MBP recommendation question from Newbie

Hey guys and gals,

I am new here.  I am thinking of buying a MBP to run Logic and Mainstage.

My last MBP is a mid 2010 model with 4gb RAM.  It is struggling...

The potential new MBP has an Intel Core i5 processor and comes with 16gb of RAM and 512gb of SSD.

Will this laptop run smoothly without crackles and glitches when running Mainstage with Omnisphere 2, PIanoteq etc? 

PS: I am not planning on using an external sound card.   I will be using the built in audio device.

Thanks for your help.

Make sure you get a 4-core CPU. Preferably i7.

I wouldn't spend money on a dual-core.

Hi guys, I also have a request for some advice regarding a new MBP for running Logic.

I currently have a low-end rMBP 13" late 2013 with 4GB RAM and 128 SSD. I mainly work in sound design/ambiental music production and some mixing/mastering gigs now and there. I'm also using a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 mk2 interface.

My problem is: I'm currently starting to receive more serious mixing work and I rely on my external USB 3.0 2TB drive to work on those projects, with a buffer size of 1024 but I cannot get into more serious compression techniques, editing and FX without running my system into an overload (which is completely expectable).

When I work on electronic compositions, I use a 256/512 buffer size to have an "acceptable" latency.

I am currently looking into a mid 2014 15" 2.2 i7 with 16 GB of RAM and 512 SSD (as my current budget permits). My questions regarding this machine are as such:

Will this machine be able to improve my workflow so I can finally stop freezing/bouncing into place (getting worse now with the MIDI FX bug) while using multiple instances of Alchemy and other Virtual Instruments such as Loom, Hybrid 3, Serum, (Omnisphere in the near future) while composing/producing electronic music?

Will multithreading applied for both playback and live tracks make a severe improvement over my current machine and it's latency? I'm well aware for a fact that upgrading from a dual to a quad core with multithreading is a HUGE improvement but I have not seen in detail how a machine like de 15" stated above handles projects.

As far as mixing goes, I use a lot of the built-in compressors and effects, with some 3rd party ones by Waves and Soundtoys (and as new work comes in I'll continue to buy more and more 3rd party ones), will this machine be able to run 40+ tracks mixing sessions without hiccups?

One more question... as far as a "good audio interface" goes, would you recommend me to upgrade to a thunderbolt one (like the Clarett or maybe Apollo Twin) in the future, or stick to the one I have now? The Apollo is way over my budget but if I'll work hard enough maybe I'll be able to afford it next year.

If someone has read my questions so far I would like to thank you in advance and apologise if my english isn't good (not a native speaker), and for the sheer amounts of doubts I still have after researching for a new machine 3 months now!

Any help will be greatly appreciated!

If you check the Geekbench scores of those 2 machines at www.everymac.com the 2014 you're looking at is roughly 2 times faster than your 2013.

It's hard to say if it will do everything you wanna do without a hiccup but it's a very powerful laptop, so you'll definitely see a huge improvement. The fact that you have 16 gigs against your current 4 will make a big difference on software instruments.

Thanks for replying!

I'm well aware of the limitations of the 15" models and I will be considering this machine as a stepping stone until I'll be able to afford a true desktop workstation.

I won't be working with orchestral libraries and such (with great respect for those who do), I mainly use it to design my own synth patches, templates, sounds banks, effects and I'm mainly looking forward not to "bounce in place/freeze tracks" so much.

I have done so much research these past few months and as of now I'm more confused than when I started. Comparing Geekbench scores from different machine within this price range for weeks on end (old Mac Pro's, iMac's, older MBP models which tend to have severe GPU issues), even considering switching DAW (which I won't do).

The conclusion is that I'll search for this particular configuration (without a dedicated GPU) and hope for the best.

I think the most important scores to look at are Single core 64 and Multi core 64, since Logic X is 64 bit.

For SC anything in the vicinity of 4000 is amazing, and for MC 14000 and up is very powerful.

So even if you get your hands on a 2.5 i7 from 2014 it's a big improvement to the 2.2