a dongle (you can work out what I'm suggesting ;) ). And it works best on a Mac, largely because Macs hardware interfacing is incredible.

     

    I said to start with that the 'haters' never used a PC -and- a Mac with the same hardware to try and record. I have. I first used my interface (Saffire Pro 26 I/O - highly recommended!) with my mac. Plugged it in. Installed the software suite. Full functionality, instantly. Did everything I was expecting, and everything I wanted. Allowed me to record all 8 channels from my drum kit, monitor seperate mixes to seperate channels, follow the MIDI tracks as well, etc. etc. etc. In live settings it allowed me to send people seperate mixes (louder guitar for the guitarist, louder drums for me etc.). All of this worked -instantly- in Logic, as soon as I launched it (having never used the program before in my entire life), created a new project, and created the tracks - it did all the rest for me.

     

    A few weeks later I wanted to record some practice, but my mac was sat over at my dad's office after a visit that weekend. I hooked the interface up to my computer, running Cubase (probably the most renowned pro audio suite on windows), which I've got years of experience on. From those years of experience, I can tell you Cubase is an absolute bitch. Massive amounts of potential, but like everything windows, totally unintuitive. So I installed the software suite and followed all the instructions that came with the interface, and then began to try and record. No intuitiveness here. 8 audio tracks created, but all had to be source selected seperately, taking about a minute and a half per track (not so bad, until you're recording 64 tracks...) because of the ridiculous complexity Cubase adds to it (using an X-Fi soundcard doesn't help either!). The same for MIDI, and all monitoring mixes took ages to set up too. I didn't get any practice done that day.

     

    I've never had a pleasant experience trying to record on windows, in about 6 years of doing it. Sure the recordings come out OK eventually, but it's never pleasant making them. I've never had an unpleasant experience recording on Mac, and the recordings ALWAYS come out perfect. Everything's easy on mac, and even though if you isolate the PC etc. etc. etc. you can produce the same quality recordings, you can guarantuee you'll have put in 10 times as much effort to do it. For me, 10 times less effort was worth an extra 20% on the price tag, if it's not for you, go for windows. If it is, it -has- to be Mac.

  • Posted: 8/23/08 9:14 AM
    General Discussion
• • Nanci and the some environmentalist making no damn sense (again)

  • Originally posted by Gorair
    

    umm how much energy would be used to create the batteries that the solar panels use/charge whatever it's called?

    i was under the impression ( meaning i thought this i dont KNOW if its real or not) that wind and solar lost all their beneits when the battery(whereever it is in the process) was taken into account, just because the MASSIVE amout of energy lost making it + the completely un-reuseable toxic waste they create when they have to be replaced.

    For example ,

    I read somewhere a while back ( no idea i think i was reading some old mag in a Dr office sorry so take it with grain of salt if i got confused about this part , its been a few months since i read this) , that the newest GM plant is energy neutral  , but the draw back is that the waste products to keep it there are going to be worse than if they had just used normal steam/coal provided electricity , plus they will pile up as there is nothing to do with it but store it , breaking the by products down requires even more energy that they provided in their shelf-life.

    That might have been an editorial too so i not sure its real , fact or even a truth. But it stuck with me and thats the impression ive had since then. That the techonolgy of wind/solar is viable with lots of work just not right at this minute.

    i say fine lets do solar and wind , and anything else we can get our hands on , we wont really know until we try it.

    edit to place things in correct order lol 

     

     

     

    I'd tend to agree with this. Again, pinch of salt, as it was about 10 years ago now, but when we had solar panels installed on our roof (did the water+heating), we were told by the installation guy to be 'under no false impression that this is good for the environment. Even the most efficient solar panels take more energy in their creation than they can produce in their first 25 years of operation under 100% perfect conditions.' Britain is certainly not perfect conditions, as this year's summer has proven.

     

    Global warming - my arse! (Not starting a debate, just taking the piss).

     

    As to the OP: ROFL @ Nanci taking another step toward proving just how fucking stupid she is. I can't help but wonder if there is ANYONE in the entire country that has her support. This falls somewhere between political posturing and the 'environmentalists' proving that they've got someone else's economic interests at heart too, if you get my meaning.

