January 23, 2011 – A new year, a brand new product review! Audio-Technica was kind enough to send me a set of their DJ headphones, the ATH-PRO700. I’ve been itching to try out a good set of headphones since the ones I’ve used to mix and listen with for the past 10 years, have begun disintegrating.

Because I check my mixes with a couple sets of in ear monitors, one of them being the Ultimate Ears Triple-Fi I reviewed last month, I haven’t been in a rush to replace my old headphones. When the ATH-PRO700′s arrived, however, I was eager to see if they would be a good replacement.

It helps to know that the ATH-PRO700 has been categorized by Audio-Technica as for DJ’s. As I’m sure you know, DJ’s are pretty rough with their headphones and need something that can withstand the punishment of gigging professionals. When I picked up the ATH-PRO700′s I was surprised by their weight. I normally look for the lightest set for comfort but I was surprised at how beefy these headphones are.

The headband is especially thick and feels like it could take a bullet. The closed ear capsules both fold and rotate completely which means that the headphones are easy to store (they come with a vinyl bag for storage) and are more likely to rotate than snap when put in an awkward situation; definitely a plus. I’ve heard that some have had issues with the swivel portion of the headphone cracking, but since I haven’t had the headphones for that long I can’t comment on that; they seem pretty well-built to me so far. The ear cups isolate the sound well, but a bit more foam would be nice as. For me at least, they pressed on my ear a bit.

The audio wire only comes off of one side which makes it more convenient to wear, especially when monitoring each ear separately. It’s a decently thick gauge, with an eighth inch stereo plug (a screw-on quarter inch adapter is included). The cord is sufficiently long for personal listening, but you might want an extension if you’re the dance-while-dj’ing type.

Ok, so how does this set of cans sound? Super bass flavour! These things have a tonne of bass, and pretty decent treble as well, although I found the mid-range lacked a bit of clarity. The ATH-PRO700 also get plenty loud, and with the good isolation from the cup design (although it could be improved even more with increasing the padding size as I stated before), these things are great for a noisy club environment.

The soundstage was distinct, though not as wide as I would have liked in some situations. Would I use these to mix on? Probably not, as the frequency range is boosted for a DJ’s ears. I would definitely use them to reference on when creating dance or hip hop music. These two genres are what the ATH-PRO700 are clearly designed for and while classical music might not sound great through these, dance and hip hop do.

The bottom line is that DJ aren’t necessarily worried about the same things as an audio engineer or audiophile; they want a loud, and great sounding set of headphones and the ATH-PRO700 delivers on those counts. DJ’s also want something that is rugged, and the ATH-PRO700 seem to be pretty well built. As some others have had issues with the headphones breaking, I will update this review if anything happens to my set, but so far they’re working out great. With a very affordable street price of around $115, I’d definitely check them out if you’re in the market for a set of headphones for dance and hip hop.

Audio-Technica ATH-PRO700

December 13, 2010 – I recently received a set of Ultimate Ears TripleFi 10 IEM’s (in ear monitors) and I’ve had a few days to put them through their paces. The TripleFi 10s, as the name suggests, contain 3 drivers, each corresponding to the low, medium, and high frequency ranges.

Many earphones claim to go down to super low frequencies, lower than the normal range of human hearing in fact; in the TripleFi 10s Ultimate Ears says the can get down to 10 hz. While I have no way of objectively measuring if they can back this up, I can say that the amount of bass energy they were able to provide was surprising.

Over the years, I’ve owned dozens of earphones and headphones. I even had several iterations of the Panasonic portable CD players and tape decks (remember those?!) that had a motor in the proprietary headphones to shake them off your head. Honestly though, it was all for show because the bass distorted pretty easily.

I could almost feel the bass in my chest with these IEMs. Will they replace a nice set of speakers? Of course not, but when they are well sealed in the ear cavity, they provide a nice rich bass that’s quite warm. To ensure that you do get the best fit, Ultimate Ears provides 3 sizes of rubber tips, and a couple sets of expanding foam ones. While I use similar rubber ones in my Shure IEMs, the Ultimate Ears foam set is so comfortable, it has me thinking of installing a set on the Shures.

