Ok, just had a good convo w/my sales guy @ a certain large online vendor (can we use company names here?).
Who knew that my insistence on NOT buying a Mac to run things on would be such a PITA???
Uhhh.... everyone with a Mac?
Sergio said the same thing to me when I was debating what to (Mac vs PC) do when my old HP laptop was in its death throes, against everything in my soul I went with a Mac and as much as I hate to admit it (and I really,
really, REALLY hate it), I have been very happy with my experience. I hated it when people recommended Macs, because I felt like I could never find what I was looking for on them - files, photos, the whole thing just felt wrong. Come to find out, it's because I expected to have to work and dig for what I wanted, like I did on Windows, and on a Mac what your'e looking for is probably staring you right in the face.
Macs can be expensive, but I didn't have to go crazy, financially, to do it. If you could score a refurbished, or even used if from a reliable seller, you don't need tons of brand-new-computer horsepower to get up and running, far from it. I'm using my wife's old (2012 or 2013) Mac, put a RAM expansion and solid state hard drive (no tube hard drives, bummer
), reinstalled the OS (easy) and did the necessary upgrades and it runs literally like brand new. And the best part is Logic X. $200, no subscription fees, very user friendly, and nice stock plugins. Plus, it has a very intuitive virtual drummer feature, which adds lots of oomph to ideas in a hurry if you're not a drummer. The Superior Drummer samples probably sound better, but the stock Logic ones are good, and you can probably sub in those other samples later on. I would go with a slightly newer model Mac if you have the option, but don't spec a brand new machine, you don't need it. The experience of using Logic X, and the money you'll save using it, will mitigate your investment into the machine, and the stability... oh, the stability. You will lose many unsaved takes when your worn out Windows machine crashes.
I'll stop with that side of things now. I second what
@RickP said about the top notch mics and gear, especially if you're doing acoustic guitars and vocals, they will expose the weaknesses of your studio space in an awful hurry. I primarily play and record electric, either with my Torpedo rig (like your Ox) or just close-mic'd cabinets, so I can get away with a lot more imperfections in my studio room, but you start doing acoustic guitar and vocals and you will quickly find sound reflections and frequency abnormalities that'll make your head spin, not to mention the sound of your microwave upstairs, or the garage door opening, or the furnace kicking on. So plan to put some considerable money and effort into acoustic treatment of your room, even a very basic home recording rig will not forgive a badly treated room, the stuff is surprisingly good... too good. It exposes the problems you didn't even know you had. Hence why I don't record vocals and acoustic very much!
Get good, affordable mics that are industry standards, you'll use them for a long time. I wouldn't go too crazy on an interface - get a decent one, but probably keep it under $1K. It'll be a long time before your skills exceed its capabilities, you'll probably dump it and lose some money, but if you spend more, you'll probably still dump it for something better and lose more money.
