Mac or PC for HW?

I am new to organ playing, and am trying to decide on whether to go with a dedicated Mac or PC for HW. I'm a Mac person, but they cost twice a much as PCs, plus I understand that they do not work with touch screens and a third party driver is needed, correct?

I'm wondering if I can resolve that problem by using my MacBook Air instead of a touch screen to talk to my HW computer? Does anyone do this? Is it too cumbersome?

Do touch screens ever have "response" issues?

Are there other issues I should be aware of between the two platforms?

Hi fermata,
I have been using a Mac with Hauptwerk for 11 years. My "new" Mac is a Mac Pro, 2006 model with 32 gigs ram, and with an Elo 19 inch touch screen. I did have to get a custom driver for the screen. The only problem in all this time has been a defective ram tray, that I replaced with one that I bought on eBay. Both computer and touchscreens can be bought very reasonably on eBay. There are no response issues for me. Over the years reading these forums, it seems to me that we Mac users have very few problems compared to the windows people. Granted, I can not upgrade to the latest OS, as my computer is too old. However, in the words of a great sage, who cares?
James

[mdyde]

Hello Fermata,

The 'types of computers' section in this document (linked to from our 'Support | Requirements' website page) discussed Macs vs. PCs with regard to Hauptwerk:

https://www.hauptwerk.com/clientuploads/documentation/PDF/HauptwerkBackgroundTechnicalInfoOnComputerHardware.pdf

Hauptwerk is available for both Macs and PCs. Macs usually work and perform very well for ‘pro-audio/MIDI’ (low-latency, real-time, CPU-intensive) applications such as Hauptwerk ‘out of the box’, whereas Windows/PCs might (or might not) require some technical expertise and tweaking in order to achieve and maintain that. If you don’t have much technical computer experience or inclination then we recommend either buying a Mac or buying a PC from a company that builds, maintains and supports them specifically for Hauptwerk (or for general ‘pro-audio/MIDI’) purposes. In a PC the ability to achieve reliable (glitch-free) real-time, low-latency audio, high polyphony, and reliable MIDI performance, depends heavily on the specific combination of hardware components and drivers within the PC (and especially the audio/MIDI interface hardware/drivers), whereas Mac OS X has high-performance professional-grade audio and MIDI drivers built in, so there's much less dependence on hardware or driver quality on OS X. Also Macs, including OS X, are designed and tested specifically for those purposes as complete units by their manufacturer, whereas generic off-the-shelf PCs usually aren’t. On PCs the hardware, operating system and drivers are usually manufactured by different companies. However, PC hardware is often cheaper and there is more choice.

... and with an Elo 19 inch touch screen. I did have to get a custom driver for the screen...
James

Hi fermata and James,
I use a Mac pro ( 64Gb ram) with twin Elo 19 inch touch screen. I think is the best choice.
I downloaded the specific free driver from the Elo website, see here:

https://touch-base.com/oem/ELO/

and:

viewtopic.php?f=16&t=14672&start=15

Arp

If you don't mind building your own system, you can get a lot of bang-for-the-buck with a PC. My home-built PC (64 GB ram, Intel 3930K processor) has been very stable and high-performing with Hauptwerk. I also use an RME Fireface 800 audio interface, listening primarily over headphones (no doubt, the RME contributes a great deal to the stability of the system for high-end audio including Hauptwerk).

I am also a big fan of Macs (using a Macbook Pro and Mac Mini), but for Hauptwerk have opted for the PC route (I also use the PC for 4K video processing with Adobe Premiere Pro and audio recording and processing using Cakewalk Sonar). There are now even newer and more capable processors/RAM/motherboards available for the PC that would perform at a very high level with Hauptwerk.

Growing up, there was the Ford vs Chevie "debate" around. My folks (and I) have owned both and have good to say about each of them. To a greater extent, the same holds true today with Mac and PC. In each case, it's not an issue maybe today as much as it was previously because so many improvements have and continue to made in each. So I advise, new to H/W folks, to use whichever they are comfortable with because each has some possible negatives, but more importantly, also many positives.

Rgds,'
Ed

Fermata (if that is your real name),

I use HW with Macs and have for many years. I have had excellent experiences using Mac Minis - so you don't need to spend a huge amount of money. Take a look at my web site to see how I do this on two different consoles - one with a touch screen (3rd party drivers - but no trouble at all.) These have 16 GB of RAM, which is plenty for most sample sets. In addition, the Mac's stereo jack does an excellent job for HW audio as long as you don't need more than two channels.

http://www.nightbloomingjazzmen.com/Les_Home.html

Les

Just to clarify, myself, I'm into Mac's for Hauptwerk applications.. I use both a Mac Pro and Mac Mini's with totally excellent results.

Rgds,
Ed

Thank you, everyone, for your input. It helps to give me perspective. I may decide for this once (first and only time) to go with a PC, one which has been optimized for Hauptwerk by MidiWorks. I'm wondering, however, if I want to do recording or sequencing, can I use my MacBook Air to communicate with the PC? How does one communicate with a computer dedicated to Hauptwerk?

[mdyde]

Hello fermata,

I'm wondering, however, if I want to do recording or sequencing, can I use my MacBook Air to communicate with the PC? How does one communicate with a computer dedicated to Hauptwerk?

The traditional (and well-proven) way to do it would be to connect a MIDI cable out from your sequencer computer and into your Hauptwerk computer, and then connect audio cables from the audio outputs of the Hauptwerk computer to audio inputs on the sequencer computer. I.e. you would just treat the Hauptwerk computer as if it were a hardware MIDI synthesizer or sound module.

These days software exists for routing MIDI over Ethernet, and other software exists for routing audio over Ethernet, which might provide alternatives to dedicated cabling (if you can get it all to work with reliably with sufficient timing accuracy and latency).

Thank you very much, mdyde. So the sequencing and recording is not done in the Hauptwerk computer running Hauptwerk and sample sets? If this is done in another computer, is it using a sequencer/recorder provided by Hauptwerk? Will I have to load something from Hauptwerk into my laptop to do midi sequencing? Forgive my ignorance, but I want to learn how this works before I go out and buy equipment. I want to keep my set up simple and not make [possibly expensive] mistakes.

[mdyde]

Hello fermata,

Hauptwerk has a simple built-in MIDI recorder/player, and built in audio recorder.

However, it has no functionality for editing MIDI or audio files, or for playing audio files, or for 'sequencing' as such, or for music notation. If you want to do any of those things then you need additional third-party software (e.g. MIDI sequencer/DAW/notation software). That software could run on the same computer as Hauptwerk, or on a different computer.

Question for Ed (engrssc):
Do you ever use the Mac mini by itself with Hauptwerk? Does it have enough memory to run Hauptwerk?

I have used Hauptwerk with both Mac and PC. The organ itself will run just as well on either.

However if you want to do other things like editing MIDI (sequencing?), audio recording, midi
recording etc. then I think the PC wins every time. The software is readily available, often
free and works better than Mac software.

I use a touch screen with Windows and as stated above it runs straight out of the box with no
additional drivers needed.

csw900

However if you want to do other things like editing MIDI (sequencing?), audio recording, midi
recording etc. then I think the PC wins every time. The software is readily available, often
free and works better than Mac software.

The longtime users of ProTools, including many if not most commercial recording studios, may disagree.