<p>Hey this question is mainly for music technology. Which is better a mac or pc? and which one to be specific?</p>
<p>My daughter’s school wants all music students to get a MacBook Pro.</p>
<p>Check with your school to see if there is a preferred model. You might also check to see what their IT department can support. For the record, DD just replaced her MacBook Pro with an 11" MacBook Air using the Apple student discount. She is a rising Junior in a conservatory. When I asked about horsepower she said that she can use a school computer if she needs more.</p>
<p>Hands down a macbook pro. Through all of my school tours, I’ve never heard a music/art program suggest PCs… I’m personally a mac enthusiast, and the idea of using a PC for music technology, or anything for that matter, makes me cringe. I’d refer to your school’s website or someone that works at your school to give you a final response.</p>
<p>aghh…Ive been using PCs for the past…well my whole life haha. Its gonna be a hard transition. But it.must be done!</p>
<p>Just throwing in my >02 cents that at my son’s music tech program the recommendation is macbook pro – and the beefiest version possible – fastest ghz avail; upgrade your ram right out of the gate, especially if any of your classes will involve editing for video or multimedia as well. </p>
<p>Four years back his program was recommending mega-storage as well, eg an external drive like a tb+ Rocstor. The preferred interface back then (favorite of his dept head) was the presonus firestudio pro – great function for a generally good price. You’ll also likely want/need a midi interface such as an oxygen to get you through.</p>
<p>I’m kind of surprised you haven’t been given a “recommended equipment” list…that’s pretty standard in this type of program. Maybe you should check in with your department head.</p>
<p>I actually think you’ll find the transition from Windows-based OS to a Mac IOS very refreshing, especially if you’re toggling between software programs. Best wishes on your journey.</p>
<p>Another vote for the Mac Book Pro! Son loves his.</p>
<p>Music tech student here with a 13-inch MacBook Pro. It’s great. I’ve had 8+ tracks going on Logic at 96 kHz smooth as butter. As far as programming goes, you get a built-in Unix environment, which is convenient, and it’s powerful enough to run any virtual machine seamlessly if you need to access Windows applications. I’d recommend it without reservation.</p>
<p>It’s fairly irrelevant what computer or operating system you get. Get whatever works for you and whatever you like.</p>
<p>Although bear in mind that most popular software tends to be on Windows and much of the music/audio applications have Mac versions as well. Macs are pretty well equipped and really easy to use (generally stuff that needs to work, simply works, like Wi-Fi). The Apple computers are very high quality and durable as well.</p>
<p>I’ve been doing music professionally on both PCs and Apples since the eighties and one thing hasn’t changed: doing music and audio on a PC is like removing your own eye with a spoon!</p>
<p>Okay, a different spin on the same question; D will be a freshman piano performance major (NOT a music tech student). DH is suggesting she get Sibelius updated on her PC (she has done some composing in the past and may do some more in college). I don’t want to spend money upgrading the software for her PC if a year later we have to buy an Apple. Is everyone’s advice still “get a MacBook” even if the student is not music tech?</p>
<p>My son is a Music Production/Composition double major - piano is his main instrument. He has a macbook pro and uses Finale. That being said, this is what he uses because it is what the school (Hart) recommended. It works well for him. </p>
<p>I would strongly recommend asking the school what hardware/software their professors use. My daughter is a music ed major at our state school and there is no hardware/software requirements. However the music department was able to tell my daughter (she asked) that their professors use Finale, but it was in no way a requirement. She uses a minimal Windows laptop with Finale and it works just fine for her. (We probably would not have put Finale on her PC but since we were putting it on my son’s computer, it was a no brainer. I don’t think she uses it much at all.)</p>
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<p>Regrettably, yes. My husband, who is the family tech support person, is a dyed-in-the-wool PC guy, and refused to buy D3, a viola performance major, a mac because his research showed that her PC could do pretty much what the mac could do.</p>
<p>“Pretty much” has turned out to be not quite enough and she ended up having to borrow friends’ computers, do exams in professors offices, and spend extra time in the library because of the decision. When she’s buying her next computer on her own, I suspect she’ll follow her older brother’s lead and go for mac.</p>
<p>YMMV. ;)</p>
