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I’ve been a Windows user since 3.0 (yeah, I'm that old. LOL) and have been a beta-tester for years. But I have grown tired of the Microsoft BS and want to give a Macbook a try. But which one?

I use Native Instruments, Keyscapes, Trillian, and V-collection. Based on that I’m thinking I need a 512SSD as 256 isn’t going to cut it even if I pare down the NI installation to just what I need. That being said:

MacBook Air: $1249
Entry-level, M1 chip. Limited to 8GB RAM. Is that enough to run a dozen or so VST’s concurrently? Limited ports but I could make it work with a TB hub to drive an external 4K monitor via HDMI.

MacBook Pro 13: $1499
Similar to above, still limited to 8GB. I bought one of these for my son (non musician) to use for college and he LOVES it.

MacBook Pro 14: $1999
M1 Pro chip (more cores, faster than those above). 16GB HDMI and SDXC card slot built in.

(16” is too big. I’m replacing a monster 17” HP gaming notebook and want to go smaller. I don’t do video editing.)

The thing is I have never used a Mac before. Spending $2k on a notebook I might not love is a scary thought; so is going on the cheap and getting a lesser experience when spending a little more would have provided a more favorable experience. At these prices, I really want to get it right.

Also wondering: If I am using VST3 plugins, will I have problems moving Studio One projects between the MacBook and my monster i9 PC desktop?

Any thoughts, tips, and ideas from those in the know would be greatly appreciated. I will admit I am leaning towards the 14"...

Lou
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by davidlarson6 on Tue Nov 23, 2021 10:04 am
I can't answer for your needs, but I can maybe offer my reasoning in making a similar decision.

I've ordered the 14" Pro with the 1TB SSD and 32 GB. My decision is based on the fact that I use sample libraries, and they're notorious for being memory-hogs. I also feel that the extra ports are almost a necessity.

My wife has the Macbook Air M1, hooked up to a 4K monitor. It's a good little computer, and I feel it might be adequate for someone who was doing primarily audio tracks, but I think the 8 GB would be too tight for my work.

I'm not SURE that I need 32 GB, but the machine is expensive enough that I don't want to be in the position of it being underpowered. These laptops can't be upgraded.

Good luck with your decision. Incidentally, I'm an old guy too; my first attempts at music with computers involved writing 4-part polyphonic sequences in BASIC on a Commodore 64. :)

DKLarson

Windows 10, i9, 64GB, 3X 1TB SSDs; Macbook Pro M1 Pro, 32GB, 1TB SSD
Audient iD14, Atom SQ, Keystep 37, Studiologic SL88, Moog Sub Phatty, Kawai MP11SE, Roli Seaboard.
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by hassanelshafei on Wed Nov 24, 2021 1:44 am
Hello Lou,

I don't know exactly what kind of work you intend to do with the MacBook because it will make a difference on how powerful you need the pc to be but here are some generic thoughts that I hope it would help you decide.

I have been a Mac user since forever and I also had some interactions with windows, I can't decide for you but specially for Music production or Music work in general Mac is way easier , it's easier as an OS to use as well and definitely less buggy than windows, it's just the regular learning curve of learning something new.

My advise if you are buying this MacBook for professional work and not just as a hobby and you can afford it then invest in the MacBook Pro as this is a thing you don't change yearly..you are stuck with it for sometime so make sure you are stuck with something that is future proof.

There are 2 chips available or actually 3 but I mean the newly introduced ones are the M1 Pro and M1 Max, I didn't try any of them but some people said the difference between them isn't huge for Music production but maybe for video editing but again I would recommend to go with the M1 Max "Future proof" I would go for the M1 Max 100 percent.

14 inch seems the way to go for you, I think the only difference might be that the 16 inch might perform a little better because of it's bigger chasis, hence better cooling.

Again if you can afford it go with the 64 GB unified memory not 32 but it always depends on what kind of work you do, for example I am using 112GB on my Mac Pro and that's about ok for me but I use a lot of orchestral libraries which are RAM hungry, maybe you don't need 64 GB now but you might in year..make sure you ask your self this question. and choose accordingly.

As for storage 512 to 1 TB is a sweet spot but if you use lots of libraries I recommend you use external SSDs as well.

Finally regarding your sessions, as far as I know your sessions should work just fine on Mac but just note that not all plugins are M1 compatible yet, if they aren't, they will still work but using a conversion system called Rosetta which might not give you best performance till you receive an official update from your plugin developer but be sure everyone will update their plugins to be M1 compatible asap.

