There is a perception that Mac users are in the minority and are expected to take a back seat with a lot of software development projects. While this may be accurate in general computing tasks, it may not really be true in the music production world. There’s no question that Macs are more stable and less likely to crash in the middle of a session than a Windows PC. I used PCs for years before going over to the dark side and I know from experience that this is true. Nobody could seriously argue otherwise. Odds are though that even in this particular crowd, PCs may still rule the roost simply for reasons of economy. Or do they?
Everyone here will be using the Beat Buddy manager software as a component in some kind of music production, so how about a poll? Some of us Mac users are patiently waiting in the wings for the Mac BB manager release to materialize. Others of us are steaming about once again being pushed to the back of the line. I’m genuinely curious as to what the ratio might be among the musicians on this forum. Not trying to spark an OS flame war. Just really curious. May prove valuable to the developers as well to know just how many of us Mac users are standing by once again, stuck in the mud with our incomplete Beat Buddies while our friends with PCs get to move on.
Is your DAW a Windows PC or a Mac? Or a Linux box? Linux users are even more marginalized than us Mac folks so let us know if you’re out there too by voting for your platform.
The idea that PC’s can’t be just as stable and perform just as well as Mac’s is a common misconception. The majority of PC’s that people are exposed to are low end, generic, economy boxes designed to do everything as cheaply as possible. Toss on some readily available pirated software, maybe even the latest pirated OS, pick up some cheap hardware and presto, a DAW that costs several thousands less than a Mac. …and yes, it will most likely be an unstable pile of junk compared to a professional grade DAW built around a purpose built Mac.
In any field, at the semi-professional level and below, you’ll find infinitely more PC users than you will Mac, simply because of, like you said, economy. At the professional level, there are plenty of Mac users, but they’re not looking to use BBManager software to program beats. It’s simply a target demographics thing and I think it’s safe to say that the majority of BB owners are not working with high end workstations.
The reason macs tend to be a lot easier to get a stable music platform is quite simple as someone who has built pcs since the 286 chip was invented I ended on a Mac cause it was always a lot more stable. Simply there is millions of combinations of parts and drivers in any PC so it becomes a nightmare compared to buy a Mac plug your gear in and it works no drivers or the like. That’s why most musicians use a Mac for live music production we want to make music and not spend hours getting the right driver or combo of parts. I really feel sorry for Microsoft but admire that they have a stable system with all these different combos to support. Apple has it a lot easier controlling the hardware and os. Sure it is possible to build a stable windows box for a DAW. but once done lock it off the net and never do an update.
I for one, would really like my beat manager… I don’t care if you have a mac, PC or a speak & spell. It should of been available for both platforms when it came out---- without having to install other software. As a mac user I’d like to know when we can expect our beat manager??? Because right now all I have is another difficult to use drum machine that I can’t gig. And that’s not how it was advertised. :x
What Shane says above wraps it up in a nutshell. Apple controls the hardware and the OS. No need for them to add massive levels of complexity to the OS in order to accommodate the gazillions of hardware combos it may encounter. I always built my own PCs too. Choose all top shelf parts and it will cost you almost as much as a Mac. More actually as the Mac is gonna live longer. They always started out really nice and stable but with time… :shock:
Ok, I said I wasn’t going to engage in a platform peeing contest and here I go anyway. :oops: Sorry, couldn’t help it.
I don’t think its a platform peeing contest as you say we are all mature enough to not to need to go there.
It just a simple fact for the average musician as it tends to be a lot less complicated. We all like easy, some of us don’t mind digging about in DLL hell as we use to call it and finding drivers etc. You maybe be smart enough to or lucky enough to to get a great PC combo and never have much of an issue. I am not stupid and have built a number of PC’s specifically for music purposes heck I even own a custom built system that runs OS X on from PC components. I still don’t miss the registry in Windows or the fact that it installs files all over the place and often doesn’t uninstall a program completely. Unix /LinuX/OSX use a different approach that is a lot less messy except when you decide to install Microsoft Office For Mac on OS X and they can’t resist doing a convoluted all over the place windows way rather than the single with everything in that one package. Clean up is pretty well non existent. Still use what you like or can afford different strokes but I still think for Joe average you won’t ever bother to ring me on a Mac system with tech issues as much as on a PC.
I’ve noticed that you’ve posted 3 questions pretty much about the same topic so I take it you’re anxious to get the BeatBuddy Manager (BBM) up and running. If any Linux/Ubuntu users are here on the forum, they’ll respond, please just give them a little time. You can also try sending a private message on the forum using a Conversation to those Linux/Ubuntu users.
Have you tried using WINE under Linux/Ubuntu to unzip and install the Windows version of the BeatBuddy Manager and if so, what happened? Another thought is to look into CrossOver for Linux https://www.codeweavers.com/products/crossover-linux.
Good luck and it would be nice once you get the BBM up and running in your OS if you could circle back and fill other users on how you did it.
I’d have to agree. I love the beat buddy, it’s teaching me a lot about timing etc. I just looked online to see what to do next regarding editing recording etc and see this thread. I haven’t tried yet but now it seems I find out I can’t download best manager to my mini Mac? Mm
Well have to research this further