Aesthetically, the TripleFi 10s are beautifully designed. In practice though, I find the earphones a bit awkward. I realize that they must be big enough to support the 3 drivers and the proper porting, but they are about an inch long and don’t sit flush against your outer ear; in fact, they stick out a bit. I’m not sure why they did this as the competing Shure SE530 sits more flush inside the ear and looks better on your head.

But looks aren’t why you’re paying $400 (MSRP but retails for much less), for a set of IEMs; you buy them for the sound. In that department, the TripleFi 10s excel. These IEMs are the best sounding earphones I’ve ever used. At $400 they are a good buy, but if you find them for less, they are a MUST buy.

As I touched on before, the bass is rich and warm, but at the same time not overpowering. There is great detail in the mids and highs, without being overly boosted. The best part of the aural experience is that everything sounds cohesive. When I say this, I mean that everything sounds like it’s playing together in one room rather than all in separate booths and then stuck together.

I used an Apple Lossless file and compared the output to a set of Shures (to be fair, they are less than half the price, and not a class competitor) to see the difference. Formerly the Shures sounded damn good for their price, however when compared to the TripleFis, I found that the frequency range was sharply boosted and cut in certain ranges. This made the instruments seem more isolated from each other.

In contrast, the TripleFi 10s had a very smooth frequency range but still retained great detail across the range. This is not to say that they have have a flat frequency response, but they sounded very pleasant. If I were to fault them aurally, I would say that they show off a bit too much in the low to mid range. In some lusher mixes I found it a little overwhelming.

One thing I might mention is that if you aren’t used to IEM’s, you may find the vocals too far forward. While the vocals sound great on speakers with the appropriate space away from you, IEMs sometimes bring the vocalist into your head spacially. This is not a mark against the TripleFis as all IEMs and earphones suffer from this, but it’s something to keep in mind if you are considering taking the plunge.

While a nice headphone amp would definitely help, I feel that the TripleFi 10s can be used on a daily basis without. They’re quite comfortable (if a bit awkward when putting them in), well constructed, sound great and are well-priced at most retail outlets. If you are in the market for a set of nice earphones, I strongly suggest you check them out. Also, if you work in a noisy office like me, they block out a lot of ambient noise without even being plugged in. You also get the benefit of people not bothering you as much because they think you’re listening to music.

October 10th, 2010 – Over the past few weeks, I’ve been working on music on my freshly installed Seagate Momentus XT hybrid drive so I thought I’d share a few thoughts on it from a music production perspective.

First off, the computer boots much faster than on a standard hard drive. I didn’t do any instrumented testing, however when started side by side by my friend’s identically spec’d Macbook Pro, but with an Intel 256gb SSD, it more than held its own. I would say, my boot time has been at least halved, and it was only a few seconds slower to boot than the SSD drive. Keep in mind that my system was also wiped clean with a clean install of Snow Leopard so that more than likely had something to do with the time reduction as well.

Once booted up, programs I access often, load quicker. If I have started a program already since boot up, the launch time is blazing quick. While programs always launch quicker after previously being launched, the speed increase is noticeable.

Alright, now down to business with how the drive performs when working on music. To be honest, I didn’t notice much, if any, of a performance difference. This is likely due to the fact that the speed increases from the hybrid drive are from read times, and not from write. When testing hard drive performance when writing audio to the same drive as OSX (which is not recommended as I posted before), I still experienced hard drive issues as expected. As always, it’s recommended that you write your audio to another hard drive.

Value-wise, the Seagate Momentus XT is a pretty good bargain. While much cheaper than an SSD, but more expensive than a standard 7200RPM laptop drive, the speed and size balance make it a much better value than either. If you have a little extra to spend, I’d definitely recommend the drive for day to day use but if you’re expecting a boost in speed for audio recording, buy a FW800 external hard drive.

