🚀 go-pugleaf

Sean:
   Well, your barrel seems to be overflowing with advice about the relative
merits of the Amiga & Mac. At the risk of overload, here is my opinion which
may be of interest since I have produced two albums on an Amiga 500.
   First, though, I think it's futile to say that one computer is better
than another unless one says what it is better FOR. For instance I think one
could justly say that the Mac is a better computer for serious pro-level
music work than the Amiga -- NOT because it's inherently a better machine --
but because developers are producing better software for this particular
application.
   Unless you have the software for the work you wish to do with it, a
computer is just an expensive doorstop!  So the tried and true advice is to
look at the software that's available and then buy the computer. Personally
I  think there is no ONE computer that will do everything I want, so I tend
to have a least 2 different machines at any time depending one what I am
working on.
   I found the Amiga to be a good machine for many purposes. The sequencing
I did, especially with DrT's Tiger Cub and M worked very well.  But high-end
music software is not there for the Amiga, and probably never will be because
the user base, compared to Mac and MSDOS is far too small.
   The Amiga is evolving into possibly the best machine for
video/tv/animation production: wonderful gear is available now and more on
the way. Stuff that, in its field is far superior to the music software
for the Amiga.  I have written and talked to a number of music s/ware
developers for the Amiga and I dont see the Amiga catching up to the Mac,
the Atari or the IBM in music.
   The Mac is great -- I've used such programs as Studio Vision allowing me
to edit my DAT tape after mixdown.  But I do that in a pro studio that was
willing to pay the $10,000 or so for all the gear that went with it. I paid
for a few hours use and will do that each time I do an album because its so
economical. Much moreso than having this system at home.
   However, expandable Macs are very expensive, especially here in Kanada
where Apple and our govts seem bent on gouging the last penny from the
consumer. My compromise is this:
   I am selling my Amiga and buying an Atari. The Atari is cheap and
versatile. CUBASE & NOTATOR are two of the very best sequencers on ANY
machine. I like its ability to use Forth (in its Forth/Moxie incarnation)
to do interactive programming for computer music.  This is what I WANT to do
so that's why I bought it for a fraction of what a similarly endowed Mac
would do.
   Of course my Atari doesnt have all the nifty stuff you can get for the
Mac. However a LOT of it can be run on a Mac emulator as well as on a Mac. So
I'll probably do that. And for all the other business/housekeeping/etc
stuff one does with computers, I'll pick up a small 286 clone. With all this
I still will have spent a lot less than a high-end Mac and do everything I
want my computers to do. The gear takes up a bit more room but I have the
space so no problem.
   Well that's my solution, one man's attempt to balance an inelucatably
infinite desire with a definitely limited personal economy.
Nor is my decision (like life itself!) permamently fixed; when I need to
change again I will.  But I expect that to be not soon....we'll see!

   Good luck, Sean. Please post your decision; I'll be interested to hear.

Paul

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Paul Thompson
Sumas Mountain, BC, Canada.              Paul_Thompson@Mindlink.bc.ca


                         Time flies like an arrow,
                         Fruit flies like a banana.
                                                         -- Marx

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