Upgrade

I haven't done any research myself into Emulator.

What I will say is this: I am not a fan of OS emulation, of which Parallels is such a beast. Emulating always leads to issues at some point in time. Emulating Windows on a Mac has been, up until rather recently, not very successful outside of a few speciality cards putting usually Intel-based hardware on an add-in card.

With the Intel-based Macs, I would seriously consider using BootCamp and then actually clean booting to Windows for your Emulator software. I am doing exactly this for the ADJ MyDMX package, as well as for quite a few much more demanding software packages(none of which are lighting outside of MyDMX). Works fantastic and chances are you're already paying for it, just not using it.

Just an idea. I love my MacBook Pro, but I mainly use it as a PC laptop. I only run it as a Mac when I'm doing ProTools.

hi washington,
This wouldn't be a software upgrade. it would be more of a hardware exchange, in which case its something to ask the dealer you purchased it from about.

I have had these units for years, so there is no dealer to go back to. I was more wondering if Elation could do the swap plus a fee

Studio42- I hear the idea of bootcamp, I just want to get away from Windows all together. The only thing I use it for is the Compu.

Your best bet would be to find a buyer for your Compu.

Trading in a Compu for Emulation is like trading in a ShowDesigner 1 for a Show Designer 2.

Or a design spot 250 for a Design Spot 300.. as a manufacture we don't do trade ins.

Dealers usually buy back gear and offer upgrades. But that would be the advantage of building a relationship with a dealer vs buying on line.

Sincerely,

I love Bootcamp, it works fantastic for me.

I don't see why there aren't more Mac-based lighting programs, outside of the fact that it probably costs more to be an Apple developer than a PC/Intel/Windows platform. Of course, there's always Linux....

Not saying which platform is better. There are lots of Macs being used in pro audio applications. I get the sense that Macs are the preferred platform for recording, especially with ProTools. I also see way more Macs for playback than PC's on tours using pre-recorded tracks, so there must be something there as well. Just doing a true "apples to apples"(sorry, not intentional) comparison, my Macbook Pro, running OS 10.5.8 SMOKES the same computer running as XP Home under Bootcamp on Protools M-Powered 7.4.cs10 in every sense of the word. I'm sure if I used XP Pro, I'd get some better performance, but that's outside the budget.

I would say if there's no demand for people wanting a Mac-based application, it's not going to happen. THe only way they'll develop one is if the customer base is really screaming and demanding it.

If the only thing you're using it for is Compu, get a netbook or low end PC that exceeds SUGGESTED(not minumum) requirements. That's what I intend to do for MyDMX.

I guess until just an Intel-based platform becomes the "standard" as opposed to the OS for development(not happening), it's going to require different development teams for each OS, or at least specialized components of those teams.