Hey guys, I am looking to purchase a brand new Macbook Pro dedicated only to DJing and music production. Just wanted to get some knowledge and advice as to what specs would make it run the best for Djing & production as I am not as tech savvy as many people in this forum. Thanks!
Well I'd make sure the processor is an i7 quad-core. I'm sorry I don't know exact specs, but I'm not up to date on mac computers as I use a windows computer. Make sure it has at least 8gb Ram, but I'd try for around 16-32 gb. (I game also, so this might be overkill for most people, but I consider this necessary in a computer.) If macs give you the option, make sure it has a good sound card in it, but you can always use an external one like the Audio 8 from NI. The display I would keep to 15" or less for DJing purposes due to the space it can take up at 17". Other than that, it doesn't matter too much.
Thanks for the reply! I'm not too worried about the soundcard aspect as I am leaning towards spinning live using Rekordbox as my software but still using my laptop.Originally Posted by Dj DRPX
Any of them would be fine, but if you get an Air I would recommend upgrading to 8GB RAM.
An industry first! But seriously, why add an unnecessary complication like that?
I don't know. I feel like my laptop could hold more songs/is a better manager of music...? Is this not true? How many songs could I realistically hold on a flash drive/external hard drive? And how easy is it to browse through your music in the CDJ-2000? And wouldn't a Macbook Air not be ideal due to the fact that you cannot burn CD's with it?
Last edited by Luke Ryan; 06-19-2012 at 02:17 PM.
The optical drive in my MBP is dead. I used it to install Logic the day after I got it and then Maschine a few days later……and then not again for about a year when I realized it was broken. I still don't know what happened because it's not worth fixing for me.
My girlfriend's dad bought me an external DVD+-RW for christmas, which I use to rip DVDs (I hate physical media…besides records, of course) and that's it.
So, no, the air's not a horrible choice. And any of them will run Rekordbox.
Keep in mind that you need a LAN->Thunderbolt "adapter" on anything that doesn't have a lan card (Air, Retina Pro).
And, uhh…yeah…Rekordbox is kinda cool. It's a bigger screen and you can search with a keyboard…everything's bigger. But the bottom-end Macbook Air costs a grand. A really nice, reliable (though not the fastest) 240GB SSD in a USB chassis costs about $300. (USB is the limiting factor for transfer speeds anyway…the SSD can be slow…it's just an SSD so it won't die when you drop it…and speed doesn't really matter for what the CDJ-2000s do anyway…anything will transfer audio fast enough for it).
I don't think the difference is worth $600 if that's all you're going to use it for…especially since it seems like that'd also mean exposing your only studio machine to drinks, drunk people, etc., though doing that is more normal. There's no reason to bring it to the club unless you're actually going to use it.
If you're serious about music production, the issue is bigger. None of the current laptops have USB 2.0…they're all USB 3.0. Some sound cards work with it…some will shortly…others might take a while. Same with controllers and everything else. And only the 13" and 15" non-retina MBPs have Firewire……which is just plain better for sound cards and external drives (lower latency; faster; more channels; etc.)……unless you want to wait for a Thunderbolt -> FW adapter (apple announced one…Belkin and Matrox have one coming out each as well……but it depends on which chipsets they use whether or not they're viable for audio).
So, honestly…buying today…I'd get the refurbished late 2011 MBP of your choice. Airs are becoming powerful computers and might be viable…and the new MBPs are beastly…but until things get updated to use USB 3.0, I don't think any of them are worth buying specifically for audio unless you're not using sound cards or controllers.
And I'm a huge fan of SSDs…but not on the current Air or Retina Pro models until OWC releases an aftermarket replacement or I see some benchmarks. Apple's OEM SSDs are too slow and too expensive.
Last edited by mostapha; 06-19-2012 at 02:36 PM.
The beauty of RekordBox is that it eliminates the laptop. A flash drive or hard drive will hold more than enough. Browsing is easy.
I wasn't recommending the Air, I was just saying that if you choose one, then upgrade the RAM. All of the others you can do yourself, aside from the Retina, which comes with 8GB. You can always use an external CD burner. If I was in the market for a new Mac, I would get the 13" Air or the Retina.
And you can use a flash drive (almost?) everytime because CDJ's are the industry standard, correct? Yeah, definitely taking the 13" Air into consideration now. But, also thinking I def need something with firewire and the thunderbolt adapter, which would be the most recent MBP before the retina's came out.
The current 13" and 15" MBPs have thunderbold and firewire. They're missing USB 2.0, and apparently the backwards compatibility depends on device drivers, which may or may not come out. I'm sure a lot of them will, but something tells me that there'll be at least a few companies/products that don't get supported so people will have to buy a replacement.
How do you forget to make a laptop with USB 2.0 ports, unless you are adding 3.0 ports. Typical Apple only wants you to use what they make that is compatible with thunderbold I bet. ( I feel like it isn't thunderbold, but something else with thunder in it, but I haven't owned an Apple recently so...)
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