Why do most electronic producers have macbook pros?

It's actually Darwin 

  On 4/26/2017 at 8:01 AM, marf said:

because of the real time kernel that works seamlessly with the hardware

plus macs are beautiful computers. A pleasure to work with, Id rather use OS9 than anything windows. Linux is like a more haphazard uglier version of the unix operating system that mac has developed

It is unix though. The linux world is nuts at the moment. How many versions are their now? I found myself spending most of my time tyweaking the shit out of it. Tweaking linux is fun, the text rendering is awful though. 

 

The mastering the terminal commands can be an art form in itself.

 

I installed homebrew on my mac. So i get to use MPV. With SVP 4. SVP adds frames for smooth video. 

 

Love the touchbar. Very cool idea.

  On 4/27/2017 at 3:36 AM, marf said:

It is unix though. The linux world is nuts at the moment. How many versions are their now? I found myself spending most of my time tyweaking the shit out of it. Tweaking linux is fun, the text rendering is awful though. 

 

The mastering the terminal commands can be an art form in itself.

 

I installed homebrew on my mac. So i get to use MPV. With SVP 4. SVP adds frames for smooth video. 

 

Love the touchbar. Very cool idea.

 

macOS is no different from Linux, in the sense that it is yet another distribution of BSD UNIX - of which there are many versions.

 

Also, macOS is no different from Linux in the sense that you can't just run any UNIX binary on it - as you've already mentioned, you have to resort to installing homebrew or macports. This is no different from having to acquire binaries compiled for compatibility on any given distribution of Linux.

  On 4/26/2017 at 8:01 AM, marf said:

because of the real time kernel that works seamlessly with the hardware

plus macs are beautiful computers. A pleasure to work with, Id rather use OS9 than anything windows. Linux is like a more haphazard uglier version of the unix operating system that mac has developed

 

I used to try to make music using Linux. Even with Ubuntu Studio I spent most of the time just getting things to consistently work. Then I bought a MBP and everything was just so much more easier. I don't need to deal with configuration issues or troubleshooting unless I am trying to build my own bespoke Pure Data thingamajigs. I can just use the MBP and make music.

 

Of course, now it's been 8 or so years since I switched, maybe things have gotten better.

I recently bought a Raspberry Pi to turn into a headless Pure Data powered project, so I could in the future jam without needing a laptop. So far it's been a hassle because the default OS on the Pi is not a realtime kernel, and stuff like the Giada looper won't install. Sure, there are optimised Raspbian distributions, but they seem to be from fucking 2013 and provide 8GB disk images that won't fit on 8GB SD cards. This is beginning to sound like the Adventures Of Enabling Wireless And Sound On Linux all over again. :)

 

Edit: and FFS I find this frustrating while I work with computers for a living, it's probably orders of magnitude harder for someone who only wants to make music and doesn't know how to dig around inside the machine if something stops working. I guess producing on Linux remains for audio-computer enthusiast types.

Edited April 27, 2017 by thawkins

Yeah Linux in the console is a delight but macOS is still the best desktop experience I've had, especially for tunes. The driver and configuration thing is such a huge time sink and mood killer. It's fun to noodle with that stuff for writing scripts and setting up servers and compiling stuff to burn onto microprocessors and nerdy shit, but when you just wanna make tunes, fuck all that. Pretty much the only good time I've had making tunes in Linux was with Renoise and it felt exactly the same as it did in Windows and OSX (of the three, it looks best in OSX though).

I think of my computer solely as a tool and it being appealing to look at has never been a priority or secondary or even tertiary. Also, gaming is better on a pc. So I just got a custom pc built that's really fast. Whaalaa don't need a mac book.

apple macitntosh

depends on the person. I need visual aesthetic. Even with gear. but Linux is a great learning tool. Its in MacOs. Just hie=dden more and its best to leave it alone. Unless you want MPV. Which is still the best

 

That's not to say I haven't made linux look beautiful. Especially the Terminal

Is there a decent way to make music on Linux btw? I've tried Renoise but trackers aren't my thing

  On 5/2/2017 at 4:57 PM, Kidrodi said:

Is there a decent way to make music on Linux btw? I've tried Renoise but trackers aren't my thing

Ardour seems to be the most developed open source DAW for Linux at the moment - https://ardour.org/

 

Plus don't forget Bitwig has a Linux build too (no idea how stable it is)

Why would anyone use any laptop besides mbp?

cost/value

Yep exactly, plus can you actually get a Macbook nowadays with a decent GPU ?

  On 5/2/2017 at 6:17 PM, xox said:

Why would anyone use any laptop besides mbp?

Keyboard on ThinkPad is way better.

 

Also mouse clit is better sexier.

Edited May 2, 2017 by oscillik

Seriously... I picked up a Thinkpad T430 for $150 on eBay - i5 processor, 8gB of RAM (can fit up to 16gB), GeForce GPU (studio only machine so who cares), decent HDD but I'll probably throw in a SSD sometime soon.  It's screamingly fast since it's a studio only machine and has minimal software installed/running.

