Salem Beats
Ki from Salem-Beats.com
This is why you DON'T buy a mac for music:
I am including specs of my custom-built Dell laptop and Apple's equivalent. For simplicity's sake, I'm only including the specs that have an impact on a computer's performance as a DAW. Note the price differences for a very similar setup.
Dell Inspiron 15" ($623)
MacBookPro 15" ($1699)
Difference in price: -$1076
What can you do with +$1076?
$200: Epic Soundcard (Indigo IOx)
Screw the whole USB vs Firewire war. This blows both of those outta the water, and makes both completely irrelevant. Indigo's IOx soundcard uses the same PCI-Express technology that's been blessing pro gamers with blazingly-fast graphics.
The IOx gives me a stable 1 millisecond (1/1000th of a second) delay for processor-intense individual instruments (i.e. Omnisphere). I get a stable 2 millisecond (1/500th of a second) delay for an entire project with multiple synths, ROMplers, EQs, compressors, reverbs, etc. I can drum the most intricate patterns on my padKONTROL with no perceptible delay whatsoever. Has some of the clearest AD/DA converters, and a 24-bit/96khz analog input so you can use the finest preamps money can buy, which brings me to...
$565: Epic Preamp (Grace m101)
The Grace m101 is well-recommended from people who are used to owning high-end microphone preamps. In order to keep its price this low, Grace skimped only on the number of inputs (you get one input). Don't let me tell you about it though. Go look at reviews for yourself, or find one to test out. This thing is an ultimate preamp for any budget. Now that we have an amazing preamp, why don't we test it out with a...
$99: Legendary Microphone (Shure sm57)
Many would be surprised that you would use a stage microphone as a serious solution for recording vocals. However, this thing sounds amazing through the epic preamp that we've already "purchased". It doesn't sound as "natural" and "transparent" as a condenser mic, but that's great -- music listeners in general would rather have a processed, exciting sound instead of the transparent type of sound that they hear from day-to-day. The sm57 is legendary for its durability, and it won't pick up annoying room reflections, your computer fans, or the traffic of your street like a condenser mic would. Now that we've got our recording system set up, let's get a...
$100: Epic Drum Controller (Korg padKONTROL)
The padKONTROL's pads are widely regarded as the most sensitive pads on a controller. Period. More sensitive than an MPC. More sensitive than anything else you've tried. Now I know that these retail for $200, but you can get one in like-new condition off of eBay for $100 (I got one for $61 plus shipping, and it works just as well as the one I bought new for $200 from Musician's Friend
). Your natural sense of rhythm will shine brightly on every one of your mixes.
$35: A nice new shirt at the mall or something
Guess what? After all this, we still have $35 to mess with. You were just going to blow it on a well-advertised, overpriced computer, so you might as well get a well-advertised, overpriced piece of clothing instead.
I would like to note that my computer works very well with all of these components that I would not be able to afford if I had bought a Mac. In spite of the huge strain I put on it at any given moment, my Dell laptop has never crashed and always achieves stellar performance. As a bonus, the entire setup looks very sleek, and all of the components fit together in a 20" laptop backpack for portable gigging and studio-quality recording sessions.
I would like this post to be stickied.
I am including specs of my custom-built Dell laptop and Apple's equivalent. For simplicity's sake, I'm only including the specs that have an impact on a computer's performance as a DAW. Note the price differences for a very similar setup.
Dell Inspiron 15" ($623)
- 15" HD Widescreen
- 2.40GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 (with 1033MHz FSB!
) - 4GB RAM @ 800MHz
- 320GB Hard Drive @ 5200 RPM
- 3 USB 2.0 ports (Intel chipset )
MacBookPro 15" ($1699)
- 15" HD Widescreen
- 2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (Apple wouldn't specify the exact model, so it most likely has a 800MHz FSB. Apple would make a big deal out of a higher FSB.)
- 4GB RAM @ 1033MHz (The slightly higher clock rate is a marketing gimmick -- most dual-core processors in this performance range aren't even putting a strain on 800MHz RAM)
- 250GB Hard Drive @ 5200 RPM
- 2 USB 2.0 Ports (Intel chipset )
- 1 Firewire 800 port
Difference in price: -$1076
What can you do with +$1076?
$200: Epic Soundcard (Indigo IOx)
Screw the whole USB vs Firewire war. This blows both of those outta the water, and makes both completely irrelevant. Indigo's IOx soundcard uses the same PCI-Express technology that's been blessing pro gamers with blazingly-fast graphics.
The IOx gives me a stable 1 millisecond (1/1000th of a second) delay for processor-intense individual instruments (i.e. Omnisphere). I get a stable 2 millisecond (1/500th of a second) delay for an entire project with multiple synths, ROMplers, EQs, compressors, reverbs, etc. I can drum the most intricate patterns on my padKONTROL with no perceptible delay whatsoever. Has some of the clearest AD/DA converters, and a 24-bit/96khz analog input so you can use the finest preamps money can buy, which brings me to...
$565: Epic Preamp (Grace m101)
The Grace m101 is well-recommended from people who are used to owning high-end microphone preamps. In order to keep its price this low, Grace skimped only on the number of inputs (you get one input). Don't let me tell you about it though. Go look at reviews for yourself, or find one to test out. This thing is an ultimate preamp for any budget. Now that we have an amazing preamp, why don't we test it out with a...
$99: Legendary Microphone (Shure sm57)
Many would be surprised that you would use a stage microphone as a serious solution for recording vocals. However, this thing sounds amazing through the epic preamp that we've already "purchased". It doesn't sound as "natural" and "transparent" as a condenser mic, but that's great -- music listeners in general would rather have a processed, exciting sound instead of the transparent type of sound that they hear from day-to-day. The sm57 is legendary for its durability, and it won't pick up annoying room reflections, your computer fans, or the traffic of your street like a condenser mic would. Now that we've got our recording system set up, let's get a...
$100: Epic Drum Controller (Korg padKONTROL)
The padKONTROL's pads are widely regarded as the most sensitive pads on a controller. Period. More sensitive than an MPC. More sensitive than anything else you've tried. Now I know that these retail for $200, but you can get one in like-new condition off of eBay for $100 (I got one for $61 plus shipping, and it works just as well as the one I bought new for $200 from Musician's Friend
). Your natural sense of rhythm will shine brightly on every one of your mixes.$35: A nice new shirt at the mall or something
Guess what? After all this, we still have $35 to mess with. You were just going to blow it on a well-advertised, overpriced computer, so you might as well get a well-advertised, overpriced piece of clothing instead.
I would like to note that my computer works very well with all of these components that I would not be able to afford if I had bought a Mac. In spite of the huge strain I put on it at any given moment, my Dell laptop has never crashed and always achieves stellar performance. As a bonus, the entire setup looks very sleek, and all of the components fit together in a 20" laptop backpack for portable gigging and studio-quality recording sessions.
I would like this post to be stickied.
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