Mac mini

And Mac mini with Lion Server [[url=http://[/URL]="http://www.apple.co…"]Apple (Canada) - Mac mini with Lion Server[/]="http://www.apple.co…"]Apple (Canada) - Mac mini with Lion Server[/]
2.0GHz : Dual 500GB

• 2.0GHz quad-core Intel Core i7
• 4GB memory
• Dual 500GB 7200-rpm hard drives1
• Intel HD Graphics 3000
• OS X Lion Server
• OS X Lion

Pretty impressive.

I wonder how hot these get.

Here are some old references for running PT. http://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=241182
and more current in reference to the mini server:
http://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=307472&highlight=mac+mini+server

and

Turn a Mac mini with Thunderbolt Technology into a Full-function Metadata Controller and More
Link removed

I completed my current CD project on an ancient Core Duo, mini. Using logic9 sessions of 24- 32 tracks no problems, never came close to maxing out.
[[url=http://[/URL]="http://www.amazon.c…"]Amazon.com: g-bop 5000: MP3 Downloads[/]="http://www.amazon.c…"]Amazon.com: g-bop 5000: MP3 Downloads[/]

The current mini eats mine for lunch.

:cool:

I've been reading up on it myself. Even the DUC can't find much to bitch about it! I don't know how it would fit with my setup though since my SKB Studio Flyer is molded for a laptop. I've had some ideas though.

I used a circa 2005 1.5GHz PowerPC G4 based Mac mini w/ 1GB RAM quite successfully w/ Garageband and a Tascam US-122 for a couple of years. Then I upgraded to my current 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo iMac w/ 4GB RAM.

My assistant has a recording rig made out of a MacMini, an MBox and a small monitor. He does 4-8 tracks for long classical sessions with no problems.

"My assistant has a recording rig made out of a MacMini, an MBox and a small monitor. He does 4-8 tracks for long classical sessions with no problems. "
"Put that gun down, Chimp, or the dude with headphones gets it!" Nice to hear from you, Cucco!

Thanks Mooney!
Life is calming down a little. I hope to be around more.
J

I personally have nothing bad to say about them!
I'm always astinished on how stable mine is with macosx 6 and PT9.0.5

Never had any problem!!!

I have a Presonus 24.4.2 mixer which I love and just got a new Mac mini which is loaded for bear. Before I placed my order I called people at presonus who I know and asked about the mac mini. I was told they are all over the presonus plant and are a great value which is also very efficient. You need to optimize any cpu, take all the BS stuff (AOL, Social crap) off the machine. The best way is to first have a Mac as trying to work with a Win Tel machine is like sticking a loaded gun in your mouth and jumping up and down. Go to the company who makes youe DAW software and find their directions on optimizing yout cpu. In closing, after your up and running turn off your auto updates and keep your girlfriend or wife away from your computer because left to their own devices they will put Facebook or some stupid game program on your system and screw it up. Happy recording!

macmedic, post: 381932 wrote: The best way is to first have a Mac as trying to work with a Win Tel machine is like sticking a loaded gun in your mouth and jumping up and down.

This statement is complete twaddle speak and BS. Mac is the correct choice for some and Windows will be the correct choice for others. Get over it. Everyone doesn't have to drink from the Apple marketing koolaid. I even know happy Mac users that don't buy into Apple marketing.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

TheJackAttack, post: 381934 wrote: I even know happy Mac users that don't buy into Apple marketing.

Ha...
I started working with Apple products on the Apple 2C! Since then, I've been a PC man, but I've always built my own (except laptops). My first experience with Apple (other than the iPhone - I had the original iPhone 3G which sent me running to Android. I'm now back on the iPhone 4s - much improved) was when I bought an old Mac Mini for my kid to play on. It was $100 used online and I dropped the cold hard cash. It worked for 3 weeks then went belly up. I took it to the Apple store and they were very helpful. They gave me new system discs and applications discs for it without question.

