Mac books - idiots guide please

musicegbdf

OK I know nothing of Mac's. I am totally PC based. My daughter has turned professional as a singer songwriter and the first advance will be with us (hopefully ) soon. So far all of her music has been produced for her by professional producers in studios , or in cooperation with other full time songwriters.

I have tried to help her on PC with some software like Ableton live , but this is too complex for her (she is not very techy). She is looking at a Mac Book pro with Garageband to start off simple and build up to Logic pro (her producer says he will give her a copy). The idea is she can rough out her songs at home in garage band and send the basic ideas by email , and take her Mac Book to LA with her when she is in the studio.

We are Vat registered so will get UK Vat back , so might buy in the UK and not the states. However which one ? What is the "retina display" models ? I see they do not have HDD but seem to have a flash drive??

I assume this means it does not have mechanical disc drive , but rather has solid state. I guess that will be much faster ? I already have a Focusrite Scarlett 212 which I guess we will use as at most she will sing and play the guitar at the same time.

If we go for the flashdrive one , what do you guys think will be the minimum size she should aim for? Any other tips (new models coming out?)

Oh , was thinking of a 13" maybe for portability , but perhaps get a big screen to plug into at home...

Any thoughts will be welcome.

Thks
 

guitarfishbay

If it is in budget I'd go for the Retina - they've got better battery life, a nicer screen, (should be) quieter and will be snappier to use as flash drives are noticeably quicker than regular hard drives.

The price and spec jump to the 15 inch is pretty big, she probably won't need the extra power if she's just doing basic demos but I guess it is worth checking it out if the budget is there and she'd prefer the larger screen, they are very nice.

If you're going for the 13" and it is within budget I'd upgrade to at least the one with the 256gb hard drive, just to give a bit of manoeuvring room. Otherwise by the time you've got a full install of Logic and a couple more apps you'll be running out of space at 128 fairly quickly if she records a lot of demos.  You can't upgrade the size of the flash drive after buying so it makes sense to get a bigger one.  Also that model should have 8gb ram which again can't be upgraded once you've bought it.  If you can afford to spec the hard drive even larger I think it would be worth it just to try and avoid needing to carry external drives everywhere.

To keep an eye on new models check out this buyers guide, it seems to suggest new models might be due soon, but whether or not the upgrades will make any difference to your daughter is a different question entirely.  ttp://buyersguide.macrumors.com/#Mac

musicegbdf

Interesting , thank you sounds like maybe a 13 inch retina with 256 g and a larger monitor for home use. - assume they have the facility to plug in say 22 inch monitor ?

monquixote

Any of the Retina MacBook Pros will do you for music production. They are great machines .I have a current gen 15" MBP and I love it.

DO NOT BUY THE NON RETINA MACBOOK. 

It is a previous generation model and despite being a hundred quid cheaper than anything else it is much poorer value for money. The cheapest one you should consider is the £1099 13-inch: 2.4GHz with Retina display.

guitarfishbay

They have hdmi ports so you can attach an external monitor via that.

Karlos

monquixote said:

Any of the Retina MacBook Pros will do you for music production. They are great machines .I have a current gen 15" MBP and I love it.

DO NOT BUY THE NON RETINA MACBOOK. 

It is a previous generation model and despite being a hundred quid cheaper than anything else it is much poorer value for money. The cheapest one you should consider is the £1099 13-inch: 2.4GHz with Retina display.

I'm not so sure about this. 

Obviously the retina machines are superior but as the OP states, storage is limited unless you pay a LOT of money. There is only one company (OCW i think) producing after market blade SSD's and they are ridiculously expensive. Also you cannot upgrade the RAM.

If you get the non retina you and chose the lowest HDD and RAM option you can spec it up with an SSD and more RAM for way less than than what you would pay for an equivalent retina model.

Even the base Unibody will handle Logic just fine even with a load of audio tracks. My old Mac Mini was fine, my current MBP with a 960GB SSD and 16GB ram is fine.

I'm not saying don't buy a retina, I'm saying don't think you have to buy one to run Logic or if you really do need a lot of storage.

If storage is not an issue, sure get a retina but you did say you were worried about 256GB not being enough.

Just another perspective.

stickyfiddle

I bought a the top-spec (before customisation) Retina 13 a month ago and haven't regretted it. It's a fantastic computer and while the 15 i a powerhouse, I don't miss the big screen because it's such a good quality screen with relatively high display resolution for its size.

I wouldn't go lower than 512GB of storage myself, but in either case it's  good idea to have a big external drive or 2 as well.

In terms of external displays, you can use HDMI or get an adaptor for a few quid to go into any VGA monitor. Or spend a fortune and get one of Apple's own displays, which are lovely but overpriced. 

musicegbdf

Brilliant , thks guys. To give me an idea of the drive size needed. How big within Garage Band/ logic would say a 6 track 3 min song take up ?
 I am erring towards the 13 inch Retina 256G or the 512G. Though have told her only to use it for music production and perhaps buy and Ipad for personal stuff.
If 256 is enough then am sure an external drive will be worth buying , even if just for back up., (At the moment I told her (and she does) back up by emailing to herself any important files.
We should get the VAT back so that helps.
Just need to see the first advance now !

Karlos

An external drive isn't "worth it"... it is essential. Without a back up you are simply driving around without a seat belt on.

I would consider an external drive as part of the package that you need to buy and not an optional extra. 

I use Time Machine which is Apples own backup solution. It works flawlessly and is super easy to use. Any decent external hard drive will do the job. No matter what brand someone recommends , someone will have a story of how bad they are but I like LaCie drives and I have numerous Western Digital (but not the Passport range, they are weak).

Thunderbolt external drives are still pretty expensive so I'd look for a USB 3 external. 

One of the good things about Logic is you can store the Jam Packs and extras on the external drive so you don't clog up the internal hard drive.

monquixote

KarlosSantos said:

monquixote said:

Any of the Retina MacBook Pros will do you for music production. They are great machines .I have a current gen 15" MBP and I love it.

DO NOT BUY THE NON RETINA MACBOOK. 

It is a previous generation model and despite being a hundred quid cheaper than anything else it is much poorer value for money. The cheapest one you should consider is the £1099 13-inch: 2.4GHz with Retina display.

I'm not so sure about this. 

Obviously the retina machines are superior but as the OP states, storage is limited unless you pay a LOT of money. There is only one company (OCW i think) producing after market blade SSD's and they are ridiculously expensive. Also you cannot upgrade the RAM.

If you get the non retina you and chose the lowest HDD and RAM option you can spec it up with an SSD and more RAM for way less than than what you would pay for an equivalent retina model.

Even the base Unibody will handle Logic just fine even with a load of audio tracks. My old Mac Mini was fine, my current MBP with a 960GB SSD and 16GB ram is fine.

I'm not saying don't buy a retina, I'm saying don't think you have to buy one to run Logic or if you really do need a lot of storage.

If storage is not an issue, sure get a retina but you did say you were worried about 256GB not being enough.

Just another perspective.

There are many reasons not to buy one. 

It doesn't have the best screen.

It has the previous generation Intel processor which means it has drastically reduced battery life

It has the previous generation graphics processor

It has a shitty spinning disk and it can't be upgraded with a PCIe Flash Drive because they only have SATA.

It's 1/3rd heavier and significantly thicker

It only has one Thunderbolt port

It doesn't have an HDMI port

For a saving of £100 you'd have to be insane to buy one.