the mini is portable sized, but you need a monitor. Even if you can get one running headless, that's really a stretch of the term "mobile".
But I go back to the Ram upgrade price. (the m2 macbook pro he returned has 16GB as it's base model and can be upgraded to 32gb max).


the 27" iMac on BestBuy website, this is brand new retail price. needs more memory, bigger primary ssd, and it's already 4 bills more than he has said he can spend.

Apple - 27" iMac® with Retina 5K display - Intel Core i5 (3.3GHz) - 8GB Memory - 512GB SSD - Silver
$1,999.99. A Pro buries this machine. And it's already 500 over his budget. This one below: he could buy but it is also used. 1300$.

iMac 27-inch Retina (Early 2019) Core i9 3.6GHz - SSD 512 GB - 24GB


M1's are smaller screen and 8gb-16gb. tiny SSD. also $1300.

24" iMac® with Retina 4.5K display - Apple M1 - 8GB Memory - 256GB SSD

None of this even takes into account, component quality. Ever made a track with a 10 year old iMac?

 

Last edited: Apr 25, 2023

Apple targeted Mini like that in first place, used same laptops parts in it, seems it's like their gateway thing for Mac Pro, I'm not Apple fan or I'm here to defend Apple, this is the thing they do and obviously they are successful at it.

iMac like that is waste of money for most demanding professionals, it's office machine for folks who run Photoshop mostly, even they get top of the line one, because those screens are really great, as I have been told by someone who is making a living working on one in that same field but he's small operation where biggest project is music videos, weddings, cover bands and etc, he found value in it, have tons of RAM and storage, that machines payed itself quickly, there wasn't really much alternative, except getting 1500 bucks screen and Mac Pro, believe me, we tried to come up with other solutions, even now he doesn't want to part with that screen, again, he's professional, he doesn't play 4K games or watch shows on them, he makes a living on it.

It's cool day when one of these entry level machines are good enough for one, like myself and the OP, we aren't pro operation here, OP have preference in Mac's, which renders his options slim, I don't have, I go what makes most sense to me, my DAW runs on Windows, macOS and Linux, some of my plugins too, others are Windows and macOS, I don't have preference in CPU's, used all of them over the years, Intel, AMD and now M1.

We can debate for days, M1 is great step up from those Intel offerings and they put it in same price points too, don't see the point in overpaying for old Mac when there's really no justification of the high second hand price, but they do keep their resale value, but hope this will stop as now those aren't really the same machines anymore, so it's just another 15% on next years model and so on.

I didn't saw the point in replacing my i7 3770 up until now, not for i7 7700 or anything bellow, it was pointless, by the time Intel started actually delivering some value for money, game changed and I waited for that to settle, now I'm happy camper. Recommending those machines from that age that didn't made point even back than, now for that ridiculous resale price is even more crazy. YMMV

Maybe need to point this out, some of us just don't care about Kontakt, I have been running 8GB of RAM for decade, it's not something I'm so worried and worked up about, seems like whole this thing is about RAM updates and all things RAM, 64GB of RAM isn't going to save your CPU from adding another Diva, wish it could, I would invest in RAM rather than in new machine.

Apple figured out that only folks who need so much RAM are professionals and found the way to milk those who just need a hair more, you need to give them that, whole their offering is tailored geniously to extract you more money if you need more than what they offer for their target audience. They see you than as semi power user, opposed to average Joe that buys entry level Mac and don't even have a need for it, let alone, tons of RAM to use with his browser and media consumption. Target audience that is willing to pay 20K for a Mac is making money, even 7K, it's not something casual Joe uses. We are screwed because some of us aren't making that kind of money, but do similar kind of work and need all that.

 

Last edited: Apr 25, 2023

At this point I dunno what are we even discussing here, are you claiming that M1 have sub par quality opposed Intel ones somehow, where is that coming from, is there some study or something, somebody compared that actually, what, don't get from where all this is coming from and what are you trying to prove here, seriously, you just keep moving goalpost and never acknowledge you were wrong about stuff you talk previously, you never actually dig up 7K Mac Pro for 1.5K and all this stuff.

Yes, I made music even on worse machines, actually machine that replaced this was that old, already said that, this really became pointless discussion, OP got what he was looking for, found replacement for his old iMac, thanked me in PM's, will continue to help him there and not waste any more time with this.

All the best to you brother, I'm out.

