New Mac Pro coming this year is mind-blowing.

[bayswater]

One thing that no one has brought up is the new wi-fi standard: It's faster than 1000T Ethernet.

That's worth an upgrade. Something that will make a real difference. The real world tests I've seen showed speeds of about 450M. IIRC you can get about 650 with Gigabit ethernet. Have you seen any info on what speed Apple equipment might deliver?

[James Steele]

Second, not to stray from the topic, but I can assure you that there are many excellent mixers in Hollywood doing huge film scores and TV shows COMPLETELY in the box (and have done for years.) In fact, I don't know one that uses outboard. The turnarounds are just to fast these days. I only mention it because I've had my work flow challenged and changed for the BETTER by certain users here and I'm grateful for it Bottom line...it can be done with excellent results!

Full disclosure: I do run my stereo sub groups through 3 stereo Brent Averill pre's outside and pipe back in for printing. It just sounds too good.

I'd like to echo this sentiment. I've heard excellent mixes that were done ITB.

[gaucho]

Emrr said: The Orion looks great, but USB seems overly problematic and appears to give less options.

Can you elaborate?

[Shooshie]

Heat: You can keep a cup of coffee warm setting it on top.

That's great news! My coffee is always going cold before I get it downed. I wonder if it will warm a ham and cheese sandwich till the cheese is dripping down the side of the bread?



Shoosh

[Shooshie]

I think this would be a good time for everyone who is interested in the new Mac Pro (or in the future of Macs in general) to start reading about Thunderbolt. It's got a lot of potential, and Intel thinks it could reach 100GB throughput before it's maxed out. That would probably be an optical cable, but it could get pretty close to that on electrical cables. Be aware that TB was originally designed as an optical cable solution. They went with copper so that they could incorporate bus power in it. Of course, the possibility of optical with two copper strands isn't out of the question, either, though it would affect the maximum cable length. (they could make it longer if they turned the power to AC, then rectified it to DC at the other end, but I haven't seen anyone considering that)

Most of the articles on Thunderbolt are over a year old, but I suspect we'll be seeing a media flood on TB since the Mac Pro was introduced at the WWDC.

Anyway, here's a link to an article that compares TB with all the other formats, and indeed it's a year old. It's not considering TB2, which is twice that speed, or TB3 or TB4, which will probably come out in the next 5 years with many times the speed.

More importantly, there is a list of links to articles and videos about TB products. They do rock, but I think most of them are at least a year old now. Keep an eye on TB products; we should be seeing a rapidly developing wave of TB products. There are surely many more than are linked from that page.

Shooshie

[PJ]

I already have TB system and for me this new MP is just fantastic release. Just what I was hoping for.. even it doesn't (yet) look like a computer.

[FutureLegends]

That's great news! My coffee is always going cold before I get it downed. I wonder if it will warm a ham and cheese sandwich till the cheese is dripping down the side of the bread?

Then the cheese will really hit the fan!

[mikehalloran]

Have you seen any info on what speed Apple equipment might deliver?

I got this firsthand from one of the testers. About a year ago, I was told that they were working on wi-fi that was faster than Gigabyte Ethernet. I figured, yea, I hope we'll see that someday.

My son-in-law, one of those testers, said he didn't know it was actually going to ship - employees who don't need to know aren't told. So, when I told him I took delivery on a new TC Monday - and it was now the old one, he told me Apple has an unofficial 30 day 'oops, we made your new hardware obsolete' return policy so I will get the new one. Later this year, I plan to get a new laptop - don't know which model but it will have the new wi-fi so that I can work from my easy chair when I need to.

[mhschmieder]

Make no mistake, as excited as I am by this announcement, I have no intention of upgrading from my 2010 MacPro anytime soon. It's just good to know the direction they're going in, and that it is MORE professional than what it replaces. That's really important to those of us doing orchestral mock-ups, and probably quite a few other categories of professionals as well. Heck, maybe even consumers into gaming!

To me, it is proof that Apple without Steve Jobs can still surprise and innovate, and that they haven't become a 100% consumer company as we feared. Someone somewhere in that company decided they could still compete in the professional market, which is one that is sadly being neglected by most vendors today.

This excites people in the workplace as well, since we were afraid the developers would soon find that there are no computers or OS's that cater to our needs. Chances are that I will have a new MacPro at work before having one at home. And video professionals must be wetting their pants right now.

[mhschmieder]

It will be interesting to see how the Mac Mini gets refactored to fit into this new system architecture; whether it becomes more or less compatible with the new MacPro from an expansion point of view, just smaller and less capable in its core specs.

[toodamnhip]

I think UA is gonna start selling a lot more Apollo interfaces now (Thunderbolt and UAD, no latency)

Yeah... that seems like it would be a cool setup. But on the other hand, I have to look at the fact that (for now) my HD192 and 24 I/O work just fine, are paid for, and most importantly, I don't think I have a *need* for the power of the newest one... so long as Apple continues to support the older models in future releases of Mac OS.

I've been lagging behind on Snow Leopard due to my older hardware. I think I'd be pleased as punch to snag a nice used 8-core at a good price. I kind of like having my hard drives all in the same box, too. Yeah, they're moving to SSDs down the road, but for the price and capacity, hard disks will continue to be important for a few more years.

