iMac - having second thoughts

[felix]

About two months ago I took delivery on a new iMac running N5.5 … I bought the best one available …27"- 3.4 ghx i7 - 8gb ram - 256gb SSD system drive. 2nd 27" thunderbolt display - I also got a new UAD2 Satellite QUAD loaded up … So I’ve got quite a bit of money into this rig …

I’ve got 3 rooms total that have been running PC’s and Nuendo on XP non stop for the last 6 years or so …

This new Mac is at my home studio where I thought it would be a good place to get comfortable on the Mac before investing in my other 2 rooms that are due for upgrading …

I want to love the Mac and I’ve been trying to convince myself I do but I’m noticing some performance issues with Nuendo and the Mac that I’m wondering if anybody else has seen or can confirm …

The interface feels sluggish to me compared to a PC … This is a general observation and something that is very slight … but when logging so many hours on these workstations it’s something I notice … A place where I can verify this is when grabbing and moving automation points … there is a definite lag going on there … but overall it feels just a step behind in responsiveness … it feels less tactile - overall … Because of this I feel like I’m working slower, more deliberate and more aware of the software and how I interface with it … not good

This is something I’m observing and probably only aware of because I’m going between the 2 platforms daily. I’m sure if I committed to Mac in all my rooms I would get used to it and it would be a non issue … But at the end of the day I want to be working on the best performing hardware…

Anybody else out there who regularly goes between Mac and PC workstations on a daily basis? I’d really like to hear your thoughts …

Is there anything in the Nuendo Mac code that would account for this slight delay in responsiveness …

Is it possible I’m hallucinating? (not my intention)

On the plus side the GUI is beautiful and the displays look amazing … and for the most part it’s an incredibly fast machine … And generally I prefer the Mac OS

I also work with a 2 button mouse with scroll wheel … it’s really annoying that the left/right scroll function in the N5 timeline works in the opposite direction than on a PC … Making it really difficult to establish any mucle memory moving between platforms … I’m pretty sure there is no solution to this in the Mac - Does anybody know if there is a way to reverse this action in a PC?

Anyways I’m seriously considering cutting my losses and selling this stuff and upgrading to new PC all around …

It’s also sucks about the UAD2 Satellite - I’ll need to offload that too … I really like the idea of it and thought the timing was right to go outboard with that … As far as I can tell it works great on the Mac too … Too bad no PC drivers for that - dose not seem like there will be for the foreseeable future…If anybody knows otherwise please let me know …

thanks for any comments on this

[ffg]

I think most people with experience of both platforms will tell you OSX has a slower GUI response. I don’t think there is any cure for this. You will get used to it, though possibly not if you continue to use both.

I find certain GUI actions in Cubase 6 (which is a close relative of N5.5) slower than Nuendo 4.3 on the same machine and it is really annoying.

As to how much it matters in the end, would I swap OSX for the slightly faster GUI response in Windows? definitely not.

Not sure what you mean about the scroll wheel - I use a Logitech with tilting scroll wheel for sideways scrolling and am very happy with it. (though actually one of the issues with Cubase 6 is that sideways scrolling is slower than in N4.3 - not just a slower scroll, which is changeable, but a delay before scrolling)

[goodbyenine]

Hi

I am a die hard Mac user (although not fond of Lion).

A great tip for mouse use:

1 Get a wired (not wireless) white Apple mouse. The one with a little tiny scroll knob on top.
2 Remove any other mice (and switch off any wireless ones)
3 Go to system preferences and set up the mouse like this: (hopefully you will see a picture I attached).
If you cant see picture set it up with left side as primary button, right side a seconday and the scroll thing in the middle as a third button. Very important: disable scrolling and disable the side buttons (the ones that squeeze).

Now, once you have done this, in Nuendo, if you hover the mouse in the middle of the arrange window, and press and hold down the 3rd button, you can now drag the whole contents around. It actually beats scrolling IMHO and I cannot live without it.

You could of course use a PC mouse.

B

[felix]

OK thanks for the response(s) … Good to know about Nuendo GUI on the Mac … I wish I had been aware of that before heading down this road … If that truly is the case than I think I’ll be buying new PCs and selling this Mac workstation and hopefully not lose too much money in the process … The N5 on Mac GUI issue as slight as it is - is still enough that it makes things feel abit wack

As far as the mouse - I am using a PC mouse - just the standard 2 button w/Scroll wheel mouse … I’ll try some of the other things you suggested …

Anybody else out there notice the N5 GUI on Mac issue? I’d really like to get additional confirmation on this before committing to switching back…

thanks again