Of course if you are buying this MacBook for hobby, certainly don't invest this much in it then you can consider 14 inch, 512 , 32 GB and M1 pro or Max depending what configuration is available .

I hope that helped, good luck with your purchase..

Cheers,

Hassan

DAW: Studio One Professional 5 | OS: MacOs 11.6 |PC:MacPro (2019) 3.3 GHz 12-Core, RAM:112 Gb | Audio Interface: Antelope Goliath | Monitoring: Barefoot MM12
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by davidlarson6 on Wed Nov 24, 2021 10:23 am
hassanelshafei wrote
Again if you can afford it go with the 64 GB unified memory not 32


Oh, yes, "affording it" is part of the picture, or at least it was for me. :) My 14" M1 Pro with 32 GB came in at just about $3000; I priced a unit with the Max and 64 GB, and it was close to $4000. That's a lot of money for a non-upgradable laptop, and I had to draw the line somewhere.

It's unfortunate that one has to go with the Max to get 64 GB. For the most part, the M1 Max is overkill for music, since it's largely geared to graphics work.

I'm fortunate that I have an existing desktop PC. I figure that if I find the 32 GB too tight for a large template, I can always use the PC as a slave server.

DKLarson

Windows 10, i9, 64GB, 3X 1TB SSDs; Macbook Pro M1 Pro, 32GB, 1TB SSD
Audient iD14, Atom SQ, Keystep 37, Studiologic SL88, Moog Sub Phatty, Kawai MP11SE, Roli Seaboard.
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by hassanelshafei on Wed Nov 24, 2021 11:57 am
davidlarson6 wrote
hassanelshafei wrote
Again if you can afford it go with the 64 GB unified memory not 32


Oh, yes, "affording it" is part of the picture, or at least it was for me. :) My 14" M1 Pro with 32 GB came in at just about $3000; I priced a unit with the Max and 64 GB, and it was close to $4000.


I totally hear you, it's insane how everything is becoming that expensive, I personally wanted to get the XDR display which didn't make sense with it's price tag at least for me as I only do Music.

But let me tell you that when I bought my 2019 Mac Pro I said I will get the 12 core because I don't need more processing power for Music production which was ok for sometime but with bigger sessions and using specific libraries that are CPU intensive I found myself struggling sometimes with cpu spikes..So I decided to start saving from now to make sure I max out my next Mac :lol:
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by davidlarson6 on Wed Nov 24, 2021 9:15 pm
hassanelshafei wroteBut let me tell you that when I bought my 2019 Mac Pro I said I will get the 12 core because I don't need more processing power for Music production which was ok for sometime but with bigger sessions and using specific libraries that are CPU intensive I found myself struggling sometimes with cpu spikes..So I decided to start saving from now to make sure I max out my next Mac :lol:


I fully understand that. I have an old 2009 Mac Pro sitting on the shelf behind me. When I bought it I thought that the single Xeon processor would be enough for what I was doing. It wasn't, of course, but I struggled along with it for several years. In fact, I learned that I could work with less if I had to, because I had to. :lol:

I'd be in a different position if I didn't have the big Windows machine. As it is, I know that I can set it up as a VEP slave, and have the combined power of more than just about any single desktop machine. If I didn't have this other system, I'm pretty sure I'd be waiting for next year's big iMac, which is probably going to be a dual-processor version of these M1 Pros. (Or, more likely, I would already have an Intel Mac. :) )

DKLarson

Windows 10, i9, 64GB, 3X 1TB SSDs; Macbook Pro M1 Pro, 32GB, 1TB SSD
Audient iD14, Atom SQ, Keystep 37, Studiologic SL88, Moog Sub Phatty, Kawai MP11SE, Roli Seaboard.
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by hassanelshafei on Thu Nov 25, 2021 12:37 am
I have seen many film composers running other PCs as slaves for the added power because of their humongous templates but I felt that this was too much hassle for me and I would rather just invest in a more powerful computer and that should do..but guess what? It never did.

I think the more powerful computer became , the more excited the developers get and create crazier stuff which eventually hit your CPU hard.

I totally agree with you that when you have limited resources you learn to work with that and be more efficient, I am not efficient with my sessions at all until my cpu cries for help then I start to do lots of house keeping. Also having around 1500 plugins to choose from in your browser is insane..limited resources create focus!