Maybe one of the members here will send you a PM and sell you their old Mac when they buy the new Mac Pro?. I think that this would be a very nice gesture for you providing this wonderful site. I’ll end up giving my Mac Pro to my daughter for her studio, or I;d sell you mine,.

[toodamnhip]

....t some of us have got to make this move and start the feedback that gets the drivers repaired and updated, and to get all the tricks and quirks figured out for making this a very desirable shift in our hardware. If Apple does their part in making this thing indestructible and reliable, and making all those numbers work together in a way that means something, then this will be as significant a move as going to 64 bit processing and addressing, or of moving to UNIX. Modular hardware makes perfect sense to me.

Shooshie

And if users do NOT buy this machine up, they will have no right to complain when Apple abandons the pro market yrs later, as the “sky is falling” neigh sayers have been predicting.
It is a 2 way street. Apple has shown they are all in for the Pro users...they have NOT abandoned us. ”Pro” users need to ante up if they want apple to get the message that the effort has been appreciated. The machine looks wonderful.

[HCMarkus]

It looks wonderful, I agree. But no one sees my computer, and the new Mac Pro is not a good fit for my needs. Sorry, but I will not buy a computer to support Apple. I will buy a computer that works for me efficiently, and am extremely confident that it will be available from any number of different vendors when I need it.

I am very happy DP is now Windows compatible because, for the consumer, choice is power, and I don't give a hoot about how my audio computer looks or what OS it runs. I just want to see DP clearly displayed on some nice monitors and have it respond to my every whim with extreme snappiness.

Like many here, I have no desire to ride on the razor's edge, the cutting edge. It is just too expensive and painful. Bless those who pave the way for slackers like me, but I just want to make great music and feed my family.

PS: Apple is a giant consumer-driven company that no longer needs creatives; our niche market will likely be better served over time by smaller companies that are responsive to our needs. I am "so very happy" MOTU and DP are here for us.

[toodamnhip]

It looks wonderful, I agree. But no one sees my computer, and the new Mac Pro is not a good fit for my needs. Sorry, but I will not buy a computer to support Apple. I will buy a computer that works for me efficiently, and am extremely confident that it will be available from any number of different vendors when I need it.

I am very happy DP is now Windows compatible because, for the consumer, choice is power, and I don't give a hoot about how my audio computer looks or what OS it runs. I just want to see DP clearly displayed on some nice monitors and have it respond to my every whim with extreme snappiness.

Like many here, I have no desire to ride on the razor's edge, the cutting edge. It is just too expensive and painful. Bless those who pave the way for slackers like me, but I just want to make great music and feed my family.

PS: Apple is a giant consumer-driven company that no longer needs creatives; our niche market will likely be better served over time by smaller companies that are responsive to our needs. I am "so very happy" MOTU and DP are here for us.

Yikes, We’ll see how long you go without apple’s trail blazing....to me, it is STILL trail blazing, and you are calling it unresponsive...
I don;t think so bro. I think what you call “unresponsive” is the yrs it took for Apple to make the new computer we all see coming out this yr. Yet neigh sayers all start talking about being abandoned..wah wah wah....
.I think this new comp is proof of plenty of responsiveness. And Pro users have NOT been neglected. It takes TIME to make this stuff, develop it, wait for new chips to work to Apples standards, which set the standards the PC world is trying to catch up to. Take Apple out, and it would all be way less quality, competitiveness, power, etc...

Snappy?...wait til you see just how “snappy” DP is with TWICE the power.
Looks or no looks, once power like that is unleashed, software and VI's will catch up to it, you will want that software, and will be left behind in the dust power-wise.
You’ll buy the new mac, wait and see. Or, you won;t have the latest sound quality from amazing VIs. Now of course, you can make great music with way less than the latest, but when older computers are bouncing to disk at the edge of crashing and glitching, the new Macs will be happily moving onto the next part, power to spare.
It aint’ about no “looks”, though it does look as good as it will be powerful.

[mikehalloran]

Including the software and peripherals to do the job

My Mac+ system cost me $7,000 to set up my warehouse running FileMaker. This included an ImageWriter II, a 20MB HD $1000 and a $1,200 tape back up that never worked properly. 4mB memory cost $400.

When MacinTax woundn't run on my +, I bought a Performance and monitor for $1,500 - worst computer ever.

My beige G3 system cost $12,000 - including a 2408 system and, Glyph drives and DP 2.7. This got me into digital recording

A major album project allowed me to upgrade to a G5 and 23" Apple display. Hard drive and memory upgrades pushed the price to $5,000.

In 2010, my iMac i7 refurb cost me around $2,000 including the eSATA port upgrade and a refurb Time Capsule. It's doing the job pretty well but I wish I had TB. A second monitor, memory upgrades and eSATA hard drive have added about $500 to my investment.

If the new Mac Pro and 2 excellent monitors costs $7K, it will be, adjusted for inflation, a lot less than I paid for my Mac+. I'm not saying I'll do it but, put into perspective, it will be relatively cheap. The new iMac set up the way I want, a second Apple monitor and a TB rack with a couple of SSDs will cost between $5K - $6K and will run about 1/3 the speed. Just sayin'....