September 18th, 2010 – The NS10, NS10, NS10; to a beginner it must seem that audio engineers have an infatuation with it. Indeed, the signature white cone on black cabinet is so recognizable, people who aren’t audio geeks might think all studio speakers look like that.

Earlier this week, I linked a Gizmodo article on the Yammies through Twitter (btw, add me here!). Later I figured that I might go a step further and provide a succinct review of the venerable speakers.

In what seems forever ago, I worked in a small studio where the producer swore by NS-10s. You know the oft repeated stories about how some engineers experimented with how many sheets of tissue paper (along with what brand, and ply count) were best for monitoring? Yeah, he was one of those guys.

Truthfully though, you really do need to use tissue paper over the tweeter. The speakers have such a pronounced mid-range that the tweeter pierces your ears like hot needles. I’m absolutely serious: the NS10′s are incredibly unpleasant to listen to. Not only that, the low-end is pretty weak (maybe something to do with the completely sealed design, although I’m not an acoustics expert).

That being said, some of my best mixes used the NS10. The mid-range for many engineers is the most difficult frequency range to deal with because almost every instrument has frequencies present there. Because the NS10 accentuates this range, it makes it easy to hear what is masking, clashing, and otherwise muddying up your mix. The bottom line is that the speakers are terrible for enjoying music but great for checking your mix against (you would probably want other monitors as mains, preferably something with bass).

Recently Jon over at AudioGeekZine had me over to his studio to chill out and make some noise, and he has a set of HS50M’s which are supposed to be the spiritual successor to the NS10′s. Unlike the NS10′s though, the HS50M’s possess an active design (the fancy way of saying that you don’t need a separate amp to drive them) which helps reduce the variability the amp brings to the sound. As Jon pointed out, and to which I agreed, the HS50M sounds completely different.

While I have read reviews that the HS50M can somewhat emulate the mid-range push of the NS10, it does so in a way that sounds completely different. The big difference is that the HS50M is a much better designed speaker and therefore sounds a lot better. Does this make it better to mix with? I’m not sure.

The HS50M sounds pretty good, but with a lot of my music requiring bass awareness, a proper set up would require the optional sub woofer. That brings the price up considerably, and puts it in the sights of a lot of competitors. The HS80M has a lot more bass given its 8 inch woofer (and costs less than the HS50M with the subwoofer), but I’ve read that they are not as tight sounding.

The NS10 is a great speaker for checking your mix, but you probably wouldn’t want one as your main set of monitors. That being said, I’d love to have a set again.

February 10th, 2010 – No, unfortunately I don’t have a Numa Nero to review, but Dom Leong of Logical Productions does and he’s posted up a video on Youtube with his impressions. For those of you unfamiliar with the Numa Nero, it’s a $1500 keyboard MIDI controller. What makes it so special? Unlike most keyboards that are semi-weighted, the Numa Nero is fully-weighted. This means that the action and resistance changes depending on where you are playing on the keyboard, just like on a real grand piano.

So no, this controller isn’t for those who want to rip off a DX7-esque synth lead solo; in fact, there’s no pitch wheel, and the mod wheel is inconveniently placed on the side (why even include one at all?!). The Numa Nero is pretty much for pianists that miss the feedback of the real thing, but want to control sample libraries and synths. Pricey, but very worth it.

The Korg Triton ProX that I have is the closest that I’ve come to real feel, and it was over 4 grand new. I’m sure the Numa Nero blows the Triton’s feel right out of the water at a fraction of the price, although it does need to be hooked up to other modules to make any sound. When that sweet, sweet film composing money comes in, this will be the next keyboard to get.

Studiologic Numa Nero

January 24th, 2010 – If you’ve read any blogs other than mine lately, you’ve heard about the Pick Punch. Well this week I received one so I thought I’d throw up a lightning review. This will likely be the fastest review you’ve ever read on a piece of music gear, because there’s really not much to say about it.

