Final choices for my new music laptop...

Dagon

I would just like to thank the guys on this forum for all the helpful advice in my last post. http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055310207

I had a good think about it, did more researching and scanned plenty of music forums, and have now narrowed it down to two possible options which seem to suit my situation best:

Option 1: Macbook Pro with the Apogee Duet http://www.apogeedigital.com/products/duet.php

Option 2: PC with great FSB speed, huge memory, fast hard drives and Texas Instruments firewire chipset. Interface: Mbox2 Pro - firewire

I'm currently leaning towards option 2. I've read a lot of great things about the MBox 2 pro, and it uses firewire so speed and quality should be up there with the apogee stuff. Also the pro tools software is supposed to be great. I was a little concerned about the horror stories about PC's and firewire compatibility problems, but if you get a good TI firewire chipset, I think it's meant to be very reliable and hassle free. Problems arise with the other, cheaper firewire chipsets, e.g. dell.

Option 1 looks great too, but for a decent spec Macbook pro I'm looking at around €3000. Yes, I know they're wonderful machines and are ultra reliable and quiet, with a nice user interface. But on the negative side, they wouldn't be great for gaming stuff (which I intend to do on my DAW, but in a virtual machine using VMWare, so it can be switched off and doesn't affect my main DAW), and I'm a Windows software developer so I know my way around Windows quite a bit better... I also have access to a lot of great PC software and plugins for music recording, so I would be starting from scratch with Mac - knowledge wise, and software wise.

The big thing that could draw me towards Mac at the moment is the software, which I've been told is very impressive. I want to be able to get results quickly and intuitively, and it seems that a lot of the logic software, and garageband, are very well developed over a longer time period than some of the Windows stuff (as Mac have been more prominent in this field in the past I guess). I don't have any experience using them as I've done all my recording using Soundforge tools on my PC.

Any tips in the final stages of my decision?

tweeky

It has to be Mac, i haven't seen a PC in a studio for many years unless it's in reception. PC will be your biggest mistake ever!!!!!!!
Unless it's for world of warcraft.

cornbb

Dagon wrote: »

But on the negative side, they wouldn't be great for gaming stuff (which I intend to do on my DAW, but in a virtual machine using VMWare, so it can be switched off and doesn't affect my main DAW), and I'm a Windows software developer so I know my way around Windows quite a bit better... I also have access to a lot of great PC software and plugins for music recording, so I would be starting from scratch with Mac - knowledge wise, and software wise.

I'll just point out that you can also run Windows on a VM on Mac too. I run Visual Studio under Parallels on my MBP, it works a treat as long as you have plenty of RAM.

Frootboy

I would go for your option 1. Macbook Pro with Apogee Duet over a PC based system.
PC will break your heart and pros don't use them for music. Over the years people have asked for my advice and anyone who ignored it and bought a PC has since had to go and buy a Mac. Please don't make the same mistake !

Dagon

Again, thanks for the advice guys.

I should state my main application:
- Recording guitars directly using POD 2.0 guitar preamp
- Using drum software to arrange a 100% realistic drum track for complex progressive rock / metal beats (addictive drums works with Logic I think)
- Using midi samples to get realistic choirs, classical instruments, etc. into my music
- Mixing everything, splitting tracks, copy and paste, etc.

I may - if the sound is good enough, or if I can borrow a good condenser - do vocal recording also. But it's quite likely this will be left up to the studio, as the quality of this is very important...

So I may not be using any mic at all, except for possible live recording in the future. I would prefer to leave this up to the real professionals in the studio, as I'm just a musician not a sound engineer. My previous results recording vocals was pretty bad hehe...

teamdresch

There's nothing wrong with PCs if you know what you're doing.
Nothing.

teamdresch

Also, only get a laptop if you really need one.
Ask yourself how often you'll actually need to drag your setup to a remote location where the difference in portability becomes worth the tradeoff in price and expandability.

teamdresch

teamdresch wrote: »

There's nothing wrong with PCs if you know what you're doing.
Nothing.

word..ive been running a 002 on windows for 2 years maybe..never had any difficulty with it..

Dagon

I don't know if it's true that no studios use PC? There are definitely some places that use PCs with pro tools I think...

studiorat

Dagon wrote: »

I'm currently leaning towards option 2. I've read a lot of great things about the MBox 2 pro, and it uses firewire so speed and quality should be up there with the apogee stuff.

I wouldn't be so sure about that...
It's only a few channels so speed isn't going to be a huge issue anyway.

Also make sure the Firewire port on the computer is the correct type. I mean the 6 pin variety and not the little one like you see on cameras etc.

ICN

Its a tough choice what to do.. Whatever anyone says here Mate - you are going to do what you want to do ultimately! :pac:

I was a window(ns Symdrome) Man for about 10 years & only made the move to Mac in the last year. I have not regretted it.

Learning curve would be the wrong way to describe "getting to grips" with Mac / OS X - I found it incredibly simple & straightforward, although I did have to have a look on the internet a few times to find out how to do a couple of things, but no huge problems.


Logic (if you ever get the chance to use it..) is aptly named. It is incredible.

