Audition 3 on a Mac??
We love our Macs, but a few of us are not loving that Audition still runs only on Windows. However, with an Intel-based Mac running Leopard and a copy of 32-bit releases of Windows XP or Windows Vista, Boot Camp could be the answer for you. In fact, our team has found that running Audition 3 in Boot Camp is no different than running it in Windows on a laptop or desktop with good hardware specs (For Audition system requirements, please go to: http://www.adobe.com/products/audition/systemreqs/.)
When I want to record multiple tracks of audio with full effects and monitoring, I run Audition using Boot Camp. Audition works smoothly on an Intel Mac because Boot Camp runs Windows natively, just as any PC would. However, when all I want is to make some minor edits, restore some noisy files or perform some batch conversions, I run Audition from OS X using virtualization software from VMWare or Parallels. Virtualization has opened the door to all sorts of new possibilities for our application library making the OS less important as systems get more powerful, CPUs get more cores and memory gets cheaper. Both Parallels Desktop and VMWare Fusion allow you to run Windows sessions without logging out of OS X (you can even use them with a Boot Camp installed partition). And since the VMWare Fusion and Parallels Desktop hardware configuration is customizable, you can adjust the amount of RAM available, which USB or Firewire devices it has access to or several other parameters.
So basically, if you plan to use Audition on an Intel-based Mac for one-track recording, light multitrack mixing, or editing and restoration, both Parallels Desktop and VMWare Fusion will do the job. If you want to record and mix multiple audio tracks, you should run Audition using Boot Camp.
Durin Gleaves
Comments
Hi there Durin,
Thanks for the mention of VMware Fusion as a great way to run any Windows application on a Mac!
Quick point of clarification: None of the virtualization products on the market right now support firewire peripherals passing through to the guest OS.
That is, while you can use VMware Fusion to run a virtual machine whose file package lives on an external firewire drive, the guest operating system for the virtual machine, in this case, Windows, will not be able to see the firewire peripheral.
So if you're running Audition 3 in a Windows XP virtual machine, for example, that Windows XP VM won't be able to read/write to firewire hard drive for example.
Hope that helps, and if you have any questions about VMawre Fusion technical details, our user forums are a great place for those: www.vmware.com/go/fusionforums.
~Pete
VMware Fusion Product Marketing
Posted by: Peter Kazanjy | February 7, 2008 08:45 AM
Do you know that Win XP run really better and faster on a Mac Pro with Boot Camp than a conventionnal PC ?
Posted by: Jean Pierre | February 27, 2008 01:32 AM
Thanks, Pete. That is an important point to note, and for users with Firewire gear, starting up Windows via Bootcamp will be the best solution.
It's also important to note that Microsoft's Virtual PC does not support USB devices, so it's probably not the best choice for many of our needs.
Durin
Posted by: Durin | February 28, 2008 10:23 AM
The experience the team has had regarding the speed of running Windows via Boot Camp has been positive. It pretty much depends on the hardware specs of your Mac.
Posted by: Louise Ping | February 28, 2008 10:50 AM