2015 Mac Options

Recording Techniques, People Skills, Gear, Recording Spaces, Computers, and DIY

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SpencerMartin
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Post by SpencerMartin » Sun Jun 07, 2015 5:26 am

Thanks man - you've brought up some important details that I hadn't been aware of. Everyone else, too. This has all been super helpful! I'll likely be making the final pick later tonight.

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ott0bot
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Post by ott0bot » Sun Jun 07, 2015 10:00 am

F it all and get a Commodore. You don't need no pro tools when you can play Lode Runner and Turrican all day.

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SpencerMartin
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Post by SpencerMartin » Mon Jun 08, 2015 6:26 am

Haha perfect! Then I'd just need to get into circuit bending and open an all 8 bit studio. I can see it now - "A studio for those who appreciate the sonic nuance and warmth that 8 bit has to offer."

Seriously, that'd be just about the hippest studio niche of all time. Who's in??

kslight
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Post by kslight » Mon Jun 08, 2015 8:23 am

SpencerMartin wrote:Haha perfect! Then I'd just need to get into circuit bending and open an all 8 bit studio. I can see it now - "A studio for those who appreciate the sonic nuance and warmth that 8 bit has to offer."

Seriously, that'd be just about the hippest studio niche of all time. Who's in??
Way hipper than those competing studios using Ensoniq Paris or Pro Tools TDM.

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ott0bot
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Post by ott0bot » Mon Jun 08, 2015 9:33 am

I'm in if you only release recordings on NES carts.

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apropos of nothing
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Post by apropos of nothing » Mon Jun 08, 2015 10:06 am

You guys, you're not going to be able to steal any business from me -- my clients are very loyal to my 8-bit warmth.

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SpencerMartin
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Post by SpencerMartin » Tue Jun 09, 2015 6:12 am

Haha YES. Now it just needs the perfect name... But what?

"Blackbird? More like Blackturd. I'm recording my mixtape at ___________!"

kslight
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Post by kslight » Tue Jun 09, 2015 8:10 am

Cartman?

Bitrman?

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Post by apropos of nothing » Wed Jun 10, 2015 7:48 am

An alias of an alias of alias. How meta.

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SpencerMartin
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Post by SpencerMartin » Fri Jul 10, 2015 3:54 pm

Just to update? I found a ton of refurbished Westmere style Mac Pro towers on eBay for really good prices and put in an offer of 1.7k (listed at 2k) on a 12-Core, 3.34 ghz unit with a 3tb hard drive. Ended up buying a 500gb SSD separately to run as the system drive, while using the 3tb for backup storage.

All in all, after buying a monitor, keyboard, and trackpad, the total cost was just over 2k. This setup is BAD ASS. So fast! The proccessing power seems limitless.

I looked into several different options before going with this purchase, so for anyone out there looking to buy a new Mac this is most definitely the way to go. Thanks for everyone's advice and input!

kslight
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Post by kslight » Fri Jul 10, 2015 6:20 pm

Super jelly, looks like most of those systems on eBay are upgraded older systems...which makes me want to buy one of those kits to turn my 4 core into a 12.

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SpencerMartin
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Post by SpencerMartin » Sat Jul 11, 2015 8:47 pm

kslight wrote:Super jelly, looks like most of those systems on eBay are upgraded older systems...which makes me want to buy one of those kits to turn my 4 core into a 12.
Right - most of them are probably from between 2008 and 2012. Do it!

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Post by kslight » Sat Jul 11, 2015 9:35 pm

SpencerMartin wrote:
kslight wrote:Super jelly, looks like most of those systems on eBay are upgraded older systems...which makes me want to buy one of those kits to turn my 4 core into a 12.
Right - most of them are probably from between 2008 and 2012. Do it!
I want to, still a big chunk of cash though, maybe in the down time when I finish scoring this film.

For the most part my system (2.8 quad w 16gb ram) does an excellent job especially for its age. I used to hit limits with older software, but as newer software became better at handling multiple processors and lots of memory it became better with age...not a common thing with computers!

If thunderbolt is not important to you, I think you made the right decision, I really am not comfortable with the form factor of the current Mac Pros, while I think the older tower is one of the best desktop computer designs (internally where it matters...you'll know what I mean when you install new drives and such).

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alexdingley
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Post by alexdingley » Wed Jul 22, 2015 5:32 pm

SpencerMartin wrote:Just to update? I found a ton of refurbished Westmere style Mac Pro towers on eBay for really good prices and put in an offer of 1.7k (listed at 2k) on a 12-Core, 3.34 ghz unit with a 3tb hard drive. Ended up buying a 500gb SSD separately to run as the system drive, while using the 3tb for backup storage.

All in all, after buying a monitor, keyboard, and trackpad, the total cost was just over 2k. This setup is BAD ASS. So fast! The proccessing power seems limitless.

I looked into several different options before going with this purchase, so for anyone out there looking to buy a new Mac this is most definitely the way to go. Thanks for everyone's advice and input!
To that point above... If you're just running a system for audio recording & mixing... I'm a big fan of the Mac Towers... the cheese-graters.

I'm running a 2009 model, and with its 8-cores / 28GB of RAM, SSD Boot drive (really two SSD's RAIDed), 7200RPM Audio RAID, and 2 UAD-Octo PCIe cards... I don't anticipate ever having to upgrade it. ... for real. I love excuses to buy new computers, but seriously... I can track 24 tracks of 192Khz audio in PT11, using super-low buffer settings, without breaking a sweat. Playing back 30+ tracks with UAD plug-ins... easy.

Also... staying a big leap behind with apple, tends to mean one more thing: the benefit of cheap peripherals on eBay. You can buy really great I/O units that are non-thunderbolt... FW800 / PCIe... for very little money these days. And those UAD PCIe cards are seeming to drop in price on the used market. I'd say snap up a used Tower... set it up to your liking... and never change it. Then, in another year or two, buy another identical tower as a spare. That's what I did... and I have no intention of letting software updates happen to this machine... just gonna keep it humming.

kslight
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Post by kslight » Wed Jul 22, 2015 7:19 pm

Even on my old system I haven't hit that plugin count to justify DSP cards, and I run everything at 24/96khz, good size PT12 sessions. That's probably the only thing that's kept me from swapping out the lowly 2.8 quad in the first place..and since I'm heavily invested in Waves/etc it'd make more sense to go that route. But yeah, I've got an extra FW800 card in my system just to run my legacy Profire Lightbridge...but I'm kinda thinking about swapping that setup (and my ad/da...HD24XR) for something a little simpler...

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