The Pick Punch is basically the same as those craft hole punches, but it punches holes the size and shape of a standard pick (or plectrum if you want to get all fancy). Plus, it’s made of materials strong enough to punch through pieces of plastic. To use it, you insert a piece of plastic into the Pick Punch, and push down the handle like you would a stapler. Et voila, your own handmade pick.

In the package I received, there were two different types of plastics: one translucent and one entirely clear. I found the clear one punched easier than the translucent piece. One thing I should note is that contrary to the videos on the Pick Punch site, it is not easy to punch the plastic, at least with the particular example that I got. My girlfriend was unable to punch the plastic without putting it on the floor and stepping on it, and even I had some difficulty pressing down on a table top. Just something to keep in mind if you are thinking of picking one up.

Overall, a pretty cool device. It’s not going to save you money on picks unless you go through a lot, but it’s still fun to make your own. You will need to sand the edges if you plan on using them to play, and the plastic that they offer on the Pick Punch site is a good weight and flexibility for my style of playing. The Pick Punch sells for $25 on their site, and you can also buy a different types of pick material from them as well.

Pick Punch

November 25th, 2009 – First off, sorry about the delay in getting this post up. I actually had the videos ready to go Monday night, but the company I host my websites on, suffered a massive crash. Alright, now that’s out of the way…let’s get to the review!

Ok, let’s dive right into this review (if you missed the unboxing, you can read it here). See that picture up above? That’s the Vestax Spin, and it’s sitting in a custom steel case that I made for it. Well not exactly made, more like re-purposed and customized. Yup, it’s good enough that I want to protect it.

The Vestax Spin is an absolute blast to use. It definitely feels like less of a toy than most DJ controllers out there but, of course, it’s not a competitor to Vestax’s bread and butter, the VCI-100 and VCI-300. When viewed on its own, the Spin looks great; clean lines, a pleasant and ergonomic design, thoughtful layout, smooth and heavy platters, and good quality plastics. When compared to the VCI-100 and VCI-300 though, it looks like a plucky kid brother.

Of course, Vestax knows that the VCI-100 and VCI-300 faithful aren’t going to be looking at the Spin, but I’m sure users of the Spin will look up to the VCI-100 and VCI-300 when they want an upgrade. That being said, the Spin is just what a beginner laptop DJ like me needs.

For those starting out, the value in an included soundcard cannot be denied; plug in a set of headphones, connect the USB cable to your computer, and RCA outs to your speakers, and you’re good to go. There’s no fussing with external soundcards and having to route separate headphone and speaker outs. There’s a big headphone button next to each platter and you press it to hear what’s coming out. It’s that simple.

All the buttons and faders are intuitively placed, and the spacing feels good. All the main features that you’d want to control are available with clearly labeled and nicely lit buttons. The platters feel great, although it would be nice if the touch surface was a little wider for better control. Contrary to my initial reactions in the un-boxing, the linear faders are not too light. In fact, they feel pretty nice. Either I’m going crazy, or the faders got tighter and smoother with use. Is that even possible?!

One weird thing about the design, is that there’s a plug for a power adapter, but the Spin is bus-powered and doesn’t need one. Even odder, is a switch in the back that allows you to switch between external power, off, and USB powered. It doesn’t even say anything about a power adapter in the manual. If anyone from Vestax reads this, perhaps they could enlighten us.

I know you all are hungry for all the info you can get on the Vestax Spin, but the real hero of this combination is Algoriddim’s djay software. Lest we forget, the Vestax Spin is designed with djay in mind. I’ve tried out a lot of different DJ software in my quest to find something that feels right including Traktor and Mixxx (both software titles that I’ve talked about previously). I liked the simplicity of Mixxx and the flexibility of Traktor and I feel that djay slots somewhere in between.

Feature-wise, it has everything that you need to get the job done. EQ, speed control, headphone cueing, etc…all of that is present and where you’d expect it to be. What’s nice are the extras. User definable cuepoints are a huge plus for djay. You can set 3 cuepoints for each song and djay will save them in its own database where BPMs that djay has determined are also saved.