 

RAM matters a ton when you do not have enough. Kontakt isn't even really that bad, it's fairly similar to UVI Falcon 2. I'll put a dozen instances or so in a track on my i7 laptop and it uses quite a large amount of memory. It will up and just disappear. But full song length stems add up very fast when you only have so much overhead to start with.

I wouldn't buy a machine based on the one software synth I have which takes up the most cpu I can possibly find. This is why you bounce or freeze something like that. Print a stem, disable the synth instance and then hide the channels; it uses virtually no cpu to sit there so you do not lose work or get stuck with a bad bounce. Different workflow when your synths are hardware.

I'd go with overall build quality/durability, repairability/update ability, and always a desktop/tower over a laptop, unless a laptop is really needed. Maybe you will get lucky the day after your Apple Care expires.

Your selected Mac Pro Configuration:

• 2.70GHz 12-Core Xeon E5-2697v2 processor
• 128GB memory
• 256GB Solid-State Drive
• AMD FirePro D300 x 2 with 2GB VRAM
• Supports macOS 10.9.1 Mavericks* (see Specifications) to macOS 12.x Monterey
• 90 Day OWC Fulfilled Limited Warranty
• OWC SKU: UAGA1LS3HXXXXXC

Reviews (65)
Used, Very Good


In Stock: Ships in 1-3 Days
Only $7,899.00


$799.00

 

All good brother, we all have preferences and know what will work for us and what not, think I explained my way of working in numerous threads at this point, this laptop even with shortcomings is still better laptop than any that other vendors offer in this price range, none of them are even remotely known for their durability, yet alone build quality or anything, if this turned out to be one of those Apple fiascos, lesson learned, I had my fair share of Macbook's and was happy with them, but those weren't as close to performance of this one and wasn't affected by their failing nVidia cards. At this point in my life this is what I really need, I can always get great desktop PC, sell this for good price and don't feel like I lost on my investment. One thing is sure, I won't be getting desktop Mac, if I'm going back to just sitting in one place, there should be great reason for that and at that point would look back to this little beauty as something that gave me so much joy in that period of time, so it was worth it.

P.S. That's 10 year old Trashcan, you were mentioning 2019 Mac Pro's for that kind of money, but whatever at this point as we will get into PC vs Mac debate and I'm strongly on PC side with that one.

 

Last edited: Apr 25, 2023

They are October 2013-2019. They continued using intel, and m1 pro did not become available for 6 months or so, after the m1 mini was released. On that site, most of them show as being able to run Mavericks as the oldest MacOS version you can install on them because it is what the (late) earliest 2013 model year possibly shipped with. Otherwise, they would have to make individual text descriptions and prices for every one of them. After the 2019s, everything you price out will be almost full retail price. If I could get a 2019 specifically for that price, like I would even tell you before ordering a few. M1 and M1 Max run 3.2 ghz clock speed.

 

Last edited: Apr 25, 2023

This is a killer deal. Wirh OpenCore Legacy Patcher and a new GPU you could upgrade to Ventura as well.

 

I returned a MacBook Pro that I bought for $1300 from Costco. It only had 250gig HD and 8gig Ram and the 13.3 inch screen. It was fast, but the other issues bothered me . . . especially the EMFs when plugged in . . . dangerously high!

 

Yeah

I found my partner 2018 HP Elitedesk 800 G4 with i7 8700, 32GB DDR4 RAM, 512GB SSD for 270 bucks, wanted so badly to get him trashcan Mac, but it's too much money to pay for 12 core one and 6 core isn't going to cut it and they ask too much for that one too, he's replacing 2nd gen i5 2500 machine from 2011, it's just nothing worth his money, other options were to build him another AM4 Ryzen build I already did and that thing would cost him 400 bucks new, Gigabyte B450, 5600G, 16GB RAM, Seasonic 550W power supply and he will re-use his current SSD, peripherals and etc.

I will wait to prices drop significantly, like double, than will get me maybe fully loaded Mac Pro 5.1 to run my old Logic 9 on it just for nostalgia sake, get another old Cinema display and all the old peripherals, have bunch of them in some boxes, with old Macbooks and all the stuff.

 

Last edited: Apr 25, 2023

I'm sure you mean the "humming" or "buzzing" feeling when you slightly move a finger over the aluminum chassis. That's the same with EVERY MacBook (and other devices with a metal housing) using a 2 pin power adapter. It can be adressed by proper grounding using a different power adapter using a 3 pin connector. And the current is limited to some micro Amperes and is not dangerous.

