A definitive answer? : Can you use Audition on a Mac??!

Question

I have heard all sorts of conflicting views on this and I thought someone here would be able to set the record straight! I wanted to get a Mac, because I like them, but I use Audition all the time for my work. Is a Mac a good idea? If not, could anyone recommend the best sort of laptop to get if you're going to be doing a lot of audio editing (for radio).
Thanks a lot!
Rachel

Answer 1

Hey - I've just signed up to get the benefit of the experience & wisdom of audio experts. It looks like I can expect plenty of that so thank you in advance.
From this thread, seems like I can also get some opinion without much basis in fact and outright paranioa too. Just an observation and not a criticism - I have my own foibles to bring to the party too  ;-)
here's some facts from me.
I run and work in an environment of mixed Windows and Macs - initially, around 30 Windows audio workstations and a handful of Macs. I've been here since the days of analogue tape; my first audio editor was Cool Edit on Windows 3.11.
The cheaper purchase price of the Win machines is soon offest by the much higher cost of maintenance, repair and replacement. Windows workstations need replacing after 3 years - some of them will have broken beyond repair in that time. The Macs are on a five year replacement program - but they often run longer than that. Yes, Macs break down but nowhere near as much as the Win PCs. This is true for towers and laptops. I refuse to buy any more Win laptops as even the best brands fail so quickly. I now by mac laptops and often they're used in Windows only. Last year we replaced 20 Win workstations with dual boot Macs so we now use both OS's side by side. We only still run Windows because Audition is our audio tool of choice.
Macs do not get viruses. Period. We have no virus or malware protection measures on the Mac side and we have no problems. Zero. We've had massive virus issues on the Windows side, particularly spread by USB memory sticks. With later versions of XP and now 7, it's got a lot better but we still have to run extra software (that slows down performance) on Windows and spend a lot of time updating definitions etc.This is a high cost and should be factored into cost considerations.
Macs are suspecptible to trojans of course - but not as much as Win. There are simply fewer of them and the OS is implemented in an inherently more secure way. That said, if some plonker is going to open dodgy email attachments or going clicking around 'exotic' websites, then they are effectively inviting the vampire over the threshold- whatever the OS and hardware! But Macs do not 'catch' viruses like Windows.
I've been running Audition on my Mac laptops for years under emulation and straight Windows - since Windows 98 SP2. I'm writing this on a five year old MacBook Pro - it's a laptop and it gets hammered and carried everywhere daily in a tatty padded bag. On it I run Audition 1.5 under Parallels (XP), happily getting sound in and out, using a variety of internal and external sound cards (FW & USB). There was once a problem with an M-Audio driver but it was fixed next update and none since. As it's one of the earliest ones, it's maxed out at 2GB RAM and it has the standard 5200 rpm hard drive & 2.16 Core Duo (note: mine's not a Core 2 Duo, which is the current spec and much faster), so you can see it's way below the current models' spec. If I'm doing a big project in Audition with lots of resources running, I use a dedicated modern desktop computer, but for my day in,day out work, my old laptop copes well. I tried Audition 3 on it and it seemed to work ok but the licence was for another machine so I didn't test it in anger. Two people I know with recent Macbook Pros run Windows & Mac OS together and I'm amazed at the ease and speed of them. When my employer allows me, I hope to upgrade to one of those but as long as this old faithful keeps going, I've no chance.
If I had my personal choice it would be Mac all the way - not because it's perfect, but cos it's the better option. But I know and work with people whose knowledge and experience I respect who think the same about Windows. We get on well together.
BTW, the information from someone about one button mouses is a decade or more out of date. With my mac I use the trackpad (which gets 'right-clicks' & more) and often a two button+scroll wheel Microsoft mouse. If we're going to help each other out today, lets not talk ancient history.
I'm about to make more purchases for streaming audio on the web. I'll be installing Audition on these, of course. I'll probably be buying Windows computers to do this because the start budget is too small. But I'll expect to be replacing these in a couple of years and I know from experiecne they'll be less reliable than a Mac tower that would cost almost twice as much. That's a false economy and false efficiency in my view, but it's a strategic choice and it will work well till it breaks.
To summarize, so far I've found no perfect solutions to computer based audio issues - all setups will have their problems. But it is both possible - and to me prefereable - to run Audition on current Macs. And while the initial purchase price of Mac options looks expensive, the total cost of ownership is probably at least equal if not less - but the experience along the way is much less troublesome, more productive and happier.
Enjoy your audio editing whatever it's on.
SnubberD