[LAU] best distro for audio on intel mac?

Ken Restivo ken at restivo.org
Thu May 8 14:09:50 EDT 2008


On Wed, May 07, 2008 at 09:03:38PM +0200, Michael Bohle wrote:
> Am Tue, 06 May 2008 11:21:27 -0700
> schrieb iain duncan <iainduncan at telus.net>:
> 
> > Are any of the audio distros usable on an intel mac? And if not,
> > anyone have opinions on the best way to get an audio tweaked dual
> > boot going on an intel mac book pro with a presonus Firepod?
> > 
> 
> serious answer: 
> 
> mac os x 5.2
> 
> because:
> 
> -high performance lowlatency audio ootb by design - no
> "rt-kernel" needed

I tried using OSX when I had a Mac Mini. It was not RT. Some synth patches had tons of latency.

Thomas Dolby uses OSX live, and has had to change his playing in order to compensate for the extensive latency, and talks about this openly on his blog, like it's no big deal. It seems a big deal to me. I'm very glad to have no noticeable latency on my Linux system, and to be able to play instruments naturally.

> -professional sound tools available

That's pretty much the only reason I could think of to run OSX: to get certain pro audio software that was only available on proprietary OS'es. Also, for users who simply can't cope with anything harder to use than Apple-- their usability is still the best out there.

> -garageband for home musicainsen
> -lots of port of free audio software (Sooperlooper is my fav)
> -free software like Ardour with AU support

Yeah, one of the first things I did on the Mac Mini was start installing ports of Linux audio software. After a while I said, wait a minute, this is insane. Why build a Linux system inside of OSX? Why not just install Linux on it? I did and I never went back-- in fact I ended up selling the Mini and getting a regular Intel PC laptop instead.

> -unix design OS - easy to use for linux user
> -even Linux Audio Developer usinsg Mac OS X for live performances and
> development 
> 

Really? Who?

-ken



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