Its obviously a deep program - but you can get as into it as much as you want without getting everything all messed up or feel limited by your newness. Its very intuitive.


My only problem for me, was compatibility issues with external soundcards - that took the fun out of the first couple of months (all resolved..) - but the apogee will obviously be 100% cool.

I'd say go Mac - but I'm biased.

I've got my Mac Pro - A Dell laptop for the Internet & a P4 Desktop for Office things. Surely you can have more than one computer, and use them all for different tasks?

Mac is so easy to use - I wish I had of got one years ago. It's speeded up everything that I do.

Since I got my Mac I hate working.

MAC MAC MAC MAC MAC MAC MAC MAC MAC MAC MAC :pac::pac::pac:

Dagon

You guys are really getting to me... I've started looking at the possibility of getting a MacBook! I don't have much faith in Microsoft so I'd gladly move to a different OS, and something more reliable, if I can get a decent deal.

So what MacBook should I be looking at for sound recording? I guess your first bit of advice is "get the highest spec possible"... but I don't want to spend that much over my €2000 budget on the laptop, as I'll also need to get other hardware and software. This is what was putting me off initially...

But there are some (potentially) good deals out there:
http://cgi.ebay.com/MACBOOK-PRO-2-33-GHz-2-GB-15-4-320GB-CORE-2-256MB-VID_W0QQitemZ150264763925QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item150264763925&_trksid=p3286.m14.l1308

Should I be looking for something like the above, or would a regular MacBook do the job?

ICN

I'm going to get a MBP in the states around Xmas..

Check out the prices on the US site http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/

If you know anyone going over, you could definitely "trade up" ..

jtsuited

macbook and apogee duet ftw!

actually i ordered a duet this week, so i can fully rid myself of anything digidesign related.

Sunn

tweeky wrote: »

It has to be Mac, i haven't seen a PC in a studio for many years unless it's in reception. PC will be your biggest mistake ever!!!!!!!
Unless it's for world of warcraft.

Hardly. A well kept PC like any equipment will function perfectly fine. This whole myth of macs been indestructible and a divine gift is just a bit silly at this stage. Of course their are pro's and cons, but merely in considering cost and choice of software which isn't much of a issue anyway unless you have your heart set on just using logic or wanting to be major friends with pro tools.

I want to be able to get results quickly and intuitively

To be honest I feel this comes down to the time spent with the software. I've used pretty much everything but I work best with cubase and reason, mainly as this was what I got started with and kept with it.

All software packages will take time to learn, I even suggest getting some demos and seeing which works best for you rather than blowing money on something you might end up hating.

af_thefragile

I say go with the macbook pro. Almost every artist in the industry uses them.
I've got a macbook too and it works really brilliantly. The best thing about mac is that you don't get a lot of junk software that u don't need.

Don't know much bout the apogee hardware. I'ld prefer an M-Audio interface.
But i say Mac is the way to go...!

Dagon

What is the built in soundcard like on a mac book pro? Could I record tracks using it's "line-in" like I would have done on my old Soundblaster Pro? e.g. using my pod 2 guitar pre-amp.

Found some very good deals on the apple site:
http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObjects/ukstore.woa/wa/RSLID?sf=w2YF4JXY4AHCAJCDF&nclm=Certified

cdutd

af_thefragile wrote: »

I say go with the macbook pro. Almost every artist in the industry uses them.
I've got a macbook too and it works really brilliantly. The best thing about mac is that you don't get a lot of junk software that u don't need.

Don't know much bout the apogee hardware. I'ld prefer an M-Audio interface.
But i say Mac is the way to go...!

Yeah , i've being goin to a few electro gigs recently here in oz, they're all using mac's. Doe's anybody use that 'Fusion' software??? It allows you to run windows programs on a mac. It definatly makes mac the no.1 choice for me anyway. Havn't got anything at the moment tho, just a backpacker struggling for cash for my next pint (stubbie,pot,jug,schooner) mad.:pac:

seannash

cdutd wrote: »

Yeah , i've being goin to a few electro gigs recently here in oz, they're all using mac's. Doe's anybody use that 'Fusion' software??? It allows you to run windows programs on a mac. It definatly makes mac the no.1 choice for me anyway. Havn't got anything at the moment tho, just a backpacker struggling for cash for my next pint (stubbie,pot,jug,schooner) mad.:pac:

mac can run bootcamp which allows you to run widows so you can use any widows based proramme using it

af_thefragile

seannash wrote: »

mac can run bootcamp which allows you to run widows so you can use any widows based proramme using it

i prefer not to do that. It'll be a big waste of space and memory on the mac.
Its best to leave the mac the way it is. Keeping it just a mac.

Dagon wrote: »

What is the built in soundcard like on a mac book pro? Could I record tracks using it's "line-in" like I would have done on my old Soundblaster Pro? e.g. using my pod 2 guitar pre-amp.

Found some very good deals on the apple site:
http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObjects/ukstore.woa/wa/RSLID?sf=w2YF4JXY4AHCAJCDF&nclm=Certified

The sound card is decent. Like when you don't wanna carry the interface with you and just wanna mix your songs.
It'll do a decent job in recording your guitars and all through the line-in. But i wouldn't depend on it for mixing.

