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Cheapest machine that can run Logic Pro X in 2021


Prem Nath

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Yep. I too was invested in Apples ecosystem, they finally priced me out though. :)

 

I’m getting there. Can’t get a half decent machine at what is a pretty healthy budget. Of course in my case I have to factor in import duties or whatever. Which is not Apple’s fault I guess. But still.

 

So did you abandon Logic. Switched to Pro Tools? To be fair Logic does offer a lot for the money.

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HI. Did not abandon Logic, but did invest in Studio One (S1). Hard to predict if building a hackintosh will be viable in my future, depends what Apple does to their OS. Cannot update to the newest Logic version since I'm stuck with High Sierra and I don't want to rebuild the OS my hackintosh pc. I predict I'll be using S1 only someday so I've been moving that way slowly. I use Logic primarily for recording midi percussion\drums then export all that to S1 for mixing\recording. I use both about the same. Both have great features. Sadly I can't justify the cost of a Mac anymore, and I really don't want a Macmini, I prefer an expandable desktop case.
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Hackintosh is viable till i presume macOS 13 (so Big Sur, and two more.)

 

i wont go into whole expandability thing.

Right now i swapped an Intel Mini for a MacBook and i simply connected everything i have and i can continue working. When i get a Mini M1X or whatever, i will be able to do the same.

Can't remember when the transition was so painless for me

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HI. Did not abandon Logic, but did invest in Studio One (S1). Hard to predict if building a hackintosh will be viable in my future, depends what Apple does to their OS. Cannot update to the newest Logic version since I'm stuck with High Sierra and I don't want to rebuild the OS my hackintosh pc. I predict I'll be using S1 only someday so I've been moving that way slowly. I use Logic primarily for recording midi percussion\drums then export all that to S1 for mixing\recording. I use both about the same. Both have great features. Sadly I can't justify the cost of a Mac anymore, and I really don't want a Macmini, I prefer an expandable desktop case.

 

I hear you. I do.

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Hackintosh is viable till i presume macOS 13 (so Big Sur, and two more.)

 

i wont go into whole expandability thing.

Right now i swapped an Intel Mini for a MacBook and i simply connected everything i have and i can continue working. When i get a Mini M1X or whatever, i will be able to do the same.

Can't remember when the transition was so painless for me

 

Me too I hope as I might end up getting the M1 MacBook Air. Although basis one videographer on YouTube, Adobe Premiere is not half as good on Rosetta as say FCP. Logic is an Apple app so it should run great. But I will make sure all my other key apps are optimised for M1 before buying, or at least plan for life without them.

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Hackintosh is viable till i presume macOS 13 (so Big Sur, and two more.)

 

i wont go into whole expandability thing.

Right now i swapped an Intel Mini for a MacBook and i simply connected everything i have and i can continue working. When i get a Mini M1X or whatever, i will be able to do the same.

Can't remember when the transition was so painless for me

 

Me too I hope as I might end up getting the M1 MacBook Air. Although basis one videographer on YouTube, Adobe Premiere is not half as good on Rosetta as say FCP. Logic is an Apple app so it should run great. But I will make sure all my other key apps are optimised for M1 before buying, or at least plan for life without them.

adobe is not half as good on macs anyway.

But generally, M1 via rosetta is like 6-core i7.

Those of you who have bought (or have been recommending) the new M1 machines, how are you coping with the lack of ports. Don’t many usb based audio interfaces need a direct connection?

I have a CalDigit TS3+ hub from before. Right now, i'm using UFX+ via USB3.0. (flawlessly)

But i've also ordered a Thunderbolt 3 splitter from OWC to connect it directly to thunderbolt, since... it feels better. :D

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Fine, though my peripherals are minimal, so far. I have 2 usb A ports, one of which must be used with my audio interface. The usb 4 has a €15 hub that has my Time Machine disk, Novation keyboard, and my camera cable. All work fine. Given you want the MacBook Air, you won't have the usb A ports, so you need to take that into account. Logic is very good on the basic M1 Mini, native especially, but Rosetta is still better than the machine in my sig. If you don't need to go too far with 3rd party plugins right now, you can get a lot done just with Logic. One of 4 3rd party plugins I've installed didn't work. The others, while stil Intel, load fine in either Rosetta or in Native mode, but will improve once things go ARM. For what you describe you want to use the M1 for, you can have a lot of fun with it.

 

IIRC, a Tascam Portastudio used to cost that much. 4 tracks. Cassette. Whee.

