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thmusic7

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 23, 2015
13
0
Hi. I am a professional Music composer and producer. I need to upgrade my equipment for memory and performance sake. I'm on a budget of $1,200, but willing to spend a little more (or less??) to get what I need and want. Here's what I have right now.

A mid 2012 MacBook Pro at 2.9GHZ DUAL CORE INTEL i7 with a Samsung EVEO 850 and 16 gigabytes.

Unfortunately, the display doesn't work so I’m forced to use my 2010 iMac at 3.06 GHz Intel core i3 and maxed out to 12 GB of memory nhz DDR3. I'm using logic X as my DAW and Today's tier ONE Plugins.

As many of you know already, VST's are memory and performance hogs and my ancient computers Are slow. So here is the summary of my research so far.

Yesterday, I went to Experimac. I told the salesman about the issues I'm having with performance, speed and memory. When I told him that I was on a budget, he first tried to Recommend the newest Mini Mac. But to my knowledge, well at least what I remember hearing about and reading about, Mini Macs don't Satisfy the need for speed and memory.

He next recommended the 2017 late addition of a 27 inch iMac. He talked to me about the bells and whistles of the memory and performance. The only issue was that is I'm not sure I want to spend $1399 on a 2017 model and I'm also Flirting with the idea of moving away from Intel.

Half satisfied, I left and got on the horn with Apple. They recommended the latest addition of the 27 inch iMac. I was excited about the customizable options with RAM, storage and memory, but not sure if the cost would justify it. Maybe I could get the lowest. Amount of storage and use a. External tower. Then I could shell out the extra cash and. Get more than 32 gigabytes of memory.

The only issue I have with that besides the price is that You can't upgrade or add any bells and whistles of your own once You buy it.

My third option, which was my original plan, was to get a Mac Pro. I long romanced the idea of having a computer that can handle all the memory I give it without Getting overload error messages in the middle of my tracks. Another attractive feature is that some of them are moving away from Intel. The newest versions are out of the question 'cause there are like $5000 and up. i researched the Cylinder Xeon E5 2.7 with 3.5 Ghz, 1 tb of storage and 64gb of ram.

The only drawback about those besides the cost would be that it is a 2013 machine. I worry about being left behind in not being able To use certain VSTS because of Software upgrades. That's why I didn't go with the most Effective option which would be to get a Mac Pro Tower 2012. Loved the idea that you can customize it and add memory and space later on. Not sure if you can do that with the cylinders.

Anyway, thanks in advance for your advice, which is much needed. Please tell me your experiences and let me know what you think.
 

ry-guy

macrumors regular
Sep 24, 2015
132
131
North of Sweden
I have a 2014 MacBook Pro, and have issues running soft synths and vsts at times. I’m also looking to upgrade. I personally wouldn’t buy anything unless it was the M1,M1 pro, or M1 max if i were you at this point. I cannot download Monterey either since Apple doesn’t support it anymore. And it seems Apple is already tailoring updates to their new silicon, meaning you don’t get features if it doesn’t have an Apple chip.
I saw on Reddit that the base 16” model (with the pro chip) had no issues with running a ton of the uhe Diva synth tracks. So i think I’m going with the 14” with the 10 core
 

satcomer

Suspended
Feb 19, 2008
9,115
1,977
The Finger Lakes Region
I have a 2014 MacBook Pro, and have issues running soft synths and vsts at times. I’m also looking to upgrade. I personally wouldn’t buy anything unless it was the M1,M1 pro, or M1 max if i were you at this point. I cannot download Monterey either since Apple doesn’t support it anymore. And it seems Apple is already tailoring updates to their new silicon, meaning you don’t get features if it doesn’t have an Apple chip.
I saw on Reddit that the base 16” model (with the pro chip) had no issues with running a ton of the uhe Diva synth tracks. So i think I’m going with the 14” with the 10 core

I tend too think with your music stuff get the M2 Mac Book and invest in Maccie mixing Boards!
 

thmusic7

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 23, 2015
13
0
I have a 2014 MacBook Pro, and have issues running soft synths and vsts at times. I’m also looking to upgrade. I personally wouldn’t buy anything unless it was the M1,M1 pro, or M1 max if i were you at this point. I cannot download Monterey either since Apple doesn’t support it anymore. And it seems Apple is already tailoring updates to their new silicon, meaning you don’t get features if it doesn’t have an Apple chip.
I saw on Reddit that the base 16” model (with the pro chip) had no issues with running a ton of the uhe Diva synth tracks. So i think I’m going with the 14” with the 10 core
thanks. I went and did some research on M1 M2. I didn’t know MacBook Pros Could handle the type of power I'm looking for.
 

Hoo Doo Dude

macrumors regular
Sep 16, 2010
205
250
Honestly, a BTO MacBook Air of the latest version would work great for your application. You could get one for around $1600 that would serve well.
 

guzhogi

macrumors 68040
Aug 31, 2003
3,774
1,892
Wherever my feet take me…
Since Apple's moving away from Intel and towards the M# chips, I'd advise against an Intel Mac. Since your current Macs are ~10 years old, an M# Mac would last a lot longer. The only issue would be finding the correct drivers.