Using the internal soundcard will increase the CPU usage of your laptop so you'll be able to do less mixing wise than if you use an external audio interface, it'll lessen the load on you CPU and u can do more with you mix.

The mac pro also gives an edge over the normal macbook as its got a proper graphics card too. Rather than the built-in chipset in the macbook. This again reduces the CPU load.
Basically the more of the CPU power you have available to use for your mixing, the more you can do with your mix.

It doesn't matter if you've got a really fast dual core 2.3ghz processor and you're leeching all of its power in its soundcard, graphics and all the other junk programs using it.
You'll get maximum CPU efficiency with the macbook pro. Thats why its the best and so widely used in the industry. Every gig i go to with an electronic musician has got a Macbook Pro looking after the samples n mix and all...
Everyone from Nine Inch Nails, Thrice, Saul Williams, BT and almost every professional musician's got one.

seannash

af_thefragile wrote: »

i prefer not to do that. It'll be a big waste of space and memory on the mac.
Its best to leave the mac the way it is. Keeping it just a mac.

i was just answering his queery about the fusion software

Techbot

Frootboy wrote: »

I would go for your option 1. Macbook Pro with Apogee Duet over a PC based system.
PC will break your heart and pros don't use them for music. Over the years people have asked for my advice and anyone who ignored it and bought a PC has since had to go and buy a Mac. Please don't make the same mistake !

Another Mac vs PC debate????????

Pros don't use PC's??
Are you kidding???

I have been using PCS for the past 20 years, once you know how to treat them they are fine. Sure a Mac is now simply a branded PC using a *nix operating system.

To be honest their is little or no difference between the two at this stage. The big issue at the moment is the new operating systems and driver probs, something both vista and leopard suffer from.

Checkout createdigitalmusic.com for up to date info on driver issues as well as loads of unbiased cross platform audio news .

booooonzo

lol ya everyone knows you can only get the 'PRO' sound form mac's especially the macbook pro

Seriously its completly what suits you and as a windows dev you should know how to keep you new laptop running smooth, mac or pc. Keep either clean and they will both allow you to make as much music as you want.

I have both btw and choose pc for the studio as Im a dev too and feel i know windows/nuendo better and its solid for me, thats all.
I wouldnt choose mac just because other artists use them, Its a ridiculous argument at this stage, been done to death

tweeky

I would have thought compatability was a plus in this debate. In most studios
(commercial not project) mac is the norm for better or worse.

Sunn

But that has little to do with helping someone get started.

tweeky

the quote you should have taken from my comment is


"I would have thought compatability was a plus in this debate. In most studios
(commercial not project) mac is the norm for better or worse."

Sunn

hmmmmmmmmmm...

tweeky

hmmmm all you like but i have always sat in an orchard (apple.... geddit)
when in commercial recording studios.
If i was the new guy on my first music computer and needed a bit of help now and then i would follow whatever the rest of my music mates see whatever they are on.
If i was to collaborate with a greater circle of contacts in pro studios/co-writes etc. i would go mac 100%.

Sunn

tweeky wrote: »

hmmmm all you like but i have always sat in an orchard (apple.... geddit)
when in commercial recording studios.
If i was the new guy on my first music computer and needed a bit of help now and then i would follow whatever the rest of my music mates see whatever they are on.
If i was to collaborate with a greater circle of contacts in pro studios/co-writes etc. i would go mac 100%.

He shouldn't be following his music 'mates' or anyone for that matter he should be buying and assessing equipment based on his needs not that of a professional recording studio or whats popular. They are other sequencers other than pro tools out there you know some are even free.

Here is the OP's original post!

Does anyone have any advice on what is the best laptop to go for as a portable digital audio workstation? I want to be able to record and edit music like I did on my old PC. Obviously gigantic memory and storage is needed, but just as importantly I'll need something with a decent soundcard - yet a lot of manufacturers don't really give much info on the soundcard specs... e.g. dell.

Sounds like he just wants something pretty simple, a good dell laptop with around 2 gigs of ram and a good processor can be got for less than 500 that coupled with a free Daw like Reaper he can save some money to spend on a good interface. I don't see how throwing tag lines like 'studios use macs therefore they are better' is helping him come to an honest conclusion particularly when the other options haven't even been included.

tweeky

I didn't say "studios use macs therefore they are better" i said to use what is compatible with whatever and whoever his music comes into contact with.
If it doesn't matter then buy a Dell, a converter and download Reaper.

seannash

someone said about the different operating systems fo pc and mac.this is huge.
macs operating system is far superior to windows.
no disks to install when you wanna hook up a midi controller or even a printer,camera(i know not music related but ill bet hell be using this computer as his main computer too)
viruses,there practically non existent on macs.windows is prone to getting viruses which is a pain to deal with.updating your spyware,mc affee bla bla bla.
and not too sound too maccy but eevrything is so much simpler to do on a mac.ive had pcs before i got my mac and id never go back.
this isnt saying that you cant get professinal results with a pc,of course you can but for out of the box ease of use and prolonged use my vote is mac.
plus they just look ****ing cooler aswell