Windows vs Mac for music production

Gear
#1

I currently use a windows PC for any music related endeavours, but that computer is beginning to show its age, and I am starting to think about upgrades. I have never really used Macs, but have seen that they’re quite common within the music industry.

What are the pros and cons of windows vs mac computers for music production and composition as well as for general day-to-day use?

On another note, I notice that windows 10 is nearing end of life, and windows 11 is going to be the new standard, how does windows 11 hold up for music production/composition (I currently use windows 10)

Thanks! :slight_smile:

#2

I’ve been a Mac user since I was a freshman in college (waaay back in 2001). At the time, it was definitely an industry must to use Macs, but these days, I see plenty of studios that use PCs, too. There may still be some definite pros to going with Apple, but as someone who’s no pro in audio, I wouldn’t be able to articulate what they would be.

Personally, at this point I’m just so used to the Mac OS that I don’t think I could go back to using PCs.

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#3

I’m a Mac guy (for ~20 years) and I would say if you’re used to Windows, stick with Windows.

And one major pro to PC is that hardware is generally much cheaper/easier-to-upgrade so you can get a beefy PC with lots of RAM and a good CPU for much cheaper than an equivalently-spec’ed Mac. When mixing a large project with many tracks, effects, and buses, performance is important.

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#4

Apple makes sense as an ecosystem: laptop + phone + tablet + watch. Once you’re inside, it’s nice, and reasonably self-sufficient, and then you can get Logic Pro, etc. However, if you have Android, etc., it might not make sense.

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#5

My advice is, stick with what you know. There was a time when music-production was a huge resource-drain and you needed all the performance you could get to keep the machine from crashing, thankfully those days are over.

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#6

I was using a PC and Reaper for along time but just switched to Mac and Logic and am loving it. I’ve had so many issues with PC drives failing and other issues. I’m also basically ONLY using my Mac Mini for music now, which helps it not get filled with other stuff like games and music that isn’t me! :slight_smile: There was a bit of a learning curve from Reaper to Logic but now that I’m figuring things out I’m really digging it. I feel like Macs are great for creative endeavors.

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#7

I went from Windows to MAC, to Windows and now I’m back to a MAC mini. Years ago I think MACs were better, but now I don’t see a big difference. Both systems are great! The MAC mini is very cheap and you get a lot of your money. But learning a new system is maybe not worth it.
For me the biggest advantage is that I like Logic the most of all DAWs. But that is just personal.

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#8

Mac user here, but honestly - either/or will do. The nice thing about macs is they come with garageband, imovie and integrate seamlessly with ipad/iphone. I am a big fan of Logic, i’ve been using it since ver8 and I haven’t had to pay for a DAW upgrade even once. Same thing with Final Cut; bought it once, never had to pay for a software upgrade. Macs seem (to me) to last a bit longer than PC’s, but I guess that depends on how you get your PC put together. I’m currently on an imac, probably need replacing next year; gonna cost an arm and a leg too, because I am also going to upgrade my audio interface!

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#9

I use both but have a Windows rig as primary. I have been using Reaper as DAW and it is very powerful, customizable, and inexpensive (~$60 US). Agree with observations about going with what you are used to. -g

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#10

I’ve used both. I prefer Mac though. With windows, I’ve had various issue pop up, seemingly randomly over time. I’ve no idea why that is, but I never have these issues on Mac.

Having said that, you can use either. Just get the right specs for what you need and you are good to go.

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#11

If you get a desktop Mac and want to spend the least money, consider a Mini:

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#12

I made the switch from Windows to Mac about… 12-14 years ago? Happy to share my experiences.

I’ll start by saying I suspect a lot of the differences here are legacy - way back in the day, Macs were hands down the best option for ANY multimedia work, from publishing and design layout to music production, in part because the programs Mac was producing were just better. Today, I’m not really sure how true that is, especially because even professional high end audio production is not nearly as resource intensive as something like video, and especially generative AI video, processing.

But, your pro column, today, is that Macs just work. Until they don’t and then you’re probably looking at trip to the Apple store for repair (I had a video card fail on mine), but because Apple keeps such a tight rein on their ecosystem, everything plays together really well, compatibility is never an issue, and everything is pretty much flawless right p to the (rare) point of component failure. And, upside #2, they’re tanks. My iMac is… a 2011, I think, and I still record and mix on it with no problem at all. I added more RAM at some point along the way, but it’s a 13 year old desktop and I’ve thrown some pretty intense mixes at it (in the demoing phase, often with 8+ instances of amp VSTs in 8x oversampling mode at 88.2 24 bit) and it doesn’t so much as blink, running Reaper. I’m going to have to upgrade in the next year or two, I think, but mostly because the newest version of Reaper isn’t compatible with the latest version of MacOS I can run on my machine. Performance has not been the issue, at all.

