Hi, everybody! im upgrading my macbook pro and i would like to receive some insights on which would be the best one for music production, for heavy cpu loads and such.

 

Probably your old one

 

2010 , not really

 

The question is , do you want to invest in a disposable, non upgradeable, highpriced laptop with a flawed keyboard or not ? If not you only may buy an outdated older model, sad but true :/

 

For me it's any 15" model that still has proper connectivity and the MagSafe connector. I just cannot afford accidentally pulling the expensive jewel down from the table. Also, Macbook means mobile so I don't want to carry an extra bag of adapters around.

 

mid-2012 MacBook Pro is the very last upgradeable, I use 13" i7 version, topped with 16GB ram, optical drive removed, equipped with 500GB SSD and 1TB HDD, it's THE 100% reliable recording rig (usually around 20 channels and few plugins realtime);
2015 models are latest with regular USB ports and Thunderbolt2 ports, so unless you wanna spend lots of money on Thunderbolt3/USB-C dongles, you should not look at any newer models,
very recent models offer serious CPUs (6-core i5/i7 and 4-core i3) which are literally useless of audio workflow;
question is (assuming you're happy MacOS user), do you need a laptop? you can get a new MacMini for relatively decent price and significant performance gain...
@fiction actually some companies already sell "magsafe" USB-C so that might be a solution??

 

Looks good!
Hope it's not getting too hot during charging.

 

Any macbook pre-2013 should be ok, later ones can be worst on performance, since those battery saving components and ultrathin design

 

Or a broken one, so you can replace it with a Windows machine.

 

Last edited: Jan 26, 2019

I have the mid 2012 15"macbook pro, Samsung Evo 1tb ssd and 16gb ram. I don't need more but i think the 2015 mbpro is the best upgrade.

 

so i guess a 2015 then? i might just go on eBay then lol cheap

 

if you can afford it, the latest ones are the best for cpu and high transfer external drives

if not, go for a pre-2013 indeed, knowing that you can struggle sometimes with cpu depending on the softs and AUs / VSTs you'll use.

my mid 2010 still runs smoothly, upgraded with 2 SSDs ( I've removed the optical drive too ) and 16Gb of Ram.
the point I wouldn't agree on is about the i7 / i9 perfs compared to the older chips, I really like U-He's Diva, and sometimes, it's really frustrating to get the cpu saying sh*t and not being able to enjoy a soundset.

however, there's tons of good analog / good sounding soft-synths out there, enough not to feel limited eventually : omnisphere runs without issues ( only a few multis are problematic sometimes ), ANA 2, Spire, and others are largely enough to do the job.
regarding the audio multitrack sessions, I can work with up to 30 / 40 tracks with FXs on most of them with no issue, even with my sessions being located on a USB 2 SSD .. it runs better than my 7200rpm Raid firewire HD

not to mention that the advantage of the possibility of an upgrade on an "old" version is great as SSDs prices are starting to drop down a little bit,
and wether you're using libraries or loops, depending on your style, you'll still be comfortable

it's true that Apple f***ed-up with a portion of their musician clients when they gave preference to a thiner design and planned obsolescence to maintain their cash flow ( not to mention that the new generations are always more expensive )

at last, if you can wait a little bit, and if you got the money, I think the new mac pro is supposed to be released this year, it's supposed to fix what they screwed-up..

 

If you don't need full processing power for mobile work, you could keep using your 2010 Macbook for that and go for a 2018 Mac Mini instead. Quite fast, upgradable memory and some connectivity at least, and you can use a decent keyboard. Wouldn't buy it without a 5-year warranty plan, though, since it may get hot under heavy load and thus fail early. No fun shopping for a mac these days...

Edit: Just realized, I've more or less repeated that part of tzzsmk's post. Time to get some sleep, I guess.

 

Last edited: Jan 30, 2019

Before you spend your hard earned money i want you to see few videos in this channel:

I own 3 ipads - 4 iphones and a MacbookPro mid 2009 which works like charm till this day (upgraded ofc and battery changed 4 times)
I am done with Apple and so does a big wave of pro audio users.

Take a consideration of a Razer Blade 2019 if you are going for 13".
Very powerful and quality machine for it's size.

