Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Which macbook pro for music production?

N

Nielsh

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 11, 2011
46
0
Hi,

I'll be choosing between the 13" an 15" variant.

The 15" quad-core 2.0ghz is about my price limit.
Now I'm considering the 13" (high-end, i7) with a ssd 128gb option, which comes about the same price.

Now the question is, will the 13" i7 dual-core with SSD be able to handle logic pro, to work with orchestral music production?
Or is the quad-core a must, but have a 5200rpm hdd?

Thanks in advance.

Niels
 
Both should be sufficient to handle Logic Pro. I guess it depends on how many simultaneous tracks you would be recording at once? Also the 15" screen might give you more screen space to work with stuff in the field unless you plan to do all your editing at home/office where you'll have an external monitor. Also you probably would want more space on your HDD for all those uncompressed tracks. Logic pro itself takes upwards of 40GBs of space on the drive.
 
Not too familiar with logic pro, but it will run fine on the 13" with SSD. Perhaps even faster as the bottle neck is in the HDD.

My only concerning thought is that the 15" is a quad core and therefore I'm not sure if logic pro would run faster on the quad core or not if it had a SSD. If they were both quad core then for sure the 13" then external display.

The other question is how important is screen real estate to you. If your intuition is saying to yourself "I'm settling with the 13" then go with the 15" and upgrade later to the SSD as they are dropping like a rock on prices right now. A 128GB can be picked up at newegg ~250.00
 
darkcurse said:
Both should be sufficient to handle Logic Pro. I guess it depends on how many simultaneous tracks you would be recording at once? Also the 15" screen might give you more screen space to work with stuff in the field unless you plan to do all your editing at home/office where you'll have an external monitor. Also you probably would want more space on your HDD for all those uncompressed tracks. Logic pro itself takes upwards of 40GBs of space on the drive.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the reply.
As now, i've got no experience with logic pro, but I know I'll be working with orchestral music, which means lots of tracks I guess?

And for the screen, at home I'll probably buy an external monitor, so that's no problem I think.
besides logic pro there will be no additional big programs installed, just some office I think.
So something like 40GB will be free? And it is posible to put sound samples on external drives isn't it?
 
Yeah I think its possible to put the sound samples on the external drive. Though personally I haven't done this. I'm still new to Logic Pro, still playing around with it :)

Uncompressed music comes into the tune of about 1MB/sec I think so if you have multiple tracks running at the same time I think you'll run out of space pretty quickly. Not as quick as video but still a large chunk.
 
darkcurse said:
Yeah I think its possible to put the sound samples on the external drive. Though personally I haven't done this. I'm still new to Logic Pro, still playing around with it :)

Uncompressed music comes into the tune of about 1MB/sec I think so if you have multiple tracks running at the same time I think you'll run out of space pretty quickly. Not as quick as video but still a large chunk.
Click to expand...

I've already got a 2,5" 500gb 7200rpm drive in my current laptop, I'll get that one out, and put it in an anclosure (possibly thunderbolt) and I'm settled I guess!
I just need to think it over again :eek: It's not just a little bit of money..
 
Any new MBP will be more than fine. I did plenty of recording and production on an early '08 MBP w/ 4 gigs of RAM and a 7200rpm'er. Audio stuff is I/O heavy, then RAM heavy, then CPU heavy. You will want lots of space, though, Logic 9 is 12 DVDs for example.
 
TXBDan said:
Any new MBP will be more than fine. I did plenty of recording and production on an early '08 MBP w/ 4 gigs of RAM and a 7200rpm'er. Audio stuff is I/O heavy, then RAM heavy, then CPU heavy. You will want lots of space, though, Logic 9 is 12 DVDs for example.
Click to expand...

Thank you,
So will a 128 SSD, with optional external HD be sufficient?
 
I guess the 128GB would suffice for current projects although you might have to transfer different takes off to the external because you'd be running out of space. I have not done any professional level recording yet mostly just me playing around with Logic and stuff but it does eat up more space than you'd think it would.

With that said, you'd probably want a bigger SSD right off the bat since working with files off an external would kind of negate the benefits of having an SSD in the first place.
 
darkcurse said:
I guess the 128GB would suffice for current projects although you might have to transfer different takes off to the external because you'd be running out of space. I have not done any professional level recording yet mostly just me playing around with Logic and stuff but it does eat up more space than you'd think it would.

With that said, you'd probably want a bigger SSD right off the bat since working with files off an external would kind of negate the benefits of having an SSD in the first place.
Click to expand...

Thanks, well, I'll not be working at multiple projects at once, at least in the near future. So it indeed maybe is a good idea to store project which I'm not currently working on, at an external. And just have the current project on the SSD?
 
Yeah that could work. Thing is, if you find that you're constantly running out of space you could always replace the SSD with a bigger SSD or a HDD. So you don't really lose out in that regards I guess.
 
Any of the current macbook pros will work for you. Do you plan on hooking up to an external monitor most of the time, if so the 13" will save you some money and do just fine, if you want to still be portable and have screen real estate get the 15"

Logic is going to take up a lot of space, so a 128gb SSD may not be enough. You will be able to put Logic on it, but you may end up running out of space rather quickly once you start creating and saving work.

