Hey everyone! So I’d appreciate if you could provide me some valuable insight to a decision I want to take, I recently got enough money to afford anywhere from a 2019 MacBook Pro to a 2022 M2 MBP, the thing is I’m not sure if I should just get a maxed out PC given that there are not so many plugins for MacOS, I’d like more context on max users who have warez and their workflow, is it worth it or is it better to buy a pc in the ROI context given that I am not a financially privileged person? I only saved up enough for this one time purchase, I appreciate the genuine help and advice

 

Why do you need a laptop? Do you play guitar? What audio interface do you have? What DAWs do you know how to operate?

I would be about as tempted to switch to Windows for music because of more free plugins, like I would be tempted to let a free pet skunk inside my house. Certain users here report decent success using Linux for audio, but you need to know what you are getting into. its a learning curve, certainly. And even less warez than mac. If you plan on setting up the machine to dual boot/hack, you should plan that ahead of time; and it will definitely limit your options for a laptop.

 

Last edited: Jul 4, 2023

Laptop for portability and I play keyboard, I have an apogee duet 3 interface which works fine with both OS’s and my main DAW is Ableton. I’d really like to have something where I can experiment with a variety of plug ins as I want to do a lot of sound design and such

 

A large portion of the releases that we do not get on mac (because they are r2r ilok releases) are effects plugins. Also, UVI Falcon, East West, Best Service Engine are all ilok titles as well. People requested those for a long time, then got them and never mention them again anyway. So ymmv. Ableton will obviously be the same, Cubase 12 on either OS, Protools 12.5 only on PC if you want to use something that old. Logic on mac only if you like actually functional Midi ;)

Some of the standout things we do not have on Mac are software I would really want if I played guitar. Amp sims, Helix, stuff like that.

The Macbook Pros get pricey in a hurry. Like almost double over an Air, and triple that of a Mini. If you scaled that back, you could still buy a PC with the change. lol. With Audiogridder, you can run both of them at once inside the same DAW; with the plugins living on one of them.

 

Last edited: Jul 4, 2023

What's your budget like? I'm on a MacBook Air M1 and the only thing I regret is not getting enough ram and hard drive space. (256 HD and 8GB Ram) You could also opt for external thunderbolt drives if you go with a MacBook.

Still with ProTools I'm able to run 24 channels of Waves SSL EV2( CPU intensive ) at 96Khz plus another 30 plugins and my cpu is maxing at 67% and Ram @ 50% which is pretty amazing.

You kinda get an idea what the M1 and M2 chips are capable of.

 

what do you want to do exactly (software/hardware)
What is the budget range in $/€

 

let's continue with earlier post -> https://audiosex.pro/threads/help-with-choosing-laptop.71020/

 

So basically, there are a few facts I guess that will be true most of the time. First a laptop is more expensive than a desktop, second a mac is more expensive than a pc. Third, a desktop has more power than a laptop. So if you really want to max out on the power you have for producing audio, I would buy a desktop with an Intel Core processor. You could even afford the i9-13900k, which is a beast of a processor. It will be somewhere around 2000 Euros, with a 2tb m2, 32gb ram, PCIe sound card and decent water cooling. You will not have a dedicated graphics card, though. If you need that, it will be between €300 (NVIDIA 3060) and €1000 (NVIDIA 4070ti) more. If you don't need it for playing games, the onboard graphic is more than sufficient. I can work with around 2ms latency now, and I have not maxed out the CPU yet for audio production. If you really need to have a laptop, use the rest of the money and buy yourself a used workstation laptop with a quad-core. It will be good enough to perform your music on or do anything else you need to do while on the road.
I don't know much about the performance of a mac compared to the i9-13900k, you might rely on someone else's knowledge for that.

 

what's your current setup? you mentioned Apogee Duet 3 interface, but what computer? what DAW? what plugins? what other peripherials?

I assume you don't really work with audio for a living (else you wouldn't take warez into main consideration hopefully), which means, it's more a matter of fun and experiences, in which case I'd suggest platform you don't have now (if you have a Mac then get PC, if you have PC then get a Mac) for sake of explorations new stuff,
but obviously if you use certain piece of software or hardware incompatible with either platform, you can't go that way,

performance/spec-wise, don't overspend on what you don't need, and don't overspend in hopes for long futureproofness,
Apple Silicon platform is not any faster than 12th/13th gen Intel, and Apple's RAM gives no special magic to need less capacity

 

The only reason to need any of this for your music/DAW computer is because you spent 2000 on a PC and have to hack your neighbors WPA2 access point to download more warez; because you cannot afford home internet bill. This is precisely why you buy a Mac for doing your Audio Work. There are not 1 million distractions like crashing applications and rebooting, wasting clock cycles with anti-malware, reinstalling your OS the 10th time, and fighting with your Windows Defender to stop automatically eating your keygens.

 

Don't waste your money on overpriced Applie products which are designed in such a way that forces you to use expensive official Apple repair shops.

