Splinter wrote:It's not so much that I'm a PC hater, I just hate PCs!
Honestly, I've been using a Mac with Performer/DP since '86 or whenever it first came out. As far as I'm concerned the two are one. They go hand in hand. Even though DP has some dated functionality and runs somewhat counter intuitive to OSX, it is consistent with older versions of the Mac OS and early versions of DP. I guess it is foolish to keep it that way for new users, but for us old timers it's nice that it hasn't changed much over the years.
Hear! Hear! To me, DP and the Mac are sort of the same things. I bought the first Mac when it first came out, partly because I recognized that here was a computer at last that offered something to benefit me, but the BIG reason (and kinda the same reason) was that they had banners from MOTU in the store showing full-scores of music, beautifully laser-printed. THAT, I thought, is what I want. I wasn't even thinking about MIDI. I was thinking about how easy it would be to transpose scores and print them in a different key, transpose parts, correct mistakes, and all that without having to rewrite the entire score every time I needed a change. I was a performer, and I arranged most of my own stuff. The Mac was there to help.
Splinter wrote:That said, a "ground up" re-write is in order and some upgraded under-the-hood technology (i.e. pitchshift/timestretching algorithm) is in overdue.
I think they've finally finished the rewrite they started years ago. DP 8 will be entirely a Cocoa app. That meant rewriting it, and they've been doing it piece at a time, breaking things in the process, but making some things better, too. But I hear you about "functionality differences." Every time I hold down the shift key to select individual notes in MIDI, or soundbites in audio, I wonder how that goes over with new users, to learn that the command key doesn't work for that. And since a version or so back, the command key works for appending to lists, but not notes, so there's a duality of old and new staring us right in the face of our basics. But to change over to the new Command/Shift duality would mean sacrificing functions essential to the use of DP, such as toggling the grid. Move that to the Control Key, and you lose proportional dragging. I'm not anxious to update that stuff. I kinda want it to stay where it is, for fear that they'll just drop something that's important to me.
Splinter wrote:At the moment, I'm anything but a Mac groupie. In fact, I'm a bit hacked off with the direction Apple is going. I have an iPad and I don't get the hype... especially for "pro" audio. Apple's proprietary everything, instant obsolescence, and indifference to the pro market is enough to make most of us want to jump ship. But a PC just isn't even an option for me. That said, I don't have the money to upgrade my OS and all my apps/plugs once a year and drop $4000+ for a new CPU every couple years just to keep up with Apple's upgrade cycle and fill their pockets. It's tiresome. I know I've chastised folks here about whining for having to upgrade - no has had to upgrade - but in the last few years Apple makes it near impossible to do otherwise.
Dropping MobileMe is a perfect example. It's a service I've relied on for several years for syncing my devices and poof... it's gone. To move to iCloud I have to upgrade to Lion.
Again, agreed. I have to admit that my Mac Pro, which will be 5 next month, does not feel old at all. It still feels like a kick-ass machine, and it seems to handle everything pretty well. It's got some things that worry me, such as running a 32 bit kernel, even while running everything else in 64 bit, but so far that has not been a problem. I haven't felt limited yet. I'll have to see how it goes when it's time to move to Lion. Will my computer run Lion? I don't even know. If not, then there I go again on the upgrade trail, and another $3000 + to Apple, whose size in dollar terms seems to have been fueled largely by my upgrades.
Splinter wrote:To be fair however, Lion doesn't turn my Mac into an iPhone. You may not like the GUI, but it's just a change to give their devices a more consistent feel. My Mac still has all the same goods under the hood. Now depending on what happens with the Mac Pro is a different story.
I have a feeling though, Apple is moving away from the all in one tower format. With TB they can essentially do OTB what one used to have to do ITB... except for card slots. But that's really the point... you don't really need card slots anymore. TBs speeds already exceed most slot bus speeds. A comment an Apple employee made to me was that most Mac users never even use the FW400 port on their computers, so what's the point of having it. If that's the case with FW how much more is Apple thinking about doing away with card slots. That's the downside to working with a company that "thinks different." Okay, I depart.
I can get by without FW400, but what happens when they say "most users use USB, so why have Firewire at all?" That kind of thing happens. I'm not most users. Most users don't make pro-quality music on their Macs. I do. I'm a pro-quality musician. If we design to the lowest common denominator we destroy the ethos implied by all of Apple's "thinking different." The troubling thing about Apple, since Jobs return in 1997, is that it has gone from "look at us empowering you" to "look at us." It was truly exciting in the 2000's to see this company making us a set of tools that were the envy of almost any rational computer user. They didn't just look wonderful, they were easy to get into, easy to modify, and super-powerful. So many things made so much sense. The idea that now we can do all that with Thunderbolt has a disturbing subtext: "let someone else make the drive bays, PCI compatibility, connectivity, and so forth. We've done our part by giving you a little wire through which all info can pass."
I'm not comfortable with that. I want to see the Mac Pro continue its development. I want for Apple to continue to empower the .001% of us who make the stuff that everyone else wants to read, watch or listen to. And remember who we are. We're not corporations who can funnel a percentage of our profits to you and still make money. We're trying to eat out here.
Shooshie