line-in or firewire

[rourkeman4]

i just bought a new imac. i have a blend 6 mixer.

My first question for clarification is this... IMAC's have line-in input right? there is no mic port because it is on the computer. am i correct?

also, one of my friends told me to never use line-in, instead he said to get a firewire interface. This struck me because i always thought a line-in was always faster and better because it is a pci connection. am i wrong here?

the reason why i bought the imac other than for logic (and the fact that i hate my dell laptop) was because of its line-in. This would be very dissapointing if i could have used a firewire the whole time on my pc.

I thought i could hook up the output mix of the blend 6 into my computer using this wire: Amazon.com: HOSA CMP159 Stereo Mini Male to Phone Y-Cable -10 Feet: Musician's Friend

am i mistaken here? thanks for the help in advance.

[brandondrury]

My first question for clarification is this... IMAC's have line-in input right? there is no mic port because it is on the computer. am i correct?

That sounds about right. I'm not a Mac guy, but I'm pretty sure most people require a preamp to use a mic with their line in.

also, one of my friends told me to never use line-in, instead he said to get a firewire interface. This struck me because i always thought a line-in was always faster and better because it is a pci connection. am i wrong here?

Yup. You are wrong. A real deal audio interface is highly recommended for audio recording. Your stock soundcard in your Mac is a bit better than the stock PC soundcards, but not by much. Firewire is plenty fast. There is a lot more to this latency business than just the connection type.

the reason why i bought the imac other than for logic (and the fact that i hate my dell laptop) was because of its line-in. This would be very dissapointing if i could have used a firewire the whole time on my pc.

Well, you certainly CAN use it (if you have a preamp of some kind) but I wouldn't. It depends on you budget and needs, I guess.

I'm not a Mac guy and have never encountered a reason to buy one. Mac has this image that they are superior for recording and maybe you were taking that into account. Maybe right out of the box a Mac is okay for recording and a PC is not so okay for recording but by the time you buy the real deal stuff they are pretty much equal in my opinion. I know I can do anything I want on my PC rig.

Brandon

[drago]

Brandon: AMS and PCIe alone are reasons enough to go for a Mac over a PC if you are recording.

But anyway, the iMac has a 1/8" TRS + S/PDIF combo input. I would definitely NOT recommend going the TRS route, and using that built-in S/PDIF input doesn't really make much sense either. Definitely look into buying a firewire interface. You are still going to be taking advatnage of the ease of use, the dependability, the firewire port, the compatibiliy with logic, and the speed of your mac system.

[the.blode]

Brandon: AMS and PCIe alone are reasons enough to go for a Mac over a PC if you are recording.

PCIe was available on PC BEFORE it was available on mac. and no, these are not reason enough to buy mac. Especially as AMS is neither essential nor impossible to use without one. With Macs using the same PC architecture now, the only difference you are paying for is the operating system. You can even get a Mac OS running on a PC if you research in the right places - not that I can think of why you might want to.

Also, how exactly could you use the s/pdif input without digital conversion? .. that might explain 'low sensitivity'

[drago]

Digidesign does not manufacture PCIe cards for PCs which is whta I was getting at. Honestly, just because you do not own a Mac does not mean you need to go on some holy crusade to try and persuade people not to buy them. If you are taking recording seriously, it would behoove you to buy a Mac.

[brandondrury]

Brandon: AMS and PCIe alone are reasons enough to go for a Mac over a PC if you are recording.

Alright. I'm all ears. Let me point to a mix/song I've done and you can then tell me how AMS and PCIe are going to improve it. That's my only gripe with the recording process! My rig functions fine in terms I/O, latency, etc.

Honestly, just because you do not own a Mac does not mean you need to go on some holy crusade to try and persuade people not to buy them. If you are taking recording seriously, it would behoove you to buy a Mac.

This reminds me of the "religion in school" debate. The aetheists say their civil rights are being violated. The Christians say their civil rights are being violated.

On the topic of global ****ing, the scientists call the non-sciencie extreme left a "religion". The non-sciencie extreme left calls the scientists a "religion" (which baffles me).