My advice to you would be to get the low end 15" It will have more screen real estate and a faster processor, which you can't upgrade down the road. Then as you get more money you can upgrade to 8gb ram (~$80). You can also throw an SSD in it down the road, your best bet would probably be a 256 SSD.

If you don't want to spend that much money another option would be to get a 128gb SSD and do the optibay hack to move the hdd in the mac to the optibay and then you have 500gb storage and you could move files you are working on to the ssd for speed, back to the hdd when you're done for storage.
 
Ok fokes,

New plan:
13" mbp i7 -> amazon.de (much cheaper!)
+ Optibay hack, move the 7200rpm 500gb hdd (which is in my current laptop) in that
+ custom bought 128gb SSD

So, the only thing is, which brand/type ssd is safe to buy, in terms of compatibility?
 
Nielsh said:
Ok fokes,

New plan:
13" mbp i7 -> amazon.de (much cheaper!)
+ Optibay hack, move the 7200rpm 500gb hdd (which is in my current laptop) in that
+ custom bought 128gb SSD

So, the only thing is, which brand/type ssd is safe to buy, in terms of compatibility?
Click to expand...

Intel is good, but people are saying some have compatibility issues with the new macs, others report no problems. If you want to take advantage of the new SNB processor get a vertex 3 for the faster transfer rates as i/o is going to be your biggest bottle neck for logic. A nice fast SSD like the vertex 3 and 8gb of ram should be more than sufficient. You'll probably be able to pick up a decent external monitor too if you find the 13" screen too small for daily work!
 
xxBURT0Nxx said:
Any of the current macbook pros will work for you. Do you plan on hooking up to an external monitor most of the time, if so the 13" will save you some money and do just fine, if you want to still be portable and have screen real estate get the 15"

Logic is going to take up a lot of space, so a 128gb SSD may not be enough. You will be able to put Logic on it, but you may end up running out of space rather quickly once you start creating and saving work.

My advice to you would be to get the low end 15" It will have more screen real estate and a faster processor, which you can't upgrade down the road. Then as you get more money you can upgrade to 8gb ram (~$80). You can also throw an SSD in it down the road, your best bet would probably be a 256 SSD.

If you don't want to spend that much money another option would be to get a 128gb SSD and do the optibay hack to move the hdd in the mac to the optibay and then you have 500gb storage and you could move files you are working on to the ssd for speed, back to the hdd when you're done for storage.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the help! I just came across that optibay too.. seems too good to be true :eek:
 
So one last question that's on my mind: Will the dual-core i7 2.7Ghz be able to handle logic pro/music production for the next 4/5 years?
 
Nielsh said:
So one last question that's on my mind: Will the dual-core i7 2.7Ghz be able to handle logic pro/music production for the next 4/5 years?
Click to expand...

yes, it will run logic just fine, will probably run the next couple of updates to logic just fine too, but can't promise it's going to run the latest version of Logic in 5 years... doesn't mean you have to upgrade though if the current logic still suits your needs.
 
The 13" i7 will be just fine for the next 3-5 years if your needs remain rather stable over that time.

I would have recommended the 15" though, since it's a bit tough to work in Logic on the 13" MBP screen. But an external monitor will do well too.
 
the-ep said:
The 13" i7 will be just fine for the next 3-5 years if your needs remain rather stable over that time.

I would have recommended the 15" though, since it's a bit tough to work in Logic on the 13" MBP screen. But an external monitor will do well too.
Click to expand...

Thank you.
I think I came to a final conclusion.

It's (probably) going to be the 13"
core i7 2.7ghz
500gb 7200rpm (since people on other posts say it's fast enough due mac os) I don't need a SSD, since it's only a few seconds different in starting programs etc, and there is not enough space aviable.
8gb RAM, since I decided not to go with the ssd, there is money for extra ram! :rolleyes:
And an external screen (maybe buying later)

That's probably gonna be it.
A ssd can always be done in 2 years or so, if I really need it.

Thank you all for the advise!!
suggestions or other advise is always welcome ofcourse ;)
 
I have Logic Pro running on my 13" 8gig i7. Power is not an issue. The 7200 rpm hdd is not needed. get the 5400 for the 35gig install including all the samples. Most importantly get the external FW drive for all your audio files. You save the song to the FW drive. The FW should have the "Oxford" chip in it. The pricier Glyph stuff is primo, but the affordable Rocstor 1terrabyte for $189 is equally suited to the task. Can't remember model numbers, sorry.
 
josh2007 said:
I have Logic Pro running on my 13" 8gig i7. Power is not an issue. The 7200 rpm hdd is not needed. get the 5400 for the 35gig install including all the samples. Most importantly get the external FW drive for all your audio files. You save the song to the FW drive. The FW should have the "Oxford" chip in it. The pricier Glyph stuff is primo, but the affordable Rocstor 1terrabyte for $189 is equally suited to the task. Can't remember model numbers, sorry.
Click to expand...

Thanks, you know what it is, I recently bought a 500gb 7200rpm for my current laptop, so I can place that one in my macbook pro then, so no extra costs.
Are you sure the dual-core is powerfull enough to handle a big number of tracks in logic pro? I've got no experience at all, so I don't really know for sure... :eek:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back