Hey guys,
I currently own a MBP 13" base model with Touch Bar from 2016.
I mostly use it for remote recording bands in their rehearsal room and doing light stuff like surfing and web development. (plus some light photo and video editing and some affinity designer)
For those use cases it works out pretty well but to mix and produce the songs I recorded, I'll use my maxed out iMac 2017 5k.
Now I would love to do the mixing part also on the MacBook but for this the dual core CPU in my current MB is too weak. I tried some of the medium sized projects and they fail to properly play even with large buffer sizes. The idea is to being able to share the projects between iMac and MBP so I don't need to change rooms constantly. This would be a huge push for me to work on the songs more regularly and faster.
There is currently a sale on the base models of the 2018 13" and 15" MBPs (300€ and 420€ off) here in Germany at one retailer and I think about getting one of these. I can sell my current MBP for about 800-900€. (keeping it is no real option) - the sale ends today.
But I cannot decide which one to get.
I like the size of the 13" a lot. I do not carry it around often other than for the mentioned recording sessions once a month but I love using it on my lap on the couch. (I use the sleeve for the macbook as a base for it - it basically never sits on a table)
How comfortable is the 15" to use in this regards?
How much bigger does the 15" feel compared to the 13"?
The base model 15" is a sixcore and the more cores the better for mixing music - I looked at benchmarks and it even beats my iMac - so from a performance point of view, it will be more future proof. The quad core i5 in the 13" should still be enough I think, as the iMac hovers around 60-70% CPU usage in heavier projects.
The 15" has 16GB of RAM and while I don't use any sample instruments in mixing projects, the idea of theoretically being able to is charming and for web development, more RAM is also a good thing. (for example doing some angular development, the ram pressure goes into the reds when I have other applications open - but this is not a biggie)
Storage size doesn't play a big role, as I also own a Samsung X5 Thunderbolt 3 external drive which is almost as fast as the internal one. I store all my projects on that external drive. So the 256 GB base configuration is more than enough.
I'm looking for experiences from people who use both sizes to get an idea how different the experience feels between the 13 and 15 inch models.
The third option would be to wait out for the 2019 MBPs but I guess they won't be that different or huge of an upgrade.
I currently own a MBP 13" base model with Touch Bar from 2016.
I mostly use it for remote recording bands in their rehearsal room and doing light stuff like surfing and web development. (plus some light photo and video editing and some affinity designer)
For those use cases it works out pretty well but to mix and produce the songs I recorded, I'll use my maxed out iMac 2017 5k.
Now I would love to do the mixing part also on the MacBook but for this the dual core CPU in my current MB is too weak. I tried some of the medium sized projects and they fail to properly play even with large buffer sizes. The idea is to being able to share the projects between iMac and MBP so I don't need to change rooms constantly. This would be a huge push for me to work on the songs more regularly and faster.
There is currently a sale on the base models of the 2018 13" and 15" MBPs (300€ and 420€ off) here in Germany at one retailer and I think about getting one of these. I can sell my current MBP for about 800-900€. (keeping it is no real option) - the sale ends today.
But I cannot decide which one to get.
I like the size of the 13" a lot. I do not carry it around often other than for the mentioned recording sessions once a month but I love using it on my lap on the couch. (I use the sleeve for the macbook as a base for it - it basically never sits on a table)
How comfortable is the 15" to use in this regards?
How much bigger does the 15" feel compared to the 13"?
The base model 15" is a sixcore and the more cores the better for mixing music - I looked at benchmarks and it even beats my iMac - so from a performance point of view, it will be more future proof. The quad core i5 in the 13" should still be enough I think, as the iMac hovers around 60-70% CPU usage in heavier projects.
The 15" has 16GB of RAM and while I don't use any sample instruments in mixing projects, the idea of theoretically being able to is charming and for web development, more RAM is also a good thing. (for example doing some angular development, the ram pressure goes into the reds when I have other applications open - but this is not a biggie)
Storage size doesn't play a big role, as I also own a Samsung X5 Thunderbolt 3 external drive which is almost as fast as the internal one. I store all my projects on that external drive. So the 256 GB base configuration is more than enough.
I'm looking for experiences from people who use both sizes to get an idea how different the experience feels between the 13 and 15 inch models.
The third option would be to wait out for the 2019 MBPs but I guess they won't be that different or huge of an upgrade.