I checked iTunes to see if that information was stored in a common database, but unfortunately it looks like djay keeps that information to itself. This means that if you use your music library with other DJ software, that information will not be available to it. One thing to keep in mind is that although you can set 3 cuepoints in the software, you can only access one on the Spin. That means you’ll have to press the laptop keyboard to do any cool cuepoint juggling. Not really a big deal and, although adding more buttons would have been nice, it would have made the Spin bigger (or the buttons smaller).

Another great feature in djay is the sampler, which not many DJ software titles have. You can play up to 3 samples at once. You can record from the microphone or the turntables live, or you can load up your own samples. Regardless, the sampler is a great tool to get your creative juices flowing.

One thing I noticed was that the integration between iTunes and djay is closer than I first thought. iTunes has to be open for djay to be able to load the tracks. I’m not sure what the reason for that is, but I have a feeling that djay may be piggy backing on iTunes’ playback engine. At the very least, it needs the iTunes database to access songs. I’m not a developer, so I’m not sure if iTunes needs to be open to access that or not. Anyways, if you’re running an older version of iTunes that leaks memory all over the place, then you’ll want to get the latest version. While djay itself doesn’t use that much RAM, an iTunes leak could significantly impact performance.

Another one of djay’s nice features is its keylock abilities. Basically, you can click the keylock button in djay, and when you make speed changes, the pitch won’t change. It’s a nice feature for DJ’s who mix harmonically and it works pretty well. I wish the Spin had a button for it though. That would definitely have been useful.

Small BPM changes sound pretty good, although you wouldn’t want to slow it down too much; you can definitely hear distortion with extreme BPM changes. You can also set the processing power devoted to keylock in the preferences. There’s also an effect that allows you to pitch the track without changing the BPM. However, since you can’t dynamically change the pitching with the Spin itself, it’s not much more than a gimmick.

At this point, I’d like to point out that djay was around before the Vestax Spin and, as such, is able to use a variety of different controllers. Quite a few controllers are already mapped (including quite a few Vestax models), but if your controller is not listed, djay has a self-learning feature. As well, if you do have a controller that’s listed (even the Spin), you can go in and change parameters as you’d like.

Of course, the offshoot of this is that the Vestax Spin is a fully MIDI compliant controller. That means, you could map it to other software if you so wished and, in fact, I’m sure many people out there have already created Traktor mappings for it.

I’m going to say on the record that djay matches me the best out of all the DJ software I’ve used for both Mac and PC platforms. Some are too simple, and some, like Traktor, can be overwhelming to a newcomer like me. Maybe I’ll grow into Traktor, but right now djay strikes that ideal balance of simplicity and feature set. That being said, there are a couple things I’d like to see in future versions.

For one, it would be nice if there were scrolling waveforms. True, not being able to see the waveform makes you rely on your ears just like traditional mixing, but I’m a studio engineer damnit; I like having the option! I’d also like to have more FX (like filter sweep) and control over those effects. I want to be able to map the effects to rotary knobs if I want. Even if I can only choose between a few steps, I want to be able to turn my knob and control it on the fly. Right now, I have to open the FX module and use my mouse to click right or left to change it. If I want to map the effect to the controller, I can only choose note on/note off commands, not dynamically changing values like from a fader.

I am not a DJ. As a non-DJ, the Vestax Spin and Djay make an ideal pair to introduce me gently into the world. But no, they will not make you into a DJ hero even with BPM detection and syncing. No matter what people say, matching BPMs between two tracks is not the hardest thing about being a DJ. Every professional DJ can match BPM’s, it’s par for the course. The hardest thing is playing music as an instrument itself. In my opinion, that’s what makes a real DJ.

