macbook vs macbook pro

[Ash Holmz]

macbook vs macbook pro



im reading the specs .. and there doesnt seem to be any diffrence between a high end macbook and a low end macbook pro except for the screen size and the graphics card (which i wont need since the only graphics i would be doing would be photoshop. ... whats the real benfit to getting the pro other than extra two inches on the screen? esp for audio ? anything?

 

[afriquedeluxe]

I would go for the macbook, the top end black one if you cut on funds. If you have the money though, I think the aluminium shelled macbook pro would be better when you are traveling.

 

[Ominous]

Im with friq.

I got the macbook because it is easier to carry around. I can go from the studio to the living room with no problem. I use photoshop but the pro is more for video production. As far as music does... I see no advantage to the pro.

I got the black one and the only thing I don't like about it is it holds fingerprints like crazy.

My wife has the white one and it gets dirty really quick.

 

[Ash Holmz]

yeah i mean just looking at the price betwen the two i dont see the value in going for the macbook pro ... i could get a 4gb ram macbook with a 250gb hd for less than the entry level macbook pro. I could only see the value if i was really into graphics which i am not. as far as the casing .. i can just buy a skeleton case for the macbook.. thats what i did with my girls one and it protects it really well. and u can buy a keyboard cover which she also did. in fact i could buy an apple cinema display along with it and it would still be around the same price and the mpb by itself.

 

[afriquedeluxe]

yeah i mean just looking at the price betwen the two i dont see the value in going for the macbook pro ... i could get a 4gb ram macbook with a 250gb hd for less than the entry level macbook pro. I could only see the value if i was really into graphics which i am not. as far as the casing .. i can just buy a skeleton case for the macbook.. thats what i did with my girls one and it protects it really well. and u can buy a keyboard cover which she also did. in fact i could buy an apple cinema display along with it and it would still be around the same price and the mpb by itself.

ah, thats even better. I should look into getting one of those. But yeah, macbooks are great value for money, for musicians! I run logic studio pro with lots of synths and never have slow downs.

 

[Formant024]

well...the pro has 2 usb and 1 fw 400 and 1 fw 800 AND express34 cardsslot, im awaiting oem's to develop more into the express34 audio interfaces as it provides 3x more bandwidth then FW800.

http://www.uaudio.com/products/uad/xpander/index.html

http://www.rme-audio.de/en_products_hdspe_expresscard.php

http://www.rme-audio.de/en_products_hdspe_madiface.php

http://www.apogeedigital.com/products/symphonymobile.php


as you can see, these cards handle at least 32 channels which is different against the need for running plugins as most of the hiphop producers wont ever use more than 8 channels for multitracking...it also opts to connect some high end ad/da which isnt directly a producers pre but more over aimed at recording engineering, but that could also suit an established producer who undergoes bigger projects than the average bedroom techie.

 

[Ash Holmz]

i think im gonna cop the white macbook w/ 2.4 and 250gb ... i would like the black one but its more expensive for absolutley no reason .. u can speck out the white one to the same as the black and the black is still more money which makes absultely no sense whatsoever. So im paying just for the color? Is apple retarded or something?

 

[The Arkitekt]

yes they are retarted, they just know so many more people are gonna buy that black one because the shit looks nicer than white, and you shouldn't buy from apple directly, theyre are a ton of power sellers with a very good rep on ebay that will sell you what you want for at least 100 bucks less, probly even find the black one for the same price as the white one, plus that extra money u save can go to a sound card, some more vinyl, etc...

 

[LDB]

i think im gonna cop the white macbook w/ 2.4 and 250gb ... i would like the black one but its more expensive for absolutley no reason .. u can speck out the white one to the same as the black and the black is still more money which makes absultely no sense whatsoever. So im paying just for the color? Is apple retarded or something?

I got the white one as well. I wasn't paying 2 bills more for the black for no apparent reason. Fry's ,where I bought mine, told me that there's a difference in price only because the black is more popular. They actually lowered the white 2 bills for that reason. I think the white looks better anyway. I cop'd a wood grain cover for mine and it makes my shit look extra nice. That wood grain with that snow white stands out. Also the knock on the white is that it can get dingy over time. Unless you're a nasty mofo I don't really see that happening. Mine cleans up nice and white is less prone to visual scratches so I'm good. I coped a blue cover for mine as well and it looks good in the club when I'm DJing. I spent a bill 40 on the two covers. Not much you can do to dress up the black one. I prefer the white!

p.s. don't cop your shit from ebay. Go to a reputable dealer and get the extended warranty. Getting it for a hundred to two hundred cheaper means nothing. I'll cop somethings from ebay but not my computer...no way! My warranty covers absolutely everything including the screen. Apple doesn't even cover the screen! If anything happens to mine and they have to send it off to be fixed I get a brand new loaner until mine gets back. "Priceless"...if it's beyond repair I get a new one. If within the 3 years mine goes down in price I get the difference or I can upgrade to a newer one. Be sure to get that extended warranty. The mac isn't like a pc....u don't want to tinker with it at all. I even let Fry's blow out my memory. I'm not risking anything happening to it!!!!!!!!

 

[Ash Holmz]

on third thought im coppin the bare minumums... i can upgrade the ram and hard drive myself for a much cheaper price that what apple or any store offers anyway. ... and i can install a 7200 rpm hard drive which will perform better than the 5400rpm one they include.

