This 'unofficial' Forum is dedicated to the Clavia Nord Keyboards, including the Nord Stage, Nord Electro and Nord Piano. Discuss any issues around Nord's keyboards, share your favorite patches, samples, and music. We are not affiliated with Clavia!
Gustavo wrote:I'm gonna hijack this old thread just to say that I've got a Surface Pro 3 and it beats any laptop I've ever owned. It has many of the benefits of a regular tablet (it can even run an Android emulator) and you can use full fledged DAWs and VSTs. I fully recommend it to anyone looking for a truly portable computer.
Nice! Touch-screen devices are great for musicians. I expect Apple will eventually release a tablet that runs OSX, then there will be more options and the argument can continue afresh!
No, they won't.
OS X is designed from the ground up for mouse/cursor input. They cannot put that on a tablet without a complete redesign — which they've already done and are calling iOS.
What is happening is that iOS is getting more and more powerful, what with multitasking and split-screen coming. It will never run Mac apps, though.
These users thanked the author analogika for the post:
I am a Windows guy but quite fluent in Mac and Linux (IT manager by day) - having started in music/midi in DOS then Windows, I've stayed there ever since. Once I got into VSTs I found there were some plugins that were not released for Mac so I've just stayed there. That being said, my keyboard rig includes a Mac Mini running Windows 7 with Reaper, to host all my VSTs. Rock solid so far. Since I'm an IT guy I am comfortable with backing up the entire Windows (Bootcamp) partition to a USB3 drive, so I can easily restore to another Mini if needed. *EDIT* - using Winclone, works great
If the Mini were to go down during a gig, while it would be inconvenient, my NP2 has enough on-board sonic power to get me through the night. So far though no issues whatsoever. Takes a little time between songs but I'm ok with that as long as I plan ahead. I really like having the sonic palette of all those plugins handy for live performance so for me it's worth the trouble.
I picked up a second hand Mini quad i5, added 16gb ram and will be upgrading to a 1TB SSD soon (this mini will actually take 2 HDs). I liked the form-factor of the Minis - plus it has Firewire for my M-Audio sound cards. I considered running OSX native but as mentioned above there were enough of the cool freebie VSTs that are Windows only. I read some worrisome reviews of Mainstage being unstable as well so that kind of dissuaded me.
DH
Last edited by dhbp-nord on 02 Jul 2015, 16:37, edited 1 time in total.
Personally, I've found Windows 8.1 to be very user friendly. The best part is that it is more customizable. For instance, if you hate the start screen you can download a program to Turn it into the old start menu of Windows 7.
Also, stability is not a real issue now a day. The only thing that could break you down is when installing drivers, which is the only thing that has caused me trouble and blue screen of deaths. But that had only happened twice or trice since I've been using Windows 8. In contrast, my mom used to have a Macbook Air, which had do many stability issues and errors after 2 years that I got her an Asus Chromebook and she couldn't be happier.
It is more likely that you'll break Windows trying to do something crazy than it breaking itself for no reason.
This is all according to my experience, it does not mean that OSX is inherently bad, I just want to exemplify that it is not a perfect OS.
Synths: Nord Stage 2 SW, Nord Lead 4R, Vintage Vibe 64 Active, Dave Smith Instruments Pro 2, Minimoog Voyager, Prophet 6, Korg Volcas
Stand: K&M Spider Pro and Hercules X Stands
Recording: Zoom UAC-8
Speakers: EV ELXP 112-P, Event Alp 5
Although I'm pretty tired of these endless Mac vs PC, iOS vs Android, Amiga vs Atari, C64 vs ZX Spectrum discussions, I'll give you my two cents worth:
Get an iMac with Logic Pro. It will last many years and is a kick ass combination. Since logic is really inexpensive, the total amount is not that different from a Windows desktop with Cubase. Plus, it will just work. Really.
/a
These users thanked the author elektromin for the post:
OS X is designed from the ground up for mouse/cursor input. They cannot put that on a tablet without a complete redesign — which they've already done and are calling iOS.
What is happening is that iOS is getting more and more powerful, what with multitasking and split-screen coming. It will never run Mac apps, though.
Hmmm. That's not what the pundits have been saying. Using the word 'Never' with regard to Apple's product strategy is 'never' a good idea (even if you are Tim Cook).
There are plenty of articles out there - e.g. http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/ipad/ipa ... x-3492180/
Whether it is actually called OSX or iOS (or some evolution of them) is just semantics - but I stand corrected. The main thing is that the line between what we currently class as 'phones' and what we class as 'laptops' has become blurred since the iPad and will become increasingly more so. Apple will undoubtably bridge the gaps with ever new products. (iPhone, iPhone plus, iPad mini, iPad, .... new product..... , Macbook... etc.)
I have been working in this industry for around 20 years, but I cannot predict the future any more than anyone else, just give my opinion.
Give it a year then one or other of us can cycle back here and say 'i told you so'!
Peace.
Steve Jobs famously announced on January 9th, 2007, that the iPhone would run OS X for the underlying architecture.
And the desktop OS X and touch iOS are still based upon the same foundation and share many resources.
But everything Apple has been doing over the past few years — especially since the iPad — is to move the devices closer together and integrate them more closely with one another, while ever more solidly cementing their status as separate platforms.
You cannot operate a mouse-/cursor-driven interface on a touch screen, and you cannot operate a multi-touch interface using a cursor-based interface device.
Which is to say, you can, but there's no way to make it predictable and uniformly not suck.
In January 2005, I wrote:I've got a 2009 Mac Mini and it's now starting to show its age a bit, with programs complaining about a lack of memory. If I can find a c.2012 refurb, which I've seen go for around £300-350, I might grab one of those.
Heh, the Mac Mini died about three months later following a hard disk failure. I then got a 2008 Mac Pro from work that was being thrown out when we moved offices, and used that instead. It still works and with a bit of tweaking, runs the latest MacOS Catalina (though the next one, Big Sur, is coming out in a few weeks). Unfortunately, Logic Pro X still won't directly connect to a Nord Stage as a controller.
Come to think of it, my Electro is going to be 20 years old before not too long, which I think is the longest I've ever owned a keyboard.
Last edited by Ritchie333 on 01 Sep 2020, 12:44, edited 1 time in total.