I am going to purchase a new computer. I plan to use this computer almost exclusively for music production. I have Pro Tools [LE 7, in the event that you're wondering], and I want to get a computer that will be a good fit. I've heard ProTools can be kind of petulant. Can anyone give any help or insight regarding the following: 1) What's the best processor for ProTools? 2) Best operating system? 3) Better to use massive internal hard drive or set it up for massive external hard drives? What would really be ideal is if anyone has ProTools and uses it similarly and can tell me exactly what computer to get. I've been a PC user for the last 10 years. I'm not completely against getting a Mac, but I'm a little worried about having to completely re-learn how to use them. Any thoughts on Macs that use the Windows OS? Any and all help will be much appreciated. Gracias.
I didn't know Digidesign ProTools was part of Avid. I would pick a machine solely based on what is best for ProTools. I'm surprised they still are working on their Vista release. They are probably doing a major upgrade to support it fully using all the 64-bit capability like Adobe does. I'd wait for that. You can trust the Avid developers. When they put out their release for Vista, it will be well worth it. I am a big Vista fan for my needs. And something like ProTools could really use the 64-bit support, especially since you could use all the RAM you can buy. That said, if you don't want to wait, you should switch to a Mac for the Leopard support right now; it was released in June. Maybe just call Digidesign for their advice. note: this thread is bound to get into yet another Vista argument thread. Don't listen to it. A brand new machine created for Vista works fine...as well as any OS release Microsoft has ever put out.
I haven't done this in a long time, but when i was doing it, the things that seemed to matter to me were: Hard drive space - sound files are large especially when dealing with the highest quality you can memory and proc - for processing of the files For proc - I don't know, go with one of the intels. OS - I say stick to XP, no reason to go vista as far as I know HD - I would have a decent sized internal HD that is fast 10K RPM, and have externals to store your final cuts, samples, etc. so you can always have them. I'm no pro, these are just the things I thought of. Oh yeah, i know nothing of pro tools. Sorry
again, you probably should ask the Digidesign people. The Avid Studio I once used required its own special harddrive. You actually bought a machine from Avid with the software. My worries about an external harddrive is the overall speed of access over the cabling. I would suspect internals to be faster. Ask them what they think.
Unfortunately the Digidesign people are kind of notoriously difficult to track down. I will attempt to contact them directly to see if they can give some insight, but Clutchfans has never let me down before, so I brought it here. So, as I understand it, you're saying that ProTools will have a Vista upgrade coming out next June, heyp? Do I have that right? If I go to Best Buy and just get the most powerful computer they have to offer, what problems would I likely run into? And is Leopard the Mac OS that allows you to run PC software?
I don't know. Support for Leopard came out last June. Doesn't look like they have posted a release date for Vista. But you could probably find out. try here: http://www.protoolsforum.com/ sometimes the Home computers are full of junk that you don't need. I trust HP; Dell seems to be a clearing house now. But both HP and Dell have a class of machine for graphics professionals and engineers...marketed towards Autocad workstations. Start with those. try here: http://www.hp.com/sbso/busproducts-workstations.html This will give you ideas. I recommend 4 GBs if you buy Vista 64-bit. XP and Vista 32-bit can't use that much memory, btw...one of XP's limitations that you just simply don't want to invest in. yes. I don't think it's native support, but there is software you can buy or d/l. that said: I don't think you should try to run ProTools on a Mac using Windows emulation.