  • Posted: 8/20/08 5:49 PM
    General Discussion
• • World War III

  • Originally posted by Goldknyght
    

    Well then your argument aswell only furthers that our involvement should be non existant. We did the same thing to Iraq so why cant the russians do this to Georgia. We both had political goals influenced by our reasons for attack. Yet on this one im sure your buddies here will say Iraq was nessacary and this wasn't

     

    'Buddies' can have whatever say they want. Mine however, and I thought yours too, was that Iraq was an illegal war and shouldn't have happened. Neither should this.

     

    The fact is, Georgia had every right to do what they did, civilian casualties or otherwise. Russia however, did not; if Russia were really that horrified by the '2000 dead', and had stepped in with their 1992 peacekeeping powers, they'd be keeping the peace, NOT launching full scale ground assaults into the Georgian heartland.

  • Posted: 8/11/08 5:46 PM
    General Discussion
• • World War III

  • Originally posted by Goldknyght
    

    You kinda of still prove my point. Russia supplies seperatist and We supply georgians. We both use plausable deniablity. So if Georgia attacks the seperatists and kills russians in the process thats a act of war against russia. Especially when the tensions were already high. Slaughter the civilians make the world think russia did it and get our assess kicked so the world will maybe back us and start the 3 war to end all wars yet again. When you kill your own people other countries dont get invovled but when you bring there citizens into the mix they have the right to defend there people.

     

    Once again, Russians reporting 100 civilian casualties, Georgians reporting 2,000.

     

    Also please note no Russians were/should have been killed in this operation. South Ossetia is not, and hasn't ever been part of the Russian state, and regardless of what civilians killed in any attack on the province may call themselves, they're Ossetian, NOT Russian. If I started calling myself German, because I liked Germany, and France attacked Britain and killed me, does that mean they've killed a German? Don't be stupid. Act of war indeed.

     

    Why would they be so stupid?? They're not trying to start WW3, they're trying to reclaim one of their own rogue provinces.

  • Posted: 8/11/08 2:50 PM
    General Discussion
• • World War III

  • Originally posted by Goldknyght
    

    Also i hate this american mentality that we have to protect every democratic nation in the world. If Georgia would of took a democratic approach on this there wouldnt be a conflict. Yet they chose not to and sneaked attacked one of the citys in south ossetia. And you want to defend them and start world war 3 over this? You sir need help! wait nevermind you are just as blind as the rest of america blaming russia so you will sound righteous.

     

    Having been talking about this with my sister who's writing a paper over the summer for her uni course, centering around international conflict law, earlier today, I think you've TOTALLY misunderstood the situation.

     

    My understanding, from the conversation earlier (I couldn't even pronounce Ossetia this morning!) is that in the 90's, South Ossetia declared it's independence from Georgia. The UN has not accepted their independence and the region remains a 'de facto' independent state, whilst internationally recognised as part of Georgia

     

    On the 7th Georgian troops moved back in to South Ossetia to reassert their governance of the state, as is their right by international law. I've no idea where you have these stories of burning civilians etc., as by all accounts the operation went perfectly to plan in a textbook manner, and even since, the Russians themselves are stating only 100 civilians dead, whilst the Georgians are stating 2,000. Those statistics should surely read the other way around if the Georgians were at fault?

     

    On the 8th the Russians counterattacked, ILLEGALLY. Not only did they push Georgia out of THEIR OWN TERRITORY of South Ossetia, but they pushed further into Georgia, ILLEGALLY once again (you know, a bit like Bush declaring an ILLEGAL war on Iraq).

     

    On the 9th the Georgian government declared a state of war as not only were the Russians occupying their territory of South Ossetia, but also Abkhazia and parts of the surrounding territories of both regions, and refusing to leave or accept a ceasefire. At that point they requested international aid, which the UN and it's member states is oblidged to provide as Russia is ENTIRELY in the wrong here.

     

    Also your example of Buffalo is totally off the mark. A better example would be if, say, the southern parts of Texas/California, based on an overwhelming number of hispanic immigrants, and monetary/military incentives from Mexico, declared their independence from the USA, forming the 'republic' of 'Ocixem' let's say. The US at this point would think nothing of rolling the tanks in and quelling this rebellion. The role of the Russians then is filled by Mexico, who would roll their own tanks over, (somehow) pushing back the american army ALL the way out of Ocixem, as well as the remaining parts of California and Texas. Who's in the right there? Bloody certainly not Mexico.

     

    EDIT: Kurush pretty much beat me to it :/

  • Posted: 8/11/08 2:43 PM
    General Discussion