@DG said:
the performance differential is so huge that OSX isn't an option for me. I also think that aesthetics are really personal, and personally I hate the look of OSX and Aero...!
However, let's say that the above remains in the eye of the beholder. I would like to ask you to comment on your point regarding the "performance differential that is so huge" between the best that both worlds have to offer. Since I have never claimed any 'techie' awards for myself, I'd like to know why that is the case. Your wording makes it sound as if there is no comparison between the two, and about that I certainly want to know. Does it only have to do with the amount of RAM currently accessible to Windows users, or is there more?
The Holy Grail for Virtual Instrument users is performance at low latency. There are various tweaks that can be done at a BIOS level that have no equivalent on a Mac. this is why Logic can perform better on a hackintosk than on a similar Apple machine. We then have the OS to deal with. Again things can be turned off in Windows to improve performance, and the general OS is faster as well. When you add these things together there is a really large performance differential between Windows and OSX.
However, if you don't need to work at low latencies, for example if most of your work is not played live or you are mainly mixing, then the benefits are less, because there is no longer any need to work at a low buffer.
There are some illuminating comparisons and graphs available on www.dawbench.com if you are interested.
DG