Need advice about a new computer and connections

[jg666]

I've done a quick search and can't find an existing thread about computer hardware...

I'm looking to buy a computer that I can then use to start and get into using with my synths. Whilst I've worked in the computer industry for over 30 years, I don't know much about connecting synths and music production software etc so I have a few general questions to help me get started.

Should I be looking at a desktop computer or a laptop? I know that if I built myself a new gaming PC it should have enough power to use with music production software and my current PC is situated right next to my keyboards. Would a powerful laptop be better though?

This next question might be down to personal preference for most, but is there a reason for swapping to an Apple based computer from my usual Windows PC/laptop? Are Macs better at doing this sort of thing or will a Windows 10 computer do the same job for less money?

Finally my synths go through a Yamaha MG10XU mixer before going to the amp and speakers. How would I connect a synth to my computer? I assume I'd need some kind of midi interface to connect an individual synth to the computer?

I'd probably be looking to use something like Ableton Live (although not decided yet) and I'd want to record tracks on there and build it up into a multi-track composition.

 

[DavidDever]

Do consider what an iPad might bring to the table in terms of workflow: can record audio, edit synthesizer patches, host iOS instrument apps, etc., and that iOS compatibility for audio and/or MIDI devices is generally a litmus test for up-to-date compatibility with macOS (same Core Audio underpinnings) or Windows 10, from previous experience.

[jg666]

Do consider what an iPad might bring to the table in terms of workflow: can record audio, edit synthesizer patches, host iOS instrument apps, etc., and that iOS compatibility for audio and/or MIDI devices is generally a litmus test for up-to-date compatibility with macOS (same Core Audio underpinnings) or Windows 10, from previous experience.

Very interesting, thanks for that. I never even thought of using my iPad to do something like this

[chysn]

Anywhere else on the internet, you'd have come dangerously close to starting a holy war. Me, I'm a Mac guy, and I hate those Windows guys with the passion of a thousand blue screens of... wait, sorry, never mind.

The fact is, just about anything... anything... that you buy today will be perfectly fine for music. If your question had been "what do I need for video production?" we'd be having a different discussion. But get something in your budget, and that you're comfortable with. Prioritize more memory (RAM, I mean) over any other kind of upgrade.

Well... maybe anything except like a Chromebook. But any Mac or Windows computer, just get what you like.

[jg666]

Anywhere else on the internet, you'd have come dangerously close to starting a holy war. Me, I'm a Mac guy, and I hate those Windows guys with the passion of a thousand blue screens of... wait, sorry, never mind.

The fact is, just about anything... anything... that you buy today will be perfectly fine for music. If your question had been "what do I need for video production?" we'd be having a different discussion. But get something in your budget, and that you're comfortable with. Prioritize more memory (RAM, I mean) over any other kind of upgrade.

Well... maybe anything except like a Chromebook. But any Mac or Windows computer, just get what you like.

Excellent thanks for that I didn’t want to start a mac vs windows war so hopefully it won’t descend into one of those. I was wondering mainly if one OS was more suited to the job of connecting to synths via midi or usb. I suspect that in the past the Mac stuff was better suited but that windows might have caught up a bit with windows 10?

[chysn]

Excellent thanks for that I didn’t want to start a mac vs windows war so hopefully it won’t descend into one of those. I was wondering mainly if one OS was more suited to the job of connecting to synths via midi or usb. I suspect that in the past the Mac stuff was better suited but that windows might have caught up a bit with windows 10?

Not really. Linux, macOS, Windows, they'll all do the job.

[Gerry Havinga]

Excellent thanks for that I didn’t want to start a mac vs windows war so hopefully it won’t descend into one of those. I was wondering mainly if one OS was more suited to the job of connecting to synths via midi or usb. I suspect that in the past the Mac stuff was better suited but that windows might have caught up a bit with windows 10?

Not really. Linux, macOS, Windows, they'll all do the job.

Bitwig is totally platform independent. I use it both on Windoze and Ubuntu. On an i5 4 gigabytes laptop and a 48 gigabytes desktop. Works fine depending on VST usage ;-).

[jg666]

Excellent thanks for that I didn’t want to start a mac vs windows war so hopefully it won’t descend into one of those. I was wondering mainly if one OS was more suited to the job of connecting to synths via midi or usb. I suspect that in the past the Mac stuff was better suited but that windows might have caught up a bit with windows 10?

Not really. Linux, macOS, Windows, they'll all do the job.

Bitwig is totally platform independent. I use it both on Windoze and Ubuntu. On an i5 4 gigabytes laptop and a 48 gigabytes desktop. Works fine depending on VST usage ;-).

Thanks. I think I need to investigate all the software options over the coming weeks

[megamarkd]

Finally my synths go through a Yamaha MG10XU mixer before going to the amp and speakers. How would I connect a synth to my computer? I assume I'd need some kind of midi interface to connect an individual synth to the computer?

I owned the MG12xu and it worked fine as an audio interface, though only does stereo out via USB.  Sold it to a very very happy guitarist.  As far as the MIDI interface, nearly every USB capable controller with DIN ports can operate as a USB MIDI interface, so shop smart and you can get two devices in one.

Anywhere else on the internet, you'd have come dangerously close to starting a holy war. Me, I'm a Mac guy, and I hate those Windows guys with the passion of a thousand blue screens of... wait, sorry, never mind.

I found my DiskWarrior discs the other day, heheh, but that said, I ran a PPC G4 for 12yrs and only had to retire it when the latest OSX didn't run on it.  I liked OS9 better anyway and wish I never upgraded to X....

[BobTheDog]

For me Macs still win for audio work.

Microsoft for a year have had a class 2 usb audio driver so they have caught up a bit. As far as I know Microsoft still don't support microframes where linux and OS X do, but this is only an issue for high bitrates/channel counts.

Macs also have the advantage of aggregate devices where you can combine multiple audio devices into one device and use one (or the mac) as the master clock, also it supports multiple processes using the same audio device at the same time (multi client).

The audio system on Macs also doesn't suffer from the kernel being stalled by DFCs as windows systems do.

You can set Linux up with a preempt kernel and get good audio performance, you can also use a dual kernel with something like Xenomai to get audio performance that a mac could only dream of (say with 8 sample buffers) but the amount of messing around required is possibly beyond the normal users want.

The advantage of a windows DAW though is that you can get windows machines cheap, as long as you check that none of the hardware is causing DPC issues, you only need to use one USB audio interface or device and there is a decent driver for it or it is class compliant and works with windows 10. As long as these boxes are ticked then everything would be fine. There can also be some advantages, for instance Cubase runs much more efficiently on windows machines than it does on Macs due to the fact that Steinberg mac developers don't seem to have a clue what they are doing.

[jg666]

megamarkd  and BobTheDog many thanks for your replies.

This is something I want to get right when I purchase (or build) my new computer so it's probably going to be in August or September when I get around to it.