Cubase on Pc or a Mac ?

:laughing:

For some people, mac is a religion. And like all religions, it relies on groundless beliefs and faith. Like the mac being invulnerable to malware and windows crashing every 5 minutes. Or windows requiring constant tweaking and maintenance and the mac never having any issue of any sort.

For anyone else, there are actual benchmarks and windows ALWAYS comes on top. Enjoy:

http://www.dawbench.com/win7-v-osx-1.htm

Glad I brought plenty of popcorn and beer :laughing:

When I wrote the first post I was afraid it will happen…

…actually it’s more “my pc’s better than your mac” :wink:

Anyway, I’m happy because I got many very useful and kind answers, thank you all :slight_smile:

Edmond

@rumdrum: you mentionned VEPro, I use this wonderful soft but what do you mean by “VST linked”?

@papi61 : sorry, Hans Zimmer works on Mac (http://www.cinezik.org/infos/affinfo.php?titre0=20121005182011)
I don’t know about his team of 10 composers…

@jpgtr: it’s a mid 2009 MBPro 2x3.06 GHz with 8 gig of ram, 2 SSDs (I put the optical drive in an external case) actually I charge it with Spectrasonics instruments + many sound libraries in VEPro without a problem. It’s true that it’s not my DAW, just an audio-slave, but I think it is not far from the 8 core Mac Pro as for its power.

You sound like a man after own heart. Anecdotes and faith are so compelling to evangelical believers (this DAW sounds better than that DAW, anyone?) but stop dead at the brick wall of unambiguous, science based scepticism.

I really don’t care for the MAC v PC war. It’s pointless. Use what you want, I don’t care, it’s your money. But if you want to convince me, or anyone else for that matter, that the MAC is in any way superior to a well built PC, don’t tell me stories… show me well documented, peer reviewed, double blind tested evidence. Then I will listen.

Sorry, but you’re wrong:

“The main sequencer that Hans uses is Cubase and has been for the last twenty years or so. We’re mostly Windows-based now, which I think people often find surprising. All the samplers are Windows. The only Macs we really use are for running Pro Tools, and that’s more of a legacy thing. I think it’d be interesting to see if we could go to Windows for Pro Tools as well, because it gives you a bit more freedom in the kind of hardware you can use, especially since it’s sort of unknown what Apple’s long-term plans are for the Mac Pro.”

BTW, I can read French. The article you quoted doesn’t mention anywhere that Hans uses Cubase on a mac.

Not very recent, http://collider.com/exclusive-hans-zimmer-video-interview-in-his-recording-studio-talks-sherlock-holmes-and-inception/

Hans Zimmer Part 2 at 8 min 28s Steve Weintraub, the interviewer speaks of the gear at the place where HZ just sat down: “there’s a Mac etc…”

I sincerely regret having written such a title " Cubase on PC or Mac" :blush: as Dark Blue Man says I don’t care for Mac vs PC war. All I wanted to know was: I make music for more than 4 years on Macs and the only pbs I have are about music not about hardware or OS, BUT, I don’t know if the next Mac Pro will have the power I need: all the tracks with VSTIs for the symphonic sections (4 for the Strings, 3 flutes, 1 oboe etc…) and those for instruments like OMnisphere, MacFive etc…
So what I asked you was YOUR experience, in YOUR studio, your true evidence NO partial benches like the one you gave a link of: this man builds and sales Windows based machines (AAVIM Technologies). :imp:

I’m a loyal user of Cubase since Pro 24, I dont even look at something else so I thought this forum was the right place where I could find personnal witnesses. Fortunately I got some advices e.g. from filterfreak so I’ll wait until the new Mac Pro is released and I will compare its specs with what I can build around the latest i7.

I have a PC (Intel i7) and a Macbook (Intel i7, 2011) - and they both run Cubase 6 and 7 just fine. I even exchange projects between the two platforms on a regular basis…no problem…at all!

If you are using lots of samples I would focus on a fast harddrive, more ram etc. - maybe even an SSD (depending on your budget).

That being said I’m sure that a new Mac Pro will be a great machine that will be fine for years. Only question is: when will Apple release a new version?

In case you haven’t noticed, my link is about two years newer than yours. Zimmer switched from mac to pc, like many have done, myself included. You just can’t admit it to yourself.

NO partial benches like the one you gave a link of: this man builds and sales Windows based machines

Curigliano’s benchmarks are very well-respected by sound engineers who have verified them on their own. But then again, you seem to be in complete denial. You just can’t accept reality.

Computers are tools and professionals use whatever tool is best for them. Those people who aren’t smart enough to transition to another OS or they’re too attached to their Macs for emotional reasons will keep using their Macs but buying PC’s as VEP slaves. Simply because AppIe doesn’t offer anything that powerful at any price. Oh yeah, the new mac pros are coming, we’ve been hearing that since 2009. Just like the new Logic is coming any day… :unamused: Again, we’ve been hearing that since 2009…

I would go PC, it’s much better. Even the acronym says so “Preferred Computer”.
MAC is inferior in every way, as its acronym will tell you “Minor Adding Computer”.