If you do with an M# Mac, I'd say max out the RAM as you can't upgrade later. For storage, you can at least add external storage. If you get a Mac mini, I'd suggest looking at something like Sonnet Tech's DuoModo with the xMac mini module. That way, you can add some PCIe cards. Probably won't get full speed out of 16 lane cards, but it's something. Not sure what M# Mac pros would be like, or when Apple will release them. But for now, a Mac mini might be your best shot at a Mac.

Besides that, you may want to look at other hardware and OS options. Apple is becoming more and more proprietary. Apple can be very good, but very limiting at the same time.
 
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Fabian90

macrumors regular
Feb 19, 2013
214
355
Bonn, Germany
Don't get an Intel Mac! Intel is dead.

Have you checked wether your plugins already run natively on Apple Silicon? Waves for example upgrades their plugins to V13 just last month. Although even emulated via Rosetta a new Mac would be sooo much faster for you...

With your budget I'd actually go for the M1 Mac Mini. It has the best price/performance ratio and the M1 should be fast enough for your needs with 16Gb RAM. Check out some youtube videos maybe with benchmarks.
The only thing faster would be an M1 Pro Macbook Pro but you will have to pay for that amazing display with a small budget...
 

Nepenthe

macrumors regular
Feb 24, 2003
103
13
Minnesota
Hi. I am a professional Music composer and producer. I need to upgrade my equipment for memory and performance sake. I'm on a budget of $1,200, but willing to spend a little more (or less??) to get what I need and want. Here's what I have right now.

A mid 2012 MacBook Pro at 2.9GHZ DUAL CORE INTEL i7 with a Samsung EVEO 850 and 16 gigabytes.

Unfortunately, the display doesn't work so I’m forced to use my 2010 iMac at 3.06 GHz Intel core i3 and maxed out to 12 GB of memory nhz DDR3. I'm using logic X as my DAW and Today's tier ONE Plugins.

As many of you know already, VST's are memory and performance hogs and my ancient computers Are slow. So here is the summary of my research so far.

Yesterday, I went to Experimac. I told the salesman about the issues I'm having with performance, speed and memory. When I told him that I was on a budget, he first tried to Recommend the newest Mini Mac. But to my knowledge, well at least what I remember hearing about and reading about, Mini Macs don't Satisfy the need for speed and memory.

He next recommended the 2017 late addition of a 27 inch iMac. He talked to me about the bells and whistles of the memory and performance. The only issue was that is I'm not sure I want to spend $1399 on a 2017 model and I'm also Flirting with the idea of moving away from Intel.

Half satisfied, I left and got on the horn with Apple. They recommended the latest addition of the 27 inch iMac. I was excited about the customizable options with RAM, storage and memory, but not sure if the cost would justify it. Maybe I could get the lowest. Amount of storage and use a. External tower. Then I could shell out the extra cash and. Get more than 32 gigabytes of memory.

The only issue I have with that besides the price is that You can't upgrade or add any bells and whistles of your own once You buy it.

My third option, which was my original plan, was to get a Mac Pro. I long romanced the idea of having a computer that can handle all the memory I give it without Getting overload error messages in the middle of my tracks. Another attractive feature is that some of them are moving away from Intel. The newest versions are out of the question 'cause there are like $5000 and up. i researched the Cylinder Xeon E5 2.7 with 3.5 Ghz, 1 tb of storage and 64gb of ram.

The only drawback about those besides the cost would be that it is a 2013 machine. I worry about being left behind in not being able To use certain VSTS because of Software upgrades. That's why I didn't go with the most Effective option which would be to get a Mac Pro Tower 2012. Loved the idea that you can customize it and add memory and space later on. Not sure if you can do that with the cylinders.

Anyway, thanks in advance for your advice, which is much needed. Please tell me your experiences and let me know what you think.

Lots of producers these days are rockin the M1 Mac minis. There are some compatibility hurdles but no deal breakers (at least less and less as time goes on). Considering how popular the Apple Silicon architecture is I think all devs are working as hard as they can on supporting it.

Couple things to consider…

32GB is a decent amount of ram. 16 is not enough if you’re running lots of sample libraries.

Remember that plug-in chains are single threaded so CPU speed is actually important. You can have 8 or 28 cores but will still be limited in how much processing you can run on one signal chain. So if a high track count is what you need then an m1 will be great. But if you mostly need to run complicated, intensive processing chains at high sample rates on fewer tracks then I’d look at a server-class CPU. Not ARM, at least not for now.
 

satcomer

Suspended
Feb 19, 2008
9,115
1,977
The Finger Lakes Region
I had revelation that many people (including podcasters and sharing music in ANY application with shareware LoopBack! Just think of as old fashion patch panel inside your Mac routing any audio to any application!

Look at this video what it's all about:
 
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