I'm with you. No person should ever go on a "Holy Crusade" against Mac (with that logic no one should ever go on a Holy Crusade for Mac). With that said, no one should ever recommend a user shell out more cash for an equivalent product unless they can list relatively objective benefits to shelling out the cash.

It's not that I'm bonkers for PCs. For me, I can toss together a PC that meets my needs for less money than a Mac. I can't think of one factor (for my situation) where a Mac is superior to my PC. I can only think of one reason (for my situatio) where a PC is superior to a Mac: Price. Actually, the only real difference I can think of between the two besides the marketing hype, and comradery found with one of the systems, is the single mouse button (YUCK!) and the availability of various software exclusive to one system or the other (I'm not switching from Cubase SX3 anytime soon so that rules out that benefit for me as well).

My next computer upgrade will cost $300. $100 CPU, $100 Motherboard, and $100 RAM. Done. So if I'm going to shell out $1,000+ for a Mac, it had better make my mixes sound WAY better. Otherwise, it's a Ford vs Chevy argument and those types of debates are for people with more free time than myself.

Brandon

[drago]

Its true that you can do the same things with both systems (unless you are running Pro Tools in which case a Mac is much better suited). The question is how efficiently do you want them done, and how many Excederin do you want to take while doing them? Thats where the Mac excels. I wouldn't say I'm on a holy crusade for Macs, but in the field of recording, they do have their advantages and its wrong to claim otherwise.

[the.blode]

Originally Posted by drago

Its true that you can do the same things with both systems (unless you are running Pro Tools in which case a Mac is much better suited). The question is how efficiently do you want them done, and how many Excederin do you want to take while doing them? Thats where the Mac excels. I wouldn't say I'm on a holy crusade for Macs, but in the field of recording, they do have their advantages and its wrong to claim otherwise.

I cannot begin to explain how much your wrongness is frustrating me right now.

[brandondrury]

The question is how efficiently do you want them done, and how many Excederin do you want to take while doing them? Thats where the Mac excels. I wouldn't say I'm on a holy crusade for Macs, but in the field of recording, they do have their advantages and its wrong to claim otherwise.

Ok. So we agree there are no sound quality differences.

Can you explain why a Mac is better for Pro Tools?

What does a Mac do differently as to give less headaches?

I wouldn't say I'm on a holy crusade for Macs, but in the field of recording, they do have their advantages and its wrong to claim otherwise.

This is a fairly bold statement. Can you please back it up with objective evidence? I wouldn't call "reliability" evidence in this case, because there are way too instances where both PC and Mac have failed the user and some of us don't have any problems at all with our PCs (just as I'm sure there are Mac users who don't have any problems).

Brandon

[the.blode]

Originally Posted by brandondrury

Ok. So we agree there are no sound quality differences.

Can you explain why a Mac is better for Pro Tools?

What does a Mac do differently as to give less headaches?


This is a fairly bold statement. Can you please back it up with objective evidence? I wouldn't call "reliability" evidence in this case, because there are way too instances where both PC and Mac have failed the user and some of us don't have any problems at all with our PCs (just as I'm sure there are Mac users who don't have any problems).

Brandon

this is one of the huge issues - Everyone seems to 'know' that macs are more "reliable", but nobody seems to know how to explain WHY. All current macs are PCs in every way except for the OS, and I'm very familiar with the mac os; I have to work with them on a daily basis and it's FAR from perfect. The hardware used in the new mac pros can be bought and assembled for a fraction of the price, and gives you the choice of your own components and software.

If any operating system deserves a reputation for reliability it's any built on the Linux kernel; simply because they can be re-written on a whim.

when it comes to performance in an audio arena, the ONLY difference between a mac and a pc is other software (and to a lesser extent, hardware) available. However, Logic is not the only DAW out there; there are MANY, and they all do the same thing! So, you don't need to buy a mac to use a DAW. The only real hardware available specifically to mac is digidesign, who are industry leaders only because of their name. Their monitors are made by PMC, their preamps are made by focusrite. There are COUNTLESS alternatives that offer equal or superior performance at a better price! why would you still want to buy digidesign???

I could go on and on and on and on