Survey - Mac/Windows users

    Quote from G String

    this statistic is totally off, at least at the time of writing. we have very accurate figures on what's going on in studios, don't you worry.
    best, gs


    Maybe you have and maybe you don't.


    Things change.


    Macs dominate the music studios in the US. Most musicians use Macs and now many use iOS devices.


    Not all people use the same equipment for web browsing as they do for recording.


    My company has over 200 Apple computers but we run Parallels on all the machines that need to use windows only software. All of our employees use Macs and all of our associates use Macs.


    I would say this informal poll isn't random but as Kemper users go worldwide it might well represent the correct ratio of Kemper musicians who use Macs.



    Going to have to call you out on that one. How many macs are in use worldwide? And how many PCs? Are you correct to assume just because most "semi-pro" and "pro" musicians use a Mac that everyone uses one?


    I'm pretty sure there are tonnes more amateur musicians recording on PCs than Macs. Just on the basis of penetration levels. So I'm pretty sure that when G-String says they have statistics, I'll not contest his statement. FWIW, I use a PC because a Mac is far too expensive for me and would prevent me from using a lot of the software and playing a lot of the games that I have purchased over the years. Non-upgradable, high maintenance costs and lack of compatibility with many devices and software are all reasons in favour of a PC over a Mac. That has nothing to do with stability, which I'm sure Macs have in spades over my dinky little i5 PC.

    Oh please - let's not go down that MAC vs PC road. Most often the people who start it, have no solid experience on the other side.


    I believe it is a fair assumption that Mac users tend to overestimate the popularity/total # of installs of OSX while Windows Users tend to underestimate/ignore the strength of OSX in certain areas (music/video/photography/..).


    I do not believe in any survey numbers unless they are compiled from a controlled environment and the description of the sample generation is explained in detail.


    e.g. I run 8 to 10 windows machines in my office (have to) though I prefer Mac for everything except the business software (and the software demands that come with it) that I have to use on Windows.
    For Kemper I should be a 100% Mac User (am not cause I am forced to run a win VM to run the RM!) - in business surveys i would represent the average ratio for total installs of Win (XP/Vista/7/8) to OSX (all versions) - 9-10 to 1


    I don't see a solid base for any number discussion at all - whether it is from this survey or from browsing data (yep - I also log in from work, and from my win 7 in the VM).


    h

    90% of the game is half-mental.


    You've described my personal situation perfectly.

    Honestly, PCvsMAC, it's a moot point.. the Rig Manager functionality is fairly limited now. It's very nice to preview rigs from the exchange or your local library instead of running as many of them as you can from your profiler memory... and then you have a little bit of organization capabilities... but that's pretty much it. It's falls short of full librarian functions such as performance mode archival or backup/restore functions. (I'm not complaining; I'm looking forward to the future; with great enthusiasm.)


    Honestly, I'm hoping that they'll build it into a useful all around rig management system for the profiler which includes version upgrades and eliminates USB sticks, browser and performance mode management and enhanced rig indexing.. THEN the MAC users, myself included, will have something to complain about... :)


    Who knows, maybe by then they'll attribute the .net thing as a prototype and build it on something more universal... one can only dream!

    Gettin' funky up in here..

    Quote from Trazan

    I still think it's a clear indication that the share of Mac users is much higher amongst Kemper owners (meaning people doing music) than any worldwide ratio will indicate.


    You could also speculate that there will be more Windows users frequenting this particular forum, as those are the ones with RM issues and questions for the time being.

    No, what this pool is indication of is that few Kemper users who stumbled upon this thread have rig manager already installed on their Windows machines and very likely don't give a damn to vote.
    Give them time, it's coming for Mac as well in a couple of months/years.
    There are very few issues with latest beta of RM and whole thing is really simple, not much to talk about.

    Comparing Mac vs PC is totally useless. Everyone has a favorite computer to work with. As a professional musician living in Los Angeles and also teaching at Berklee college of music, it is my experience that Macs are in favor of the artistic community but there are also PCs in use...anyways...


    My point is that having a multi platform rig manager and editor app for either computer based or mobile devices and tablets should not be a problem; after all other companies in this market (not to mention any names) are capable of doing so as well....I hop there will be an librarian/ editor/ manger app for all platforms soon as it would speed up the workflow on the KPA. :)

    Quote from 1fastdog

    Kemper should easily know what operating systems log onto this site. All site owner should have that info with a couple of clicks.


    yeah but that only tells them what computer they were surfing the web with, and all Rig Manager logins will be Windows, so it's skewed; it doesn't tell them what the user considers their primary computer or music use computer, preferred computer.


    Again, it's a moot point; Kemper's made their decision on platform.... to the Mac users dismay.. ;(


    but I'm still banging the crap outta my Profiler!!!! (been working on Don's advice on the definition, sagging, clarity, tube bias and amp compression attributes... it really can bring out the Dumbleness of Lars H&K with gain set to 70%...)

    Gettin' funky up in here..

    Quote from DukeOURL

    Honestly, PCvsMAC, it's a moot point.. the Rig Manager functionality is fairly limited now. It's very nice to preview rigs from the exchange or your local library instead of running as many of them as you can from your profiler memory... and then you have a little bit of organization capabilities... but that's pretty much it. It's falls short of full librarian functions such as performance mode archival or backup/restore functions. (I'm not complaining; I'm looking forward to the future; with great enthusiasm.)


    Honestly, I'm hoping that they'll build it into a useful all around rig management system for the profiler which includes version upgrades and eliminates USB sticks, browser and performance mode management and enhanced rig indexing.. THEN the MAC users, myself included, will have something to complain about... :)


    Who knows, maybe by then they'll attribute the .net thing as a prototype and build it on something more universal... one can only dream!



    Still in beta, guys. Not an alpha release. Perhaps that'll come before the Mac version. Perhaps they'll coincide. I see a lot of scope for things to be more intuitive, such as organising my profiles and being able to add/delete rigs from the Profiler. I want to just point and click to get things done, not navigate through dozens of sub-menus. I believe these capabilities will come in future revisions, but till then, I'm quite happy with the ability to just browse any file on the rig exchange without having to download first. Can't believe anyone could knock that, there should be the ability to download all files from the rig exchange to the PC, they're only a few kb each. Then, you could have the cheapest, sh*ttiest laptop on earth and a Kemper and have 1000s of profiles to access while offline.

    Nightlight
    In SW testing, alpha testing usually happens first and usually within the development organization. Beta testing usually follows and is traditionally released to a limited but external set of users.
    As for the ability to download all the Rig Exchange profiles, I think the RM already does this and stores them all in its internal database. After syncing with the RE you should be able to load them onto the KPA whether you are online or not. You should also be able to export them all to kipr files if you would rather keep them in that form in a folder on your hard drive. I’m not near my KPA ATM so can’t verify for sure, but give it a try.

    The choice of OS for an application such as rig-manager doesn't matter that much, but musicians are likely to use their computer for other tasks where certain OS-characteristics are crucial for performance, reliability and audio-quality. For reliable audio (and video) processing you need an OS-kernel with proper realtime characteristics. I.e. that an application can be guaranteed near immediate access to hardware resources. Neither Windows nor OSX is ideal for the purpose, but OSX is a lot better than Windows. You can get reasonable results by throwing extreme high-performance hardware in the mix, but reliability still requires real-time properties. What is unfortunate though is that Kemper seems to have stumbled hard into that ditch also known as .net so. I'm afraid that support for other operating systems will require a complete redesign.

    Edited once, last by heldal ().