In quick summary, the minimum recommended laptop specs for music production are:![Music Music](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/3adZ3ShpqQ8/maxresdefault.jpg)
- Macbook Pro Music Production Setup Software
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- Macbook Pro Music Production Setup Laptop
- Macbook Pro Music Production Setup Windows 10
- Best Macbook Pro Setup
- Macbook Pro Music Production Setup Pc
- Mac Pro For Music Production
- At least 2.2Ghz i7 quad-core processor
- At least 4GB of RAM
- 64-bit operating system
- At least 256GB of internal storage (HDD or SSD)
- At least a 15-inch screen.
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A lot of the requirements will, of course, vary depending on what type of music you are going to record.
How complex is it? How many tracks will it consist of? Will it be mainly produced using MIDI or will it be all audio? How many tracks do you intend to record at one time? Are you recording an entire orchestra!? Will you be running hundreds of effects and/ or plugins?
You get the point. Not all music production needs are equal. But this guide should help you understand what to look for and why each one of the confusing technical specs is important.
If you follow this guide your laptop should be more than capable of recording fairly complex stuff, just about anything you would want to record in a home recording studio.
A Brief History of Recording
Over the past 100 years, audio recording has advanced significantly. The very first recordings in the early 20th century were created by a large horn-shaped object capturing sound and literally drawing out sound waves onto paper or wax.
By the middle of the century, magnetic tape recording became the technology of choice. This method made recordings of much higher quality and also meant they could be much longer in length.
It wasn’t until the 1970’s that digital recording even became a thing. But as with tape recording before it, digital completely changed the musical world and the way music production was done. Where tape only recorded continuous analog sounds, digital recordings work by taking a large number of small samples of a sound very quickly.
But even once the digital recording was invented it was a luxury reserved only for high-end professional recording studios for a long time.
Eventually, it would be possible to buy a computer for your home which would be capable of use in a recording setup. But to get the required spec you had to spend a lot of money. I remember computers even into the early 2000s that were just about capable of playing a CD or running a word processor. And even they would crash occasionally.
So the fact that you are here, even contemplating using a LAPTOP in a home recording studio is quite remarkable. It shows how far technology has come and it’s great!
Laptop vs desktop for home audio production?
I personally made the move from my (not so trusty) desktop PC to a laptop around 4 years ago. Mainly because of the reasons mentioned above. It just wasn’t possible until recently to get a laptop with the spec required for a reasonable price and that wouldn’t explode as soon as you tried to open your DAW software.
Don’t get me wrong, for the money you can probably get a much better desktop computer, custom fitted with everything you could ever want. But a laptop gives me other things which I find very handy.
The main one is portability. With a laptop, I have a music studio I can effectively take anywhere. If you are as busy as me, this is a great thing to have. It has allowed me to mix and even record parts of songs whilst on the train. I’ve even taken it to a church when I wanted to record the acoustics there. I don’t have the space for a drum kit at home so I will sometimes take it to a studio to record drums without having to use someone else’s setup, I have my tracks ready to go and I just plug in and record.
Before I splashed out on my faithful laptop (almost 4 years ago and still going strong), I did a tonne of research into what to look for in a laptop for music production.
I read loads of articles from people saying, don’t bother, get a desktop bla bla bla. But there was a lot of useful information out there and it lead to me purchasing a laptop with a spec that has never let me down!
Ok, so you can’t just grab your old dusty laptop that you mainly use for Facebook browsing and hope it will work in a home recording studio, it probably won’t. The fact is, most off the shelf laptops don’t have the spec required to run a DAW efficiently. But what specs are needed, and why?
Well here is a guide of the key laptop specs for music production which I hope you find useful. I will end with my recommendation of which laptops I think are your best options.
Processor
What processor do I need for music production?
Recommended – At least 2.2Ghz, i5 dual-core processor, but ideally i7 quad-core.
You’ve probably heard phrases such as ‘dual-core’ and ‘quad-core’ or ‘i3’ and ‘i7’ banded around but without any explanation of what they mean. I will do my best to explain without confusing you further.
The computer processing unit (CPU) is arguably the most important thing to get right when looking at laptop spec for home recording.
