Hi all, new to the forums. Wasn't sure which forum would be more appropriate to post in.
I've been the sound designer/composer on a number of short films, but I'll be acting as sound designer on my first feature length film soon. Looking to get a new computer for the task and and looking for feedback from those with a little more experience. I am running Pro Tools 12, and cost is certainly a concern as I run a pretty humble operation at the moment.
I am setting up the pre-mix, doing sound design, and dialogue cleanup. Ultimately the final mix will be done in the production companies in house studio by their resident engineers. It's a music oriented project and the mix will be in 5.1. Their engineers will be mixing the music as such, so my track count will be fairly high given all the music stems (already recorded).
These are the specs for the machines I am considering, but am wondering if an Imac or Macbook with these specs will be up to the task. Or if I'm going to have to bite the bullet and invest in a MacPro. That would a little difficult for me to afford up front. Anyway any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display
2.5GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 3.7GHz
16GB 1600MHz DDR3L SDRAM
512GB PCIe-based Flash Storage
Intel Iris Pro Graphics + AMD Radeon R9 M370X with 2GB GDDR5 memory
or:
21.5-inch iMac with Retina 4K display
3.3GHz quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 3.8GHz
16GB 1867MHz LPDDR3
512GB Flash Storage
Intel Iris Pro Graphics 6200
Computer advice
-
- KVRer
- Topic Starter
- 3 posts since 13 Jul, 2016
-
- KVRAF
- 3186 posts since 18 Mar, 2008
Any benefits in running PT on a OS X opposed to Windows?
Asking because you aren't tied to OS X like myself and other Logic users, so there's viable solution to get amazing custom built desktop PC on the budget that outperforms anything you can buy for the same buck in Apple land, these days you really need to have strong reasons to be tied to an Apple and pretty much to double convince yourself you have to be.
Asking because you aren't tied to OS X like myself and other Logic users, so there's viable solution to get amazing custom built desktop PC on the budget that outperforms anything you can buy for the same buck in Apple land, these days you really need to have strong reasons to be tied to an Apple and pretty much to double convince yourself you have to be.
This entire forum is wading through predictions, opinions, barely formed thoughts, drama, and whining. If you don't enjoy that, why are you here? 
ShawnG
ShawnG-
- KVRer
- Topic Starter
- 3 posts since 13 Jul, 2016
Hi, Thanks for the response.
I have some friends who have gone the Hackintosh route, my concern with that is the lack of support as I am not particularly savvy at building computers, and or troubleshooting should issues arise. I honestly appreciate the simplicity of the Mac and haven't worked with Windows since XP, though yes Apple is a pricier option. But I will require the system fairly quickly, and am not necessarily certain where to begin having one built.
I have some friends who have gone the Hackintosh route, my concern with that is the lack of support as I am not particularly savvy at building computers, and or troubleshooting should issues arise. I honestly appreciate the simplicity of the Mac and haven't worked with Windows since XP, though yes Apple is a pricier option. But I will require the system fairly quickly, and am not necessarily certain where to begin having one built.
-
- KVRAF
- 3186 posts since 18 Mar, 2008
Were talking about Windows rig, hackintosh isn't even legal in majority of countries anyways.
Plenty of people here built their own rig's, there's stores that do that for you gratis, you can start here opening new thread, there's even specialized DAW builders too, like this guys https://www.scan.co.uk/, one of them is active member here and awesome one too.
Understand affection towards OS X, absolutely don't like Windows, but it's just an shell of your DAW where you spend most of your time anyways, keep it offline and use it just for DAW and it will perform great.
Getting second hand Mac Pro is an option too, really don't see much benefits of new retina stuff for audio, you can score good Mac Pro 5.1 for cheaper and get at least few years out of it.
Now is good time to re-think Apple eco system, OS X isn't doing any better these days anyways, food for thoughts
But yeah, if you have itch for new Mac, than Mac Pro>iMac>MacBook Pro>Mac Mini.
Plenty of people here built their own rig's, there's stores that do that for you gratis, you can start here opening new thread, there's even specialized DAW builders too, like this guys https://www.scan.co.uk/, one of them is active member here and awesome one too.
Understand affection towards OS X, absolutely don't like Windows, but it's just an shell of your DAW where you spend most of your time anyways, keep it offline and use it just for DAW and it will perform great.
Getting second hand Mac Pro is an option too, really don't see much benefits of new retina stuff for audio, you can score good Mac Pro 5.1 for cheaper and get at least few years out of it.
Now is good time to re-think Apple eco system, OS X isn't doing any better these days anyways, food for thoughts
But yeah, if you have itch for new Mac, than Mac Pro>iMac>MacBook Pro>Mac Mini.
This entire forum is wading through predictions, opinions, barely formed thoughts, drama, and whining. If you don't enjoy that, why are you here? ShawnG
ShawnG-
- KVRian
- 537 posts since 31 May, 2015 from the Iberian Peninsula
The iMac looks better than the Macbook, but who knows, you may like its portability.
I also think that the 2nd hand Mac Pro may have the advantage of coming with older versions of OS X, because I've seen that the latest versions have some problems with certain software.
I also think that the 2nd hand Mac Pro may have the advantage of coming with older versions of OS X, because I've seen that the latest versions have some problems with certain software.
