Re: [microsound] Mac vs PC

[nathan d <nathand@xxxxxxxxx>]

hey,

i didn't see this post. i'll have to check out some of that software.

thx

derek holzer wrote:

> Malte Steiner wrote:
>
> > Installing Linux is a task on a laptop, it sometimes refuses several 
> > features like wifi or sleep mode. But anyway, the intel world getting 
> > better with the Centrinos so it will be different in a year, perhaps.
>
>
> Linux plus an Athlon processor laptop is my recommendation. You get 
> more speed for the buck, and Athlons don't have this silly denormal 
> numbers problem [i.e. CPU useage skyrockets whan it has to process 
> floating point numbers which are extremely small, such as the values 
> of samples at the tail of a revrb... this is a problem for all P4 and 
> newer processors, also under windoze!]
> http://www.agnula.org/
> I'd say that Mac laptops are alright, but I know too much about the 
> funny "hardware optimizations" which Mac does... things like putting 
> the exact same video card in the season's release of Powerbook and the 
> I-book, but crippling the firmware of the one in the Powerbook so that 
> you have to buy an I-book to get a second video out or accelerated 
> graphics or things like that. This kind of trickery doesn't really 
> make me too fond of a company's business strategy.
>
> Another distro I would recommend is Planet CCRMA [based on 
> http://www.agnula.org/Fedora, which is the new incarnation of Red 
> Hat]. Super fast installation and a very helpful user list.
>
> http://ccrma.stanford.edu/planetccrma/software/
>
> If you are curious if the PC laptop you are about to buy is 
> Linux-compatible, you can always take a live CD such as Knoppix or 
> Dyne:bolic to the shop and try it out:
>
> http://www.dynebolic.org/
>
> > Software: Pure Data / gem, free and available for several OS
>
>
> Don't forget about PDP for video! Getting better all the time.
>
> > How far is Ardour, the opensource DAW? Anyone tested the current 
> > version yet?
>
>
> I use Ardour quite a bit. In fact, I'm mixing a track in it right now. 
> I have to admit it still has some instability issues [noting that they 
> released an 0.9beta14 a few weeks ago, then almost immediately after 
> told everyone to downgrade back to beta11!] They are really working 
> their ass off to get to 1.0 status, so I am willing to accept some 
> bugs [sometimes!] and look forward to the release of the first totally 
> free alternative to ProTools this summer or fall.
>
> There's also FreqTweak, a Spectral Delay clone, and all the work 
> people have been doing with VSTserver to get all those VST plugins and 
> Native Instruments softsynths running under Linux as well! There's a 
> picture from the last Linux Audio conference of a guy from NI with 
> Kontakt running under Linux with VSTserver and Jack projected on the 
> wall behind him. Kontakt, Battery or Absynth ain't free or open source 
> by any stretch of the imagination, but if you already spent money on 
> the apps, and/or are too lazy to build them yourself in PD [doesn't 
> take that long once you get the hang of PD as a language] then it is 
> probably worthwhile to check out.
>
> Speaking of Jack, this has to be the real killer Linux sound app out 
> ther. Jack allows you to connect and route all the sound apps on your 
> system. Last but certainbly not least there's Jamin, which is a truely 
> sweet mastering tool.
>
> I have to admit my own personal bias towards Linux, simply because I 
> dropped windoze a year ago and spent all the time since learning, 
> using and teaching only free + open source software. So nothing could 
> get me to go back to m$. Although OSX looks interesting enough [I 
> would rather wear my mother's underpants than mess around with OS 9!], 
> and is in fact based on another free, Unix-type operating system 
> [FreeBSD], it just doesn't quite have everything in the right place 
> yet in order to be fully Unix compatible. In my experience, running a 
> lot of this free, Linux-world software on OSX takes more time and 
> trouble often than just running Linux ;-) But to each their own...
>
> best,
> d.


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