There’s also a lot of cool inter-operability with Macs if you use other apple products - I’m sure Windows has done something similar by now, but for example the fact that you can run Messenger on your computer in sync with your phone so you can text from both your phone and your computer if you own an iphone, little touches like that. Sharing fles from one ot the other, or links between phone and computer, is effortless too. Again, Windows has probably developed something similar, but that was one of the first “whoah! cool!” moments for me when I got a Mac.

Downsides, well… One, it’s a learning curve. If you’re used to Windows, it’s not that MacOS is SO different, but it’s different ENOUGH that it’ll confuse you a little for the first few months. These days I go back and forth pretty effortlessly between a Windows machine at work and a Mac at home, but it’ll be dizzying at first. and you WILL want a mouse with left/right click compatibility, if you’re looking at a laptop.

The bigger one I found though that I wasn’t expecting was compatibility - when I switched, I had a pretty good suite of freeware plugins that I’d been using that I was pretty happy with, and started configuring Reaper and downloading stuff, and realized that a whole bunch of them were PC only. Everyone talks about how virus-resistant macs are, and a lot of that is because of how much more of the market is PC so that’s a more lucrative target… but you also run into the downside of that where a lot of applicaitons you DO want to run are PC only. As a tangent, I’m not much of a gamer but always bought and enjoyed the Diablo series of games since I loved the first as a kid, but right now the 4th installment is PC or console only, and I own neither. so…

Also, Macs tend to be more expensive than a comparable PC. They have a longer useful life, so amortized over the time you’re using it it’s probably a wash, but… that’s an up-front factor.

I think in practice either a windows or a Mac machine is more than capable of handling a busy mix with a lot of high fidelity audio content these days - video production is the new frontier and that’s way more of a resource strain than anything we’re likely to do. So, the big ones I think I’d point to are extremely reliable, long useful life, and a closed ecosystem that makes hardware compatibility a non-event. Windows has probably closed the gap a lot, but I guess not for nothing while I’m still recording on my first-ever Mac, when I bought a new computer in 2020 for WFH use right as the world was shutting down, it didn’t even cross my mind to look at Windows laptops, I went straight to mac.

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#13

Thanks for the info everyone, this has been really useful! :slight_smile:

One thing I notice on the new Macs is that they
tend favour USB C ports over USB A ports. I have quite a few devices which I currently use USB A connections for (Keyboard, Mouse, Audio Interface, MIDI Keyboard, FM3, etc).

Are there any good USB C to USB A hubs which can provide power? (My audio interface requires power over USB, the keyboard I use is wireless, so periodically needs charging)

#14

Well, a simple USB-A to USB-C adaptor should do the trick, right?

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#15

Yes, I was just wondering about hubs to expand on the ports that the macs already have :slight_smile:

#16

Ah, I’m SURE they exist, but in a pinch you could use a hybrid approach and run one or two things you need power via a converter, and then an unpowered hub for the rest.

Honestly, thinking more about this… I think the learning curve is the biggest factor here. Unless you think you’d like to switch to a Mac for other reasons, the easiest option for you here would be just to go PC, save some money up front, and know that you’ll be able to get up and running pretty quickly without needing to learn a new OS and your way around a differently-laid-out hard drive.

Secondary factor - choice of DAW, I use Reaper which runs on both as do most, but a lot of Mac users like Macs because they like Logic, which is Mac-only. It’s supposed to have really musical sounding stock plugins, too. But, if you already like your DAW, it’s much less of a factor.

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#17

Don’t forget that macs come equipped with Garageband. It might seem like a joke, but it’s very powerful and loaded with pretty much anything you really need plugin-wise built in. And then, once you feel you have graduated, you can jump into Logic; Of course with Apple software like Logic or Final cut it’s pretty much buy once and get free upgrades forever.

I recorded this little bit (quite a while ago, and it’s back when I though I was an okay guitarist) with garageband. I actually used Reason for the backings, but I barely knew how to use either reason or GB - I had just come from a windows environment so it was pretty alien…

This is another one I made up using the same setup; I had gotten a little bit better at the software. I believe I used a Line6 Pod (1.0!!) for the guitar sounds hahaha At the time, GB didn’t have the cool Amp designer and pedalboard plugins. Food for thought, just thought I’d share.

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#18

That sounds great @Scottulus !

For logic, have you ever experienced any performance issues running out of ram, cpu etc?

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#19

First of all - thanks! Glad you dug it, it’s always about the tunes and being able to create new and interesting music. That’s pretty old stuff, like decades hahaha

No CPU issues, no ram issues. I always just ran an Imac (Still do). Keep in mind though I’m not really a heavy plugins/processing user. I have ummm lesseee here… Helix native, a super Old NI Komplete package and Ozone 5. Other than that, I am completely happy with the stock plugins and instruments that come with Logic. I’ve owned a Macbook Pro and 2 Imacs, never a problem with any of them really. Just had to upgrade the hardware once the software stopped updating basically!

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#20

As a current Windows user, unless you are into high-end gaming, my suggestion is to use a Mac. They just work and driver issues on PC can become a nightmare, at least in my experience.

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