Comments on: MacBook Speed Bump: Still a Fantastic Mobile Musician Bargain

By: Matheus

Matheus — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 14:31:55 +0000

thanks for the post, it generally made me make up my mind regarding laptops. i already have an intel core duo iMac, running logic pro and a couple of soft synths as the Korg Legacy Collection Analog Edition… Im about to begin university studies for the fall, which means I am in need of a laptop. Got around $700 to spend on a laptop, from my father - but that will give me a PC, and i’m not in the mood to work with two OS. Ok, Vista is not bad, but I’m in love with my mac and would prefer to keep it that way. I thought about putting my own money to that to get a MB - but I was unsure if it would handle any music applications, and I would really appreciate to have a mobile option to my studio, and If I could encorporate this in my “study laptop”-deal that would be perfect. I feel like there’s a bit too big price difference between the MB and MBP to put more money on the MBP - as the MB obviously works well judging from your article.

So, thanks for helping me make up my mind.

By: Brett

Brett — Thu, 31 May 2007 07:51:12 +0000

Macbook is a great audio machine. For those in Cananda, a good site to keep up on macbooks is ehmac.ca, they have a contest right now to win a free ipod.

By: bryan tewell

bryan tewell — Sun, 20 May 2007 19:24:33 +0000

oh yeah, I got a macbook pretty early on (I got one and upgraded it, spent about $1600, and now the base $1099 mb with the core 2 duo instead of core duo has the same thing!) and my screen definitely has a flickering problem that I have not yet had fixed. Other than that, its been the best computer experience of my life, and now they’re even more worth it, you can get a sweet macbook for under a grand with a student discount these days, and they likely wont have problems like flickering screens the early ones like mine have.

By: bryan tewell

bryan tewell — Sun, 20 May 2007 19:21:03 +0000

I have some questions comments.
1st: how would you use an external firewire drive if you’re multitracking on a macbook, unless you’re using a USB2.0 interface? would it be just as well to use a USB2.0 drive? I know with my experiences that I used to have a terrible time with DP crashing continuously when I multitracked without an external drive, but now I’m using my 40GB ipod as an external and I have had much better luck ever since. I know it sounds like I just answered my own question, but I was curious if its even better to use a firewire drive (I could just get a firewire cable for my ipod huh? haha). Thanks to whoever answers.

By: Pat Serrano

Pat Serrano — Sun, 20 May 2007 06:25:17 +0000

I have a buddy who is the floor manager at an apple store here on Long Island. I just went in to see him today, and he was showing me the new Macbooks. In every apple store you will see Final Cut Studio 2 installed on Macbooks. They run it decently, but not amazingly.

If you have an apple store close, then check it out for yourself.

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 18 May 2007 09:51:29 +0000

I’m going to study Composition & Music Production next year, and I haven’t got any idea on what laptop to buy. The macs seem great, but I’m more a PC kind-a guy.

The only problem is, I don’t know how to compare the two… Can someone give me some examples of PC-laptops which are relatively light (for travelling) and can run some audio apps with lots of VST’s at a good speed?

Because the market for PC-laptops is way bigger and less transparent.

Thanks in advance…

By: Peter Kirn

Peter Kirn — Thu, 17 May 2007 16:10:39 +0000

@bliss: Motion may run, but it’s still going to be constrained by the graphics card, I would think. I don’t think Apple’s just blowing smoke there. Not that I wouldn’t try hacking it to see, especially just as a mobile, second machine for light work — I’d keep the desktop on the big jobs, anyway.

@Mike: QC runs just fine on MacBook. I’ve had great luck with it. It really comes down to how much parallel graphics processing you’re doing. In the case of QC sketches (or simple Jitter patches, etc.), the answer is usually not a lot. I’ve been really happy with VDMX and QC on the MB, not doing anything fancy, but still.

@tyc: Hear you, but things to remember: plastic scratches less than metal. Black carries fingerprints more than white. Apple has resolved some of the discoloration issues with white. And refurbs can occasionally get you a deal on black; I got mine for $1000 and after discounting, it wound up being worth it. Of course, now that’s probably why I have to send it in for repairs. :)

By: tyc

tyc — Thu, 17 May 2007 16:04:57 +0000

There are quite a few reasons I’d like to own a MacBook, but there’s also one very important reason I don’t want one…

I don’t want my laptop to be white. Unfortunately, white is really the only option that makes any financial sense.

Try going to store.apple.com and configuring a 2.16GHz white alongside the black version. With any identical configuration (the easiest is to bump the HD size up on the white) there will be a $125 difference in price. For a color change.

Incidentally, that’s also essentially what I’d be paying extra for if I bought a MB Pro today. That sexy metallic casing is a big selling point for Apple’s Pro notebook line.

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 17 May 2007 15:49:47 +0000

does Quartz Composer or anything of that sort have issues running on a MacBook?

By: bliss

bliss — Thu, 17 May 2007 15:14:30 +0000

I’ve read how some people hack the preference files to run FCP and Motion on unsupported hardware. Mileage varies, of course.