Using Alienware to produce music

[imglidinhere]

I prefer someone to use a Mac over a PC for audio or video work just due to how much faster it is. This isn't to say an M18x would dust one if it were fully specced, just that the Mac is more efficient than the PC with the same specs.

Not an Apple fanboy, but it is better for that sort of thing. However, I can't seem to find a reason to stop you from buying the best laptop you can get on the market. I is jelly...

[RubberCrow]

Originally Posted by imglidinhere

I prefer someone to use a Mac over a PC for audio or video work just due to how much faster it is. This isn't to say an M18x would dust one if it were fully specced, just that the Mac is more efficient than the PC with the same specs.

Not an Apple fanboy, but it is better for that sort of thing. However, I can't seem to find a reason to stop you from buying the best laptop you can get on the market. I is jelly...

The Mac isn't faster at all, but if the engineer on the session is more comfortable with the workflow of a Mac, the tracking session will be faster.

I'm ten times faster on a PC than I am on a Mac. Does that mean my PC is faster? Of course not.

When you go into a full blown recording session in a large tracking studio where time is money, you'll find that nobody cares about the speed of the device you're using. They care about the speed and accuracy of the person using the device.

In fact, if given the right tracking engineer and a good enough budget, you'll find that top engineers prefer using analog tape or RADAR over a PC or a Mac. Then, depending on who is doing the mix, they will import the tracks into a DAW (usually ProTools, nine times out of ten, which runs equally well on PCs and Macs) and the hard drive is sent to the mix engineer via FedEx.

One the most well known and sought after mix engineers, Chris Lord-Alge, doesn't use a Mac or a PC, he uses Sony 3348 digital machines and Studer A series 24 track 2" analog tape. He has an assistant compile the tracks from the ProTools session down to 48 tracks so he can run them in the 3348 and mix them through a large format SSL console.

So once again, they're just tools. It doesn't matter which one you use, it all comes down to having a comfortable workflow. The primary components are your interface, your DAW, and the platform you run it on. If you aren't comfortable and knowledgeable with any link in that chain, you simply won't be a very efficient engineer.

Mac vs. PC, analog versus digital versus hybrid, mixing In The Box versus summing mixers or large format consoles, none of it matters if you aren't capable with your tools. Give me a previous generation PC and a state of the art Mac and I will always be faster on the PC. Always. Put my friend Rob, who is an engineer and A&R person with Atlantic, on a previous generation Mac and a state of the art PC and he will always be faster on the Mac. Always. Put him on Cubase/Nuendo and me on ProTools and regardless of whether they're running on a Mac or PC and watch us squirm. Have us switch and watch us zip through sessions all day long.

Just like if you put a guitar in his hands and a keyboard in front of me and we'll take days getting the perfect takes. But give me the guitar and him the keyboard and we'd have 15 tracks done in an 8 hour session, with time for lunch, Starbucks, and two or three smoke breaks.

They're just tools.

[ThinkPaid]

Can some one on do me a favor and try Itch on the m11x (or other alienware if needed) I am looking to see if the waveforms run as good as mac. Right now I can't run it decently on my thinkpad which pretty much is the exact same specs as macbook pro.

[KyleReese]

Hi, have some serious thoughts to get m18x with ati crossfire for music/video production and also some mild gaming (not a fan of newer pc games, altough Diablo 3 could be something). Anyways, there is one fat point of concern, Raid 0.
It's common knowledge that audio files should be stored in a separate drive. Also hate the fact that if one of the hard disks fails all data is lost forever, don't have time to back up all the time.
So here comes the question, how easy is it to disable Raid 0, so that there would be two separate hard disks instead? Is there a step by step guide somewhere?

[Tsunade_Hime]

You just need to go into BIOS, change SATA operation from RAID to AHCI and reinstall Windows either clean install or via Respawn discs.

[Mr. Fox]

If you change from RAID to AHCI there is a possibility that the Respawn restore operation can fail, because the Windows installation was configured for the BIOS to be set on RAID rather than AHCI. You can give it a try though, and see if it works. I have tried doing a Respawn from my optical media backup with the BIOS set on AHCI and it fails on every attempt. It succeeds when I put the BIOS back on RAID.

On Alienware M17x and M18x, and perhaps other Alienware laptops, systems the BIOS comes from the factory set on RAID (which has advantages) even with a single drive installed. With the BIOS set to RAID and Intel Rapid Store Technology installed, drive operation is generally enhanced and I do not know of any disadvantages to having the BIOS set to RAID, even when an array is not configured. It is recommended by Intel to leave the BIOS set to RAID.

Even my wife's Inspiron M5030 (which has no second drive bay) has the BIOS set to RAID as the factory default.

The other thing is, you can order a brand new Alienware without the drives being set up in RAID. All you need to do is select the right configuration. You actually have to pay extra for the drives to be set up in RAID0.

[KyleReese]

Thanks for the info! Unfortunately im unable to order directly from alienware, only option is buying from our local dealer in Estonia. Seems like breaking the Raid is too much of a hassle, so im afraid i am forced to get some other laptop. This beautiful beast of a machine is probably a bit overkill for non gaming anyway. Does Ati crossfire has any advantages when using video editing software like Sony Vegas or Adobe Premiere?
Would get m17x r3 in a heartbeat if it had firewire or express card slot, maybe there will be one in r4.