Try to find a Mac with comparable specs at that price

  On 5/2/2017 at 7:18 PM, hautlle said:

Seriously... I picked up a Thinkpad T430 for $150 on eBay - i5 processor, 8gB of RAM (can fit up to 16gB), GeForce GPU (studio only machine so who cares), decent HDD but I'll probably throw in a SSD sometime soon.  It's screamingly fast since it's a studio only machine and has minimal software installed/running.

 

Try to find a Mac with comparable specs at that price

Fucking hell that was a good price. mine is the X230 (same generation Ivy Bridge intel cpus). That machine will last you for years. You can replace pretty much everything in there, if you had to.

Thing is, computers are not just specs. Even if I have a max out gaming pc or whatever I'd rather use a Macbook because it feels nicer, like I mentioned before. The screen and touchpads in Thinkpads fucking suck whereas Macbooks are way ahead of the competition when it comes to both of those things. But again, it all just comes down to priorities.

  On 5/2/2017 at 7:29 PM, Kidrodi said:

The screen and touchpads in Thinkpads fucking suck whereas Macbooks are way ahead of the competition

Sony Vaio's though mate, the keyboard is fuckin' lush and the touchpad is lovely and knobbly.... Shame those darn idiots at Sony stopped the range though, would've definitely kept with another Vaio when I next upgrade had they not disbanded (in the UK anyways)

  On 5/2/2017 at 7:29 PM, Kidrodi said:

Thing is, computers are not just specs. Even if I have a max out gaming pc or whatever I'd rather use a Macbook because it feels nicer, like I mentioned before. The screen and touchpads in Thinkpads fucking suck whereas Macbooks are way ahead of the competition when it comes to both of those things. But again, it all just comes down to priorities.

It depends on what screen was in the ThinkPad. If you cheaped out and got one with a TN panel, then yeah they suck. My ThinkPad was my first exposure to an IPS panel, and it's the main reason why I bought IPS monitors for my main workstation - can't ever go back to a TN panel after using an IPS.

 

I will concede - ThinkPad trackpads are terrible, although that is about to change as Lenovo will be implementing the same trackpad and drivers that are used in the Surface Pro 4 Type Cover, and that trackpad is brilliant.

lol i've got a thinkpad as my works laptop. it's fucking terrible.

  On 5/2/2017 at 7:42 PM, BCM said:

lol i've got a thinkpad as my works laptop. it's fucking terrible.

lol what series is it?

  On 5/2/2017 at 7:29 PM, Kidrodi said:

Thing is, computers are not just specs. Even if I have a max out gaming pc or whatever I'd rather use a Macbook because it feels nicer, like I mentioned before. The screen and touchpads in Thinkpads fucking suck whereas Macbooks are way ahead of the competition when it comes to both of those things. But again, it all just comes down to priorities.

 

I get you there, but I'm not a fan of the MacOS -- it's improved a lot but I'm just much more familiar/comfortable in a Windows environment.  

 

I use a wireless mouse cause trackpads suck in general, and most of my work is done with my hardware and not really staring at Ableton on the screen any more --  it's not crazy bright, but looks fine to me in my studio space that is usually one of the darker areas in my house.

 

Macs are good machines, but I'm not interested in paying their premium prices for what I feel is largely the same experience when you get down to it.  Different strokes for different folks. 

  On 5/2/2017 at 7:43 PM, oscillik said:

 

  On 5/2/2017 at 7:42 PM, BCM said:

lol i've got a thinkpad as my works laptop. it's fucking terrible.

lol what series is it?

 

lol all works laptops are terrible both mac and pc. lol.

 

They're the tech equivalent of when you forget your P.E. kit and so have to make do with the spare clothes found in that manky box,

every non mac laptop is ugly compared to mac :)

  On 5/2/2017 at 9:01 PM, mcbpete said:

 

  On 5/2/2017 at 7:43 PM, oscillik said:

 

  On 5/2/2017 at 7:42 PM, BCM said:

lol i've got a thinkpad as my works laptop. it's fucking terrible.

lol what series is it?

 

lol all works laptops are terrible both mac and pc. lol.

 

They're the tech equivalent of when you forget your P.E. kit and so have to make do with the spare clothes found in that manky box,

 

My ThinkPad is a series that is commonly used in the workplace (X230) and it's brilliant.

 

It's durable (I carried it with me on a daily basis from 2013 to 2016, using public transport so it wasn't coddled in the back seat of a car). The only damage to it is some dead pixels on the screen in a pattern which suggests user error on my part in the way I've held it when closed. This can be easily replaced as ThinkPads are made to be user servicable.

 

It's also damn fast, but admittedly that's because I paid for the highest spec i7 (not the U variant which is lower powered, made for UltraBooks) and I've upgraded the RAM to 16GB and put an SSD in here.

 

It also has a secondary battery, which means I can easily get about 15 hours worth of 'heavy' use (not idling).

 

The only reason my Surface Pro 4 replaced it as my mobile photo edit station is because the Surface Pro 4 has a high resolution display, and my ThinkPad is stuck with a shitty 1366x768.