Audiobus: Use your music apps together.
What is Audiobus? — Audiobus is an award-winning music app for iPhone and iPad which lets you use your other music apps together. Chain effects on your favourite synth, run the output of apps or Audio Units into an app like GarageBand or Loopy, or select a different audio interface output for each app. Route MIDI between apps — drive a synth from a MIDI sequencer, or add an arpeggiator to your MIDI keyboard — or sync with your external MIDI gear. And control your entire setup from a MIDI controller.
Download on the App StoreAudiobus is the app that makes the rest of your setup better.
Asking about Macbook Pro for Music Production
Hi guys, I have some question not really related to Audiobus. It is regarding the Macbook Pro.
I plan to change from Windows to Mac end of this year for some reason:
-Current laptop is old, already 7 years
-I don't own any audio interface or sound card, so for windows it need ASIO driver to let the DAW sound, and this ASIO freaking me up recently.
-My apogee Jam didn't work with windows.
So, I plan to choose the cheapest Macbook Pro (without retina) with 8GB ram, I want to ask that if this sufficient for music production? I might be using Logic Pro. Normally I am making Rock Instrumental music.
I choose the Macbook Pro without retina because it is cheapest among other Macbook Pro and it gives 500 GB Hardisk, although SSD for retina is fast, but it is very expensive to get the same capacity.
Anyone can have some advice?
Comments
You should probably add an SSD to it, no matter what. It just makes the whole machine SO much faster. Then use an external connector via Thunderbolt to add storage space.
Also there's probably no reason to get a Macbook Pro - the current Macbook Air is fast enough and a bit cheaper and more portable.
This is the spec that I would like to choose
13.3-inch without retina display
2.5GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor (Turbo Boost up to 3.1GHz)
8GB of 1600MHz DDR3 memory
500GB 5400-rpm hard drive
Thanks for fast respond, it is because this old Macbook Pro are able to upgrade to SSD later (if I am not mistaken), so I plan to get the SSD after it become cheaper, is it worth to think about?
You could do that. The non-retina macbooks are the only ones that can still be upgraded like that.
A MBP will be more than fast enough for music production, I use one here in the studio for mastering and mixdowns, works great. SSD is a huge improvement if you can afford it, MUCH faster than even a 7200 RPM drive.
You could also get any recentish (~2 years) MacBook Pro used and after 7 years of that other laptop your face will fall off when you use it!
The one you have specified will amaze you. Plenty. SSD is really nice but can totally be skipped.
If you plan to use Reason at all in the future, you might want to consider the $150 upgrade to the 2.9 Ghz i7 processor or a used or refurbished model with a faster processor. I was using a 2010 2.4 Ghz i5 Macbook Pro with 8 GB ram, and I used to run into some overload problems whenever I had lots of tracks and effects, but since I upgraded to a 2013 Macbook Pro with the 2.9 Ghz i7 processor and 8 GB ram, I haven't had any overload issues. I haven't used Logic Pro, so I'm not sure if you'd run into issues with it. I'm guessing since it's made by Apple, it would be pretty optimized to run well on any of their computers, but if you plan to have more than a few tracks or lots of effects having a slightly faster processor would probably be worth the extra $150. Another thing to keep in my is the screen size...my old computer was a 15" and the new one is 13" and I did feel the difference. So when I'm doing music stuff, I plug into an external monitor a lot more than I used to. The 13" is nice for portability though.
Thanks for the advice, definitely, I will upgrade to SSD in the future when it become cheaper
@chelster , the overload issue is not because of the RAM? Seems like you have the same RAM capacity in both MBP.
Yes, I already consider to get an External Monitor because I am used to 15 inch, so 13 inch will be a different for me.
Hi everyone!
I am thinking about getting a MacBook air for music production. I found some offers online for refurbished ones for around 700$.
Does anyone have experience with refurbished macbooks for apps like Ableton, Cubase?
Any suggestions or recommendations would be appreciated
Thanks
I'm looking for a getting a light weight sound card as well. Suggestions for that will be great as well!
