Hello guys and gals, I'm a music producer, I make beats, song, do vocals you name it, I just make music. Now I'm stuck between buying a mac pro and the new 24" iMac 2.8ghz extreme. I'm aware the iMac is cheaper in price and that particular model is supposed to be a quad-core processor. With this new computer I want to be able to do 2 things flawlessly, play world of warcraft with maximum settings no anti-aliasing on and do my music production really fast as in rendering times. The only thing that stirs me away from the iMac is the current GPU, I haven't found a clear benchmark of how it would run WoW on maximum quality minus anti-aliasing. So there you have it, I need a computer that will run WoW perfectly and speed my rendering times up a heck of a lot for my music production while not getting over pricey. I'm currently using a AMD Athlon 64 3400 as my processor and a GeForce 6800 Ultra 256MB, 1GB Corsair XMS TWINX, Western Digital 160GB HD, MSI V-Series Mobo. As you can see, that processor blows for music production when I turn on lets say waves tune from Waves mercury, my system idles and finally it shows the plug-in, its very CPU load heavy. If you can plz help me out
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Help me choose a mac for audio production PLZ!!!
- Thread starter mcfable
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Given the description of your situation, it's simple really - buy the best machine you can afford. In other words, if you want faster render times, the faster the machine is then the faster the render time will be. The iMac should be quite fast, but the MacPro will be significantly faster.
p.s. paragraph breaks in your writing would be appreciated by the readers.
p.s. paragraph breaks in your writing would be appreciated by the readers.
if i was you i would go with the mac pro. either quad or 0cto WILL BE more then you need. and it will last. i have a quad core machine hp. 2.4 ghz 3 gb ram and this thing flys i can only imagine the mac pro with osx how that would run. 
Remember I'm a new guy to mac side lol, I'm a pc vet, what are the gains of a G5 versus an iMac and mac pro, I really love the iMac, would like a mac pro but then I gotta buy a seperate monitor and shitake and don't wanna spend 3 grand plus on a pc to have it outdated in 6 months.
A G5 is an older, discontinued machine. The only rationale to buying a used, slower machine would be
1) if you had to spend the absolute minimum, or
2) if you already had software and hardware that was incompatible with the latest MacPro or iMac machines.
1) if you had to spend the absolute minimum, or
2) if you already had software and hardware that was incompatible with the latest MacPro or iMac machines.
the imac will probably be outdated in the next 6 months vs the macpro which was just updated recently
You'll be safer with the MacPro, not only is faster, its upgradable not only RAM-wise. You can get a decent monitor for less than $300, I have a 22" 1680x1050 AOC hooked up to my MB and it works perfectly and it cost me $350 here in CR, you can get it for less in the US.
Victor
Victor
great point!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i have a 22inch samsung screen paid 325 for it 1 year ago absoulutley amazing screen. i think ive seen it on sale for about 280 or 250.
makes the mac pro even more worth it.
im considering one for next year
i have a 22inch samsung screen paid 325 for it 1 year ago absoulutley amazing screen. i think ive seen it on sale for about 280 or 250.
makes the mac pro even more worth it.
im considering one for next year
The mac pro is an expensive bit of kit if what you really need is a gaming machine.
Seriously though, I have a Mac Pro and don't put much stock in the "upgradeability" thesis. The main upgradeability of a Mac Pro is the ability to add internal cards - but most of the new audio releases in the project market are geared towards firewire anyway.
Sure you can add more drives, but lots of people work fine with fast external drives. Sure you can add more RAM, but not everyone, even in music production, needs more than 4GB.
In the end it comes down to the specifics of what you need to run. Large Sample libraries (Kontakt, VSL), heavy rewire-ing and large track counts can put a lot of pressure on your system. But if you just cut some beats in ReCycle, lay them out in a basic DAW and throw a few vocals on top, then the iMac is more than capable of that - and you might have some cash left over for a gaming machine.
Whoa!!!!
Is the Mercury bundle cracked in the windows world? I'm thinking of upgrading from DIamond to Mercury but the costs are crazy.
Anyway, get the best mac you can afford.
To junior, yes waves mercury is cracked, message me I'll tell you some cool stuff. Anyway, to fernmeister, for music I use Sonar 7 producer edition, cubase 4, ACID Pro 6.0, FL Studio 8 XXL, Reason 4, Nuendo 4, Ableton Live 7, Wavelab 6, HALion 3.1 Auto-Tune 5, Waves Mercury, Melodyne studio and melodyne 3 plug-in, z3ta, FM8, absynth, wizooverb w5 and w2, izotope trash and izotope ozone 3, Logic studio 8, Traktor DJ, Native Instruments KORE. Thats just my favorites, I have alot more. So as you can see I'm very music production orientated. I just need a computer that I can run those above listed programs perfect and run WoW perfect on max graphics, I want to leave microsoft behind me. The iMac is by far to me the sexiest looking machine, mac pro is nice but I don't want to buy a 4 grand computer then get a monitor on top of that, plus I want to stay all apple branded.
All current iMacs, 2.8 extreme included, are dual-core. You've gotta go with the Mac Pro to get 4 or 8 cores.
just a word of advice lol. cracked programs are illegal. so dont go on and on about what you have and what you can get. its pretty obvious that you didint buy these programs because your having a hard time spending the dough on a macpro. sorry if i was a ass or anything.
Who are you, Sandor's kid brother?
Please post a link to some of your music. I'd love to hear the product of 30 pieces of music software.
In fairness, we don't know what country he's posting in. Copyright infringement isn't a crime in all countries.