Been producing on a desktop (Imac) with a 2nd screen for the past decade. Midi controller, audio interface, headphones and subpac. Nothing else, everything is software based and using Ableton. Desktop is strictly for production purposes only. Not connected to the net and it is constantly on. It is worked on 6-7 days a week from 1-4hrs a day. I'm foreseeing a lot of traveling come next year so recently I've forced myself to start learning to work on projects on the laptop (Macbook Pro) to get used to it. Both desktop and laptop are i7 with 16gb.

I'd like to hear experiences/any words of wisdom from those who work on both setups as well as the laptop mostly/only ppl. I'm considering upgrading to a more powerful laptop and would like to know if I can use it at home as my main production system when not traveling? Perhaps with a docking station and a 2nd external screen. My current experiences with the laptop are limited as I haven't worked on a 100 channel project like I have on the desktop. I don't know if a laptop is as reliable as a desktop when daw is fully loaded. I'm always hearing the fans coming on the laptop often enough to wonder if it's going to overheat or something. Obviously the laptop is not constantly left on when not in use. Just music production, no live recordings, live performances, or any connections with external instruments planned.

 

Horses for courses.

I recently have been traveling a lot and decided to get a laptop. From the beginning I set my expectation to be that it will be for capturing ideas on the go, maybe getting songs to 80% before I would take it to my main rig and finish it off. Additionally, I wanted to be able to take stems from my desktop with me on the go and track vocals.

Now I'm a windows guy, but while looking for laptops, the price for a respectable one was on par with MBP M1 but with inferior hardware and questionable support. So I went with the M1.

Back to my original statement. A desktop is not a laptop and a laptop is not a desktop, in my opinion both are needed. My studio has 24 i/o, 3 midi interfaces, 16 synths, and a half dozen midi controllers, not to mention 4TB of SSD storage. Between the cost of upgrading the MBP to come close to my desktop and all the docks and external storage I'd need to match, I'd literally put the price of my desktop into upgrades and accessories.

 

I'd take the MacBook Pro over the iMac all day. personal working experience.
comparing the mbp to my Pro wouldn't really be fair.