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36 Years Ago!

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Gene Steinberg

Gene Steinberg

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Staff member
Many of you probably don't care.

But the Apple Macintosh personal computer was introduced on January 24, 1984.

www.macrumors.com

36 Years Ago Today, Steve Jobs Unveiled the First Macintosh

On January 24, 1984, former Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduced the first Macintosh at Apple's annual shareholder's meeting in Cupertino, California, debuting the new computer equipped with a 9-inch black and white display, an 8MHz Motorola 68000 processor, 128KB of RAM, a 3.5-inch floppy drive, and...
www.macrumors.com www.macrumors.com

Any product that can last for 36 years and still remain successful is a huge achievement.

Consider the fate of IBM's PCs: They sold the business to Lenovo in 2005. Today, over 290,000 Apple devices are being used by IBM employees. The program to allow workers to select Macs, iPhones, iPads went into effect in 2015.
 
I hate my MacBook. And given Apple's plan to break up iTunes, once my iPod Touch dies, I'll probably never own another Apple product again.
 
wwkirk said:
I hate my MacBook. And given Apple's plan to break up iTunes, once my iPod Touch dies, I'll probably never own another Apple product again.
Click to expand...
I have an iPad. It can do some pretty cool things, but when it comes to my desktop system, I ( personally ) wouldn't spend money on a Mac. I've been a sales rep who has sold all the major brands alongside Apple, and seen firsthand what comes back and what goes wrong with all of them. I've also been a PC repair tech who has serviced many PCs and built a number of them myself, starting when Windows 95 entered the market.

Because of my experience, Windows has been a necessity, mostly because of its dominance in business, where familiarity with it as a serious desktop OS remains unrivaled. More recently I chose WIndows again because I can build and maintain a Windows PC all by myself. It also works with a large variety of readily available software that is preferable to the alternatives and often less expensive than those made for Mac.

My second choice would be a Linux system. But if someone gave me a high-end Mac system with whatever software I wanted on it, I'd also be thrilled. Their technology and engineering is generally cutting edge. But like a high-end sports car, it isn't something I would actually spend money on unless I won a lottery and just wanted another toy to play with. I need a dependable workhorse that I can fix myself.
 
I use both Mac and PC for what I do, they both have their place for me in my work as I see it kind of like having metric and imperial tools in my kit :) ..

All my audio work is done on Mac but all the system network for audio is done on or through a PC which strange as it may sound is very common in the live production world.

As I said all the audio work, by which I mean edit work and recording is done on a Mac with ProTools (Pro Tools - Wikipedia).
Avid software and hardware I have used for the better part of twenty years now (god it has been that long)... I get told to use LogicPro which I do teach how to use but I know ProTools better and it ain't broke so why change :-P ..

However all my system control for digital amps, desk network and acoustic analysis is done with a PC as it is very good at the job....
The world of production audio has gone all digital my friends and these days there is no longer the "are you Mac or PC" thing going on... seriously we are both but I only ever trust the Mac to do the recording and edit work as it works, it is stable, the work flow is creative and logical for that job.

Just to highlight the changes in audio I just ordered two of these :

Behringer WING 48-Channel Digital Mixer

Behringer WING 48-Channel Digital Mixer
www.soundstore.co.nz

WING-large.jpg

Desk spec:
  • 48-stereo-channel digital mixer with 40 stereo input processing channels, as well as 8 stereo aux channels.
  • 28 stereo buses — 16 stereo aux buses, 8 stereo matrixes, and 4 stereo mains.
  • 24 smooth-feeling motorized 100mm faders in 3 separate, configurable sections.
  • 1” capacitive touchscreen, adjustable display wheel, and rotary controls provide touch-sensitive channel editing.
  • 8 MIDAS Pro mic preamps and MIDAS outputs ensure that you capture high-quality sound.
  • 3 AES50 ports provide plug-and-play remote I/O connectivity for up to 144 input and output signals.
  • AES50 networks are compatible with MIDAS M32 and Behringer X32 mixers.
  • 32-channel StageCONNECT interface for personal monitoring or analog I/O boxes.
  • Includes AES/EBU stereo digital I/O, 2 headphone connectors, MIDI I/O, and 4 GPIO ports.
  • Compatible with Behringer and MIDAS digital snakes, including the S16, S32, SD8, SD16, DL16, and DL32.
  • WING-LIVE card captures up to 64 channels of 32-bit/48kHz audio to a pair of SD or SDHC cards.
  • Optional expansion cards supply Dante, SoundGrid, or MADI support.
  • Built-in 48-in/48-out USB audio interface with HUI and Mackie Control DAW remote functionality.
  • Sources put the emphasis on your source audio rather than on your inputs and channels.
  • Apply names, icons, and colors to each Source for at-a-glance identification.
  • Each channel can be either mono, stereo, or mid-side — no channel linking required.
  • 16 true-stereo processors with effects from Pultec, SSL, SPL, Neve, Focusrite, dbx, Universal Audio, Elysia, and Empirical Labs.
  • Auto-Pilot supplies fast and dependable automixing with 2 groups of gain sharing.
  • Dual solo/monitor buses per channel for monitoring over phones/IEM and/or floor wedges.
  • Support for binary and OSC communication for remote operation.
  • WING Co-Pilot tablet app enables you to label or set parameters while patching from the stage.
There are only a handful of XLR plugs on it as it is all digital...... god when I started out in audio a desk that could do this even in part what this new one can was worth a good million dollars and weighed around 400kg or more.
Everything is on network these days and strange as it may sound Mac and PC have both found their place in that to be used together.
 
stonehart said:
Just to highlight the changes in audio I just ordered two of these:

Behringer WING 48-Channel Digital Mixer

Behringer WING 48-Channel Digital Mixer
www.soundstore.co.nz
Click to expand...
Very cool. It's way beyond me. I decided to go with Reaper, which according to all the specifications, processes sound as well as Pro Tools. But I don't know about how intuitive it is compared to Pro Tools. I find that little things should be more obvious on Reaper, but once you know them, it's not too hard to remember.

For a mixer, I just use an old Yorkville vgm14

Mixer-01a.jpg

Its a live mixer, so to monitor while recording I feed the media out to a Beringer XENYX 802

XENYX802-01b.jpg

From there it goes to an ancient 70s era integrated QUEON QT-304 amp

QT-304-01b.jpg

that feeds two classic JBL L100s, virtually the same as the famous 70s era JBL studio monitors.

JBL-L-100.jpg

The PC is a home built Intel 4GHz Intel i7 6700K ( 8 CPU )


Corsair-01a.jpg

with an ASUS Xonar D2 soundcard

XonarD2-01a.jpg
and dual LG HD monitors

LG-Monitors-01a.jpg

It's a jury rigged bunch of stuff spanning decades, but it's getting the job done for now. If someday I actually sell some music, maybe I'll upgrade, but in the meantime compared to what the beatles had for Abbey Road ...

J37-01a.jpg

I'm working with what would have seemed like something from a sci-fi movie. So I'm just going to have to make due!
 
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