If it doesn’t have 8GB of ram installed then it’s not worth it. You can’t change the ram on the MacBook Airs either. And I’m not 100% on this but I think it utilizes 1 processor instead of 2-4 found in the Pro models. I feel like it could work but you may feel limited after a while
Why, get an iPad Pro, Auria with all plug-ins (or AUM if your intention is to play live) and an Apogee One. Done, you're ready.
The MacBooks and MacBook Airs are really week, regardless of RAM. If you cannot get the real deal (MacBook Pro), and since you have around $700 to expend, I'd rather get an iPad 2017, an Apogee One and invest the rest of the money (if any) on Auria and some Fab Filters.
I agree with this honestly. It just depends on your workflow but I haven’t produced on my MacBook Pro since I started creating on my iPad. You can definitely start and finish on the iPad. Sure there’s a learning curve but the tools are there and they’re cheaper as well. I actually use the focusrite scarlet interface with my iPad and it works just fine. But that’s my take on iPad Pros for music production
Before someone recommend you his/her workflow you should say more about what kind of workflow you want and what music/sound you will achieve.
So depending on what resources you need and how mobility is a factor it could be everything from an iPad to a macbook pro.
i run logic pro x on my MacBook pro (not the latest model, the one before that) and it works like a charm and i love it.
Imac pro to come in december.
A lot of things to discover!!
Love that!!
Same with my MacBook Pro 2012 but it’s showing it’s age for sure. But for $700 it would be hard to get a MacBook Pro that’s comparable to yours or any of those retina models
The question is also what tools are needed. While iOS is great it lacks big part in high quality FX and sample libraries.
Record some synths, guitar and stuff, all is fine.
Orchestrial things....no way in iOS yet.
If you happy with what iOS offers, great. If you want to replace a macbook/notebook with all bells and whistles and REALLY use it....no way for an iPad Pro to replace that.
Many people says it´s cheap. Yes and no. While some similar or the same apps are cheaper, some others are more expensive or cost the same and having less content.
You get what you pay for
I saw used ones for this price....but yeah, it´s always a risk to buy used old stuff.
Lol....starts at 5k or so. And will still be underpowered and throttle like hell....
@Cib, Indeed you’re right about orchestral work needs not being met yet by iOS: it’s currently one of the only things I still have Logic X for (the other being flex pitch for vocals when needed).
P.S.: and it’s a shame, because Lyra played has shown that with the lightning fast SSDs used in current iPads, we can disk stream large libraries with ease.
For me there is also a lot more but we anyway can´t recommend stuff if no one knows what´s the goal
IPhone and macbook works still best for me yet. But i looked at the new iPhones today and don´t think that my next phone will be an iOS anymore too. I really don´t like them. The iPads are great indeed but i just fail always to get in love with it really. Maybe one day again.
While a MacBook Air might be good enough for a lot of music tasks, I have a feeling that in use it might not be a huge change from your 2012 MBP depending on the specs.
I had a similar situation 1 year ago, wanting to jump ships from Windows to Mac.
I did a test with GarageBand by adding more and more tracks of synths, most of them Alchemy, all of them playing an 8 bar pattern in a loop.
MacBook Air 13" got me 17 tracks before starting with CPU overload messages.
MacBook Pro 13" Retina got me 27 tracks.
MacBook Pro 15" Retina got me 70 tracks.
I used the smallest, cheapest version of each of these.
I wouldn’t ever buy a Air.
Actually I wouldn’t buy any newer model but go for a far more connected(USB ports eg) old-ish MBP.
The MacBook Pro Model may 2015 is a good choice. Look for Apple refurbished on Apples website. These models also still have a slot for SD cards, cards with 256GB are available out there. Probably already with 512?
I’ve been mixing quite a few projects lately on a 2011 Air with 4gb ram, working great and very portable. I do have to be careful with using waves abbey road plates and ir1 at the same time, but it is working. Not huge track counts by any means (look up Gospel According to Broadway on YouTube if you want to hear it) but the portability and speed of the Air is working well for me.
I don’t use logic pro but my understanding is that it wouldn’t have a prayer on this machine. However, reaper runs great as does Harrison Mixbus, which are my programs of choice.
As always, YMMV!