Sonar on Intel Macs with Boot camp

[Phil Cibley]

Anyone successfully running it? I'm a PC guy, but I'm seriously thinking
of taking the Mac plunge and this way I won't have to change my sequencer.
TIA

[6strings]

Originally Posted by Phil Cibley

Anyone successfully running it? I'm a PC guy, but I'm seriously thinking
of taking the Mac plunge and this way I won't have to change my sequencer.
TIA

People like the mac for OS X stability, security, and the user interface. Why buy a mac if you're just going to run Windows / Sonar?!? Just get a Dell or whatever...

[theblue1]

What's wrong with having more options?

A lot of Mac folks (not all, of course) seem to feel Apple is a superior hardware vendor. Maybe they've convinced him he ought to check it out.

Maybe he's curious about application offerings on the Mac that aren't available on the Windows platform. After all, there are a lot of folks who swear by Final Cut, Logic, DP, and other apps.

And, finally, maybe he's interested in see what OS X is all about. There's certainly a lot of hype -- but there are plenty of legitimately interesting aspects, as well. Maybe he'll find it works in a way that works for him.


I mean, yeah if you know what you want, and it's all on Windows, and you're convinced that a box from HP, Dell, etc, is as dependable as (or better than) an Apple box, absolutely, the decision tree is terminated; you've got an answer.

Now, me, I'm pretty sure I'm sticking with my PCs [I've used PCs for 21 years; I've built them; I know them; I don't hate Windows (much at all... except for security, which is a disgrace); I've used OS X, know a fair bit about its guts and know that it has some good stuff and some decidedly less good stuff; I'm not a fan of the OS X GUI or the resource hit you take from its graphics engine; and I know enough about widespread design problems in past Macs to make me leery of them as a manufacturer]. But that's just me. EVERYONE's mileage varies.

Some other more or less satisfied Windows user might still find plenty of good reasons to buy a Mac. And if you're less than satisfied with Windows/PC experience, I think it makes sense. I mean, isn't that how the marketplace works?

_______

PS... I'm currently running Sonar on a very cheap Dell beater box and it's very quiet and very dependable. Well, once I knocked about 60 or 65 background processes out of its boot profile... my GAWSH they load these big vendor boxes up with a MOUNTAIN of crapware... getting rid of it was like getting a BIG performance upgrade for 10 minutes work.

But it is NOT a fire-breather. Anyone who needs 100 tracks all with their own convo reverb plugs need NOT consider this machine.
_______

PPS... I'll go a little farther and say this -- something I've been thinking about since I spent a LONG afternoon unF'ing a friend's thoroughly F'd up malware/trojan-and-antivirus-infested Windows box -- for a naive or careless user [and that should NOT be anyone on this board, I'm thinking but undoubtedly is, nonetheless], OS X may well provide a more resilient and trouble free platform. I have another friend who is an absolute computer-phobe of the highest degree. Yet, somehow his G4 iMac has managed to stay on its feet for a couple years... well, except for that SuperDrive that died after about 14 months... unfortunately this guy is such a computer-phobe I can't get him to take it into the Apple Store to have them check it out. But the software environment is still struggling along with apparently little maintenance. (He had to call his Mac buddy a few times in the first year for various things, but I suspect they were user-related. Ahem. Oh... and I say "struggling" because this thing is slow as molasses. Stunningly slow. The "swoosh" often takes 5 or 10 seconds to complete. Yet it's still on its feet.)

[digi882]

Nothing gets on my goat more than people coming up with silly points about mac v windows. Perhaps they dont realise that a mac is ............... a PC (personal computer). So if someone wants to use an intel core mac to run sonar especially as bootcamp enables it then why not. It seems to me that blind mac heads dont realise that what makes macs different is a nice lick of paint compatible devices that are consistant under the hood and a unix based os. If apple werent clever enough to create a apple mac rom (copyrighted) we would all have the chance of running osx on any machine. Oh and in case you might think i am so called pc mad i love em both. They are tools for goodness sakes.

[6strings]

I figured folk might get huffy. I wasn't trying to start another lame Mac vs. PC war...

He doesn't want to change his sequencer. Sonar is not available for mac. Why buy the mac if you don't intend to run OS X??? Perhaps the OP can give more info? ie: Will he use the OS X for internet? other audio or media apps????

