Hi.
I have been in the process of moving over to a Mac. And, actually, it has been as much a philosophical move as a physical and practical move. I find that, other than the learning curve, my world is simplifying. What took several programs and interfaces on my Vista machines, now just takes one or two. And, yesterday, I made the biggest switch. I moved from Pro Tools (which I was starting to get good at) to Logic Studio and a Duet Apogee for use on my MacBook Pro.
Yes, there is a learning curve, and yes, it is going to take some time, but already I am more relaxed and comfortable with the audio interface. And, I can also play my iTunes through my Mackie monitors, where with the Pro Tools interface I couldn’t. (Yes, this is a simple, trivial thing, but it is really quite illustrative of the whole Vista/Mac process. Things in the Mac just seem to be wired to work the way I want to work, where in Vista/XP/Windows it sometimes required clunkiness or brute force).
I do believe, if I had listened to my heart a little more closely last year, or several years ago, I would have already made the switch. When people say that audio and video work better on a Mac, they are not kidding. I knew that from my experience on a Mac II CX a dozen years ago for powerpoint graphics presentations. But I wasn’t paying attention.
I think the lure of inexpensive hardware, and the accumulated knowledge base of years of windows use mentally locked me in to a groove that I couldn’t see, and couldn’t move out of. A lot like the “Matrix” and having the world pulled over my eyes, or “Not Being Present” as Eckhart Tolle talks about in “A New Earth”, I was just unconscious to the alternatives.
My wife is excited that she gets to sell my Pro Tools books and Mbox2 ☺.
BTW, Dave Lebolt, the general manager of Digidesign, posted a very good article on their user community board regarding the problems with the new version of Pro Tools for Leopard. It is well written, accounts for all the issues I was concerned about, and shows their commitment to their user base. Anyone using Pro Tools on a Mac should give it a read. Here is the link: http://duc.digidesign.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=1259137&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=186&fpart=1#1259137
Have Fun!
-Ed
