Mac Mini Or Macbook for recording and mixing

[jvms]

Hello, guys, I'm in the need of buying a new computer for recording and mixing and I guess I'm going on the Mac route, but I don't know much about them. How different is the Mini from a regular Macbook and what models specifically should I be looking at? Keep in mind that live in Brazil and that kind of stuff is EXTREMELY EXPENSIVE, sou I would probably have to buy it second hand. Is this a nice move?

 

[TedEH]

I guess I'm going on the Mac route, but I don't know much about them.

When it comes to buying any piece of technology, the first question to ask is always "why?". What are your requirements? Once you've figured that out, go with the piece of equipment that best suits your requirements. Do you need lots of RAM for virtual instruments? Do you need a fast HDD for lots of tracks? Are you gonna game on the same computer at some point? Do you need a certain piece of software or OS? Do you need to be portable? Without knowing which models exactly, last time I looked Mac Minis were very similar to Macbooks just not portable. In both cases, they're not going to be great platforms to upgrade if you need to future proof your stuff.

I'm not against getting Macs, I actually quite like them in some cases, but if cost is a concern, and you don't have a good reason to go for Macs specifically, then you'll save a lot of money putting together a plain ol' PC. If it's for recording, building the machine yourself means you can skip on stuff you wont need (video card) and add stuff that'll help you out (more RAM, faster hard drives, or put that money towards a good interface or plugins, etc.)

I recently bought a laptop for about $200 CAD used that could probably handle 99% of the recording stuff I would do (although that's not what I needed a laptop for). A mac at the same spec would easily have cost $700-800 or more.

 

[jvms]

I plan on doing a lot of orchestral and keyboard stuff with VSTs, so lots of RAM would be good for me. I have a PC with (forgot the model, but nothing fancy) 2 Markvision 8gb RAMs (one of them broke recently) and an i7 3770, a 120GB SSD and a 1TB HD, but it's not really handling everything I do. I also have a 3GB hard drive for my sample libraries. Is that a decent setup for mixing?

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

I have a 27" iMac maxed out with 32GB of RAM running Pro Tools 12 + a plethora of soft synths and other related plugins.

Runs flawlessly.

 

[TedEH]

I have a PC with [stuff]

It sounds to me like that PC should be able to handle a lot of recording tasks. If it's not up to the task, I'd be trying to figure out what the bottleneck is, and upgrading that piece, rather than replacing the whole system. If you're using a lot of samples that get loaded into memory, maybe more RAM would work. If you're going to have a lot of wavs streamed from disk at once, you could make sure you're using SSDs or high-rpm HDDs. If your CPU is having trouble, you might be able to optimize your workflow (lots of plugins have a "quality" setting you can turn down), or just update the CPU.

You can also learn ways to work around your PCs bottlenecks. Setup your daw to not process tracks that are muted (Reaper does this by default), and mute tracks you're not working on if you don't need to hear them. You can render out stuff that you're satisfied with and mute/archive the original tracks so that you're not using up computing power to live-process stuff that you're done tweaking, etc.

Between small PC upgrades and a good workflow, I think you can easily avoid spending a bunch of money on a new PC.

That being said, I really like new shiny computery stuff too, and if that's what you want to do just to have new fancy stuff, then go for it.

 

[Aymara]

I plan on doing a lot of orchestral and keyboard stuff with VSTs, so lots of RAM would be good for me.

Then you might be happy with a 2014 or 2015 Macbook Pro Retina (because of Thunderbolt instead of USB-C on the new gen) with an i7, an ultra fast internal SSD and 16 GB RAM.

For sample libraries I bought a LaCie 1 TB mechanical Thunderbolt Rugged drive, where I replaced the HDD against a fast SSD of my personal choice ... much cheaper, than buying a ready Thunderbolt SSD. And Thunderbolt is recommended, because USB doesn't support Trim.

I'm totally happy with this setup and use Reaper together with Native Instruments Komplete 10 Ultimate and BIAS FX.

If everything fits on a 512 GB SSD, you could also choose this MBP model and don't need an external drive. The 1 TB version is too expensive, I think.

but it's not really handling everything I do.

That requires further explanation to make sure, that above Macbook recommendation is sufficient.