I hope hardware and software like the Vestax Spin and Djay will help introduce DJing to a whole new generation. Skill is skill, no matter what the tools. Some kid is not going to come up and destroy the achievements of Q-Bert or Grandmaster Flash. She’s going to succeed by doing something different. If you’re worried that a kid on a $250 DJ controller is going to steal your thunder, then you have bigger fish to fry like upping your own game. Recognize your history, but evolve.

Oh and on a slight tangent: DJ’s(analog and laptop), turntablists, and controllerists are all different. Each shares a similar skillset, but the end result is markedly different. They do not compete, but rather compliment each other. All can be appreciated for their abilities; why is there so much tension out there?

The Vestax Spin is a fantastic controller. Feature-wise it has just enough to get you started. Even if you’ve never DJ’d before, you’ll feel right at home. Time will tell if the Spin will survive the thrashing it’ll get while DJing; I’ll keep you updated. As for djay, if you’re a Mac user (sorry PC platformers) and you’re looking for some DJ software, it’s awesome. It even has a “set and forget” automix mode that destroys the iTunes genius for auto-djing your next wine and cheese party.

If it sounds like I’m gushing with effusive praise, it’s because I’m just that excited. That’s something that not many products can do. Not only is djay fun to use, but it had some surprises up its sleeve that far exceeded my expectations given its low price ($50). Now bundle both the Vestax Spin and djay for $250…killer value.

Here is an embedded video review with the Spin in use. Warning, it’s pretty long. For people who prefer Youtube (why?!), I split it into two videos(Part 1, Part 2). Please excuse my horrible DJing.

Update 12-29-09: For those of you who are interested, I interviewed the developers of djay and asked many of the questions that I have been asked. That post is here.

November 21st, 2009 – After contacting my local Apple stores last week and none of the staff knowing anything about the Vestax Spin, a product exclusive to them, I bought it off of the Apple Canada website. Today was the estimated arrival date and it came right on time (despite what the UPS site said).

Since it’ll take me a couple days to get a full hardware/software review up (hopefully I’ll have it done by Monday or Tuesday), I figured I’d create a little “unboxing” post since it’s all the rage these days. Without further ado, here are the sexy pictures :

Apple stuff is always boxed within a box. Just means more for me to recycle.

The software is in the pouch, and there’s an extra 1/4″ to mini adapter for your headphones taped to the polystyrene.

Behold…the Vestax Spin!

Looking good!

Looks pretty nice from this angle too.

Here are a 1st generation iPod Shuffle and a 3rd generation iPod Nano for size reference.

The Spin next to a Korg NanoPad for size reference.

In front of a MacbookPro for size and colour reference.

Ooo…artsy filters!

So far the Spin looks like good value for the money ($250 USD/$280 CAD). Although it’s made of plastic, it seems pretty solid. One nitpick is that the white plastic that the “brushed aluminum look” is stickered onto, makes the fake metal look even more so. Other than that, the housing has a good fit and finish.

The knobs and EQ faders have a quality feel although I think that the linear faders for each deck and the crossfader are a little too light in action. Sure, you want light faders when you’re performing controllerist techniques, but I don’t think many will even attempt it on the Spin. It would have been nice if they had more weight, and were a little stiffer. I’m not sure how hard it is to open up the Spin and customize it with new faders, but at that point, you might want to move up to a VCI-100.

When you push the buttons, you can feel the click which helps when you’re mixing in loud environments. Interestingly, loading the decks is accomplished with a directional pad. Oldschool gamers will feel right at home. There’s a microphone for injecting your own voice into the mix as well.

One of the things that makes the Vestax Spin so attractive for someone new to DJing is that it bundles the controller and the soundcard together. One of the questions that a lot of people who want to get into DJing ask about DJ controllers is how they connect it to their speakers.

Controllers like the VCI-100 require the use of a separate soundcard and while Vestax’s VCI-300 has one built in, it costs about 3 times as much as the Spin. The strength in having a turnkey solution for digital DJing cannot be denied even for seasoned professionals. After all, many pros who use DJ controllers do so because they are easier to carry around than their analog set up.