While I was waiting for them to burn them for me, I checked out their laptops. One thing that has always driven me nuts about PCs have been their laptops. There seem to be no standards in quality or system loads and you never really know what you're getting. I was pleased with the MacBook Pro that I played with. When I went to a buddy's house, he had an MBP that he had used for 3 years. I tried it and to my surprise, it worked just about as well as the one in the store. My HP 64 bit, 8GB RAM uber-laptop went about 6 months of heavy use before it started dragging and skipping. (Bear in mind, NONE of my own computers that I've ever built have ever done this! In fact, I just pulled one of my servers out of commission after nearly 12 years of running. It was an AMD 350MHz running Win 2K AS and it never got rebooted unless the power went out for too long or I had to load patches. I used it all the time and it never went slow!)

Since I got my MBP, I've begun drinking certain formulas of the Mac Kool-Aid. I got my wife a MB Air and I got a big, fully-loaded iMac for video and composition work. I also have the iPhone 4s and the iPad (and just got my wife the iPad 2 for XMas). So, yeah, I've been drinking it. However, there are a few bits of "fan-boy" lore that I don't subscribe to. The fact is, the PC is just as viable of a platform as the Mac. I still use my Dell laptop for remote recording (Credit to the Dell - the series of laptop that I bought had absolutely NOTHING on it except Win XP Pro. NO bloatware of any kind). I also still use my power house (octa-core 32 GB of RAM) PC that I built for in-house editing and mastering.

Yeah - I love my Macs. However, one platform isn't inherently better than the other. To me, the biggest benefit of the Mac is the consistency between platforms. If Windows could manage that, they'd be the only game in town. However, since most Windows machines are made MUCH cheaper by software subsidies (in other words - crapware vendors pay them to load software on the computer thus driving down the costs), it's a trade-off.

A good solution for PC users looking to use their machines for audio recording - do a good ol' fashioned wipe on the stock drive and load in a fresh OS (spend the $$ and buy a new copy - it's only $100) with no crapware. Then you'll have a Windows machine running just as well as Microsoft intended.

Cheers-
J.

Nicely put Cucco! I share similar experiences. I use Mac for the web, apple TV and iphones and all PC's for audio. I use a PCAudioLabs laptop for mobile recording and its working very well.

Why I use a Mac for music production

Wow did i ruffle feathers. Well here is why I made the decision on Mac long ago. I am not a kid but a touring pro, so time in the real music business is money and one gets tired of a machine running on a very flawed OS crapping out at the wrong time. A couple years ago I came off the road for a while and was at Sony studios on music row in Nashville. While there a man from some association involving PC's dropped two fully loaded PC's that were optimized for music production. The producers put both in a back closet and we found out the studio next door put them in the trash. Like it or not there are tools that the pros use and then there are tools that everybody else works with. I personally will pay the tab to have worry free performance, but in no way am saying your head is up your butt if you use a non Apple product. When the chips are down in the creative arts business (music, photograph, video and cinema cgi) Apple or a Unix derivative is there. Again I am sorry if I tramped on any toes. :-)

You aren't stepping on toes. I would have called BS if you had made an extreme statement the other way too. There are pro touring rigs running computers by PC Audio Labs, ADK, Rain and whatnot as well. There are plenty of professional studios using the same. The fact that the studio you visited already had a favorite is no indication otherwise. I've been on tours myself though I am not currently a full time professional engineer so you wouldn't be the only one here that has been down that road. Hell, we have a 20+ year veteran of NBC as a contributor, too.

Now, Mac was once completely dominant except in mastering houses and such but that isn't as true today as it was in 2002. PT is just one of many pro level DAW's and arguably Pyramix is as good or better at soundstage scoring with Sadie being very respectable as well. I'm just pointing out that things do not remain static in life or in this industry even if we personally have experiences that may or may not bias us for against a particular product.

Peace, and welcome to RO. Join in the fun and hopefully helping each other and the next generation be better audio professionals.