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With all due respect, honestly, David, are you telling people that they can base hardware purchase decisions on your running Logic Pro 10.6x "with no problem at all" on a "MacBook Air 1.3 GHz i5 — MacOS X 11.0.1 — 4 GB RAM"?

 

Is that what people should expect? That may be true in some situations, but overall I must be missing something, because when I'm using Logic with wavetable synths and sample libraries with multiple instruments, each of them with multiple articulations, the session is often using well over 32 GB and it would be impossible with 4GB of RAM, unless you're constantly swapping to disk, or bouncing every track as you go. Neither of those scenarios make for a nice workflow. And we've all seen a moderately complex project easily overload a 4 core i7 running at 3 to 4 Ghz, or a dual Xeon 12 core 3.47 Ghz system. Members here have often despaired of this situation, and begged for solutions.

 

Has Logic 10.6 on Big Sur somehow advanced so far as to completely change all that?

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With all due respect, honestly, David, are you telling people that they can base hardware purchase decisions on your running Logic Pro 10.6x "with no problem at all" on a "MacBook Air 1.3 GHz i5 — MacOS X 11.0.1 — 4 GB RAM"?

 

Is that what people should expect? That may be true in some situations, but overall I must be missing something, because when I'm using Logic with wavetable synths and sample libraries with multiple instruments, each of them with multiple articulations, the session is often using well over 32 GB and it would be impossible with 4GB of RAM, unless you're constantly swapping to disk, or bouncing every track as you go. Neither of those scenarios make for a nice workflow. And we've all seen a moderately complex project easily overload a 4 core i7 running at 3 to 4 Ghz, or a dual Xeon 12 core 3.47 Ghz system. Members here have often despaired of this situation, and begged for solutions.

 

Has Logic 10.6 on Big Sur somehow advanced so far as to completely change all that?

 

Not to,speak on behalf of David but my needs (as suggested by me) were minimal. And budget is and was a massive issue. And I think the Air has 8Gb RAM for what it’s worth.

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P

 

Me too I hope as I might end up getting the M1 MacBook Air. Although basis one videographer on YouTube, Adobe Premiere is not half as good on Rosetta as say FCP. Logic is an Apple app so it should run great. But I will make sure all my other key apps are optimised for M1 before buying, or at least plan for life without them.

adobe is not half as good on macs anyway.

But generally, M1 via rosetta is like 6-core i7.

Those of you who have bought (or have been recommending) the new M1 machines, how are you coping with the lack of ports. Don’t many usb based audio interfaces need a direct connection?

I have a CalDigit TS3+ hub from before. Right now, i'm using UFX+ via USB3.0. (flawlessly)

But i've also ordered a Thunderbolt 3 splitter from OWC to connect it directly to thunderbolt, since... it feels better. :D

 

These are powered hubs right?

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With all due respect, honestly, David, are you telling people that they can base hardware purchase decisions on your running Logic Pro 10.6x "with no problem at all" on a "MacBook Air 1.3 GHz i5 — MacOS X 11.0.1 — 4 GB RAM"?

 

Is that what people should expect?

Yes, while staying in the context of the title of this topic and the original question I answered. Were you under the impression that a 2013 MacBook Air 1.3 GHz i5 with 4GB RAM would choke on a 10-15 track project with a few plug-ins here and there?

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Fine, though my peripherals are minimal, so far. I have 2 usb A ports, one of which must be used with my audio interface. The usb 4 has a €15 hub that has my Time Machine disk, Novation keyboard, and my camera cable. All work fine. Given you want the MacBook Air, you won't have the usb A ports, so you need to take that into account. Logic is very good on the basic M1 Mini, native especially, but Rosetta is still better than the machine in my sig. If you don't need to go too far with 3rd party plugins right now, you can get a lot done just with Logic. One of 4 3rd party plugins I've installed didn't work. The others, while stil Intel, load fine in either Rosetta or in Native mode, but will improve once things go ARM. For what you describe you want to use the M1 for, you can have a lot of fun with it.

 

IIRC, a Tascam Portastudio used to cost that much. 4 tracks. Cassette. Whee.

 

Great thanks. Does the hub draw power from the device or the mains.

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i have around 200 3rd party plugs and they all work fine, and they all perform better via rosetta than the 6-core mini. :) (or in some rare cases, it's head to head).

Native builds make things 20-30% faster, so everything native = mobile 8-core i9 performance level.

imac i9 gets 125 tracks in native logic benchmark, cooled M1's get 108.

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i have around 200 3rd party plugs and they all work fine, and they all perform better via rosetta than the 6-core mini. :) (or in some rare cases, it's head to head).

