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MacBook for Recording Audio

sporadicMotion

sporadicMotion

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Oct 18, 2008
1,114
30
Your girlfriends place
So I use my 2.0 SR WhiteBook for recording audio and I've hit a processing power wall so I've decided it's time for a new machine. I'll be getting a Mac Pro after Christmas but I need to be able to work on the go too... so, my question is this. I'm trying to decide between the 2.4 MacBook or go a full jump to the 2.53 MBP... if they offered a 2.53 MacBook, I'd be all over it. In the world of audio though, will the extra cache and bit of power really make that much of a difference? ... or will the 2.4 suffice?
 
your laptop should have more than enough processing power for audio recording. Maybe you should invest in is fast 7200 rpm external drives to record onto if you havent already. this might be what is causing your sense of lack of power, as your computer is constantly trying to keep up with the writing of your audio recording onto slower drives.

alternately, for audio the macbook is out of the question, no firewire which instantly nixes like 80 percent of audio equipment to start with. the new macbook pro does have firewire, so thats a possiblilty. a very cheap route would be to pick up the last generation whitebook or blackbook for SUPER cheap at a lot of stores (im talking 999, 899 etc), which are on par with the new macbook really, except for graphics cards, and will still have firewire to boot!
 
lxuser said:
your laptop should have more than enough processing power for audio recording. Maybe you should invest in is fast 7200 rpm external drives to record onto if you havent already. this might be what is causing your sense of lack of power, as your computer is constantly trying to keep up with the writing of your audio recording onto slower drives.

alternately, for audio the macbook is out of the question, no firewire which instantly nixes like 80 percent of audio equipment to start with. the new macbook pro does have firewire, so thats a possiblilty. a very cheap route would be to pick up the last generation whitebook or blackbook for SUPER cheap at a lot of stores (im talking 999, 899 etc), which are on par with the new macbook really, except for graphics cards, and will still have firewire to boot!
Click to expand...

I already have a 7200 rpm drive... that's not the issue... it is DEFINITELY a processing issue. With the amount of processing I'm running per track not to mention the number of damn tracks... it's getting to be crazy :p I've sat there watching my CPU rocket to 100% usage while mixing down... and that's where I start running into issues. I end up getting these mix downs that have only half the song with the second half as dead space. The dead space only occurs at points where an additional channel (with yet more processing) kicks in.

Firewire I'm not tooooo concerned about because of the soon existence of a Mac Pro under my desk... and I never drag any of the big toys away from home. I'm also not too keen on another plastic MacBook considering I've experienced a couple cracking issues... SOOOOO...

back to the original question...

EDIT: now I'm reconsidering the firewire thing... dammit. Well that still just leaves the question of the processor... I'll just choose between 2.4 and 2.53 MBP... so question still stands :p
 
Does anyone know of a good USB Multi Track interface? I'm in the same boat as the OP (MacPro coming next year), but need to do a bit of recording... will I be able to find a good enough USB interface, or will I have to lug my PC and monitor around when I want to record anything of decent quality?
 
synth3tik said:
1 phrase that might halt any more thinking of the Macbook.

No Firewire
Click to expand...

Well, damn you. I'm getting the MacBook Pro for the firewire. I got so used to having it on my WhiteBook that I forgot about it and now after thinking about it, it's really my only option... there are some tools I'll want to bring with me and it'll frustrate me if I can't.

Let the count down begin. Two weeks to go.
 
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