I like to think of the processor as the computers ‘brain’. Being the brain it is therefore responsible for performing calculations, carrying out actions, but probably most importantly for us, running programs. A processor is usually a square chip and sits on the motherboard of your laptop (like the one in the picture above).
Cores
When there was just a single core, only a limited amount of tasks could be carried out at one time. When we are running a complex digital audio workstation with multiple tracks all at once this is likely to overwhelm a single core.
Luckily that is why we now have laptops with dual or even quad-core processors. A dual-core is effectively two CPUs on a single chip rather than just one.
As you may expect adding more gives you more. With more processing power your laptop will be able to perform more tasks simultaneously which is essential when recording music. So more cores are usually better.
Frequency
Another important factor to look for in a processor is the frequency. This is the speed of the processor and is measured in gigahertz or GHz for short.
The frequency used to be the most important factor to look at when all computers had just a single core. And it does still make a difference, the higher the frequency the better. In some cases, a very high-frequency dual-core could actually outperform a lower frequency quad core.
I would recommend a frequency no lower than 2.2GHz, but the higher the number the better so see what you can stretch the budget to.
i3 vs i5 vs i7, whats the difference?
The numbers i3, i5 and i7 refer to different models of processor produced by the company Intel. And quite simply they improve in capability as you go up the numbers. With the i7 being the top processor Intel produce.
The i7, for instance, has a larger ‘cache’ which allows it to deal with repetitive tasks more quickly. Repetitive tasks are stored in the background and then when required can be carried out almost instantly.
With increased performance comes increased price however so bear that in mind.
There are other makes of processors such as AMD as with intel just pay attention to the frequency and number of cores and they will work just as well.
RAM
How much RAM do I need for music production?
Recommended – At least 4GB but 8GB or 16GB is definitely the preference. You can never have too much RAM!
Music production software hits your laptop’s memory hard, particularly as you add more plug-ins etc. to your process.
RAM stands for ‘Random Access Memory’. Rather than the long-term memory (which I’ll explain below) RAM is the short-term ‘working’ memory. It is much quicker for the laptop to use the RAM to quickly access data it needs rather than accessing it from the hard drive every time.
I’ve been trying to think of a metaphor for this for a while but this is the best I can do (sorry). RAM is a like a wallet full of money, whenever you need to pay for something you can quickly dip into your RAM wallet to grab some money. The hard-drive is more like the bank, it stores stuff away that is not needed quite so quickly. You have to imagine that you live in a dodgy neighborhood though as every time you put your RAM wallet down (i.e shut your laptop down) all the money from it disappears. Whereas the bank is nice and secure (hopefully) and even when shut down
So although these are both forms of memory they should not be used interchangeably. 4GB of RAM is quite high but 4GB of hard drive storage would barely be enough for a couple of audio recordings with multiple tracks.
As I mentioned, music production requires a lot of this quickly accessible memory. For this reason, I would definitely say to have no less than 4GB of RAM in a laptop for music production. The more RAM you can get with your cash the better, I decided to go for 16GB of RAM in my latest laptop and it runs smooth as anything.
32 vs 64-bit operating system
It’s not that important to understand what the difference between 32 and 64 bit operating systems are apart from 64-bit is newer and better. It is capable of storing more data and is like comparing a car to a bike in terms of speed.
As I said above the more RAM the better but it is worth bearing in mind that a 32-bit operating system is only capable of running up to 4GB of RAM. If you want to have more than 4GB of RAM (which is highly recommended) you will need a 64-bit operating system.
Chances are with modern laptops you will be running a 64-bit operating system. With Windows, if you are running anything later than Windows 7 chances are it is 64 bit. With Macbooks anything more recent than a 2008 Macbook Pro will be 64-bit.
So it probably won’t be an issue if you are buying new (or almost new) but I thought it was worth a mention.
Hard Drive
How much memory do I need for music production?
Recommended – at least 256GB internal storage (HDD or SSD) with at least 500GB external storage
Hard drives were one of the specs I found most confusing when choosing a laptop.
