Making Music With Macbook Pro

1. Music Software For Macbook Pro
2. Macbook Pro Laptop
3. Making Music With Macbook Pro Trackpad
4. Making Music With Macbook Pro Carrying Case

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

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.

Sep 17, 2020 The best free music-making software is Apple Garageband, which is the perfect introduction to music production and provides a clear path to Apple's pro-level DAW. It's not your only option though. I see a lot of answers that personally, I would say are outdated. It all really depends on how committed you are to making music, and how much you are willing to put in. An excellent app for MacBook Pro, Audacity is a free, open-source audio editing software that helps you make your recordings, remove digital noise, chop, combine & mix clips. You can rely on the audio editor to apply special effects, alter frequencies with Equalization, Bass & Treble. Apple Footer. Trade‑in value based on 2019 15-inch MacBook Pro. Trade‑in values will vary based on the condition, year, and configuration of your trade‑in device. You must be at least 18 years old to be eligible to trade in for credit or for an Apple Store Gift Card.

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.

Music Software For Macbook Pro

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?

Mac Tips

Mac TipsUpdated: October 22, 2020 11 min read

Music-making does not require renting studios to record your tracks—all you need is your home laptop to apply the desired effects to polish tracks. But before this, learn which Apple computers are the best ones to record music.

Musicians prefer Macs, and for several reasons—high-quality music production is one of them. In this article, we’ll cover the main aspects you should consider when choosing the best Mac for music production and give our recommendations on important models specs.

In a nutshell, we believe the top three of the best Macs for music production 2020 are:

• 27-inch 5K iMac—the best choice for music production
• 16-inch MacBook Pro—the best portable laptop
• Mac mini—the best budget Mac

Macbook Pro Laptop

Read further to find out why these models are the best computers for creating music!

What’s Best for Musicians—Mac or PC?

Choosing between macOS and a Windows platform depends mostly on your computer preferences and your collaborators. With the fast development of technology, the PC is right behind Mac. However, it's easier to get started making music on a Mac than on a PC. We’ll tell you why.

The PC standard audio drivers won’t be suitable for creating music professionally. Windows users would need to install ASIO drivers for the sound card alongside other music hardware they’d like to use, for example, MIDI controllers. Windows does not provide native music software—that’s why installing extra music software is essential.

On a Mac, on the contrary, fewer steps are required. You can plug in music hardware and then open GarageBand—the pre-installed app on iOS and macOS in DAW (digital audio workstation). It lets you have your music studio for recording, editing, composing, and experimenting with audio-tracks. We’ll tell you more about GarageBand in this article.

Recommended system requirements

The Mac’s system requirements depend on which type of music software you’d be using and the complexity of your music-making processes. The next step is to check the program’s official system requirements you will run. This will help you determine the minimum required specs your Mac should have.

For music production, a Mac should have at least a 2.2Ghz i7 quad-core processor. The process determines how fast your music projects would run (and usually they are huge). Start at least with 16GB of RAM. Having less than 16 GB of RAM means using fewer instrument voices. Also, your speed will decrease.

Let’s talk about storage. The amount of disk space depends on the size of the audio files you’ll be working on. As a rule, professional software can use hundreds of GBs. So, for starters, Macs coming with basic 256GB SSDs may be enough. Still, you can plan to add some external storage for your Mac in the future.

Video cards have always been important for playing games and video editing. And for audio software as well. Choose a video card wisely— check which one is required by the audio software you need and if you’ll have to connect any displays.

The Best Macs for Music Production

Here is our list of the best Macs for music-making:

27-inch 5K iMac—the best choice for music production

The new 2019 hardware makes the 27-inch 5K iMac our top pick for your home studio. You can customize its RAM up to 64GB. The advanced processor lets you use all the features of pro audio editing apps. The size of the Retina display is an obvious benefit. Besides, it comes with four USB 3 ports alongside with two Thunderbolt 3/USB Type C ports.

16-inch MacBook Pro—the best portable laptop

If you go on tours—the 16-inch MacBook Pro is just right for you! The basic configuration makes it powerful enough. Using the Touch Bar is useful when you record tracks and change the settings at once. Only 4.3 pounds (2.0 kg) of weight, MacBook Pro has a major advantage for musicians who are always on the road.

Mac mini—the best budget Mac

Why is the Mac mini also on the list of the best Macs for music-making? Mac mini had an update in March 2020, bringing in a 256GB SSD. Besides, it is a good choice if you’re on a budget. What’s great about the Mac mini is a small size, an extra audio-in port. In addition to this, you can customize it with a much more powerful processor and more RAM. But be ready to buy a keyboard, a mouse, a display to go with your Mac mini model.

Things to Consider Before Buying a Mac for Music Production

Consider these two factors when deciding on the best computer for music:

Portability

Making Music With Macbook Pro Trackpad

Among the first things to consider when determining which Mac to choose is to think over whether you need a desktop computer or a laptop. A laptop is the best choice for musicians who move a lot for work.

Connections

Using many additional instruments, such as monitors, headphones, USB instruments, and other audio interfaces, is essential. That’s why a limited number of USB ports might become an issue. Do check and compare the Connections sections when reviewing Mac specifications.

Making Music With Macbook Pro Carrying Case

Mac Music Software

Here are our 2020 picks for the best apps for music-making on a Mac:

• If you’ve just started producing music, GarageBand has Smart Instruments helping you create a guitar, drum, synth, and orchestral parts without knowing how to play these instruments. GarageBand version 10.3 is full of surprises. New sound effects and instrument sounds and 1000 electronic and urban loops at your disposal are just the beginning. The Artist Lessons are finally free for those craving to learn songs taught by famous artists.
• Logic Pro X is called GarageBand's 'companion' and is, in fact, Apple's professional audio software. If you're an electronic musician and want to experiment with sound, you might opt for Logic Pro X. The great news is that you can get a 90-day free trial. However, you’ll need to run macOS 10.14.6 (macOS Mojave) or later. Moreover, this app is rather resource-consuming, so the best MacBook for Logic Pro X is either a 13-inch MacBook Pro or a 16-inch model.
• Ableton Live 10 makes your DJ experience smooth. Being a DAW it offers empowered MIDI sequencing hardware and software. With this app working on MIDI controllers is hustle-free now.
• PreSonus Studio One 4 Prime is for you if you’re still deciding whether you’re just at the beginning of your music-making career. It is free! A perfect app to start creating music with. Being a full-scale digital studio, it offers the Artist and Pro editions and an improved drum editor to make your instrument editing workflow easier.
• Cakewalk SONAR Mac Prototype is another free app used to be available on Windows only. However, now it can be installed on a Mac too.

How to Prepare your Mac for Music Recording?

Recording music does sound like a high-load process for your Mac. Full storage, apps responding longer than usual, or a spinning wheel on your screen may slow you down. So how to get back to productive work?

For starters, it's always a good idea to clean RAM. The rule applies—the more memory available, the faster your Mac should run. Memory Cleaner feature in MacKeeper frees up RAM with just a few clicks and lets you know which apps may be eating up memory without you even knowing it.

Another thing that may hamper music recording is the lack of free space. Music-making requires some extra gigabytes at hand, so you can use such MacKeeper tools as Safe Cleanup and Duplicates Finder to scan your Mac for old copies of files, caches, or apps leftovers and safely remove them.

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We hope our guide helped you choose the proper computer for music-making. Now go and grab your instrument or mic, plug it into your new Mac, and get rockin’!

Making Music With Macbook Pro