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15 > 13" for music

P

pmNiko

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 24, 2011
7
0
So ye basically i JUST got my 15 inch i7 mac as the new ones came out. thing is i wud prefer to hav a 13 for the portability. and since now i can hav the same speed and even more ram and space for the same price if i downgrade the screen size.... im really heavily considering selling this one (cant return, took ages to get to russia, but i can sell it here for same price if not more).

i rle feel like i wud gain from the less chunky experience, but im almost worried that with the 13" it can start to get cramped there. most of my work is either heavy browsing or Logic Pro and other music related software work. wat u guys think i shud do?
 
Sounds like a 15 is better suited for your needs. It's not that heavy comparably speaking.
 
i got the 2010 13" MBPro and use logic and dont have any issues at all...

when i need the extra space im looking at getting a cheap dell 23" HD screen...or currently just plug it into my 42" plasma...

i love the size of the 13" though and i've gone from a late 2008 15" to 2010 13" and dont regret it.
 
The dual core is going to hit a cpu wall faster when you're tracking and need to keep the latency down low. This is if you use plugins like AutoTune, guitar amp sims (GTR, Pod Farm, Amplitube, etc) and virtual instruments.

With my 2010 13" I found that if I need to go back into a mostly done session and re-record some vocals, bringing the latency down low often gave me problems. I had to freeze/bounce some tracks down and remove plugins.

With my quad core iMac, I don't need to do that very often at all. It can handle lower latencies even with a lot of plugs going on. I suspect you'd get similar results from the new MBP i7's.

That said, the 13" i7 would be great for mixing. You can keep your hardware buffers high, cause at that point, latency doesn't matter. A friend of mine mixes very heavy projects on a 13" 2.4GHz C2D.
 
not to mention ill get 250 extra gigs of space and 4gigs of memory with that baby for 100$ less! EVEN THO i bought the 15" refurbished!!

hmm this is really got me into some heavy thinkin here.
so u guys dnt feel cramped on the 13"? my last little concern is that it might be bit uncomfortable comparin to the 15. im fairly sure spec wise everythin pretty much checks out.

just to make sure the i7 in the last generation of 15 inch is dual core, just as the new 13 ye?
 
pmNiko said:
So ye basically i JUST got my 15 inch i7 mac as the new ones came out. thing is i wud prefer to hav a 13 for the portability. and since now i can hav the same speed and even more ram and space for the same price if i downgrade the screen size.... im really heavily considering selling this one (cant return, took ages to get to russia, but i can sell it here for same price if not more).

i rle feel like i wud gain from the less chunky experience, but im almost worried that with the 13" it can start to get cramped there. most of my work is either heavy browsing or Logic Pro and other music related software work. wat u guys think i shud do?
Click to expand...

Ooh JUST been having this same debate with myself. The 13" may get cramped but since you wouldn't need a high resolution, splash out $100 for a larger external monitor? That's what I'll do anyway.

But yeah, the portability difference, I've found, is huge. Not to mention the price. You won't notice the difference in the quad core for your usage (or at least I highly doubt it).

Actually, with Logic my main concern is the lack of 7200rpm on the 13" model. But if worst comes to worst I'll get an external drive for it--thank you Light PeakThunderbolt!!

EDIT: Boo strikethroughfail!
 
Cud someone actually pls take a screenshot of a project open in logic off their 13 inch? wud be v nice off u.
open up some eq and compressors also so we can rle see how crampy it gets :)
 
after considerin all this i actually now am thinkin to get a 15" with better specs. More ram, space and top processor theyv got with a higher screen resolution for even more space for Logic Pro ! 13" does seem cramped, and it took me a little bit to get use to logic being all scrolly-zoomy and ****. and now that i AM used to it... its just pretty awsome i hav to say.

either way prob gna wait for the refurbished ones to come up and out to get a bit of a knock of that fat price atleast. hope my decision helps others with theirs! baaaaaaiiii
 
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