Haven't owned a Mac in a while, need some purchase advice

[masse]

hello,

I previously owned a first gen unibody MacBook Pro (15") from 2008. I used it for audio recording and some games etc.

Looking to get a new Mac for recording but unsure if the new MacBook can handle it. My mixer is a FireWire 800 device, which I think I can purchase an adapter for. I track to an external drive and only record two tracks at once in garage band - nothing crazy. I have a powerful desktop that can do this but I don't feel like learning new software and have lots of old GarageBand projects I want to revive. Additionally I want to develop an iOS app or two.

I was leaning towards MacBook Air because it has better processor but the screen is terrible and 4 gigs of RAM does not cut it for me. OSX seems to have gotten much more system intensive since snow leopard, the last version I used.

Does it look like the new MacBook will be powerful enough for my needs? Should I save some bucks and get a 13" air?

Thanks for the advice!

 

[Samuelsan2001]

Get the pro

hello,

I previously owned a first gen unibody MacBook Pro (15") from 2008. I used it for audio recording and some games etc.

Looking to get a new Mac for recording but unsure if the new MacBook can handle it. My mixer is a FireWire 800 device, which I think I can purchase an adapter for. I track to an external drive and only record two tracks at once in garage band - nothing crazy. I have a powerful desktop that can do this but I don't feel like learning new software and have lots of old GarageBand projects I want to revive. Additionally I want to develop an iOS app or two.

I was leaning towards MacBook Air because it has better processor but the screen is terrible and 4 gigs of RAM does not cut it for me. OSX seems to have gotten much more system intensive since snow leopard, the last version I used.

Does it look like the new MacBook will be powerful enough for my needs? Should I save some bucks and get a 13" air?

Thanks for the advice!

It has the retina, great CPU, mimimum 8GB RAM and all the ports you could want....

 

[newellj]

Pricing on the rMBP 13" is really very good now, and the late 2013 and later refurbs in the Apple Store online are even better deals. You might want to go with one of those to ensure you've got flexibility for input devices. I love the rMB but connectivity is not its strong point at tis time. For many uses that doesn't matter, but you might feel otherwise.