<p>Macs for musicians are the way to go. I won’t go into all the problems I had with my Dell desktop, how it completely self-destructed 3 times within 18 months, that’s fine. Whatever. I’m not bitter. Nor did I feel like I was in a relationship with the man who fixed my Dell. Ryan Burns. I miss him…</p>
<p>But seriously- I’d go with a laptop. You think you won’t need to take your computer to class, then about mid year you’ll probably change your mind and wish your computer was portable.</p>
<p>Yes Macs are more expensive but they last. They don’t get viruses and are much better when it comes to music software. They are totally user friendly (making the switch from PC to Mac is a bit disconcerting, but once you do it, you’ll never go back)</p>
<p>GET LOTS OF MEMORY.
I’ve completely run out of memory, due to my constant and obsessive downloading of music (I can’t imagine a musician that wouldn’t have a similar problem).</p>
<p>GET AN EXTERNAL HARDDRIVE. A LARGE ONE.
losing all your music because your computer committed suicide- completely heartbreaking. I cried. On the phone. With my mother. Who didn’t understand why it was a big deal. </p>
<p>MacBook Air- not the best choice due to the lack of space because it’s so thin. </p>
<p>Check with your school and see what they recommend, and then get a mac.</p>
<p>“They don’t get viruses…”
Oh yes, they certainly do! And while removing one from your PC is a relatively simple procedure, trying the same thing with a Mac can result in you having to develop a very close relationship with a tech in the Apple Store! But, of course, if you spend a lot of time in those brightly lit stores, you end up playing with the things on display and are apt to walk out of there with yet another shiny new toy!
I’ll get whatever we need to, depending on the school’s requirements, but after D’s past experiences with all things Mac and her older brother, a computer engineer(there are 2 of those in my D’s immediate family, and both feel the same) for Microsoft it’s going to be a rough sell if it’s a Mac that’s required!</p>
<p>DS went to college with a used cobbled together desktop computer we had here at home. It was a PC and worked just fine. BUT when DS got to replace it his junior year, he did a lot of research and bought a Mac G-4 laptop. He loves it. OTOH…DD has a Dell Latitude and it works fine too. As long as the machine supports the software you need, it really doesn’t matter.</p>
<p>A little hijack here - what anti-virus software is recommended for a Mac? I will not touch Norton or McAfee - I have not seen either do a great job and they cause all kinds of problems. I am a happy AVAST user but I don’t think they have a free Mac version.</p>
<p>I’m on my 4th mac and I’ve never bought any anti-virus software nor have my kids. If you feel you must, talk to someone at the Apple store. You might check AVG but I don’t know if they have a mac version. I honestly don’t know anyone with a mac that has ever purchased any.</p>
<p>pukadad - that was my thought too. I don’t know any Mac users who recommend antivirus software. My D doesn’t have any on hers, but I couldn’t be sure that was the best thing to do.</p>
<p>My D went to college with an old desktop. We did buy her a laser printer. Well, she *****ed and moaned about the desktop. She could she herself out on the quad in the sunshine using a laptop. Needless to say that would have happened about once. After almost 4 years, she is still on the trial version of the toner cartridge. That means she has printed less than 500 pages. In fact I think she is just starting her second ream of paper. The computer was used for emails and playing music. It finally died and she did indeed get a laptop. I would not rush to spend a lot of money on an advanced computer system.</p>
<p>Speaking of printers - we bought our kids the combo printer/scanner/fax. It has come in very handy at tax season, when H is doing the kids’ taxes and they have to scan forms, etc. – Especially when we lived overseas, and needed something right away.</p>
<p>This year, it looks like most of D’s forms are online. S still deals with lots of paper (even though he does his own taxes, papers go back and forth, because much of his gig and school paperwork comes here, and H still does the FAFSA for him, etc.)</p>
<p>We also made sure our kids knew how to send and receive encrypted files.</p>
<p>That’s about as stupid as never backing up your computer. Thieves have been targeting Mac’s for a while, and it is only a matter of time before one finds you. I can count on one hand the number of virus warns I have received in the past 2 years (I surf and e-mail safe). But, it only takes one to get through to cause a lot of grief.</p>
<p>“There have been pieces of malware written for Macs. And Mac OS X isn’t impenetrable. Apple patched around 200 bugs in 2007.”</p>
<p>I didn’t mean to call pukadad stupid. I meant to call not using antivirus on ANY computer connected to the internet stupid. Mac, PC, Windows, Linux, etc. There are even viruses for cell phones:</p>
<p>We were planning to buy a Dell since the Macs are more expensive and we are unfamiliar with the Macs but we also hear that it is useful to have a recording device for music lessons and lectures.</p>
<p>Perhaps we should save on the expense of the recording device and buy a Mac laptop instead if the Mac can easily do recording.</p>
<p>I want something easy to use and carry around so that my son will actually do it.</p>
<p>What extra equipment and software would the Mac need to record both audio and/or video of a lesson? Also any recommendation on type of Mac laptop needed?</p>
<p>All of the current Mac laptops have both a microphone and a video camera built in, as well as the software you need. While I would not recommend using the built-in mic and camera for critical recordings, they are usually fine for lessons and lectures. Note that you have to be a bit careful managing your hard disk memory if you are going to be recording an hour’s worth of video at a time. You have to keep up with burning the videos to DVD (software and hardware also included on the MacBook and MacBook Pro, external drive needed for the MacBook Air) then removing them from the hard disk or you will run out of room on the hard disk. You can, of course, buy additional audio hardware if you ever do want to use a Mac or a PC to do critical audio recording.</p>
<p>Note that you may still be able to buy a PC (desktop or laptop) and a portable audio recorder for less than the cost of the Mac. The audio recorders are a good bit smaller than a laptop and come with stereo mics rather than the single microphone built into computers, but they do not record video. I find them to be a little harder than a laptop to use, but not tremendously so. You can get a decent concert recording with the portable audio recorder. Another benefit of going this way is that there is less wear and tear on the laptop and possibly less chance of it getting dropped or stolen. Some portable audio recorders can double as a high quality audio input device to a computer, allowing you to get the best of both worlds at the expense of carting both around.</p>
<p>Is your son accustomed to carrying a laptop around? If not, I think it could become very inconvenient to have to keep up with it if he wants it for lessons, practice sessions, certain lectures. I think a smaller recording device separate from the laptop is a better choice.</p>
<p>I agree with catera. If you want just audio recording look into digital audio recorders like those from Zoom. If you want audio and video, check out the new camcorders that record to memory sticks. I have a Canon H100 that’s just slightly longer than my fist, records very clean audio and video, has great battery life and even has a mic port for even better quality recording.</p>
<p>Yes, just bought the Zoom H4n for my son to take off to college and record his private lessons. It is the latest iteration and meant to be built more solid than prior versions but of course costs more. Still grappling with the PC vs Mac question as the Mac can run Windows as well now but my son has never used one but feels a Mac is “more” suited to music students. Biggest question to consider is that both Mac and Windows are coming out with upgraded operating systems soon, so I am tempted to not pull the trigger till I know the exact dates of the releases. It is always much easier to get the new version pre-installed and not try to upgrade afterwards. Got a feeling if people stop buying systems while they are waiting for the new version they will have to announce the free upgrade path before school starts in August.</p>
<p>If your son wants to edit sound and video files, the software for the Mac seems more slick.</p>
<p>There are music writing software, like Finale. My Daughter has it on her PC. I don’t know anything about the Mac version, or what music writing software there is for the Mac.</p>
<p>Otherwise, the e-mail/word processing needs of a music student are no different than other students.</p>