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Recording studio: MacBook? MB Pro?

post #1 of 17
7/25/06 at 1:51pm
Thread Starter 
Will the Macbook 13 inch be sufficient or will the MB Pro be "necessary" for high-end studio recording of acoustic instruments etc?
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post #2 of 17
7/25/06 at 10:54pm
they're (MB & MBP) basically the same at the audio and CPU level. both the MB and MBP have digital line-ins, so i'm guessing u should be fine for your needs, tho i assume dedicated pro level equipment would be in order for anything reeeaaallly serious.
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post #3 of 17
7/26/06 at 1:31am
It'll be fine.
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post #4 of 17
7/26/06 at 2:25am
Um judging by your question I have to wonder if you will be doing high end recording.

First and foremost, what equipment are you hooking up? What are you planning on running on it? How are you using it?

Would a high-end studio use this? No. Most of the time they run off oof desktops for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the fact you can get more raw processing power, then again if you are talking very high end most of the time they run seperate DSP farms as well.

Now my personal opinion is that for my work, which is primarily theater sound design, which includes recording on occasion along with many other things, the 17" MBP is the only Apple laptop at the moment I consider to have an appropriate feature set. Of course I hate lugging around a 17" laptop as well, so I have chosen to stick with my G4 for the time being as I have a desktop workstation set up for the majority of my work and use the laptop for some field work along with my day to day life and occasionally running a show off of. It does all these well enough for my purposes at the moment.

Seablade
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post #5 of 17
7/26/06 at 4:19pm
Actually I have a music studio set up and It's running off of the macbook pro. for some music equipment you can use fire wire, such as multichannel recording platforms etc.
http://www.apogeedigital.com/products/ensemble.php

you will profit from the firewire 800 port on the 17inch macbook pro. Also the fact that it has an additional usb port is great, more expandability for usb soundboards etc...
Another note is that I would find it a bit hard to see when fine tuning your song and looking at all the tracks at the same time on such a small display.

With all that said, I do have an ACTUAL multichannel studio set up with my 17inch MBP and I think it's GREAT. Logic pro is also great if you have the money, but I would start with garage band first.

P.S.
2GB RAM is a Must. and having a 100-120GB HDD is key if you are recording a lot.
hope this helps
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post #6 of 17
7/26/06 at 6:17pm
Heh there is a significant difference between a music studio and a high end studio

I didnt say you couldnt set one up off of a MBP, I still use my powerbook for my portable recording involving recording voices and the like on site, but I also have my workstation set up for my more serious work. ALso dont get me wrong, I dont doubt that high quality stuff can be put out of a music studio, the real question comes into flexibility in what work you can accept.

I would also point out there are tons of alternatives to both Logic and Garageband in their various price ranges. Personally I use Ardour for my recording and straight audio work. I have PT which in the past I have used for my audio for video work, though on the next one I will be trying xjadeo syncd to Jack TimeCode to work on that in ardour as well, though I am not sure if that will work on Mac OS X or not, I havent seen anything yet that wouldnt, but I havent tried compiling it either.

Seablade
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post #7 of 17
7/26/06 at 7:21pm
Do you guys use Virtual instruments? ....i think that the Shared video memory of the Macbook may cause problems using V.I as Reason, Xpand! or Kontakt....what do you guys think about it?
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post #8 of 17
7/26/06 at 9:22pm
I wouldnt think so, then again I have never used Kontakt on any machine with shared memory, so feel free to take that with a grain of salt. Why do you think there would be a problem? Most audio programs are not heavy at all on graphics unless you are doing things like running 3D visualizations, or other things, I know patches in Pd(And Max/MSP as well probably, though I havent used that) can create 3D video to be rendered and controlled from any number of things, but that is about the only instance I can think of right off...

Seablade
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post #9 of 17
8/2/06 at 12:14pm
Audio programs, as you said, are not heavy at all on Graphics, but most of Virtual instruments are VERY Heavey on Memory, thats why i concren about this, im plannig to get one in a couple of weeks, so, im not sure if the macbook Qualifies...for what ido. In Fact i will be producing a record in El paso,Tx in 3 weeks...and i wiil need to make some "Rhythm" sequence in pro Tools working with Reason, Sampletank and Stylus...and thats why im thinking about installing windows On that machine...so the question is.....Macbook w 2Gb of Ram or Macbook Pro w 2 gb of ram??????......what do you guys suggest???
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post #10 of 17
8/2/06 at 5:29pm
The integrated video won't use up more than 80 megs of RAM, IIRC.
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post #11 of 17
8/3/06 at 12:12am
If you're realy going to use a Mac for Profesional applications, you're gunna look like an idiot plugging all your expensive production equiptment into the one ity bity 1/8th inch headphone jack. Don't even think of adding any adapters to that little 1/8th inch port either. Its just not professional. Yes its quick, but if your serious, get an external sound card.

M-Audio has alot of realy nice ones. I paid only 150 bucks for a card that has 1 L/R RCA Input, 2 L/R RCA Outputs, MIDI I/O, S/PDIF I/O and 1/4 inch headphone jack. You can get all sorts of different configurations of sound cards depending on what you plan on using it for.
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post #12 of 17
8/3/06 at 12:41am
Well, i use Pro Tools ( www.digidesign.com ).

I have a Digi 002R. that is my audio interface, and i will be using that interface in the apartment that they rented for me while im there. At The Studio we have Pro Tools Hd. I need the Macbook for my work in the apartment, i will finish the rest of the work that im doing now in Chile while im there after the recording sessions. (Mostly Drums and acoustic pianos,etc)

so...any observations to make about the Macbook Performance with Virtual INstruments?

Sorry for My English
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post #13 of 17
8/3/06 at 2:28am
Quote:
Originally Posted by itsmillertime10
If you're realy going to use a Mac for Profesional applications, you're gunna look like an idiot plugging all your expensive production equiptment into the one ity bity 1/8th inch headphone jack. Don't even think of adding any adapters to that little 1/8th inch port either. Its just not professional. Yes its quick, but if your serious, get an external sound card.

M-Audio has alot of realy nice ones. I paid only 150 bucks for a card that has 1 L/R RCA Input, 2 L/R RCA Outputs, MIDI I/O, S/PDIF I/O and 1/4 inch headphone jack. You can get all sorts of different configurations of sound cards depending on what you plan on using it for.

That "ity bity (sic) 1/8th inch headphone jack" is a combination analogue and digital jack.
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post #14 of 17
8/3/06 at 12:00pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kakaze
That "ity bity (sic) 1/8th inch headphone jack" is a combination analogue and digital jack.

yeah i know that, but unless you're using the digital part, its just not professional having tons of expensive equiptment running into a macbook through a single 1/8th inch line in.
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post #15 of 17
8/4/06 at 1:07am
i don't understand...why in the world would you use that line in for professional recordings?
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post #16 of 17
8/4/06 at 4:25pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by itsmillertime10
yeah i know that, but unless you're using the digital part, its just not professional having tons of expensive equiptment running into a macbook through a single 1/8th inch line in.

I don't know anything about music recording, but I've seen a lot of (professional) dj's run stuff from that line.
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post #17 of 17
8/4/06 at 5:44pm
Well, i didn´t want to discriminate ....sorry...
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