I have been a Mac Pro user or using desktops since the G5 as desktops have more power and connectivity but honestly with the Apple silicone switch I am keeping an eye for the new IMac pro I have a feeling that it will be very powerful and will have proper connectivity and it will also feature a really good screen, 120Hz mini Led and some of that tech behind that insane XDR display.

It’s a good time to be alive!

With the looks of this conversation , it seems like its you and me who are about get a new Mac and not Lou.. :lol:

DAW: Studio One Professional 5 | OS: MacOs 11.6 |PC:MacPro (2019) 3.3 GHz 12-Core, RAM:112 Gb | Audio Interface: Antelope Goliath | Monitoring: Barefoot MM12
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by lousyracuse on Thu Nov 25, 2021 11:04 am
Thanks for all the info - great stuff for a guy who has been working with PC's since MSDos 3.0, back when you had to type WIN at the command prompt to start Windows. LOL

@davidlarson6 That's funny, I started on a C64 as well! Don't remember the name of the program or interface. And of course, it was painfully slow. After selling the whole C64 and buying my first PC (8088) I wandered into a Guitar Center and was introduced to a brand new program called "Cakewalk". The rest is history...

@hassanelshafei Actually this is the info I am looking for. Things are different in the Apple world. Either way, you can never have enough RAM or HD space. It seems like 32GB is the sweet spot for RAM, but things DO get expensive. My 'try it out' idea is looking more like a major purchase. LOL

I ordered a 14"/16GB/1TB last night but am thinking of canceling it. Or maybe I should just go with it and see how it works out as I have 60 days to return it. I could also drop it down to 500GB, as I have a spare 500GB EVO970 laying around that I could throw into a TB/USBC enclosure.
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by Lokeyfly on Sat Nov 27, 2021 9:59 am
@ lousyracuse, your initial price list is awesome. I'm firing that approx price list to a friend of mine who's looking for a new Mac. Probably a mini, was is goal.
Thx!

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by arnestuemges on Tue Dec 14, 2021 8:23 pm
Hello All!

I ordered a 16 MAX 64GB 4 TB but i am still waiting for mine to arrive.
So i can give no "real life" experience, but share some thoughts.

14 or 16 -> Size does matter....

The 16 is not as portable as the 14. It has the bigger screen , bigger battery and the better speakers, but is also a bit more hefty than the older 15/16 inch models in weight.

If you are traveling a lot, i guess the 16 is not the best decision. Especially when you fly economy and want to work on a flight.

But there is another difference apple is not putting on the marketing materials:

The 14 inch can be charged by a standard USB-C 96 Watt Power Supply during usage without draining power. So if you want, you can leave the magsafe charger at home and travel with only one 96w USB-C that can be used for various devices... hopefully also the iphone 14 in near future...

IMPORTANT: If you want to buy the 14, AVOID the MAX 32 core GPU version!

All reviews agree that this version does not show a real performance gain over the MAX 24 GPU Core version. But it needs more battery, has louder fans and is more expensive.

So we come to the he PRO / MAX question....

I can not estimate if the enhanced GPU performance in future will be usable for software Audio DSP functions. If NOT and the doubled video codecs af the MAX are not important for your usecase, i would think about a PRO instead of a MAX version.

Especially the 14 inch will benefit from lower temperatures of the PRO chip and deliver longer battery life.

The 16/32/64 Memory question...

Forget 16GB. A 16GB machine is more likely to use SSD swap.

I am aware that the experts say that ssds are far more reliable over long term than expected and memory swapping is no problem.
But to me it doesn´t make sense paying 3k or more for a machine and then safe a few bucks on RAM to risk a defect mainboard due to memory swapping.

The decision between 32/64 is easy. Check the memory you use with your current system.
If your CPU/GPU decision is already made for PRO you don´t have to spend thinking about 64, because there is no option. ;-)

About SSD Size....

It´s nearly the same with SSD Size. Check the SSD size you are using on your current system.
In my case i need 2TB for my sound library, 600GB for other data so i bought a 4TB.
To me connecting external SSD to save money never has been an option.
I don´t want to experience any non working external data storage devices during a gig ;-)

I hope this makes it a littlebit easier for you to find the best machine for your needs.

Stay safe, have a nice christmas, greetings from good old germany. (reason for all the "typos")

Arne

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