Comment by majewsky
9 months ago
Asking as a Linux user for whom PipeWire works fine (for recording, live-streaming, as well as playback), what does macOS do better?
9 months ago
Asking as a Linux user for whom PipeWire works fine (for recording, live-streaming, as well as playback), what does macOS do better?
Latency for the most part. It's almost non-existent and has effectively no visible load on the system. Also, you can plug any advanced interface via USB or Thunderbolt and carry massive amount of audio data just by selecting that device from a list. It's simple, it's transparent, it's fast and it works.
While I agree that Pipewire works great and pretty transparently for single channel capture and multichannel playback, I don't know what happens when you add a 6 channel audio interface and start recording on all of them at the same time.
Then you should give pipewire a serious go with multiple channels. It's way better than MacOS stack which doesn't really do independent multichannel by default. There's an API for it that some paid apps use that lets you do it. Meanwhile pipewire just lets you connect whatever wherever. I managed with pipewire to get lower latency on Bluetooth headphones than MacOS allows at all.
What happens with 6 channels? You just connect them where you want and it works.
I'd happily do that, and give it a whirr. I have no qualms against that.
Unfortunately I no longer have my primary desktop (Linux) system, and no external audio interface to play with at the office.
If I can borrow something from my friends, I'd love try to give Pipewire another go.
Sounds like I need to borrow my friend's Rodecaster for a bit. :)
That's a bullshit myth. Actually, CoreAudio is implemented in such a way that the minimum latency is 2 samples when you can go down to 1 with some drivers on Windows.
Macs are "good" for audio, because audio people tend to do nonsense with their softwares (a lot of pirated stuff that they don't even know how to install properly) and macOS makes it harder to put the system in a problematic state.
But it doesn't have that many advantages in comparison to a well-managed system apart from some specific audio utilities (that can be quite useful/good, that much I can agree with).
In other words, Macs are good for noobs, and the stereotype of Apple users being pretty bad with computers is usually not completely wrong (the average Windows user isn't better really but they are not so narcissistic and arrogant about their choice of computers).
> But it doesn't have that many advantages in comparison to a well-managed system apart from some specific audio utilities (that can be quite useful/good, that much I can agree with).
> In other words, Macs are good for noobs, and the stereotype of Apple users being pretty bad with computers is usually not completely wrong (the average Windows user isn't better really but they are not so narcissistic and arrogant about their choice of computers).
There is extreme value in making the computer do something extremely well without having to care about "properly managing it", you are leaning towards a "No True Scotsman" situation, audio professionals might be noobs with computers, to the point where learning yet another skill just to have a functioning setup is not worth it if there's another solution on the market that doesn't require it.
The stereotype of Mac users being bad with computers is... Well, just a stereotype. The difference being: Linux requires you to be good with computers, there's no other option, if you aren't you simply cannot keep a well-managed system, that won't ever have mass appeal.
I remember the days when 1ms latency in Windows considered extremely good. Then ASIO came, and slapping that Red/Green logo meant any simple sound card get a 3x multiplier on their price tag.
So, having 2 samples of latency in most cases is way better than having 1 sample latency in some cases. Esp, for non-computer people, as you say.
Back then, on Linux, JACK provided a clunky setup, but a better experience latency/flexibility-wise w.r.t. Windows. Now Pipewire is probably way better (w.r.t. JACK), but I'm not recording anymore.
Mind you, macOS is not my primary OS of choice. I only prefer it for my portables because of the hardware it implies, and the OS's BSD heritage. On the other hand, I don't believe neither in "everybody shall know computers inside out", nor I stereotype people according the OS they choose to drive daily.
Both are bullshit, like you prefer to say.
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