  • I am only prolonging the argument for Pete’s sake. Stella Artois has a fine body for any further entertainment.

Well, here is my 2 cents…

Last November, a buddy of mine and I built a monster music pc to replace my mac pro. I have been a Mac guy since the late 1980s, but I felt it was time to build a PC.

i7 Sandbridge 3930, Asus board, 32 gig of Corsair ram…killer box, cooling system and power supply, packed with three large internal hard drives and external drives.

I got it all loaded up and began work. Here is what I found. It killed two hard drives that were connected via the eSata connection on the MB (externally). If the OS would crash for some reason and I had to hard reboot, it killed the drives. Two different drives at two different times.

Next, My User file somehow became corrupted. Corrupted User File…really ? Is Windows 7 that unstable, that just anything could corrupt the user file?

With Cubase 7, when opening it, it took an extended time to show the startup box (steinberg) and even though the list of songs were there, it took a while for them to be able to be opened.

Just last night, after spending three hours on the phone with Microsoft Support (level 2 support tech) we gave up on repairing my corrupt user file. The tech said I needed to create a new user file. We did, then open Cubase. The Audio was damaged…the driver, I mean. Trying to play a song, it had this terrible noise underneath the program material.

I was fed up.

I stripped my machine and re-installed my PCI soundcard, UAD 2 Duo card, hard drives and put everything back in my Mac Pro 2.66 Quad Core machine. I couldn’t handle the “iffy” of going out to work and my computer (PC) not being able to function.

Once I put everything back in the Mac…interestingly, Cubase 7 opened faster at the startup screen. The songs were available instantly to be selected and loaded. It took the same amount of time or faster, to have this song up and running.
And Cubase 7 was just fine. Songs created on the PC ran beautifully on the Mac. Where the PC did shine was in times of using Vari Audio…the processing of the file was just fantastic on the PC. The exporting time wasn’t any slower on the Mac than the PC, but loading East West Play piano was about twice as fast on the PC than the Mac…I will miss that. But, I will not miss the “not knowing if I am going to have issues today when trying to work” fears.

I guess I will be content with my Mac Pro 2.66 Quad Core with 12 Gig of ram. I will miss the potential of what the massive PC was supposed to be, but I will not miss the issues. I mean, Windows 7 Professional, should be professional. I shouldn’t have to worry if a frozen OS (which, I still can’t figure that out) and a hard re-boot is going to crash my User file, or whatever.

I’m just disgusted. I spend $2,000 on the PC build and spent 2 months researching before that to make sure we got exactly the right MB, processor, power supply, case, video card, ram…etc…and it came down to Windows issues, same as I have heard my PC User friends complain of down through the years…like having to re-install OS, reformat hard drive, virus issues…etc.

Do you get what I am saying here? I can count on two or three fingers the times I have had to do system re-installs on the Mac over the years…and I have been a Mac User since the late 1980s. I have administrated 25 or 30 Macs down through the past 20 years, my own and for places I have worked…they rarely had issues. Just repair the permissions regularly and things run like a dream. Could my issues with the PC be that the OS is on an SSD and not on a sata drive? Mmmm…

Okay, I might not sell the PC, but, wait…if anyone wants to spend a couple thousand dollars I could offer you a Monster PC (if you think you can master Windows better than I have).

My thoughts…for now, I’m gonna stay on my Mac

Plenty of anecdotal stories about macs not working as they should. I’m a former mac user, it wasn’t nearly the smooth sailing Apple fanbois claim it is. According to your logic, it proves that the mac is absolutely unreliable.

sounds like a corrupt motherboard to me ,did you return it and renew it ?

@rumdrum: you mentionned VEPro, I use this wonderful soft but what do you mean by “VST linked”?

The setup is described in the Cubase manual. The essence is:
You need two computers, each with their own soundcard. The make of the computers does not matter. You can have two MACs or two PCs or one of each. The soundcards must have digital outputs. I use ADAT to connect a Hammerfall in the MAC to a Creamware in the PC. You need Cubase installed on both computers. I have CB 7 and 5.5 on the MAC and 4.5 on the PC. Thus each computer have their own dongle with proper license. As mentioned I use the PC to run plugs that are not compatible with the MAC or too old and unsupported on CB7/newer OS. Works just great.

You start by opening CB on both computers and linking the two by activating the VST System link (use manual for reference). After you have done that it works kind of like a rewire set up. Both transport panels are linked. As not even VEPro operates all plugs I have, this is the set up I then use. But as plugins are getting better and better and released commonly for both platforms I use it rarely, but there are some great synths I use through this set up. Many of them free too, found on mag CDs like Computer Music or found on http://www.myvst.com, and also some that came with the Creamware soundcard. I must admit I used a couple of hours to get it to work, but once set up it works just fine. I was in the lucky position of having both the soundcard and the PC “just laying around”. If you start from scratch on your investment I think you really need some favorite old plug that won’t run on your main computer. On the other hand you can buy second hand. My PC is the oldest PC I have in the house. A 12 year old XP.