One thing that may shock you when you start producing music is the crazy amounts of storage space just a single track can consume! If you are used to just storing a few images or documents on your laptop then prepare for a shock! We are talking in the gigabytes here not the megabytes.
So as you will probably guess as with processors and RAM, the higher the number the better. But what is the minimum? What is recommended?
You will want a decent amount of memory to ensure you can smoothly run your DAW software and plugins but if you are using this laptop primarily for audio production you don’t have to go too crazy with size. I would recommend going for at least 256GB of internal storage but 128GB may be enough for the following reason:
Use an external hard drive for audio files
If you have a high spec laptop you shouldn’t have an issue storing audio data on the internal hard drive, but if you want to make sure you have absolutely no issues with performance then an external hard drive is well worth getting.
This will allow you to just use the internal hard drive for running the operating system, DAW and plugins. Whilst any audio tracks and samples can be kept separate on the external drive. This external hard drive can be your ‘audio drive’.
I personally recommend getting an SSD external hard drive (see below for the difference between SSD and HDD). I have this one from Samsung. The more storage the better of course but even 500GB will last you ages! Don’t splash out loads of money on a 2TB one unless you plan on recording a ridiculous amount of songs.
I actually have a second external hard drive just for backing up and archiving old tracks. You don’t want all those hours of recording to go to waste, do you?
Do I need an SDD for music production?
No, it is not necessary. As with all these things, it is a great luxury to have if you can afford it but an HDD will do most people fine. I’ll try and explain why:
There are two main types of hard drive; SSD which stands for Solid State Drive and HDD which stands for Hard Disk Drive.
A solid-state drive works in a similar way to a USB drive, but built into the computer and much bigger. Unlike a hard disk drive, it doesn’t have any moving parts. Information is stored on a series of microchips.
A hard disk drive, on the other hand, may be familiar to you as the whirring sound you get in many computers and laptops. That whirring sound is caused by a disk spinning really fast. As the disk spins around a mechanical arm read the information of it.
A solid-state drive is like having bookmarks in a book on the pages you want to find, whereas a hard disk drive is like having to flick through the pages every time to find what you are looking for (I apologize for all the terrible comparisons in this article!).
This means SSD is better than HDD but, of course, comes at a price being the better technology.
Personally, I still use an HDD drive. You can just get so much more for your money than with SDD. The truth is that the majority of data will be stored on the RAM. So having lots of RAM is much more important than having an SDD.
If you do go for HDD try and get one with a rotational speed of at least 7200RPM.
If you are planning on using huge numbers of samples, this will be too big to be loaded into the RAM so will be accessed from the hard drive. Then the need for SDD becomes slightly higher but is still not essential.
Is a Flash Drive the same as SSD?
Just to confuse matters further Macbooks often come with Flash Drives. Yes, this is technically a solid-state drive as it has no moving parts.
Do I need to worry about the soundcard?
Unless you plan on plugging an instrument directly into the laptop then your external soundcard spec is not an issue. It is most likely you will be using an audio interface, which acts as an external soundcard. Therefore the spec of the one in your laptop won’t matter.
Screen size
Recommended – at least 15 inches Unity pro 5 5 0f3 download free.
Screen size depends on how portable you want to be. I opted for a 15-inch laptop as I felt the 17 inch was a bit too big to carry about. When I am in the home studio I will connect it to a much larger monitor though as it makes the experience much better.
Some people find a 15-inch screen too small for working in many DAWs but I don’t mind it. This one is personal preference really. Go to a store and test a couple out to see.
I would advise against anything less than 15 inches as it will be pretty much impossible to work in the DAW without connecting to an external monitor.
Mac or PC for Home Recording Studio?
I had a lot of issues when I used to try and do audio production on a Windows PC and moving to Apple was a game changer for me. It runs like a dream and I’ve not had any issues with latency which I always used to get with my Windows machine.
That said, it was over 4 years ago and I know Windows laptops have come on leaps and bounds since then. The fact is that if you follow the guidance above and meet the correct spec, then either should be fine.
One important thing to bear in mind is which DAW are you going to use?