 

I have been thinking about going over to mac completely but I dont think I can get back to having a 15b inch, it feels too clumsy compared to my 13 inch. I have a 2014 13inch for sketches and general use and then move out to a pc desktop when I need to mix/finish stuff.

i feel, if I need the power of new macBook pro solely meant as daw, not for other use, then why would i have a laptop for that? then better have a pc stationary. but still I have been thinking about it, till now I dont see the reason, in my case

interesting, but what about cpu? graphics? you mean a mid 2012 can be fully upgraded to todays standard (practically) and have the latest osx version? that would be great. I dont care about missing the retina since I would be using an external screen.

 

Last edited: Jan 31, 2019

i7-3520M in MBP 13" mid-2012 is literally same in performance like i5-7200U which is mainstream 2017 laptop cpu (13" MBP 2017 uses slightly better version, i5-7360U) and integrated HD4000 graphics does fine for graphically non-demanding work,
I run High Sierra 10.13.6 right now without any problems, do note decent SSD is a must for MacOS nowadays (I think I have Samsung 840 EVO there, but in another hackintosh I have 850 EVO and Kingston V300 in another hackii),
ability to swap out optical drive for another SATAIII drives makes this little 13" lappy all-in-one package beast,
low-res screen is major drawback for most people, but honestly it looks crisp smooth to me at 13", it has roughly same pixel density as my 2560x1440 27" screen so I don't really see why people get so obsessed about Retina resolutions on small laptops, and yea obviously you can drive external monitor, not 100% sure but thunderbolt/miniDP output by HD4000 should be able to drive up to 2560x1440 external monitor,
in terms of I/O, the mid-2012 has two usb 3.0 ports (unlike two usb 2.0 ports on 2011 and older models), real Gbit ethernet connector, Firewire 800, Thunderbolt (1st gen), SD card reader and Magsafe is just killer combo in my opinion unmatched ever since then!
biggest problem I see with such relatively old 2012 model is potential risk of death (be it mobo, cpu, battery, power adapter etc..) but if you treat it right, then it can prove a reliable workhorse,
and speaking of heavy workloads in audio production, you should definitely consider offloading performance to some instrument/plugin server, like Vienna Ensemble Pro 6 (which can run on Windows 10 without internet connection) being significantly more efficient solution than running all audio and virtual stuff with daw from one machine

 

People want a MacBook Pro because they want to use macOS.

The current Apple situation is quite disturbing. At the momnetnt people buy older Apple computers since the recent are useless for them or they don't fit their needs. But what happens if Apple keeps producing such kind of 'things'. The Gap gets bigger and bigger until it makes no longer sense to invest in legacy hardware.

For Desktop we have luckily the alternative to built a hackintosh quite easy, but for a notebook things are harder.
Hopefully Microsoft makes Windows as useable as macOS before that happens.

 

I just invested $225 in repairing my late 2011 17" MBP (the last run of the 17" line). It's got dual core 2.5GHz i7, 16GB ram, Thunderbolt, FW800, 3 USB-2, DVD-R (which for no reason I replaced w/a in a BluRay r/w... and can be removed for a second HD). I currently have a 2TB HD installed... which I have bootcamped with W10. It's also on it's 2nd(!) graphic chip... which is what the $225 went for. This model is know for this issue... and of course after it's 2nd repair I find 2 different fixes which can easily be done at home... and solve this problem.
For audio... I cannot get by without that awesome 17' screen. Although it won't support an OS from Mojave onward (well, without a little 'fixin' that is), it's a workhorse. For me, it's still enough within the specs of the current MBP's... which I probably will never invest in.
If (and eventually when) this goes down... I will go Hackentosh... and still do dual-boot OSX/W10. Prices on these are pretty reasonable these days... and like I said... I will never buy a new Mac product other than an iPhone.
Eh... my 2 cents (or... is it $225?)....

ps... I went dual-boot to take advantage of trying out some of those nice plugins and other items that are currently only available for Windows. I'm getting more familiar with the switch... but still prefer OSX...

 

Last edited: Jan 30, 2019

I'm pretty sure Microsoft will ruin everything soon,
seeing how they push Store, Azure, OneDrive, Office 365 and other subsciption-based stuff, it could actually happen Windows will become even more closed limited ecosystem (in terms of software) than MacOS

 

How come you think they will be limited just because they push those things?