Being a turnkey setup, the Vestax Spin also has another trick up its sleeve: it’s bundled with Djay, a DJ software title. I’ll review Djay when I get to the more in depth hardware/software post sometime in the next few of days. From what I’ve seen so far though, it’s pretty easy to set it up and get started.

According to Vestax, this controller is also fully MIDI compliant, so I’m sure someone will have a nice Traktor set up for it shortly. This also means that you don’t need to to use the Spin with an Apple computer (although you’ll have to set it up with your Windows or Linux software manually). Djay looks like pretty good software to just get your mix on, but for those out there that want to get crazy, you could use other DJ apps like Traktor and combine the Spin with other MIDI controllers for lots of creative possibilities. In a slight aside, the next version of Mixxx will support cue-points and plug-in effects which will make it a great free alternative to Traktor for all your mixing needs as well (it also has MIDI learning which will make it easier to map the Spin).

One last thing I want to touch on quickly is the unfriendly reception the Vestax Spin is getting from some “professional” DJs. Their displeasure generally seems to be aimed towards the young upstarts who, with the cheaper cost of entry the Vestax Spin allows, may undercut the business. My opinion is that while products like the Spin may allow people to try out DJing without making a big investment, that does not mean they’ll be a good DJ. If they end up being good, then they will weed out the weaker “established” DJ’s. It makes everyone elevate their game and that’s a good thing. After all, it’s about the music.

A Vimeo video is embedded below, and for those of you who prefer Youtube, you can click here for the video.

UPDATE : Full review is done. View it here!

On the opposite end of the spectrum, at $500, audiophiles might ignore them thinking that they were just another high-designed, low-powered piece of consumer level crap. After reading Gizmodo’s review of them, I’m happy to report that they are not.

The speakers are, as the name suggests, made of ceramic with carefully chosen internals and an external amp with gain fader. There isn’t a subwoofer, but for critical listening, and not ear bleeding volumes, the low energy won’t overwhelm everything else.

Head on over to Gizmodo for the full review. At $500, it’s going to be pretty expensive for some, but they sound like they may actually be quite the bargain for the performance. My old computer speakers are giving out, maybe it’s time for an upgrade.

Joey Roth via Gizmodo

Photo courtesy of wicho

January 3rd, 2009 – Following yesterday’s post where I said that I could always use more processing power when I mix, I’ve been thinking of building a hackintosh. For those of you who don’t know what a hackintosh is, it’s a PC that is running a hacked BIOS that allows it to run Apple’s OSX operating system.

Why would someone want that? Well for people like you and I, it means that we can run Logic Pro, which only is available for OSX, on PC hardware. This greatly reduces the costs of simply running the software. Technically this is a legal grey area, so if you do decide to run a hackintosh, it’s at your own discretion.

Personally the physical design of Apple products is a secondary consideration. While good looking hardware is a nice perk, what really makes me like Apple products is the operating system. I like OSX, and I’m familiar with Logic but I currently own two pieces of Apple hardware and can’t really justify paying the price differential for more shiny boxes. Lately, I have been on the look out for more processing power and have been thinking more and more of the hackintosh solution. Generic hardware prices, premium operating system. I already have full Logic and OSX install discs from my other computers so the software side is nice and cinched.

A nicely spec’d hackintosh tower can run around $800, while the Mac Pro I’d be imitating could cost almost five thousand dollars. That’s quite a savings for a computer which would be my processing workhorse. One thing I’m unsure of is how well hackintoshes run Logic. Most articles I’ve read seem to just be pleased to be running OSX at all, let alone benchmarking music software. An acquaintance of mine built his own hackintosh and has Logic installed, but wasn’t running genuine software, so when Logic updated, it kept asking for the software key. I didn’t get to see how it ran on his computer which is a pity since he has an Apogee Duet, which is what I want to run as well.

Have any of you run music software, Logic or otherwise, on a hackintosh? What kind of performance have you been seeing? Do any of you have an EFI-X dongled hackintosh install?