![Music Music](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/3adZ3ShpqQ8/maxresdefault.jpg)
Logic Pro, for instance, is only for the Mac. But most DAWS will work on both operating systems. I personally use Ableton Live and it works just the same on Windows and Apple. But definitely, check your DAW of choice is compatible before buying your laptop.
Recommendations
Check out my up to date recommendations in the recommended gear section here.
As I always say, I will only recommend what I personally use myself or have at least tried. I am currently using a MacBook Pro from around 2015 and it still runs great. It has a 2.7GHz quad-core i7 processor, 16GB of RAM and 512GB of internal storage.
This is the great thing about Macs for me. All my Windows laptops have lasted just a couple of years of heavy use but my MacBook still feels like new even after 3 years of very heavy use.
So bearing that in mind if you can find a Macbook second hand, in good condition, which isn’t too old, with a spec that reflects what we’ve talked about above then that would be a great option.
If you want a nice new shiny one then I would recommend this one. It will give you a 2.6GHz, i7 processor, 16gb of RAM and 512GB of storage.
Your laptop will be the heart of your home music studio so if you’re going to spend money anywhere it should be here. Save that $1000 you were going to spend on a vintage synth and put it towards a laptop first.
If you’re looking for the best Mac for music production – get a Mac with minimum Core i5 processor, 8GB RAM, and 256GB SSD. Macs are among the best music-making laptops.
As a beginner or pro music producer, you’ll love the above iMac Pro 27-inch for composite video or mus productions. Its Retina 5K display is thin (5mm), in-built CPU, and built-in speakers.
If you’re a traveling producer, get a sleek, light, and compact Mac. MacBook Pro 13-inch is excellent for on-the-go music production (when you’re traveling). Read Also: Good camera for music videos.
Reviews: Top 9 Best Mac for Music Production in 2020
1. MacBook Pro 16-inch – Best Mac Laptop for Music – #1 Pick
This portable MacBook Pro 16-inch comes is a beast for audio engineers and musicians. Has improved speakers plus high-quality display – you can upgrade to 8TB of storage plus 64GB Ram.
MacBook Pro 16-inch comes with a 16GB RAMp plus a 6‑core i7 processor. This gives a pro performance since minimal monitoring and recording projects could choke it.
Sneak Peek:
- Processor: 8-core i9 processor
- Storage: 1TB storage (SSD)
- Memory: 16GB RAM allows smooth multitasking
- Screen size: 16-inch display Retina
- Design: 0.61 inches thick
- Ports: USB 3.1 Gen 2; 4 Four Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) for DisplayPort and Charging; and 40 Gbps Thunderbolt
- Headphone Jack: 3.5 mm
In addition to high portability, this MacBook Pro has a large screen and will also effectively run the DAW software plus plugins with little latency – great video editing laptop.
I tested this MacBook Pro’s low-latency performance using Ableton Live in Pro Tools and stand-alone with excellent results. It has pro ports – (4) 40Gb Thunderbolt 3 that also act as USB‑C connections.
Despite that, the 16-inch screen can’t compare to the 27-inch in iMac Pro, MacBook Pro is significantly better than most Macs when it comes to less software clustering for music production. Iboostup premium 6 8 28 cm.
MacBook Pro 16-inch has a Touch Bar that’ll work great with Logic Pro X. You can use its six operation modes, and you can use it as a MIDI controller (with a plugin) or quickly move through the tracks.
However, this MacBook Pro has limited USB ports besides the 4 USB-C ports. Therefore, you’ll require a different cable or dongle to connect any USB-A peripherals.
MacBook Pro also has a 6-speaker system that will overshadow your headphones plus studio monitors- plus it as the “Force Cancelling” woofers – check these affordable noise-canceling headphones.
With an 8-core i9 processor, 1TB SSD, and 16 GB RAM, this MacBook Pro is great for music production. Its studio-quality mics plus 6-speaker surround – sharp treble, crisp and pronounced bass.
On graphics, the MacBook Pro 16-inch comes with its onboard Intel chipset (plus man AMD chip) that’ll become functional when during low demand for visual performance.
On microphones, this Mac has three mics, and thus your calls will be much clear – including on iPhone with better sound fidelity and improved noise reduction.
2. Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch Space Gray – #2 Pick
Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch is similar (with Touch Bar to improve music making productivity) to Apple 15″ MacBook Pro but with a smaller sized display and some trade-offs in features.
The machine has an Intel Core i5 (2.4GHz) style quad-core processor. Further, the SSD (Solid-state drive) type of storage you can easily (and quickly) navigate various music or audio files.
New features include the True Tone display, Hey Siri, and an improved Magic keyboard – just like in MacBook Air with the physical Escape key and essential travel being 1mm.
Sneak Peek:
- Processor: 8th-Gen (quad-core) Core i5
- Storage: 256GB SSD
- Memory: 8GB RAM
- Screen size: 13-Inch (Brilliant Retina)
- Design: 14.9mm thick
- Ports: 4 Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C)
- Headphone Jack: 3.5 mm
But with the highly portable 13-inch MacBook Pro (thin and light), I can now work at coffee shops, trains, or planes. This Mac has analog modeled plugins and fabulous mixing headphones to allow fast editing tune vocals and drums while traveling.
The MacBook Pro has a silicone layer below every key, and thus you won’t experience stuck keys. With its 2560 * 1600 pixels’ True Tone display is colorful, bright, and sharp in resolution. It has Intel Iris 655 Plus graphics, which are awesomely helpful for video and photo editing.
Increased portability – While editing my band’s drums and tracks, I would suffer from the cold fluorescent lights. This made me seek increased portability of my music-making machines and devices. Its Thunderbolt 3 will support 2 – 5K displays and a 40GB/s data transfer for music-making.
With the True Tone technology, your display will change the panel of Mac’s white balance to match the color temperature. Therefore, you’ll have better viewing when making music for an extended period.
With the new T2 chip to allow full disk encryption for secure booting and for storing data in the SSD. Further, the Hey Siri will allow you to use your voice to change settings while producing music. It has 2 Thunderbolt 3 ports and the 720p HD camera (Face-time) to allow better video calling.
Ample SSD Storage – It has 128GB SSD storage to allow power-efficient and high-speed memory. Therefore, you can start multiple apps or import huge files very fast. The 13-inch MacBook Pro comes with two speakers that’ll offer you balanced and abundant audio. Further, it has a 58 watt-hour battery that will guarantee a more extended power supply for the laptop.
The 13-inch MacBook Pro comes with fast processors for recording or handling various audio work. For the 2018 MacBook Pro, you’ll get an additional Ram and a 2TB SSD.
MacBook Pro is the top music production laptop, performing & recording. Your DAWs, API, or sub-systems (CoreAudio) must be super responsive.
3. iMac Pro 27-inch – Best Studio Mac for Audio Production – #3 Pick
iMac Pro 27-inch is great for large video or audio editing projects, including 4K & 8K plus for VR simulations and 3D rendering. You’ll get a powerful iMac to record and produce with most DAWs.
For your home studio, I recommend this iMac Pro 27-inch as it has many USB and USB-C ports plus adequate power to run your Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) software easily.
Macbook Pro Music Production Setup Software
Sneak Peek:
Macbook Pro Music Production Setup Download
- Processor: 8-Core Xeon w
- Storage: 1TB storage (SSD)
- Memory: 32GB RAM upgradable to 64GB / 128GB
- Screen size: 27-inch display (diagonal) + its Retina 5K
- Design: 5-mm-thin
- Ports: 4 USB 3, 4 Four Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C),
- Headphone Jack: 3.5 mm, four mics, Stereo speakers
The Radeon Pro Vega 56 graphics (with 8GB HBM2 memory) are great for music and video editing. The 5-mm thin screen and built-in CPU won’t take much space and will display vast information compared to the 21.5-inch model.
Macbook Pro Music Production Setup Laptop
You’ll get an SDXC slot and the headphone mini-jack that’ll allow the production of fantastic sound from your internal stereo speakers. In addition to the Mac Pro features, this iMac Pro has a 5K retina that’s simple to set up.
After giving an update to the Logic Pro X, this iMac Pro is even better for production. Logic Pro X now supports eighteen processor cores (named 36 threads). It can now run many plugins plus tracks and sample libraries.
