The Mac Vs PC Thing
January 26, 2008, Matthew Good I’m an Appleholic, there’s no arguing that. When it comes to my knowledge of PC’s, it’s pretty much nonexistent. In truth, I haven’t touched one for the better part of six years – though on occasion have been forced to use a few in various places during that time (I know enough to click on the IE icon to get online).
Given my profession, and extreme right-brained character, Macs simply work for me. In music they are the industry standard, though some might argue that PC’s are just as useful, which I’m sure that they are, but they’re not widely used. And while my conversion to Macs was entirely based on my work, I have come to consider them superior in many aspects.
That said, and as I’ve already mentioned, my knowledge of PC’s is extremely limited. Yesterday I made several entries about various Mac related things, one of which was iChat. In the comments of that entry a few readers informed me that the same features that the newest version of iChat offers have been available on PC’s for years. Of course, I had no idea that was the case, though have tried this morning (without success) to find which PC application is comparable to iChat in that regard.
There is also the never-ending debate regarding operating systems as well. Some prefer Linux, others Windows, and some OSX. There are others, of course, though less popular. The same goes for browsers. There are advocates for almost every browser out there, not to mention chat applications, video applications, and a whole host of other things.
As I’ve said, my main reason for using Macs is because of my profession. Ten years ago, drop dead simple technology did not exist with which to quickly record ideas. Fifteen years ago, the majority of musicians used four tracks, which were massively limiting. These days I have the ability to roll out of bed, stumble three feet, and record ideas in minutes. True, I could use far more sophisticated software, such as Logic Pro (the latest version of which I do have) or Pro Tools. But neither of them offers the same simplicity that Garage Band does for putting down ideas in very little time. It is, in the simplest terms, like a notebook that you keep in a drawer on which you scribble reminders to yourself and phone numbers.
An example of this, for the next few hours at least, you’ll notice an audio stream at the bottom of this entry that provides an example of what I’m talking about. While it has its obvious flaws, keep in mind that it’s just a quickly recorded idea, one that started with a simple bass line to which layers were quickly added. All of the instruments and effects are available in Garage Band, their use easily mastered after only a few hours of initially messing around with it (for those of you that haven’t). No external effects were used (though it should be said that my Neumann had a blown diaphragm at the time which is currently being fixed, which would explain some of the vocal distortion).
*All done.