I will add that it would probably suck having to boot back and forth throughout the day to switch between mac OS X and Windows. (Hell, I only reboot my mac once every couple of weeks!) Perhaps get familiar with a Mac sequencer and then ween yourself off Sonar? (at least more the most part) Otherwise, I'll say stick with the PC based on the limited info given. My 2 bits...

[theblue1]

Well... here we have the Mac user (6strings) urging the Win guy to stick with Windows and another Windows user (that'd be me) offering up reasons (above) he might want to spend the extra dough to get a Mac...

At least it's not your typical Mac v. Windows sptting match...


Anyhow, yeah, if he's not curious about or interested in OS X or desirous of seeing how the "Apple experience" works out hardware-wise, there's no reason I can think of to switch. And there may be reasons not to, besides cost. One of the great things about generic or homebuilt PCs is that they are, indeed, generic. If a subassembly goes belly up, you can just trundle down to the computer store or go online and buy a new, and likely better, faster, cheaper one and pop it in, whatever it is. There are no special tools or proprietary parts. (Now, that may not be always strictly true for big PC vendors like Dell or HP, Compaq, and so on. The era of proprietary parts has dimmed but not faded entirely. Highly integrated consumer boxes often have a number of inflexible compromises.)

[Phil Cibley]

Guys. Everyone is totally off topic here and nobody has answered my
simple questions. Do you have Sonar running? and How well?
I don't need any advice as to which platform to use, nor do I need any
philosophical debates. Just a simple answer to a simple question.
My reason for considering the switch (as if I needed to justify it to anyone)
is to get more familiar with OSX and PT both of which I support at work.
In addition, it looks like Vista is going to be a nightmare between release
delays, 6 different versions to choose from, and huge hardware requirements.
OK, you all can go back to debating among yourselves but if any of you have
run the program under Boot camp, I'd like to know about your experiences.

[DivineMusic]

well to answer you then, yes.. i have 2 friends running intel mac with sonar and only one of them like the way it works...
they both have dual core 2.3 intel macs
one has a motu 2408 mkIII the other has a mbox 2(the 2408 system works fine)
he's testing samplitude and some other apps this weekend....

o i forgot to mention i made that damn thing hit the ceiling. doesn't have the processing power of a dual core intel system that cost a hell of a lot less. and yes it was under osx when i ran identical sessions... i like final cut and logic 7 but i'm sticking with my custom pc's
this guy actually said go get a dell..lol

[Phil Cibley]

Thanks DivineMusic. This is the type of information I wanted. Do you how
much memory each machine had?

[amost]

Originally Posted by DivineMusic

well to answer you then, yes.. i have 2 friends running intel mac with sonar and only one of them like the way it works...
they both have dual core 2.3 intel macs
one has a motu 2408 mkIII the other has a mbox 2(the 2408 system works fine)
he's testing samplitude and some other apps this weekend....

o i forgot to mention i made that damn thing hit the ceiling. doesn't have the processing power of a dual core intel system that cost a hell of a lot less. and yes it was under osx when i ran identical sessions... i like final cut and logic 7 but i'm sticking with my custom pc's
this guy actually said go get a dell..lol

Minor thread hijack...has your friend tested Nuendo on the XP side of BootCamp?

[DivineMusic]

phil i know each system has 2gig of ram.
my boy jason's system(2408 daw) has the stock hd and an extra 300gig drive.
the other intelG5 only has the 1 stock drive in it.

as for nuendo.once i bring him my dongle yea he'll be able to..
jason is a samp8/sonar user and my cuz is just tryin to get into music production now...
i'm a nuendo user so i told him i was gonna bring him nuendo with my dongle to test it... i looked at getting a dual core 2.3 myself b/c i wanted logic 7 and nuendo 3.. but after seeing it wasn't as powerful as i thought i backed out..ppl tell me get the quad, its has more than enough power.. but i'm like i can build a dual dual-core xeon, better yet opteron(quad core) and spend less and know i have plenty of horsepower...just no logic 7...

[6strings]

Originally Posted by DivineMusic

this guy actually said go get a dell..lol

I was just being flippant... The guy gave no reasons for "taking the plunge" initially, so based on his post, I meant if he only wanted to run Sonar for audio (which is implied in the OP), it would be better to use a cheap mini for non-music OS X stuff (internet, whatever) and get a PC for Sonar (cheaper PC, no re-booting, etc). My post does come across as sounding crass, though. Sorry.

...But serves a good lesson in why you should be specific when asking for help.