<p>As Stradmom said, Mac Books work so well for music majors. Son is a music ed major and found that the mac book pro was so much easier to use for the required music theory classes. Compositions are part of the basic music theory curriculum. Everyone else in the family uses the PCs. In addition, all of the music education classes require quite a bit of “creative” work on the computer and the Mac Book made it easier. Practically all lessons which son taught are recorded and uploaded.</p>
<p>If you are not doing music production, then either machine could do well for you, it is all about your need and also how much you can spend. Macs are expensive, even if you buy reconditioned ones or through a student discount, they are quite a bit more expensive then comparable PC’s, I bought my son a laptop for school (PC) for 600 bucks that has a 1080P screen, 1 gig graphics card, 1 TB hard drive, number of USB ports, card reader, 16" screen and it was like 600 bucks. A comparable Mac would run you a lot, lot more then that.</p>
<p>Pluses of Mac:</p>
<p>Nice UI, they lack the bloatware that makes PC’s a pain in the tail, they are pretty bulletproof, if you get them with an SSD drive they boot fast and work really, really well (I have an Air). The only dowfall of the SSD is it is 256gig, which if you have a lot of graphics and movie files can get eaten up. If you want to run PC Apps, Parallels + windows gives you that capability. </p>
<p>Minuses:</p>
<p>Lot more expensive than a comparable PC, they can lack certain programs (but with Parallels that isn’t an issue), upgrades can be costly, repair IME is a lot more (motherboard went on a Macbook, was like 800 bucks; motherboard went on a PC laptop, cost about 200 bucks total to replace); Generally are a bit behind on offering new technology (for example, my macbook Air had USB 2.0, and though it offers the thunderbolt port, offerings for that are still limited and very, very expensive). </p>
<p>PC:</p>
<p>They offer a lot of bang for the buck, and with the current crop, with the latest Intel processors coming out, they are dropping in price. I have seen laptops with 8 gig of memory, Blue Ray Drive, HD displays and so forth for 650 bucks, and these come with large HD’s (1 TB), high end graphics cards, USB 3.0 ports and so forth. They are windows based (though you could run linux on them) and have all the applications out there for PC’s. Easy to upgrade them and repair can be cheaper significantly then a MAC (Apple tends to hardwire everything into the mother board, so when the network port failed it needed an entire motherboard, on laptops these can often be replaced). Plenty of places to buy them, and again, there is price competition, Apple products are fair traded, no one charges much less than Apple themselves</p>
<p>Minuses:</p>
<p>Depending on the maker, some of them are pretty crappy (HP’s display hinges are a joke, others keyboards make me cringe). Windows 8 boots fast, but its UI is a piece of crap IMO; Manufacturers put all this bloatware on them, and while it is a lot better than it used to be, you still can run into incompatibilities and weird behavior (for example, Freecorder after a windows update stopped working on our home pc); plus the windows world has a lot more of threats of viruses and such. Lot less hipster, too, hanging out with a Mac at that cafe is so hipster, hanging out with a PC is dorky <em>lol</em>. </p>
<p>As far as music notation software, my S used finale on the PC and on the Mac, and he said it worked fine both places, same with Sibelius and outside of sophisticated music recording, there is very little the Mac can do the Mac cannot, that gap was closed a long time ago.</p>
<p>As much as I enjoy my Mac, if you’re not using it for CPU-intensive things like multitrack recording or multimedia editing (and you can get PCs that can do these things too, obviously- I just think it’s much easier with a Mac), I can’t see any reason to specifically avoid a PC, especially if you’re on a budget. It’s not like they’re inferior machines in terms of technical capability.</p>
<p>My D’s school (Berklee) has all incoming students purchase a Mac their first semester. Once they select a major, they may also have to buy a major bundle (music production, sound engineering, etc. has a more expensive Mac-based bundle of add’l equip and software). </p>
<p>You should definitely check your school, but with your major I would be surprised if you’ll hear anyone suggest a PC.</p>
<p>Most students at my son’s school use MacBook</p>
<p>My son was a music major (composition), and went to college with a very nice PC from Rain configured especially for music–it wasn’t long before he switched to a Mac. You’ll be swimming against the tide if you stick with PC as a music major.</p>
<p>I would take it one step farther and recommend a MacBook Air and not a Pro for a performance major. We are buying one next week Unless you are doing production you can get an external cd/DVD drive and since you will need a back up drive anyway just get one fast enough to do production. But as a violist this is unlikely. More of a concern is the weight. Your kid will be carrying around an instrument too? My kid has toget on her bike for academic classes and the lighter the computer the better</p>