any future for MacBooks in music production ?

[Carpenter]

They only repair the 13" models. They still haven't owned up to the flexgate problem on the 15" MBP's like mine.

But that's really beside the point. I shouldn't have to deal with such an extreme flaw on a $3500 machine.

There are LOTS of things wrong with this machine. Flexgate is just the latest.

Apple is dead to me.

Do you want to hear about the terrible keyboard with sticking keys that frequently double trigger?

How about the lack of ANY common ports that cause you to have to have an octopus of ugly dongle adapters sticking out from all over at all times.

The completely ANNOYING touch bar GIMICK!

No more magsafe!

The fact that the battery is sealed, and the ram and hard drives are soldered to the mother board. So... NO upgrading this expensive machine, EVER! You can't even replace the battery.


Oh, and every cord, power supply made for it by Apple is about 1000x what it should cost, because I guess Apple feels like they they didn't rape their customers for enough cash when they sold them a $3500 machine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfcChCjN6Eg

[Tj Shredder]

Hi, just throwing this out there. Is anyone using a Macbook Air i7 for music production? Any thoughts?

Yes, the last 11“ model from 2014. I run my pretty demanding homebrewed Max patch on it. For sure not as fast as the newest Macbook Pros. Its about the size of an iPad... The 13“ Macbook Pro is significantly smaller and faster than an actual Air 13-inch... If I had to replace it, I would go for one of those... (or wait another 5 years until the macbooks are fast enough, though they won‘t run 32-bit anymore for no good reason and probably overheat, as Apple tends to value size over reliability etc. etc...)

If you need something new, get it fast, before the next OSX comes out...

[Tj Shredder]

They repair it for free though.

And replace the misconstructed cable with a better one...

[perpetual3]

They only repair the 13" models. They still haven't owned up to the flexgate problem on the 15" MBP's like mine.

But that's really beside the point. I shouldn't have to deal with such an extreme flaw on a $3500 machine.

There are LOTS of things wrong with this machine. Flexgate is just the latest.

Apple is dead to me.

Do you want to hear about the terrible keyboard with sticking keys that frequently double trigger?

How about the lack of ANY common ports that cause you to have to have an octopus of ugly dongle adapters sticking out from all over at all times.

The completely ANNOYING touch bar GIMICK!

No more magsafe!

The fact that the battery is sealed, and the ram and hard drives are soldered to the mother board. So... NO upgrading this expensive machine, EVER! You can't even replace the battery.


Oh, and every cord, power supply made for it by Apple is about 1000x what it should cost, because I guess Apple feels like they they didn't rape their customers for enough cash when they sold them a $3500 machine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfcChCjN6Eg

I agree with all but the touchbar. Check this out - our the dock in the Touch Bar so you can always have a full screen:

https://pock.dev/

[BONES]

They repair it for free though

Yeah, once you take it in and leave it there for who knows how long. Meanwhile, Dell offer on-site, next day warranty service for all their higher priced machines (XPS and Precision) and "on-site after remote diagnosis" on their mid-range Inspiron machines. That way you are only without your computer for an hour or so (unless it's not working at all), rather than a week or so.

[lnikj]

Best news in years: https://www.macrumors.com/2019/06/27/jo ... ing-apple/

[Jace-BeOS]

Best news in years: https://www.macrumors.com/2019/06/27/jo ... ing-apple/

Yeah, maybe Apple will finally recover from their anorexia.

[BONES]

Here's an interesting thing. Yesterday I ordered a new laptop from Dell for Au$1889. It has a brand new, 9th gen hexa-core i7, 8GB of RAM, a 6GB RTX 2060 graphics card, a 256GB SSD plus a 1TB HDD and a 17.3" screen (but it fits into a 15" laptop sleeve because it has tiny bezels). OK, 8GB RAM is a bit stupid but I can upgrade it to 32GB for a few hundred bucks just by removing a few screws from the bottom of the chassis. I can also swap the HDD for a second SSD if I feel the need to. I just went to Apple's website and tried to spec a MB Pro to the same spec and it would have cost me Au$3499 for a machine with a slightly faster processor (but probably not 9th gen yet), a much worse graphics card (Radeon), one-fifth of the storage, way fewer ports and a smaller screen.

Seriously, how desperate to hang on to the past would you have to be to keep paying through the nose like that?

[AnX]

do ppl still not realise apple stuff is expensive for the sake of it, not because its better?

i guess the old saying is true.... a fool and his money are soon parted...

