Macbook Pro For Music Production

adminфевраля 09 2021

Macbook Pro For Music Production

For the music producer, Apple’s new Macbook Pro 2016, requires quite a bit of upfront investment.

Macbook Pro For Music Recording
Imac Or Macbook Pro For Music Production
Mac Pro For Music Production
Macbook Pro For Music Production 2016

2020 MacBook Air vs Pro for Music Production? I’m a musician who wants to transfer from working with GarageBand on iPad to Logic Pro X on MacBook. Would the new Air handle music production fine without performance issues or would it be a safe bet to go with the pro? The Macbook Pro has been stripped off all traditional USB ports USB-C ports instead. Well to use the latest Macbook Pro for music production, you’ll have to invest in about $250 of dongles & special cables. The New Macbook Pro For Music Production.

The first thing I wondered when I saw the Macbook Pro being introduced is how am I going to plug in my Cubase dongle? Let alone the many other audio hardware a typical music producer owns – from audio interfaces, MIDI controllers to drum pads & DJ controllers.

The Macbook Pro has been stripped off all traditional USB ports USB-C ports instead.

Well to use the latest Macbook Pro for music production, you’ll have to invest in about $250 of dongles & special cables.

The New Macbook Pro For Music Production

The new MacBook Pro 2016

How will the new MacBook pro do for music production? It’s lighter, thinner and it comes with a nice new ‘touch bar’. The MagSafe power connector is gone, which is a shame really as it was a useful safety feature, so your Macbook does not fly off the stage if someone happens to trip over the power cable.

You can still use traditional USB2.0 & USB3.0 devices with USB-C

I don’t know what type of musician or producer you are, but you’re bound to have some controller or audio device that connects to your computer via USB. How to connect your USB devices like audio interfaces and controllers to the Macbook Pro then?

The good news is you can buy a USB-C to USB 3.0 cable, which would work with USB2.0 devices as well. But this means changing all the cables you have in your studio, which can get pretty costly.

Another alternative is to buy a dongle like the USB-C Hub to USB-A, for all your connection needs.

It does not end there. Those dongles are needed to connect your audio devices. What if you take pictures as well or have an audio recorder like the Zoom H6 that uses SD cards? Well, another SD card USB-C card reader dongle for you.

You plan to connect your Macbook Pro to an external monitor in your studio? Yup, another USB-C to VGA adapter for you unless you’re waiting for the said new LG monitors that will be built with Macbook Pros in mind.

This might not be a deal breaker for many music producers, but I don’t like the idea of carrying so many different dongles. They get broken quickly and worse, you’re bound to forget a dongle and mistakenly leave it behind when you travel.

What about the new “Touch Bar” for music production?

Since Apple developed Logic Pro X, we would think some kind of Touch Bar feature will be built for it. But it seems like while every creative app, like Final Cut X, Numbers & Pages got updated with Touchbar support, Logic Pro X did not.

I must say, the Touchbar feature looks amazing and cool. There are so many features that I could think off, would be really cool on the Touchbar. For example, imagine using the Touchbar as a transport bar, MIDI controller or a mixing control surface to mute/solo or perhaps tweak some pan pots.

Touchbar seems like a nice feature for the music producer, but do you really need it? I figured using a touch screen to control the knobs and faders on a DAW would be much more intuitive than trying to fiddle on a thin Touchbar strip.

The new Macbook Pro can only have max 16GB RAM

Only max of 16GB RAM on the new MacBook Pro 2016. Good enough for music production?

As a music producer, producing with lots of VSTs and effects through the years, you probably know how important RAM is for your setup.

Before you throw hate on Apple, understand that the Macbook Pro is a laptop. It is designed to be small and portable. If you’re looking for super serious production work, it’s best to get a desktop unit or something like the iMac 27.

The reason why the Macbook Pro only limits up to max 16GB of RAM is possibly to make up for its higher battery life. Some users also noted that the MacBook Pro is using an LPDDR3 RAM which uses more power as compared to DDR4, in which surprisingly Apple did not put in.

However that being said, it’s still possible to do serious production work on a Macbook Pro. The SSD speeds on the MacBook Pro will aid with any heavy audio recording or processing in the studio or on the roads.

