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which laptop should I buy for Logic mobile recording?


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Hi everyone,

 

I'm going to be recording audio from 5 mics at 24bit into Logic. (through a firewire audio interface)

 

Which macbook should I get? Do I need 7200rpm HD or can the 5400rpm HD handle with this? whats the minimum ram that can handle this? whats the minimum processor i should get?

 

I want to spend as little as possible. I've never recorded this many channels before at 24bit so I'm hoping there are some experienced minds on here who can give me the answer of the minimum spec I need!!

 

thanks very much for the help

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Well, you can forget about the new aluminum macbooks....NO FW! (Thank You Steve Jobs) :evil: :evil: :evil:

 

However, I believe they're still selling the white macbooks for $900.

 

I bought my macbook in fall '07 and works great. Although I just record myself and never ran more than 1 or 2 inputs at once, I don't think it should be a problem for you although someone with more experience with that will know better.

Rams cheap too, so fill er up to the brim. The more the better it all runs.

 

However, you should get an external FW drive for recording. As far as 7200/5400, I 've read arguments that it doesn't really matter but drives are cheap so why not go for the fastest.

Edited by Tapeworm
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You've become a victim of the untrue and irrational "laptops are underpowered" mindset.

 

To give you some perspective, 5 years ago, I recorded 16 channels through two daisy-chained FireWire audio interfaces onto a 12" G4 PowerBook's internal 4200RPM drive, using Digital Performer which is much less CPU-efficient than Logic. No problems.

 

Even the lowest-powered MacBook has many times more power than this. You'll be fine with whatever you get.

 

...as Tapeworm said, though, forget the Aluminum MacBooks. I'm still angry with Apple for taking out FireWire; it means I won't be upgrading my white MacBook anytime soon. Thankfully, for the reasons I just mentioned, I don't need to.

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You've become a victim of the untrue and irrational "laptops are underpowered" mindset.

 

To give you some perspective, 5 years ago, I recorded 16 channels through two daisy-chained FireWire audio interfaces onto a 12" G4 PowerBook's internal 4200RPM drive, using Digital Performer which is much less CPU-efficient than Logic. No problems.

 

Even the lowest-powered MacBook has many times more power than this. You'll be fine with whatever you get.

 

...as Tapeworm said, though, forget the Aluminum MacBooks. I'm still angry with Apple for taking out FireWire; it means I won't be upgrading my white MacBook anytime soon. Thankfully, for the reasons I just mentioned, I don't need to.

 

Wel, I got a mac pro 3 months ago so i dont wanna spend that much cash right now. However, I will be using the laptop to work on tracks on the go. i.e. tracks that have been transferred from my mac pro 8x core. so do i need a macbook pro or what?

 

surely macbook pro's haven't had firewire taken off? how do ppl attach audio interfaces?

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You've become a victim of the untrue and irrational "laptops are underpowered" mindset.

 

True.

 

I counted the other day in one of my mixes that i had 54 plugins running on the song. I had only freezed 2 tracks and that was with my buffer size at 128!! This is on a lowly MB with 1 GB of ram. I did mostly use Logic plugs but even so i used numerous Space designers and compressors etc etc.

 

I also recorded numerous drummers on this MB as well with no probs.

 

HAve a good one. :D

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Since you're already set with a macpro and just need a bit of something to scratch around on the go, how about looking at used prices or refurbished?

 

Macbook Pro has FW, but I think they took off the 400 port and kept the 800, which doesn't matter cause its backwards compatible. Another issue for a bit was that apple stopped using texas instruments FW chipset for another (cheap) that was not compatible with many FW interfaces. I think they fixed that in the next revision but don't know.

 

The standard for compatibilty, as far as I understood it was TI FW chipset and Oxford 911(?) chipset for your FW hard drive.

 

Apple lately has been doing a good job it seems at p*ssing all over artists and content providers.

 

Apple probably took FW off the macbook so as not to divert sales from the pro.

 

Sorry for ranting in you're thread, bit I am PO'd at all this. :)

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I just went thru this issue today. I bought a Macbook for my son and realized it had no firewire. He will use it for college but he also wants to do music. So, instead of spending more money on a Macbook Pro(which he does not need), I bought an inexpensive USB audio/midi interface.

 

The new Macbook has no firewire, just 2 usb.

You either have to buy the Macbook Pro(which just has 1 firewire 800),

or buy the macbook and use a USB audio interface.

 

I am lucky, I bought the Macbook Pro just before the new model came out

and it has firewire 400 and 800 so I can hook up external drive and my Ensemble at the same time.

 

If you want to use your firewire devices, you have to go Macbook Pro.

By the way, there is no cable for Mac yet to go from firewire to USB.

They make one for windows!

 

I think leaving the firewire connection off of the Macbook was a huge mistake, and it makes me wonder what in the hell Apple has done. This is the first time in 6 years I actually considered looking at a windows based computer.

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Well, you can forget about the new aluminum macbooks....NO FW! (Thank You Steve Jobs) :evil: :evil: :evil:

 

 

Dude...the new aluminum MacBook Pro does have a firewire port. Well, to be precise, it has one FireWire 800 port, but it doesn't have 6-pin FireWire 400 port, the one that 2007 and early 2008 MacBook Pros used to have. See...

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z87/MatijaGajic/Picture1-2.png

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Well, you can forget about the new aluminum macbooks....NO FW! (Thank You Steve Jobs) :evil: :evil: :evil:

 

 

And as far as Steve Jobs is concerned, with my biggest apologies for posting this here, I really think that everybody should listen to this carefully, and learn something, no matter what kind of business you are involved in. Enjoy!

 

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  • 9 years later...

Hello,

 

Greetings I am using the M-AUDIO mobile pre and when I try to record vocals there is no sound I can see the mic level and I can record or test the vocal but no sound only when I switch back to the regular mode of play can someone please tell me how to obtain sound when using the unit could it be I need to reboot the drivers...

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Hello,

 

Greetings I am using the M-AUDIO mobile pre and when I try to record vocals there is no sound I can see the mic level and I can record or test the vocal but no sound only when I switch back to the regular mode of play can someone please tell me how to obtain sound when using the unit could it be I need to reboot the drivers...

 

Can you post this on its own topic since it has nothing to do with buying a new laptop?

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