Re: [ARSCLIST] Software for Mac

["Richard L. Hess" <arclists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 08:47 AM 2008-10-15, Craig Breaden wrote:

> According to the systems folks I've talked to here at UGA, Boot Camp
> has caused some pretty severe failures over time due to dual booting.

I would like that to be better explained by them before taking it as 
true. I have found some computer retailers to have a good deal of 
bluster and will say anything to get you to come around to their 
view--not necessarily out of maliciousness but rather out of 
ignorance or just having heard something through the grapevine.

> using either Boot Camp or Parallels is
> probably not my best choice, that I should be thinking more towards
> software made for Mac or going to an external flash recorder.

I don't know what options you have, but I've found competent PCs in 
the under $400 range, used, and you don't need a hugely 
top-of-the-current-line PC for audio - I'm using 3 GHz hyperthreading 
(turned off) processors for audio and, depending on what I'm doing, 
it's still reasonably fast. I have 2 GB of RAM, but I generally see 
Samplitude and Algorithmix Noise Free Pro working well within 1 GB of RAM.

So, for not much money, you could get two used PCs (Dell used to have 
a refurb outlet in the U.S. and I find a local computer store here 
obtains off-lease Dells--I just got an Optiplex 3.2 GHz machine with 
1 GB of RAM for $350 plus I added 2 GB of RAM and a second HDD which 
brought it up with our 13% tax to $604 or something like that). This 
application didn't require a sound card (it got a Nikon Coolscan 5000 
ED (new) instead), but the least expensive stereo soundcard that is 
top-notch is the DAL CardDeluxe, at least as far as I'm aware.

All of this should work on your network, but check with your system 
administrator. As I've said, if I were to get seriously into video 
editing, I would seriously consider FCP and buy a Mac to use it on. 
If I were relying on it, the cash stream would need to justify it, 
but I'd probably get two Macs...as I believe in redundancy. (I have 8 
Win XP boxes here plus NASes).

So, I think the option is to choose your software and then the 
platform. You're cost-horsepower ratio is better for you if you 
choose a PC rather than if I choose a Mac for a future use.

I don't look at computers as general-purpose tools these days. For 
high-work-load specific applications and considering the ability to 
purchase competent-for-the-task used computers (with XP Pro rather 
than Vista) I like dedicated machines.

i still like the concept of the stand-alone recorder for ingest, 
especially if you have to train someone to do it.

Cheers,

Richard

Richard L. Hess                   email: richard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Aurora, Ontario, Canada       (905) 713 6733     1-877-TAPE-FIX
Detailed contact information: http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm
Quality tape transfers -- even from hard-to-play tapes.