It also has a bumped up battery life to 10 hours between charges, so producing music on the road will be a breeze.

Isn’t the MacBook Pro a little expensive?

MacBook Pro are expensive for starters in music production

The standard 13-inch MacBook Pro (without the Touchbar) starts at $1499 instead of the previous pricing of $1299. And this model is without the TouchBar, which in my opinion, kind of defeats the purpose of upgrading to the new MacBook Pro. Besides, the entry Macbook Pro also comes with only 2 USB-C ports which is quite a deal breaker for music producers.

I used to recommend fellow music producers who wanted a Macbook Pro, to go for the base 15-inch model as it comes with higher disk space and also with a maxed out 16GB RAM. It wouldn’t be worth the price difference if you were to get the 13-inch model and upgrade the disk space and RAM.

However, the new MacBook Pro 15-inch model now starts at $2300 and even higher for people in Europe at €2799 (which is reported to be a 50% increase in price from the last pricing).

Even though Apple is a company that prides on their higher priced products, the price increase this round has caused lots of grumbles. Many users are talking about going back to run on a refurbished 2015 unit instead of getting the new Macbook Pro 2016.

Switch To Windows For Music Production?

Mac used to be the computer you want to get if you are into music production. But that isn’t the case anymore these days. There is no reason why you can’t produce great music on a Windows based computer system.

In fact, I’m using both the Mac and Windows for music production. The ONLY complaint I probably have for a Windows machine is the absence of a robust audio driver like CoreAudio on a Mac.

There is also a few great reasons why you would consider the switch to a Windows machine. Again, I’m not biased and this is not a Windows to Mac debate, but it’s cheaper to start off your music production journey on a Windows machine. You get more power for the price you pay for in most Windows based machine.

Some MacBook Pro alternatives for music production

Here are some great laptops you can consider if you’re in for the switch to Windows. The laptops recommended here are near the Macbook Pro in terms of portability and battery life.

1 – Dell XPS 13″ (Kaby Lake)

Coming with a new 7th generation processor, this is one of the best MacBook Pro alternatives you can find for music production. The Dell XPS is super portable, and it also comes with an excellent battery life, said to last up to 14 hours on web browsing – better than a Macbook Pro.

The laptop also comes with touch display, which can be used to control your DAW. For $1399, the highest model, you get an i7 CPU, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD and a beautiful 3200 x 1800 touch display.

2 – Microsoft Surface Book i7

If you’re into full portability, consider the Surface Book i7. The Surface is easily mistaken as a tablet PC with touch display but is in fact pretty powerful for music production.

The Surface more towards a mid-range to a high-end computer but you get lots of performance while it being extremely portable as well with 12 hours of battery life. At $2699, you get an i7 CPU, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD and also a NVIDIA graphic card.

The Surface wouldn’t be a great choice if you’re into high graphic work, but for music production, the touch display and the performance it comes pack with are superb.

3 – ASUS GL552VW

This laptop packs lots of power at the expense of having less battery life. It’s a gaming laptop but a good choice for music production as well.

It comes packed with an i7 processor and RAM upgradable up to 32GB, and this laptop is a powerhouse when it comes to processing and recording audio. Another thing to note is that it comes with an SSD and also a 1TB mechanical hard disk. This means you can put your system files on the SSD and your samples on the mechanical hard disk.

The cons to the ASUS GL552VW ROG is sadly that ASUS shipped many laptops that had graphic driver issues. I suspect it’s a hardware issue, but there is no solid answer. Just make sure you test the laptop thoroughly to check for any fault when you receive it.

4 – Microsoft Surface Studio

Not a portable computer but it definitely caught the eye of many creative professionals. It looks near to an iMac, but it’s more than just a regular computer.

The Surface comes with 28″ touch display, giving you lots of display screen real estate. The 4500 x 3000 Pixelsense display also gives you true colors, which would be amazing for design – showing you the actual colors. Upgradable up to 32GB RAM and has plenty of ports of all your audio hardware, it also comes pack with lots of CPU power with a

What really makes the Surface studio shine, is the Surface dial. It’s a new accessory that works with the Surface studio by just placing it on the display.