I got a MacBook Air 2020 with 16 GB RAM and 1 TB SSD for 1600,- Euros in Germany and I reallly love it. Best laptop I ever had. Dead silent as there is no fan, really portable, battery lasts a whole day, and enough power for everything I've done so far. I'm using Macs mainly for Logic Pro since Apple bought it from Emagic, so that's more than 20 years. I've built many "Hackintoshes" for me and other people and still use an 8 core 10th gen i7 in the studio.

What makes it really fun to use, is that the Air now just connects with one USB-C plug to a powered hub and everything is connected, audio/MIDI-interface, display, LAN, SSDs, keyboard, mouse and so on. So I started to use it for everything, even in the studio as it is completely silent. But 8 GB RAM and 256 GB SSD would be too restricting. With 16 GB i can run Windows 11 with Parallels Desktop for some Windows Software that doesn't run well with Crossover and still run Logic Pro perfectly fine. And I got the same studio setup "on the go" and don't have to synchronise the studio Mac and the MacBook.

Edit: I use only one external display so for me the Air is ok, but you can't connect more than one what may be a problem for other users.

 

Last edited: Apr 25, 2023

https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-mac/macbook-pro/13-inch-space-gray-apple-m2-chip-with-8-core-cpu-and-10-core-gpu-256gb?afid=p238|sIsUr6eJg-dc_mtid_1870765e38482_pcrid_652759409002_pgrid_146259541814_pntwk_g_pchan_local_pexid__&cid=aos-us-kwgo-pla-mac_lia--slid---product-MNEH3LL/A

This is the one I returned. I also had a $100 special sale. It was a great deal . . . fast and all, but it just was not the machine I want to spend hours on producing music. I don't need portable, shrinking battery life, and unhealthy EMFs. BTW, I used a meter . . . level was way into the unhealthy range and dropped significantly when unplugged.

 

For music production, you need at least 16 Gigs of RAM. A 13" screen for music production is not a suitable size, imo.

 

I totally agree, but a 15" or 16" display is not much more useful for serious work in my opinion. But it makes a laptop far less portable. I really like to take the Air anywhere, I had a 16" Intel MacBook Pro before and that was far more clunky (and noisy). For serious work, I always connect a "real" display, mouse/keyboard and monitor speakers. I also often work with other musicians and it is great to have my studio setup with me, just the Air in the rehearsal room, or connected to the main display and mouse/keyboard in another studio.

 

I'm on the same boat here. After reading the thread and doing my own search, I guess I'll settle for the Mac mini M2, the basic setup, with 8Gb RAM and 256 SSD. There's an edge to having a fairly underpowered computer. It makes you careful with rendering virtual instruments, keeping track count small, and optimizing resources. This will be an upgrade from a 2014 Intel Core i7 Mac mini with 16 Gb of RAM. It's served me well for almost 10 years, but it's showing its age now.

 

Best Mac for Music Production Under $1500?

A PC ?

 

What happens when he records a full drum kit? Do you ask a drummer to play 1 drum at a time? What about recording multiple hardware synths at once? Do you restart recording for every one? Maybe hit pause so you don't end up with blank waveform data?

A full 5 minute-ish song in Logic with 25+ tracks can be about 3+ gig in stems.(this doesn't actually matter, most of the Windows refugees don't learn Logic anyway). The waves stream from disk, but the plugins for the channels do not. So you play the enable/disable game.

Maybe a few years from now, he can hunt down old plugins to get projects open, because he renders 1 output file; instead of archiving stems? What do you send if you luck out and make a song that warrants actual professional mixing and/or mastering? You go back and fingers crossed the project will reopen with everything correct.

 

Last edited: Apr 26, 2023

What's the solution on this budget? I'm half tempted to abandon all the years of working on a Mac . . . DAWs, plugins, etc. and buy a Tascam recording system. LOL

 

Last edited: Apr 26, 2023

refurbished iMac Pro

 

Concerning "dangerous" EMF, any DECT phone would fry your brain in comparison to a MacBook with WiFi and BT enabled. The static or "electro shock when plugged in" as you mentioned is a completely different thing caused by missing ground and can be experienced since decades by touching metal enclosures of any kind of elctrical appliances.

 

You will get the most machine for the money. Like buying a brand new synth, they drop in value the minute they become "used". You want to be a little more careful with any laptop, just because they can get bumped/banged around/dropped more frequently than desktop models.