[mgw38]

do ppl still not realise apple stuff is expensive for the sake of it, not because its better?

i guess the old saying is true.... a fool and his money are soon parted...

I have and use multiple machines, Mac, Windows and Linux. Although Windows has gotten admittedly better over the years, it is still a massively annoying OS. I just wish they would make a clean cut wipe out all this unnecessary backward compatibility nonsense. Whenever I can, I prefer a machine running MacOS. Linux would be an alternative but I find it a bit too nerdy for everyday use and most software does not run on it. I only use it for server applications.

[AnX]

i wasnt specifically refering to OS (tho apple do like to make sure they break stuff with every update) more the actual hardware spec

[mgw38]

i wasnt specifically refering to OS (tho apple do like to make sure they break stuff with every update) more the actual hardware spec

Unfortunately, that goes hand in hand. Nobody buys Apple computers because of their hardware. I buy Apple computers because the terms "driver" and "registry" make my physically sick.

The fact that some things break with an update (it actually breaks a lot less often than people complain) is a necessary consequence of improving a system without being restricted by an "everything has to always be backward compatible" paradigm.

[telecode]

do ppl still not realise apple stuff is expensive for the sake of it, not because its better?

i guess the old saying is true.... a fool and his money are soon parted...

The argument for "creative work" and apple products is, creative people don't want to be techy. They just want a computer to turn on and be reliable and allow them to focus on creative work 110%. No technical mumbo jumbo and wasting precious time troubleshooting. It sort of makes sense ... BUT!! -- modern day music making (DAWs,, VSTs e.t.c) in the consumer realm is not what music making used to be. It's sort of become an hybrid and fusion with a healthy interest in computer technology and the Internet. Modern day music making for young generations (the under 25 crowd) is an extension of other computing rooted entertainment such as gaming, Internet socializing (YouTube, Twitch), mobile phones .. e.t.c....

So the highly technical interest and aptitude sort of naturally is a requirement in music making. You will naturally want to take apart your computing device and upgrade RAM and hard drives and tweak it for performance -- just as you would if you were using it for gaming. So Apple's strangle hold on creative work and creative types is sort of a relic of a bygone era.

Just my opinion.

FWIW.. I just recenly picked up a Windows based lappy with a i7 8th, 1tb 5400 rpm drive and 8gb ram what I can crack open and upgrade easily for about $1k. Adding a 16gb RAM stick and a 500gb NVME will bring the device to around $1300 all in. An apple lappy with 24gb ram, i7 8th and 512gb storage will be well over $3000 over here. Mind you, the graphics on the MBP might be a better and maybe a better build, but ultimately, in 5 or 6 years, that MBP will also be an old piece of junk just like the Windows lappy i put together.

[telecode]

Unfortunately, that goes hand in hand. Nobody buys Apple computers because of their hardware. I buy Apple computers because the terms "driver" and "registry" make my physically sick.

I am an IT guy by profession. You can f**k up a *nix OS X internals just as easily as you can Windows internals. It all comes down to what you use the device for and how much weird and odd ball stuff you keep installing and removing from it. Cleaning up the /Users/Library and /Library is a little easier on a OS X, but when you get into weird ass dependency hell, thats when things get bad. I keep my music making dedicated device clean and dedicated for music apps. The only stuff I add to it is dropbox and a web browser. Everything else is music apps. I use a different system for all the other stuff I do with a computer.

[jancivil]

The graphics on my i9 MBP are absolutely gorgeous. I'm so not somebody who reads up on components in magazines to be influenced or gather material for shit-talking on the internet.

If you really go for the high spec machine you can spend as much for a windows box.
I cannot stand Windows OS. There is too much dicking about with things which I never have to, this is always going to be the case.
Some of the trials and tribulations I see here, on a regular basis are pitiable. It isn't about the past or hanging on, I just don't have the time for that nonsense. Not that I don't have things which piss me off but there are major things I never have to see.

Additionally there is the integration when the same entity manufactures the hardware and develops the software for it.
I do videos to present my music, and DaVinci Resolve is literally unbelievably fast at renders on this machine, and FCP X is considerably quicker with it than it was before.


As to the OS 'breaking stuff', I don't have to update it until I do. I chose to, for definite reasons, and the only things broken by doing so are age-old things in 32-bit - 3 in all - the developer couldn't be arsed to make 64-bit on OS, a big flip of the bird to us and he can GFH, my use was rare 3 yrs ago. Kontakt 2 doesn't work .