PS: Because you mentioned living in Brazil, maybe first check above recommendation to upgrade your PC.

 

[KingAenarion]

What DAW are you using?

Honestly, in most cases I find for these sorts of things that it's less about the fact the computer can't handle it, and more about session management.

Once you are happy with a MIDI part (e.g. strings, orchestral percussion etc) are you rendering down to audio tracks?

 

[Aymara]

... it's less about the fact the computer can't handle it, and more about session management.

Good point. I think our friend should explain more details about his problems.

The solution might be different, than thought so far, yes. But that's all pure speculation without knowing details or let's say, without knowing the bottel neck

 

[Descent]

TBH, since you'e in Brazil and I have friends there that have explained how $$$ gear is, something perceived as *fancy* as a Mac is considered luxury item.

I would advise you go the Windows route instead. You don't specify the interface you're about to use, I am not a fan of USB interfaces overall, I think only RME has really solid drivers for USB, although other people will probably prove me wrong.

I'd go with PCIe, Firewire or Thunderbolt interface. Maybe
MOTU HDX-SDI for the PCIe, and if needed make sure that PC is rackmountable.


Or maybe a hybrid USB/Thunderbolt like Motu 8A, so if USB is not viable you can get a Thunderbolt for PC card and call it a day. Just a few of the many available interfaces, of course


Now if you really want to go the Mac route...

Macbook

First the MacBook has the infinitesimally stupid USB-C adapter (or the USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter?), meaning that you have to drink the iCoolAid and buy all kinds of adapters from them in order to get to these ports.

Then you have no idea of how heavy duty recordings would go with it as it just seems to flimsy for me to put my money on it.

Then you get a dual processor only, small screen (12inch only? Ugh), 8 gigs of RAM which I am not sure can be expanded as Apple started soldering their ram to the mobos.
I also totally hate the way their new model works where you don't get the OS, the system has to go online to the Apple store in order to run recovery, unless you buy some kind of drive imaging software and make clone of your drive to an external drive.

With Windows system, if you find local system builder, they can provide you with CDs, and you can get imaging software (I use Acronis) to get back up and running quick in case of data loss. It also helps not to have to load the infernally challenging software plugins.

You would want to add extra drives for music so in this scenario you'll have to go through the USB-C adapter or any other so I am not even sure if you can tag something like USB drive and Thunderbolt device at the same time, god forbid a USB drive as well. Then the 12in screen will make you poke your eyes out when doing a big mix and you'll need an external monitor.
It has coolness factor and supposedly long battery life, could be taken on the road easily and say you can run something like Amplitube live if you wanted to.

Here are the specs:
https://www.apple.com/macbook/specs/

The Mac Mini

This one looks a lot more doable as you can configure it as you'd need an can expand to 16gig of ram. Things I don't like - CPU and graphics run off the same chip, the dual processor only, although the two more expensive models have more ooomph in them.

After all I have friends that do production on these machines and they're happy with them, 24 to 48 tracks on general works ok if you don't go heavy on the synths. Lots of expansion options for USB, Thunderbolt, etc.

If you have to get a Mac and can't afford the high end stuff, get this one, but overall I think you'd be happier with a Windows PC, maybe even from a specialized audio system builder, like say
http://www.carillonac1.com/


https://www.apple.com/mac-mini/specs/

 

[bostjan]

I have a very old Mac Mini, and it ran Garage Band just great. When I wanted to expand the RAM, the upgrade (parts and labour, because an Apple Genius had to upgrade it- no option, at the time, to simply buy memory and DIY) was going to cost more than the computer cost me to start, so I bought a PC.

 

[Mraz]

With a PC you can always get it better and cheaper than a mac, just saying,

 

[Aymara]

With a PC you can always get it better and cheaper than a mac, just saying,

Cheaper, yes, but not better. How many Mac users fight with latencies compared with Windows users? Definitely much less.

 

[TedEH]

^ I don't think that's the case as much as it used to be.

 

[Icarusnic]

I'm using a Mac mini Late 2012 with an additional SSD. It works fantastic. Even with a lot of high processor requiring Plugins like East West stuff. I love it.
Got a MacBook Pro 2015 though. But my main Workstation is my Mac mini.