Imagine the things you could do with the Surface dial, from drawing in automations, using it as a fader and more. We don’t know the possibilities that it can do for now, but pretty sure more support for it will be launched soon.

Your Turn – Thoughts For The New MacBook Pro for Music Production?

What do you think about the new MacBook Pro and how will it fit into your studio?

Let us know in the comment section below. Will you stick to Apple and buy the MacBook Pro or is it time to look for an alternative?

Drop Your Comments Here

For modern producers the laptop is the centerpiece of any music production studio.

You use a laptop to run your DAW where you create, record, mix and master your tracks.

Nothing is more frustrating than getting a perfect take only to find that your computer crashed during the recording session.

There are ways to reduce DAW latency and cut down on the demands your software is making on your system.

But sometimes a new laptop is what you need to get up and running.

Here’s the 10 best music production laptops on the market today:

MacBook Pro
Microsoft Surface Book 2
HP ENVY x360
ASUS VivoBook Slim
Lenovo ThinkBook 14s
Razer Blade Stealth
ASUS Rog Strix
HP Omen 15
The Apple iPad
Build Your Own PC

In this guide we’ll look at the basic system requirements you’ll need to successfully use DAW software and we’ll list our top ten choices for music production computers.

How to Choose a Music Production Laptop

If you’re just getting started with a home studio you really don’t need anything super fancy or expensive.

There are plenty of affordable computers that can handle the demands a DAW puts on their systems.

There’s lots to consider when picking a music production computer.

But in general, watch for these four factors.

Processing speed
RAM
Solid State Drive space
Monitor size

Processing speed

The processing speed of your CPU is still one of the most important factors for processing audio.

Watch for computers that come with more processing cores and faster clock speeds above the 2.0Ghz range.

Random Access Memory (RAM)

Adequate RAM means having enough working memory for plugins, tracks, presets, and recordings to do their thing smoothly in your DAW.

For music production tasks we suggest having at least 8GB of RAM. You might want more, but it’s not always necessary.

Solid State Drive

Hard disc drives are somewhat a thing of the past. Today it’s all about the Solid State Drive or SSD.

If your DAW and plugins are installed on your SSD they’ll load much faster and be more responsive.

You want at least 512GB worth of storage space, but even that will get taken up pretty quickly.

The key is to be organized with how you store your data.

Hot tip:In the past, hardware guides recommended that you track your audio files on a separate volume from the drive that stores your OS and DAW.

This is less of a concern with modern computers, but using a fast external drive for your session files can still help you get the most from your system. Consider using an external drive for tracking.

Monitor Size

A smaller monitor makes your setup more portable, but it also means more scrolling and wasted time in your workflow.

If you don’t mind using a larger machine, the extra screen real estate will help you see what you’re working on more clearly.

Ideally, any laptop you own should come with some kind of external display port so you can hook up to a larger secondary monitor.

The Top Ten Best Laptops for Music Production

Without further ado, here are our top ten picks for the best music production laptops today.

1. MacBook Pro

The MacBook Pro is a long-standing favourite among music producers.

You’ll see them everywhere from on stage at Coachella to the DJ booth at your local night club.

The MacBook Pro comes out of the box ready to go, it even has Garage Band pre-installed on it.

But chances are you’ll eventually want to upgrade to the Apple OS exclusive Logic X, which is widely seen as one of the world’s best DAWs.

MacBooks are powerful, versatile and designed with creators in mind.

The MacBook Pro is a long-standing favourite among music producers.

There are a few downsides to consider. The latest generation MacBook Pro is only equipped with Thunderbolt 3/USB-C ports.

That means you’ll have to buy the correct adapters to connect peripherals like your audio interface and midi controller.

For a more affordable option, you could consider searching for a refurbished unit or buying one on the used market.

2. Microsoft Surface Book 2

Microsoft Surface Book 2 is one of the most interesting laptops on the market right now.

Macbook Pro For Music Recording

It comes with a higher price tag, but it’s worth it considering the features, high powered specs, and functionality the laptop has.