Native builds make things 20-30% faster, so everything native = mobile 8-core i9 performance level.

imac i9 gets 125 tracks in native logic benchmark, cooled M1's get 108.

 

Yeah I can see the M1 is clearly a winner.

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  • 2 months later...
So please don’t be mad at me. After starting with a budget intent I have now scaled up my intent to one of the MacBook M1 machines. The more I researched, the less sense it made to get an old machine. If I am going to crash and burn might as well do it with half decent specs. Also I recently took the decision to get into certain kinds of work in a more serious way. And once that decision was taken it seemed easier to spend more. Anyone here gone down the M1 path? Am still struggling with concerns about USB hubs and audio interfaces working well on these machines. But other than that it seems like a great idea.
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Hey Nath,

 

I will be going down the M1 path shortly and I am eagerly waiting to see what tomorrows Apple Spring Event 2021 will yield.

 

However, the software companies in particular appear to be dragging their heels in regard to making their products compatible with M1 native silicon. In particular, I am hoping that Waves, Native Instruments and Toontrack SD3 get native support.

Regards

Rodney

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Hi Rodney I can imagine the pain. I though a plug-in newbie, did do some research into the (non music related) apps I regularly use and most of them are compatible with M1 natively, although, many of them, for example, Things 3, are deeply embedded into the Apple universe. I wonder if therein lies a clue.
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I have an M1 MacBook Air (I replaced an older MacBook Pro). All of my USB peripherals and interfaces work fine with the M1. Most of my third-party plugins and instruments work, but all of it happens with Logic in "Rosetta" mode. In emulation the MBA outperforms the old quad-i7 by a significant margin - and - no fans, no noise.

 

I am running Waves, iZotope, Toontrack (EZD2), IK/Multimedia (SampleTank, Amplitube, T-Racks) all with Logic in emulation mode.

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I'm running Logic Pro 10.6.1 on Big Sur on my 2013 MacBook Air with no problems at all. Much larger session than what you're describing too.

 

This is very helpful good news thanks David as I am on a 2015 Macbook Pro - 10.14.6 Mojave. If you could give your wisest ( which is very wise!) quick take on the following questions:

 

1/ Am a crazy not to just upgrade to Big Sur + latest Logic? ( I suffer from a combination of 'if-it aint-broke-dont-fixit - itis' combined with the classic 'fear-of-upgrade' syndrome?

 

2/ With a Macbook Air - I presume you run Logic projects from a drive? Would be curious to learn the components of your setup which i am sure is a model best practise

 

Thanks in advance

 

Adam

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1/ Am a crazy not to just upgrade to Big Sur + latest Logic? ( I suffer from a combination of 'if-it aint-broke-dont-fixit - itis' combined with the classic 'fear-of-upgrade' syndrome?

There really is nothing wrong with staying on whatever stable combination of Logic and MacOS versions. To alleviate the fear of upgrading, I'd recommend you upgrade only when you feel confident you have ample time in front of you to test things out and experiment and troubleshoot before jumping in to the next full blown time-sensitive production project. Or that you at least keep an older Mac or an older drive on your Mac the way it is currently stable while experimenting with the new version on a new driver or a new Mac.

 

Having said that, Big Sur and 10.6.1 are very stable here, but I don't have too much dependency on 3rd party plug-ins so if that's an issue for you, make sure you research it thoroughly before upgrading.

 

2/ With a Macbook Air - I presume you run Logic projects from a drive? Would be curious to learn the components of your setup which i am sure is a model best practise

Everything runs from the small internal SSD, then I have an external HDD for backup. I do have plans to upgrade my Mac fairly soon as this one is getting a little tight for me though to be fully honest. It's perfectly fine, can handle running fairly advanced Logic projects with many tracks and plug-ins etc. But I really do need a larger internal drive, I would appreciate having a larger screen, a bit more RAM etc. It's more about comfort than necessity, but still, considering the time I spend behind my Mac, it's a luxury that I will welcome with open arms.

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USB hubs - I use an OWC Thunderbolt 3 Dock in the studio - I can plug it in to either my iMac (Catalina) or the MBA (Big Sur) everything works.

In the studio the MBA typically connects to an Anker 8-in-1 USB-C hub (powered) with an Ethernet port - that's the network connection.

For on the road I use a small Anker 7-in-1 USB-C hub (powered) with no Ethernet - all my things work fine through all of the hubs and docks.

 

I have a lot of MIDI gear connected to a powered USB-3 hub that connects to the Thunderbolt 3 dock. All good.

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