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Apple Mac vs Windows PC for Music Production

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MacBook Windows PC Music and Video
Mac vs PC for Music Production

We often hear about Mac vs PC debates which are coming either from Mac fanboys or PC fanboys. I'm I daily user of both for Music Production and here I'll tell you the things almost no one talks about in regards of Mac vs PC in Music Production and daily use.


I use both Apple MacBook and a Windows PC Desktop:

Windows PC: i7-8700k ( running at stock settings ) Kensington 24GB DDR4 ram, Samsung 970 8TB total SSD storage, split across 4 SSDs.

Apple MacBook: 16" M1 Max MacBook Pro, 32GB ram, 4TB SSD.


Both are used for Composing, Recording, Mixing and some Video Editing.


Mac Pros:


  1. Uses less power

  2. Produces less heat

  3. Looks better ( both the OS and Hardware )

  4. SSD is a bit faster ( noticeable when loading large Kontakt instruments )

  5. Built-in GPU

  6. AI instruments in Logic


Mac Cons:


  1. iCloud / Finder issue -

    I had issue of finder not working, none of the folders would even show up desktop, turned out that iCloud was causing it, had to sign out from iCloud, only turned it on to install updates, and then had to turn it off after the update before restarting in order to prevent finder to stop responding.

  2. Logic opening with blank windows - this issue is probably fixed but during BigSur days if you ran Logic in Rosetta mode, and ran in at least once in native / Rossetta off mode, and then back in Rosetta, Logic would open with only outlines of windows showing. This was a huge issue, I had to reinstall entire OS and the only use Logic in Rosetta mode while being extremely careful not to switch off Rosetta accidentally.

  3. Boot loop after OS update - this happened to me during update to Sonoma, after the update MacBook wouldn't boot but just kept showing the progress bar and restarting. I don't remember how I got it to start eventually.

  4. Search in folder not working - I couldn't get the search in specific folder to work, whatever I typed in the search folder search bar it would just search entire SSD drive. The expert at Apple Store recommended to reinstall the OS, but I found slightly less stressful way, I created another user account and then transferred everything to the new user account, miraculously it worked mostly in this user account, so then I deleted the old user account. It still doesn't always search properly, I have no idea why.

  5. "Cut" command doesn't always work - first of all not having a "cut" in the menu is ridiculous, thankfully Cmd-X works when editing things but doesn't always work when cut and pasting folders or files.

  6. 2 "Library" folders - why in the world are there 2 library folders ? And there is no consistency which files get installed in which of the 2 library folders, and one library filler I hidden by default. And what's worse is that the files that get installed into which folder changed with BigSur update, many support pages for various software still have it wrong indicating which folder and files are installed in which library folder, but thankfully many audio software websites are noticing this and fixing their support pages.   

  7. Cursor acceleration and scrolling - if you don't use PC often or often switch between PC and Mac you won't  notice this, but windows pointer acceleration is much more smoother and natural than Mac's, it's due to the fact that windows has 2 break points in the acceleration curve, but Mac has only one. I've tried every available "cursor fix" application and none of them can make the pointer acceleration behave like on windows.

  8. Cubase parameter set with scroll - this is most obvious in the channel EQ section, on a Mac setting EQ gain, Q and frequency is not remotely as fluid as on windows. On windows it's effortlessly doable with scroll wheel like second nature, scrolling slow = slow movement, scrolling fast = faster movement, but on a Mac you really gotta move the scroll wheel extremely carefully, a bit slow and the parameter is moving like a snail a bit too fast and it's like a cheetah.

  9. Giving permission during installation - If you forget to give permission to a application that you're installing in the settings during the period that it gives you to all, you'll have to jump thru lots of hoops to get it to ask you allow again. I was configuring and installing music applications for a colleagues, he bought UA Apollo but during installation he forgot to allow the UA software in the settings when it asked him. Luckily he had a Time Machine saved from a point before the install, I rolled back the system and also uninstalled manually all of the UA apps and then it during installation it finally asked to click allow to give a permission.

  10. Backwards Compatibility - Outdated 32bit plugins and outdated software simply and unfortunately doesn't work on Apple Silicon Macs.  Installing windows in a virtual machine won't help either because that version of windows is Apple Silicon specific and doesn't allow 32bit software either.

  11. Blurry text on sub-4K monitors - Macs are very picky about the external displays, if the display is lower resolution than 4K the text will be blurry, and even some 4K displays show blurry text as well especially if hooked up thru HDMI instead of USB-C, or refresh rate is lower than 60hz.

  12. Notifications - on Windows PC you can easily disable all of the notifications, on a Mac you have keep disabling them manually for each application.

  13. AirDrop -  Not sure if this is an iPhone / iPad or Mac issue, but often times when airdropping a file from a Mac, the notification to accept the file on the iPhone just doesn't appear, it will make a notification sound but no pop up to accept or reject. To get it to work you have to disable and then re-enable Wi-Fi and Bluetooth few times both on the Mac and the receiving device.

  14. Core Audio causing Kontakt loading issues - when using on-board audio ( without a dedicated interface ) Kontakt freezes for about 5 seconds when loading certain Kontakt instruments ( for me it was Metropolis ARK-1 and some of the NI Abbey Road drums )    

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