Which is your favourite to use musicians?

I use reason 4, fruity loops and by the end of this week i shall finally have my mac and start using logic 8!

THIS MEANS NO MORE FRUITY LOOPS...if i choose to stay working primarly with mac

ANYWAY

PEOPLE TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK!!!!!!!!

keep both, but fruity loops would run on windows within OS fine i think, doesnt need that much CPU, render each instrument and load into logic.. orr i dont know how this works, but could u use the flstudio vst and load it into logic? dont think so mmm

i have no idea about mac pc crossover, ive stuck with pc because everything i need is available, its a little cheaper, and im a techie who can snitch out any stability issues so its always been rock solid,

i was tempted to get a mac just for the fact that firewire audio sucks and is unstable and glitchy thru the PC unless you have a texas instruments chip, which 99% dont, so u gotta slug in another fuckin i1394 expresscard to make it work properly.. things like that annoy the fuck outta me, but i can live with an extra adaptor over 20% more in cost + having to ditch or make workarounds with my fave apps.

i totally agree with your comments there, i think im going to work multi-platform, get the best of both worlds.

see if i was a techie i'd be able to work round buying a mac...but i needed a fairly reliable system for my live gigs and macbook was my only true option!

If you are a computer noob, all you need for a reliable live performance is a well-build computer (ThinkPad, MacBook, and others... no cheap Acer plastic) that you ONLY use for live purposes (not for internet, games, programs, etc).

If you are a computer noob, the mac will get hammered over time too, if you use it as your primary computer and install programs and change setup settings without knowing what you are doing.

You can get build-quality similar or better than a mac with other computer brands, so choose it for the mac exclusive programs and if it fits better to your personal preferences.

Good that you mention this!

This is a huge problem for me. How do actually prevent this? I have a Macbook too, and after 6 months, it's still not hammered (lucky me). I use my macbook for internet, reason4, final cut pro, and to download/watch movies and listen music. I also have a external hd which means I keep my final cut docs out of my macbook. I've heard that over time, macbook gets stuffed up and needs cleaning.

So, I might need some help soon to clean up my macbook. any suggestions?

I've never owned a macbook and i dont really plan to either but i've used them a good amount at college when i was doing sound engineering.

i used mostly cubase on mac and a little bit of protools and as for speed and reliability i found the macs are better at handling those types of programs, it feels more professional on a mac for those reasons, so i couldn't really tell you from a long term effect of them getting filled with shit but i do know from a music production side of view i think the macs have an advantage.

so yeah if i were you i'd also use mac and windows together, for your everyday stuff, even if u play games on windows or whatever then keep the windows for everyday stuff, but use the mac when you need that extra bit of performance.

i've got 4gb of ram and a decent cpu on this pc and i found it wasn't as good as the mac, maybe mac's OS's have changed since i was at college a few years ago but yeah it was better for me music wise.

Cant help you with cleaning, but avoiding the usual suspects makes it easier to keep a computer running. Badware (spyware, adware, trojans, etc) is however not a huge problem on macs yet if one stays updated and careful of pirate software and porn.

But this is not the main reason to instability problems. Its pretty safe to say that most software contains some sort of bugs, which can make them crash which is not unique to any OS. OSX's sandboxing usually isolates the crashes to only affect the single program that died, but handling the crash may take up system resources, and in that way influence other running programs access to system resources, which is unwanted in live performance situations. The background processes can even by default cause slowdowns, if for example they decide to download and install updates or decides to calculate pi with 1000000000 digits or whatever. So the less programs and services running, the smaller risk of this to happen.
Errors caused by 3rd party hardware and drivers will usually make the whole thing die, so connecting a Chinese USB aquarium with build in media player may also be undesirable unless its been tested well.
Crashes caused by hardware malfunction can pretty much be avoided by keeping the computer clean and cool to prevent mechanical errors.

Sum-up: The more software, hardware, and coca cola you have in your computer, the greater the risk.