Re: im about to start a war

[Per Boysen <perboysen@gmail.com>]

On 29 aug 2007, at 16.45, Matthew Johnson wrote:

> 90% of the shows I go to, its a MAC on stage. Is this is the work  
> of lemmings, hipsters and marketers, or is it really worth it?
> -- 
> Matt H. Johnson


Hi Matt,

I guess there are four main reasons Macs are over represented among  
musicians:

1) Historically, Mac was the first OS to support hard disc recording.  
Back in the days there wasn't a choice, you had to get a Mac and  
Digidesign hardware. The only alternative was to buy a multi track  
tape recorder and loads of outboard processing gear to an almost  
astronomical cost. Although music software for Windows has popped up  
during the years, many musicians rather prefer to stay with what they  
have come to know "as stable and well functioning" instead of  
learning a new system or change their software.

2) Apple is the pc manufacturer that has the strongest reputation of  
caring for both the hardware and the software "in-house", thus  
launching products that are less prone to fail - something that is no  
hit on stage.

3) Mac's has a reputation of being more stable (as an effect of #2  
above), easier to learn, use and maintain. For a computer savvy  
musicians that might not be an issue, but many musicians prefer being  
"music savvy" rather than "computer savvy".

4) Better firewire support. Only with an Apple box you can get  
firewire 800 ports and practically all Mac's can power an audio  
interface directly through the firewire cable. With any other, non  
Mac, pc you would have to bring an extra power supply for your  
firewire interface.

I myself use both pc's built by Apple and by others as Zepto, IBM etc.

Greetings from Sweden

Per Boysen
www.boysen.se (Swedish)
www.looproom.com (international)