The iMac Pro will easily handle 12 times more plugins in real-time DAW working compared to the previous iMac model. The machine will export multi-track sessions about five times faster.
Further, Sculpture & Amp Designer are better in this iMac Pro and will thus give about 12 times more performance. Also, you may connect two additional 5K monitors to your iMac Pro.
The iMac Pro is a multi-purpose Mac like for music production, video editing, VR, 3D, or 2D design work. In addition to having SB 3 ports, this Mac has 4 USB-C – maybe connect an external SSD drive.
This iMac Pro has higher-bandwidth connectivity and advanced graphics technologies that will enhance your music production on this desktop computer.
For sound designers, film engineers, voiceovers, podcasters, and music producers, here’re the consideration to make while selecting your Apple’s iMac Pro.
However, the many peripheral ports are positioned at the rear end of the iMac Pro, which will be difficult to access regularly. So, get a USB hub for iMac the easy to access at the bottom of the display.
iMac Pro’s 8-Core Xeon w chip is excellent for handling music production. This includes multitasking, editing, and selecting multiple music tracks, as shown in the video below.
Macbook Pro Music Production Setup Windows 10
4. Apple MacBook Air (13-inch Retina display – Latest Model)
The MacBook Pro vs. MacBook Air for Music Production debate came up lately on an apple discussion. It has Thunderbolt 3 ports, a Retina display, a new trackpad and keyboard, and a modern Intel processor. Apple has maintained the 12 hours battery life, which is great for music production while traveling.
Best Macbook Pro Setup
Compared to the old MacBook Air, this laptop has achieved a 30% upgrade on its Graphics performance. It has a 128GB SSD storage to take 1 GB/sec and 2 GB/sec in write and read speeds, respectively. This is blazing fast for a laptop its size.
Macbook Pro Music Production Setup Pc
MacBook Air Retina display comes with a 2560×1600 resolution (with DCI-P3 color gamut). This is four times better compared to the older MacBook Air. It has black bezels, lighter (2.75 pounds), and thinner – just about the size of the MacBook Pro. It has Touch ID, which provides the real ESC key and Function keys. The T2 processor allows audio processing, disk encryption, secure booting.
MacBook Air has a new butterfly-switch keyboard with a silicone membrane for a quieter typing experience. This is because MacBook Air has low travel and prevents dust. Further, it has louder speakers with bass response. It also comes with the modern Force Touch trackpad that is easy to click and is more substantial.
Apple has done away with the MagSafe connector, SD card reader, USB-A ports. Instead, MacBook Air adopted USB-C charging and has two Thunderbolt 3 connectors (40 Gbps). Due to a lack of USB-A connectors, you’ll need to purchase a dongle.
5. Apple MacBook Pro Retina 2015 Core i7 2.2GHz
Macs are still a favorite with music-makers & DJs. Apple 15″ MacBook Pro Retina is robust, has many USB ports, MagSafe present, and no noisy butterfly keys. Further, It’s compatible with many DAWs that are optimized to work with the Mac OS. Therefore, there are fewer performance issues or crashes.
But, why didn’t I include the MacBook Pro 2016? Well, MacBook Pro 2016 has a decorative touchpad – whose application is not fully utilized for music production. But get some hard-drives for great studio work.
Also, the 2016 model lacks the MagSafe connector, Firewire sockets, and USB ports. MacBook Pro 2016’s Touch-Pad may allow faster access to the tempo, record, stop and play controls on the Ableton Live.
Apple 15″ MacBook Pro will comfortably run sessions with many plugins and tracks running actively. This is because it has superior 16GB RAM and processing power (quad-core Intel Core i7). But this Mac has some noise fans that could disrupt your recordings – if you’re doing this in the same space.
SSD storage (256GB) for large-sized files: Also, Apple 15″ MacBook Pro uses SSD storage (256GB), and thus you can easily store the large-sized files without slowing the machine. The base model has 8GB RAM and a 3.6 GHz processor (dual-core) that’s making.