 

[LDB]

on third thought im coppin the bare minumums... i can upgrade the ram and hard drive myself for a much cheaper price that what apple or any store offers anyway. ... and i can install a 7200 rpm hard drive which will perform better than the 5400rpm one they include.

since i use a 500G maxfactor fire external the 5400 that it comes with doesn't much matter anyway. I only install my programs on the main hardrive and the respond well to the 5400 spin up time. all my song files, samples ect ect stream from my firewire hard drive.

I'd give upgrading yourself a second thought. Cracking that bad boy open will void and all warranty's! Mine came with an 80 G hard drive. That's all I need since I mainly rely on externals. If you've been doing this music thing for as long as I have u live an die by those externals. I chance nothing but my programs to the internal. I can always reinstall a program but if u lose songs.....of course u know from recent experience, it's a nightmare. I've been told the MacBooks are sturdy but delicate at the same time. One mistake any you've thrown a grand or better in the trash. I paid a little over a hundred dollars to blow out my memory and that's with labor. Not such a bad deal. I'm pretty good with computers but because of the price of apple computers parts should u fry something I don't think it's worth messing with.

 

[2nd_Man]

I'v been monitoring this post, but not replying. I'm strongly considering a Mac (either Macbook, iMac or something else) myself, and putting Logic on it (despite whats been said about Live). The main reason being is for the completeness, that you have everything together, and because all you use is Apple's own it will work together. And a Logic comes with 30gd of sounds and some pretty decent plugins, theres no need to d/l random VSTi or Soundfont, which is always a risk.
So i'll take the advice here about getting a good warranty and not messing with it myself, as its what I wanted the Mac for anyway.
So thanks for all the advice been given here, and in the Logic vs Live thread as well.

 

[Ash Holmz]

for evryone on macbooks... since the macbook only has one firewire port, is anybody having trouble daisy chaining their external hard drives? ... the connection goes macbook to hd to interface right? .. anyone experiencing problems with that?

 

[Formant024]

^^^ actualy, if you check on apple discussion in regards to audio interfaces you'll see that there a lot of issues basically solved by sticking a fw hd in between...

but no, you should have no issue there though i rather have a seperate bus for audio and hd, use full bandwidth from both and keep audio streams in the clear. But thats me, im likely to stream more channels at once so the limit is set to the amount of channels you think you need in your situation. I think i can safely assume that in the worst condition, when daisy-chained in between, you'd use 8 channels without any problems whatsoever.

 

[LDB]

for evryone on macbooks... since the macbook only has one firewire port, is anybody having trouble daisy chaining their external hard drives? ... the connection goes macbook to hd to interface right? .. anyone experiencing problems with that?

Get a firewire hub...that's what I did.

 

[Ash Holmz]

^^^ yeah i dont think i need a hub i can just daisy chain the hd to my digi 002. i have also confirmed that upgrading the ram will not void the warranty from apple. therefore it makes no sense to buy ram from apple cuz they charge way to much . Wifey has 1gb ram in her macbook. So im going to swap out my 2gb, put in 4, then take my 2 and put it in wifeys. its a win win for evrybody lol.

 

[Formant024]

i bought 4gb for 76 euro, bout a 100 bucks or cheaper

 

[LDB]

^^^ yeah i dont think i need a hub i can just daisy chain the hd to my digi 002. i have also confirmed that upgrading the ram will not void the warranty from apple. therefore it makes no sense to buy ram from apple cuz they charge way to much . Wifey has 1gb ram in her macbook. So im going to swap out my 2gb, put in 4, then take my 2 and put it in wifeys. its a win win for evrybody lol.

LOL I didn't buy my memory from Apple..I got it from Fry's the store that I purchased the Computer. I think it was like $75 for the 4Gig on sale. The put it in for 40 bucks I think.

How about the replacing the hard drive.....would the void the warranty if u do it yourself? I knew the memory wouldn't because it's located where the battery is and all u have to do is pull the lever and it pops right out. I was there so I let them do it.

 

[Ash Holmz]

im checking and i cant find a clear answer ... i hear conflicting things from diffrent people .. but most people say u are still covered as long as u dont break anything while upgrading the HD. however i think that only applies to the macbook.. i think on a pro u will void it as soon as you open up the hd. again im not 100% on that though. maybe ill call apple and see if I can get a clear answer. At any rate, I would probably just use my external fw drives anway so on second thought im not really sure i need the upgrade. At least not now.

 

[LDB]

im checking and i cant find a clear answer ... i hear conflicting things from diffrent people .. but most people say u are still covered as long as u dont break anything while upgrading the HD. however i think that only applies to the macbook.. i think on a pro u will void it as soon as you open up the hd. again im not 100% on that though. maybe ill call apple and see if I can get a clear answer. At any rate, I would probably just use my external fw drives anway so on second thought im not really sure i need the upgrade. At least not now.

word...I've heard the 1G because of the way Apple handles memory will work. Unlike a pc with windows it doesn't alot a portion of it for windows like a pc does. That means u have access to the entire 1Gig. I think I book marked where I saw the 4Gig online for $75 with shipping! I'll hit u with a link if I can find it.