I have a spare Creamware soundcard for PC if you are in need of one for this set up.

For some people, mac is a religion. And like all religions, it relies on groundless beliefs and faith. Like the mac being invulnerable to malware and windows crashing every 5 minutes. Or windows requiring constant tweaking and maintenance and the mac never having any issue of any sort.

The guy asked for our experience. That was all I gave. I do not think MACs are the greatest thing on earth for all purposes. I do not worship it. I do not turn to it once per day to pray. I currently own 7 computers, not counting the iPad. “Only” two of them MACs. But I firmly believe that for CB MAC is the superior computer. I’m not born with this belief. It has come through several years of experience running CB on both platforms. Does my experience count as a serious scientific experiment? Nope, even my approx 20 computers with CB over the years is not enough to rule out coincidents. However the question was for our experience, not a science report. So to summerize my experience: For CB MAC rules!

Edmond, the situation is, as you know, that we are not sure what will happen to the MacPro in the future. The 2012 model is more than twice as fast as your 2008 MP. And people are getting great result with the latest quad core Mac Minis too. They outperform your MP quite a bit and cost a fraction. And they offer great connectivity unless you need PCI.

Look for benchmarks at http://browser.primatelabs.com/mac-benchmarks

If possible, wait till after WWDC in june. By then we’ll probably know what plans (if any) Apple have for the MacPro.

What you believe is irrelevant. Benchmarks don’t lie. Even Steinberg themselves have admitted Cubase runs better on Windows.

These are quotes from some mac users on this forum:

robotpriest:

“Unfortunately Cubase performance, especially at low latency, can be around 4x better on Windows. I’m a Mac user myself, and still get work done, but I wish things were better.”
Stealth:

“All cross platform DAWs perform better on Windows than Mac. The only reason why Logic performs better than Cubase on a Mac is because it “cheats”… if I remember correctly, Logic actually runs all tracks at the highest latency/buffer settings except whatever track(s) that is armed for recording/playing which will be set to the user specified latency/buffer.”

parnasso:
“I have a Macbook Pro from 2008 (Core 2 Duo at 2,5 GHz with only 4 GB of RAM) and I get absolutely satisfying performance with it. Apparently Windows systems have a considerably better performance at low latency”

kzarider:

“I use both Mac and PC, I network them using VST bridge and both platforms work well together. I have not had as much success using the 64 bit version in mac as I have in the PC. I have also had a lot of issues using Vienna Instruments and Vienna Ensemble PRO on the mac with Cubase 6 as the GUI does not seem to work in 64 bit.”

SirJoseph:

“Apparently, Cubase does perform a bit better on Windows.”

curteye:
“Keep in mind that these day a Mac can run the Windows OS just fine. I have a buddy that does this and IMHO Cubase is ‘zippier’ in that environment.”

Obviously PC user will tend to steer you toward PCs and Mac users will want to steer you toward macs - same old - same old.
Bottom line is you want a machine that will run Cubase optimally. Steinberg not too long ago touted the HP Z series to be ideal for Cubase 7 (“Cubase 7 has been tested on professional HP Z workstations for maximum reliability and certified performance”). So, if that is anything to go by, then using an HP Z Workstation as a model, building or buying a system with same or similar specs should give best results. I went with a Lenovo Xeon Server/Workstation as it had the important specs covered with added SSD drives and an alternative graphic card, and have not regretted it at all.

Ahh, I found it: Cubase: Music Production Software | Steinberg
"Made for each other: Cubase and HP
Finest software requires finest hardware. That’s why our best software specialists rely on the world’s leading PC hardware manufacturer. Cubase 7 is quality-tested with HP’s professional Z series workstation computers, ensuring highest performance and maximum reliability packed in a rock-solid chassis. Carefully selected components optimized for recording, editing and mixing allow for efficient audio data transfer rates throughout the whole system. Be it the industry-proven Intel XEON processors or the ultra-fast SSD drives, HP Z machines squeeze the best out of Cubase, speeding up your entire studio software environment.
"

For the record, not all of us PC users will steer people towards PCs. I think he should use what he’s comfortable with, and if he’s already on VEPro, then he could use a mixture of PCs and Macs. But I also will be realistic and say that PCs will give people better low latency performance, which has been proven fairly scientifically at this point by the excellent DAW benchmarks by TAFKAT and crew. (See DAWbench site.)

What you believe is irrelevant. Benchmarks don’t lie. Even Steinberg themselves have admitted Cubase runs better on Windows.

So you’re saying that my experience is just bull? I wish you could come and tell that to the PC’s I have tried CB on. Think that would make them perform better? Perhaps put the test sheets into the DVD drive would do the trick?

Please get it into your head that the question was our experience, not a resume of some dubious test. Guess he would have found the test on the net himself. As you also should understand is that the test is one thing, experience deviate from it in either direction. Guess that is why the question was asked. If you think the referred benchmark is the answer to all questions on the two platforms you are so wrong and the numbers of computers tested in the benchmark are way too few to give serious and significant results. So please go back to your test sheets and spend your time there.