Here’s how different music producers use their Macs. (1) Traditional production – Record music tracks via mics & instruments and finally mix. (2) DJs and performing musicians will use their Mac in recording and producing tracks and yet in playing. (3) Lastly, hip-hop artists and EDMs use DAW with Best Laptops For FL Studio, MIDI-keyboard controllers, & sequencers. Check a review video.
6. Apple MacBook MLHC2EA 12-Inch Laptop with Retina Display
This MacBook MLHC2EA is also lightweight (just 2 pounds) and is thin in build. You’ll find it very portable for your on-the-go music production, in addition to offering high performance.
With a native resolution of 2304 x 1440, LED backlights, and uni-body design that makes it highly compact. It has one USB-C port for both connectivity and power needs – thus, you might need a dongle.
So, for your recording studio work, you’ll need to know the considerations to make for the MacBook MLHC2EA that’ll capture your original sounds and audio.
Further, there is a wide selection of plugins and software available for Macs for recording music. Also, with MacBook MLHC2EA, you’ll get adequate storage space and peripherals for studio work.
Innovative and smart people (including music producers) love working with Macs. Well, Macs are workhorses, beautiful, trendy, and dependable – also try these best keyboard workstation.
Considerations in Best Mac for Music Production?
1. Hardware Support Ports
Finally, get a Mac that has appropriate ports to work excellently with your hardware in the additional gear you’ll connect to the computer.
For example, the Mac must have a USB-A port for connecting your MIDI controller keyboard plus a USB-C for connecting musical instruments and audio interface.
Further, you’ll require some MIDI interface, good production headphones, and studio monitors. Also, get large-screen MAC like the 27-inch iMacs for better working space.
Sound professionals will use “out of the box” audio through virtual instruments and sampled sounds while creating sounds. Other professionals will record the sound with acoustic instruments and voices while using microphones with their audio interfaces.
2. Mac with Audio Software
The Mac you choose must work seamlessly with your digital audio workstation (DAW). So, get a machine has above average compute specifications.
For example, the minimum MAC requirements for Ableton Live 10 are 4 GB RAM and Intel Core i5. Also, for Logic Pro X, get a mac with a minimum of 63 GB storage space and 4 GB RAM.
For your MAC, check these Ableton’s guidelines on MAC specifications for producing music. But most DAWs won’t need unique graphics cards.
Get multiple SSD internal storage, an Intel i7 or i5 multi-core processor, and 16+ GB of RAM. Check requirements for Audio plugins like the OmniSphere synthesizer – require 2.4 GHz+ RAM.
3. Macs are Reliabile and Stabile?
Considerably, Mac will be more reliable and stable than windows computers. For music production, you want a laptop with adequate RAM and CPU that won’t max out.
So, I confirm that Macs will offer a reliable and stable recording environment. However, secure a dedicated production Mac to avoid inefficient processes running in the program’s background.
For example, you might need to disconnect your internet and uninstall programs like Whatsapp or Facebook from the MAC. Also, have the audio software loading from a separate partition.
Further, to reduce possible compatibility problems, avoid upgrading to a new macOS version too soon. This must also be the case with updates with other plugins and production software.
On reliability, ensure that the battery life will be excellent to work great when unplugged in coffee shops and portable gigs.
4. Creative Space Support
The computer must give you adequate space to display and utilize your creativity. So, the Mac computer must have little frustration and friction while you’re producing the music.
For example, some windows computers tend to delay starting up before they’ve fully installed many software updates – this can’t happen with Macs.
Further, you might require to work simultaneously with many plugins, a mixer window, and tracks. Get a Retina display that’s large enough to show the necessary extensive details.
Finally, the production room must be soundproof to avoid noise pollution while also isolation space from external noise – and hence such sound won’t be picked by the studio mics for vocals.
Mac Pro For Music Production
Conclusion
On storage, you’ll require a Mac with enough internal disk space for your current projects. But you’ll need to transfer other files to an external SSD storage – about 500 GB.
Also, ensure that the room’s surfaces and shape are appropriate so that they won’t negatively affect the sound’s EQ during the recording sessions. I recommend the iMac Pro 27-inch as the Best Mac for Music Production.