You didn't ruffle the feathers. Many here are passionate and wise to the hype so it can read like aggression when we see it. When it comes to misinformation being posted, we tend to nip it or put it all in perspective. There are young people watching and learning.

The guy who tossed those PC in the trash did so for three reasons.

1. He saw they were poorly built,
2. He was clueless about optimization
3. He's ignorantly mislead, uninformed about PC, other software and brain washed.
   I can't think of any other reason that this.

macmedic, post: 381963 wrote: ...a man from some association involving PC's dropped two fully loaded PC's that were optimized for music production. The producers put both in a back closet and we found out the studio next door put them in the trash. ...

I'll be the one to say it. I'm calling BS. Either that, or there are some stupid ass people working at those studios.

First, if the PC company was "giving" the computers to the studio, the studio is obliged by US tax code to report those computers as income. If they were thrown out, they're still responsible for reporting them.

There are lots of pros here. We use whatever tools we need. And FYI, some of the biggest, baddest tools are only available for PC (Pyramix, SaDIE, Sonic, Sonoma).

I love my Macs, but I'm not ignorant enough to assert that you can't use anything but...

And no - you didn't ruffle feathers. There are hundreds of Mac vs. PC posts on this forum.

Welcome to RO.
J.

audiokid, post: 380370 wrote: And Mac mini with Lion Server [="http://www.apple.com/ca/macmini/server/"]Apple (Canada) - Mac mini with Lion Server[/]="http://www.apple.co…"]Apple (Canada) - Mac mini with Lion Server[/]
2.0GHz : Dual 500GB

• 2.0GHz quad-core Intel Core i7
• 4GB memory
• Dual 500GB 7200-rpm hard drives1
• Intel HD Graphics 3000
• OS X Lion Server
• OS X Lion

Pretty impressive.

I wonder how hot these get.

Here are some old references for running PT. [url=http://duc.avid.com… 2009 Mac Mini 4GB RAM for PT8? - Avid Audio Forums
and more current in reference to the mini server:
Mac Mini Server i7 2.0 Quad - Avid Audio Forums

and

Turn a Mac mini with Thunderbolt Technology into a Full-function Metadata Controller and More
Sonnet - RackMac mini Xserver: Rackmount 1U System with PCIe 2.0 Expansion Slot

Better specc'd than many full sized units. Very impressive.

The Mini ( actually any thunderbolt-enabled Mac )can now run PT|HD via thuderbolt and a Magma expansion chasis.

Not cheap, but cheaper than 8-core mac pro.

http://www.magma.com/thunderbolt.asp

I'm seriously thinking of getting one of these and pairing it with the thunderbolt equipped screen so that I can plug my MBP into it.

The thing with Apple is that they have a set standard for their products. With PC's its hit or miss.

I swore never to be drawn in by all this Apple Hype, but I admit I am getting sucked in.

I bought an Acer which basically fell apart after 6 months, I've had my MBP for just under a year and it is still very much going well. The difference in quality is night and day.

Apples and oranges-so to speak. Acer is a budget very low end computer. You can't compare Citroen and a Mercedes either. If this thread begins to go down marketing kool-aid boulevard I will close the thread.

Cutting out the crap, Apples are a good product that are not flawless. Quality built Windows machines are good products that are not flawless.

The many many low end Windows machines out there are not comparable to either of the former and should be thrown in a dumpster before utilizing them for audio or video production but they will still adequately function for their owners to waste time in email or Facebook.

edit addendum:
Apple stands behind their product only as long as your AppleCare package is still active.

Which reminds me that mine is almost due. 10 Days me thinks. $244 WTF?

I love my MBP and from now on I think I will stay Apple. saying that though, there are some mightily impressive windows based systems available. So never say never.

From a cosmetic point of view, I just love the Aluminum Unibodies. If they get grubby you just wipe with a soapy cloth. Mine still has no scratches, dings, dents or cracks.

Apparently Apple has made it all but impossible to customize thew new MBP, everything is permanently fixed to the casing.