Audio editing ?? PPC to Intel advice

Mr. SmellsGreen said:

Hi guys,
I enjoy making music but I'm not a trained audio engineer (a hobiest)
I've been using Logic 8 , Reason 4, and T-racks,all in the box production.
These are installed on power mac desk top 1.1 which I bought just as Intel took over the brain space "well nobody told me" so as you can imagine it wasn't long before it hit the upgrade ceiling, but that was cool, as I was working out the techniques, short cuts and work flow stuff, anyway it's got to the point where I'm looking to upgrade and I'm looking some advice on which model to consider 3.1, 4.1, the different operating sys, and what to prepare for.
Those are the main 3 programmes I use for composing editing and junior mastering, but don't wont to buy a machine to then be told " this carnt work or that carnt work upgrade the operating system" or somthing like that!! I just want to get a bit of distance with the next Mac Pro I get !!
I'm doing the eBay/amazon thing (got kids to feed) 500£ or 650£ (If I don't) lol yep I'm in the u.k but your advice would be much appreciated.

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I'm not familiar with the programs you listed , except for the old Logic .

The biggies in the States currently are Pro Tools , Logic Pro and Abelton .

A good audio editing Mac Pro would be an Mac Pro 4,1 (2009) Quad Core upgraded into a Mac Pro 5,1 with any compatible Six Core Xeon . Barebones MP 4,1 cost around 500 USD in the States.

This is audio editing , so processor frequency doesn't matter much . We just want lots of Cores and Threads for all those tracks and plug ins. Recommended processor upgrade X5650 Six cores , 12 threads at 2.66 GHz . In the States , they cost around 60 USD .

Abelton can run on Lion 10.7.5 OS X , the oldest OS X that still receives security updates (EDIT - no longer true as of November 2014) . Modern versions of Logic and PT require OS X 10.9.5 Mavericks and 10.8.5 Mountain Lion respectively .

Add 16 GB of ram (or 32 GB if lots of MIDI) , a SSD and you're good to go .

Total cost , around 750 USD .

This Mac will be good for audio editing for a very long time . She has 64 bit architecture , a powerful processor and can run the latest OS X from Apple .

Machines said:

Abelton can run on Lion 10.7.5 OS X , the oldest OS X that still receives security updates . Modern versions of Logic and PT require OS X 10.9.5 Mavericks and 10.8.5 Mountain Lion respectively .

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I think that ship has sailed already... Lion hasn't received the last two security updates that addressed critical vulnerabilities (2014-005 and 2015-001). Some of the vulnerabilities that are fixed by those updates definitely exist in Lion.

dyt1983 said:

I think that ship has sailed already... Lion hasn't received the last two security updates that addressed critical vulnerabilities (2014-005 and 2015-001). Some of the vulnerabilities that are fixed by those updates definitely exist in Lion.

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Oh , no . I just checked and you're right - Lion is no longer supported

How can this be ? It's less than 4 years old ! Now a lot of my clients are going to have to air gap their Macs . No more internet or LANs for them with these machines .

I think this is a side effect of the accelerated releasing of OS X versions .

Thank goodness for 64 bit Mac Pros (2008-2013 models) and their ability to run modern OS X versions ...

Machines said:

Oh , no . I just checked and you're right - Lion is no longer supported

How can this be ? It's less than 4 years old ! Now a lot of my clients are going to have to air gap their Macs . No more internet or LANs for them with these machines .

I think this is a side effect of the accelerated releasing of OS X versions .

Thank goodness for 64 bit Mac Pros (2008-2013 models) and their ability to run modern OS X versions ...

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It's a "side effect" of Apple choosing to drop support of their older operating systems. It's quite annoying too. I wish Apple would continue to provide security patches for their older operating systems for more than 3 - 3 1/2 years. Installing a new OS, even if it is free, is not a way to "patch" security flaws. If there's one thing Microsoft has done right it's their security patch support for their software...especially operating systems.

My friend just updated all his Rigs to Pro tools 11 and the brains of the operations now, a New Mac mini. I purchased his old brain, 2010 12 core Pro that really didn't do anything but interface with the Pro Tools hardware so it had an easy life.

Mr. SmellsGreen said:

Waaaw guys
thanks for all the comments, still a little confused, their seems to be so many different op systems, the lion / Mt lion seems cool but, I scratched my head when one of the guys mentioned "not being supported" is it cool for me to assume that I should aim for a system at 10.8 and above avoiding the lions and mountains. Pro tools is a brilliant suite, but I think that being a logic man, moving to PTs would be like learning a whole new language in a different country and as I don't have Beyoncé jooles holland or the Marley brothers emailing me for mixes (which would be wikkid) I'm gonna do some more research on it. Thanks you guys who replied and I'm always looking for advice on this.
You guys take care

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OS X 10.8 is Mountain Lion, Mavericks is OS X 10.9, and Yosemite is OS X 10.10. If you're looking to buy a system my recommendation is to run the latest operating system that is supported by the software you plan to use.

You might as well run 10.10 unless you're going to use protools. Any given version of Protools is VERY fussy about what OS it will run on. So make sure the version of PT you're planning to run (along with any other software and hardware) is compatible.