 

There's a ASUS Vivobook Pro 16X OLED with an Intel i9-13980HX Geforce RTX 4070, 32GB of DDR5 and 1TB SSD on NewEgg for 1,800$ USD.

2 x USB 3.2 type A
2 x Thunderbolt 4
1 x HDMI 2.1

@ bad things about it, apprently its very loud when its working full speed and there's only one single SSD slot so no possibility to add an extra SSD.

Product number KK604

https://www.newegg.com/0-black-asus...tion=K6604&cm_re=K6604-_-34-236-444-_-Product

That would be my pick if I was you.

I was also shopping for a MBP but when I read the review and the issues with the CPU throttle because it overheat, it was an hard pass for me.

 

Last edited: Jul 4, 2023

It depends on what you prefer. If it has to be a laptop, M1 or M2 Mac all the way. I really enjoy my Air M1 2020, it is dead silent because there is no fan. And it has plenty of power. Sure, the latest Intel 12th or 13th series top models are even more powerful, but at the expense of very high power consumption. What the M1 can do with 20W, Intel or AMD CPUs need over 100W.

So you simply won't find any Intel laptop that is as powerful as the M1 and silent. You will have fan noise under CPU heavy conditions, which is a no go for me while making music or recording.

Gaming notebooks like the ASUS i9 with a 4070 GPU posted above have much power for a good price, but will be very noisy under load. It's got a 240W power supply, the MacBook Air's one is 30W. And if you're not gaming, the RTX 4070 is a complete waste of power.

 

It is amazing sometimes to see the reasons PC users come up with to explain Frankensteined together hardware with the worst possible OS. "I was going to buy the Rolex, but I heard a G-Shock stays waterproof until in 1000 feet of water". ok!

This one is like something you read about John Deere tractors. The reasons Macs get broken are glass from being dropped, and laptops getting liquids spilled into them. Power supply and Batteries need to be replaced on anything you get eventually. A new Mac will last 5 years and then after that you are on borrowed time, but almost always because of the software.

I know your post is largely correct. People use power consumption to compare brands and models of anything. But does anyone really care about Power Consumption in the greater scheme of things? It's one computer for music, not for a bitcoin farm. I think Battery life in hours should be a more important measurement of a laptop; even though the two factors are directly related. Unless you travel a lot for your job, the majority usage of a laptop is at your own home and running off external power supply.

 

Last edited: Jul 4, 2023

Fan noise has become a serious problem. I just sold a very nice brand new Lenovo laptop, 12th gen 12-core CPU, because it was way too loud to simply listen to music with my headphones on, let alone use a microphone in the same room.

It came with a hefty 230W charger. My last desktop build, relatively bare-bones, but still adequate (9th gen CPU), worked quite well with an old 240W PSU, but it was quieter.

 

The issue with higher power use is the temperature to which the cpu run which in return mean loud fan noise to be able to cool it down. That's actually the BS AMD use to sell their line of products. That seems to be the issue with the newest M1 and M2 architecture and their CPU throttle issues because of the lack of air intake.

I don't believe anyone look at their electric bill to justify a laptop or another but a loud fan noise in a hotel room (or your home studio) trying to record an artist in a Kaotica Eyeball can still be problematic unless you go sit on the toilet bowl.

 

The Air has no fan, but the Macbook Pro does. The 13" has 1, and the 15" and 16" have two. My Intel Macbook Pro's fan comes on when it is pushed hard, but nothing I do with it in Logic results in Case Noise in my audio. Maybe I would have to worry about it the next time I am trying to record a vocalist in my hotel room. Now you are *really* grasping at straws. OP plays keyboards/synths and is using an external audio interface. You can run your home project studio on a laptop, but it doesn't mean you should. They are always more expensive for less resources than a desktop/tower or even a mini.

 

Last edited: Jul 4, 2023

I tried hard, but couldn't come up with an audio-related task that would make the fan in the M1 Mac mini or iMac become audible. Complete silence.

CPU throttling is possible with the M1 Macbook Air, but again, no such problems seem to be reported when it comes to music production. Video rendering is another matter.

I'm not an Apple fan, and never have been, but give credit where credit is due.

 

See how beautiful it is. We solved the OP issue in 3 post.

Everyone run their audio project light and work from home and M1 and M2 cpu throttle exist only in video rendering.

Case close.

 

I was referring to 100+ tracks projects. Nothing particularly light about it.

I also tried to push the M1 Mac mini to the limit. Loaded a MIDI project, around 40 tracks, and started duplicating a track playing some thick chords via Osirus, a rather demanding, not yet CPU-optimised synth plugin. Got bored after 15 copies. Mac mini never blinked, smooth as butter. Complete silence.

I have no direct experience with the M1/M2 Macbook Air, but based on my experience with the M1 Mac mini and iMac, it's quite a challenge to get a fan equipped M1 Mac to make any sound at all doing audio work, let alone get the CPU to throttle.

Care to share the link to that MBP review you read?

 

Last edited: Jul 4, 2023