The defining feature of the Surface Book 2 is its detachable 13.3-inch touchscreen tablet display.

The tablet itself is very high quality and compares favourably with the Apple iPad.

Tablets open plenty of new avenues for your production workflow.

Plus you can even use a smartpen stylus on the screen, making it a great option for artists who also create visually.

Since its launch the Surface Book 2 has come down in price significantly, but it still sits on the higher end of this list.

But considering that it comes as a two-in-one tablet and laptop package, the price tag is fairly justified.

3. HP ENVY x360

The HP ENVY x360 is a very good and very affordable option for a music production laptop.

It may not have the same power that a gaming laptop or the Surface Pro 2 has but its technical specs easily meet the requirements you need to produce music.

This laptop also features a tablet-style touch screen that is compatible with a smart stylus.

It doesn’t separate from the body like the Surface Pro 2, but the screen folds a full 360 degrees so you can use the laptop and touch screen in a variety of ways.

With its 8GB of ram and i5 processor, you can comfortably make music in your DAW too.

If you’re looking for an affordable music production laptop this is definitely one to have on your list.

4. ASUS VivoBook Slim

The most affordable option on this list is the ASUS VivoBook Slim.

It’s a fairly simple laptop with a modern-looking design, a large 15.6 inch display, comprehensive connection ports including modern USB 3.1 Type-C and Type-A connectors and standard USB 2.0 ports.

Its lower price makes the VivoBook a greater starter laptop that can handle your music production needs even if it comes with only 8GB of RAM and an Intel i5 processor.

5. Lenovo ThinkBook 14s

While it’s more known for being a business computer, Lenovo’s ThinkBook series is known for being a powerful yet portable option.

The ThinkBook is known for its long-lasting battery life and durability.

The laptop is water-resistant and is protected from spills, extreme temperatures, and vibrations.

So if you often find yourself working in a thumping, spill-prone night club this could be a good option for you.

We recommend choosing a model with a larger screen, at least 8GB of RAM and an i5 or higher processor.

6. Razer Blade Stealth

The Razer Blade is first and foremost a gaming laptop so its higher price tag is justified by a superior graphics and sound card.

You won’t need these to produce music, but the powerful 16GB RAM, i7 processor, and 512 GB SSD drive that comes with it will give you more than enough to create without limits in any DAW.

This model of laptop is popular amongst many FL Studio users given its powerful specs and cool aesthetic.

It comes with an eye-catching shifting neon backlit keyboard.

The 13-inch model comes with a smaller screen, but it is very portable and comes with ample USB, USB-C, and HDMI connections so you can easily hook it up to a larger monitor.

Considering how much power the laptop packs, you are getting very good value for its mid to high-range price.

7. ASUS Rog Strix

Another gaming laptop that should be on your list is the ASUS Rog Strix.

Despite its admittedly gamer aesthetic, the laptop comes with very powerful specs at a comparable price to other gaming laptops.

Its main advantage is its larger 15.6-inch screen even if it’s a bit bulkier than other laptops on this list.

If you are looking for a laptop in the mid to high price range this a good one to consider.

8. HP Omen 15

The last gaming laptop on this list to look at is the HP Omen 15.

Imac Or Macbook Pro For Music Production

This laptop certainly offers plenty of power with 12 GB of RAM, an i7 processor, and 128GB of SSD storage on top 1TB of hard drive storage.

While it has that bulkier gaming aesthetic, the laptop offers a sizeable a 15.6-inch display.

The HP Omen 15 prices slightly lower than its counterparts on this list since its specs are slightly behind the Razer or ASUS Rog Strix.

But for music production, this laptop has ample processing and memory for any project.

9. The Apple iPad

It’s not a laptop, but it’s a portable, powerful, and affordable option.

There are plenty of music production apps and DAWs that work very well on iOS.

In fact, some of the biggest tracks today were produced with mobile apps.

Working with a touchscreen interface is an entirely new experience that can sometimes be inspiring.

Plus, you can purchase hardware add-ons that enable you to use a keyboard and mouse with your iPad.

Mac Pro For Music Production

10. Build your own PC