Thinking about switching from Apple to Windows

[simonbestParticipant]

Hey guys, not trying to make a "Mac Vs. Windows" thread here, but here's the thing. I've been using Pro Tools with Mac for a couple years since it was a pain to use in Windows. The experience with Mac hasn't been as pleasing as I'd like to. Not only it's expensive, but I also think the OS has been surpassed by Windows in some areas.

Anyway, I'm going to use S1 as main DAW, so I considered to go back to windows. I wanted to ask S1 owners who work in Windows how's been their experience so far, and whether they'd recommend that setup. My main problem was the whole ASIO4windows + Pro Tools messing around whenever I had to work outside the studio with my laptop and couldn't use an interface.

Thanks in advance for your opinions.

[Mark WarnerParticipant]

Hi Simon,
I am a Windows user and although I have Studio One, I do not use it. Not because it is not good but I just got used to Reaper, so I can only give you a partial insight. I have used Windows 7 for about 4 years and then went to Windows 10 a few months back. I use a Presonus 1818vsl and while under some situations, usually when shutting down the laptop, I would get. USB error and blue screen, I never had a problem using it. Now I am on Windows 10 that issue is resolved and I have had no other issues. All my drivers and VSTs work fine (64 bit). Most people who have told me about their experiences of Studio One say it is very good. I hop this is useful to you. Cheers Mark

[simonbestParticipant]

Definitely helps, I'm actually considering Reaper too after watching some tutorials and because of all the praise Cockos gets.

[Steve AParticipant]

If you are considering Reaper, I don't think you could go wrong.
Anyway, modern Windows will run great no matter the DAW.
And if you do run into a snag, there are many more reliable resources these days to go for help.

• This reply was modified 7 years ago by Steve A.

[Andrew MckenzieParticipant]

I honestly reckon it doesn't matter which flavour you go with as long as it's the most comfortable and intuitive solution for YOU. Both have pros and cons and both are pretty well supported so it's more of a personal choice these days than a cut and dry argument. 🙂 S1 runs fine on either I'm led to believe?

Cheers...Andrew

[dogsawParticipant]

Personally I will be an Apple guy until the end.

However, on my studio Mac Pro I have partitioned one of my hard drives and I have Windows 7 running via boot camp. This gives me the best of both worlds if I ever need to dive into the Microsoft domain.

All the best
Rich

[Kevin CoulterParticipant]

I know this is an old topic, but I thought I'd add my experience here for others to have when they are looking at Windows v Mac.

The biggest thing I've found important here, is know your Audio Interface. The challenge in Windows, I've found, is that there can be conflicts in Deferred Procedure Calls (DPCs) that handle processing interrupts.

For example, I bought a brand new laptop about 6 months ago, Brodweel processors, 12G of memory, Nvidia Geforce graphics, and I have an A&H QU-24 that runs 32 channel I/O through USB port. The QU-24 is somewhat sensitive long wait times in processing - I've seen in excess of 13milliseconds (which can happen quite often in Windows) and the QU-24 created this "digitized" sound it sometimes could not recover from. A&H support was great, gave me a couple of DPC utilities to see where the issue was, and it was clearly a conflict with the Windows OS and the USB interface causing latency. The conflict was between the WAN networking services and the anti-virus systems and USB port. When they kicked in to either negotiations connections or scan incoming data, the wait times in the OS would significantly increase causing a brief delay in response to the USB port requests.

Good new for this interface, if I disable the WAN (either turn it off or direct connect the laptop with an Ethernet cable) and disable Anti-Virus the problem goes away. I've also seen issues with delays using Focusrite interfaces, and others. May be different interrupts that are causing the issue or just system overload, but my guess is that there's some longer wait times happening and potentially some conflict.

Doing absolutely nothing different other than plugging in the QU-24 to my 2012 Macbook Pro - WAN going full tilt, AV running - I didn't have a single issue. I won't go into the technical details here, but Mac has always had great hardware integration in their OS (going more Open Source/Linux based was a huge deal for them). The Macs aren't nearly as driver driven as Windows. There's lots of technical stuff around this - but I won't bore you with the details.

Anyway, you may find that in certain circumstance with specific audio/hardware interfaces the Mac may be a better choice. I love my Windows systems and use them with Reaper for doing my "in the box" stuff where I don't need my QU-24 (which is really cool about Reaper, I can use it on both operating systems, and transferring tracks between the two systems is pretty easy).

The Qu-24 was very frustrating for me at first - ultimately I learned a ton about the Windows OS and a better understanding of the efficiciencies of OSX.

Ok - I've geeked out enough....

Kevin

[simonbestParticipant]

Thanks for the input, not geeking at all! ?
I've been using Windows + Reaper and not looking back. Every OS and DAW has advantages and disadvantages, but these 2 seem to work great for me.
Windows has a problem with USB, that's for sure. On the other hand, there's a level of adaptation and customization that I didn't feel like I had when using Mac and especially pro Tools.
My only issue is now with my interface, an USB Apollo Twin Duo. Not only they just supported thunderbolt in Windows, right after I sold the TB UAD I had in order to buy the USB version (FML), but also it produces some pops and clicks randomly that usually go away by... guess what, changing the USB port.

Anyway, I'm reasonably happy with my setup. Thanks again for all the info, I'll check it out in case it may hint me in the right direction.

• This reply was modified 7 years ago by simonbest.

[timmymacParticipant]

Ha! I just moved to PC after almost 20 years on Mac. Had some frustrating issues with my Mac Pro (trash can) and decided to build a PC with full size tower just to give it a shot. Love having a big tower again. Decked it our with water cooling and extra hard drives. Also went with Avid and Universal Audio pcie cards. Everything is neatly contained in the tower. Also did a bunch of bios tweaks to optimize the heck out of my cpu. Been running smoothly for a few months now. So much software is now cross-compatible between Mac and Windows that it's really not an issue which OS you use. I still however do have a Macbook pro. So not quite converted! 🙂

[Leslie PughParticipant]

Thanks kevin...you may have hit the nail on the head for the MS troubleshooting to finally end...to solve for windows issues and my upsetting ordeals with countless audio interfaces....thunderbolt also having great issues now also, caused mt to move to Mac Pro 2014 canister 8 core 32 bit system on el capitan...works fine now with most if not all A&H r16s systems...but would not work on windows reliably, nor did focusrite pro 40, or Motu 828x ...not sure about cpu from inel either having weak ME holes...and windows ten being a store and data collector behind the vale mayhem with bing and spooling and sending..along with the auto updating crap ..in constant troubleshooting mode....the mac solved easy as just getting one and plugging in to it.

So if this be now revealed why, by what you have said....I might get back my x 99 systems back...is it possible to turn off usb ports?...and stop MS from changing setups..by reverting settings to default when MS decides to update, and put games on or other things of bent services pushed upon, is something..overlooked, or ommitted by you Kevin.. in saying...let me say it here for some to ponder out if moving from mac to windows 10...it is all about the cash cow you want to serve...eh?

[Samuel BotsteinParticipant]

Do it - go Hackintosh, and dual boot Windows. IMHO it's that, or wait for the new Mac Pro, which will cost a mint and come out sometime next year if Apple is to be believed.

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