MacBook pro or PC???

I

I Am Me

New member
I'm thinking of purchasing a MacBook pro to start learning and expanding my knowledge on making/remixing and dj'ing, but mostly for now, producing/remixing, so don't refer me to a laptop just because it's good for dj'ing, I also care deeply about the Studio time. What is better for music production/remixing a laptop or a PC? -Thank you for reading/commenting :-)
 
It all depends on personal preference. I know theres a lot of Apple haters who would probably tell you to go and build your own pc. But this can mean spending thousands of dollars on pc parts and then having no money on software, hardware and whatever else. Safest is to stay with the macbook. It might not have the best specs as every geek could tell you, but it at least assures you that it won't crash. Plus it look beautiful ;)
Hope that helped
 
^^^An equivalent PC laptop will run you waaaayyyyyy less money, not sure what inspired your post, but none of it makes sense. Macbook PROs start at $1500. You can get the PC equivalent with a bigger screen and more ram for around $600-700.

As a Mac user, I'll tell you the reasons to go with mac will never boil down to better budgeting of money. It should be for the operating system, structure of the build, workflow and compatability amongst other Mac users/products.

But in the realm of DJing most of what OSX has to offered is gonna have windows versions and/or superior equivalents.

F**k what people say, buying a Mac is like buying a Mercedes. Don't think you're not paying for the name, you are. Don't think you're not paying for look and prestige, you are. In the end, that mercedes won't do nothing a Ford can't, it just looks better doing it.

Source: Mac Owner who's been checking out Mercedes because his Fully equipped Hyundai Sonata from 2004 is getting traded in. Still keeping my Ford Explorer tho....
 
I've heard that you can do more things on pc then laptop(I'm not sure where I heard this, ohh yeah, Steve Duda Q&A on YouTube, he is a friend of Deadmau5, I'm not sure what he meant really, but I understood that Pc is better for producing music because of wide variety of something, I think vst's. I'm just trying to make sure if I maybe misunderstood somthing, can I get the same qualities/abilities Etc... Of production on a laptop, or is Pc better... (quick question, I'm not a techy person, Pc stands for Desktop computers(the one with the screen and the tower...) in my mind a Pc is not a laptop it is that, am I right... Lol
 
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There is no better beyond preference. I suggest you do more research. I'm a Mac owner because I had money to blow and like nice things. The same reason I have bottles of Henny XO and wear real diamond earrings. Same reason my 4 year old daughter has a Nintendo DS and multiple games.

None of these things mean you can't live BETTER drinking an OE, rocking fake shyt that's shinier and brings more attention than my lil studs, or put emulators on PC for your kid to play all the old school NES and SNES stuff(I do all the above as well, lol).

Mac users BS and say they've got a better product to justify their spending when they're so broke they shouldn't have spent it. Anyone who bought it cause they had the money will compare buying a Mac over PC to buying a $400 more expensive 60in 1080p Sony TV over a 60in 740p Visio TV. You're not really getting anything more than bragging rights and attention to B.S. detail that makes no big difference.

But if you got the money...hey, why not. The colors in that sony do look waaaaayyy better and the detail? But it wouldn't be missed if you had to downgrade.
 
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I completely agree with deranged. If your want to produce music on a laptop your probably going to end up having to add more RAM and hard drives. It's usually cheaper that way too. So the way I see it is you can buy a MacBook Pro and upgrade it like most people usually do or you can buy a pc and spend the money you used saved instead of buying the MacBook to better upgrade the pc better then you would of been able the MacBook.

Edit: I'm getting a new laptop and had to make the same decision. I plan on getting a pc and upgrading it with a 256 SSD and 750GB 7200RPM hard drive and I'm also going to upgrade its RAM to 16GB. In total I think I'm spending about 500-600 on the upgrades and 2000 on the laptop. If I were to get a MacBook pro I would have to spend atleast 2600-2800 on the laptop it's self and then another 500-600 or less if I had to tone down the upgrades to make it cheaper.
 
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I use a PC with cubase for my hardware but if I get another laptop, hmmmm......hard question. I have a black MacBook from 2006 that still works okay so i kinda believe in my macbook. I rock am android phone, but am typing this post on an iPad so in reality, I use some of everything. I will say that in my eyes Mac tends to be more stable. It's not to say that pc's aren't stable.

Cost wise pc's are the cheaper look, just get a reputable one if you do.

Deranged I kind of agree with you but I think the spirit of your post was to say that you can get the job done with either. I disagree with the examples however. I can't speak for Henny XO, but Courvoisier XO is better than VSOP, which is better than VS.....I have tried all 3 of them. The price difference isn't always just the name. Snap-on makes better tools than the little cheap sets at the auto store. That doesn't mean you can't get work done with the cheap tools, but the Snap-On will be more reliable.
 
youngjboy said:
I use a PC with cubase for my hardware but if I get another laptop, hmmmm......hard question. I have a black MacBook from 2006 that still works okay so i kinda believe in my macbook. I rock am android phone, but am typing this post on an iPad so in reality, I use some of everything. I will say that in my eyes Mac tends to be more stable. It's not to say that pc's aren't stable.

Cost wise pc's are the cheaper look, just get a reputable one if you do.

Deranged I kind of agree with you but I think the spirit of your post was to say that you can get the job done with either. I disagree with the examples however. I can't speak for Henny XO, but Courvoisier XO is better than VSOP, which is better than VS.....I have tried all 3 of them. The price difference isn't always just the name. Snap-on makes better tools than the little cheap sets at the auto store. That doesn't mean you can't get work done with the cheap tools, but the Snap-On will be more reliable.
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I never compared Snap on for that reason. Sometimes you actually do pay more and get more. But don't act like beyond flavor and smoothness going down theres a different between even Courvoisier and E&J, lol. You're lying to yourself if you say you're not gonna get the same drunk result from both.

You get what you pay for with alot of musical tools. More keys and functions on a controller justify the price. More Ram/sounds in a module justify the price. But if we're comparing 2 MPC 2000XLs built the exact same way other than one having a customized skin and JJ OS installed, we can't really JUSTIFY a difference in price. We gotta say..."f**k it, I paid more because it was nicer looking and seemed cooler".

That's the state of denial most Mac users are in. If you didn't buy you mac for specified software(maybe dedication to Logic?)There's no other justification than "f**k it, it seemed cooler". But don't act like there isn't REALLY PROFESSIONAL SOFTWARE(Sequoia, Soundforge, even SONAR, FL Studio)in the PC realm that justifies a waaaayyyyyy cheaper solution. Stability is BS. I own too many comparable products from Apple and PC to even begin to pretend. I can plug my iPhone up to my PC laptop and use iTunes no different than i can on my iMac.

I have a Netbook Laptop with almost identical specs as my $1,500 iMac that cost me $399(I got a late 2009 imac and bought the laptop in 2011, but still). Oh no, it doesn't have a backlit LED and artsy screen background pics!!!

I have no problem admitting I like nice things. But justifying a Mac over a PC is like justifying Platinum over white gold. Acura over Honda. Blemished/chipped diamonds you have to look thru a magnifying glass to see flawes in over a VVS of Flawless. And that's where my buck stops, cause all my stones are CZs and clowdy flawed rocks. lol.
 
Yes I plan on dj'ing but my question is if there are limitations on a Mac that Pc does not have, I believe I heard somewhere about wide range of Vst's or somthing like that. In other words can I do the same things on Mac that I can do on Pc. Also I want to buy a midi keyboard/synthesizer, I want to make/mix electronic music mostly progressive house(like Deadmau5/Avicii) my budget is around 200 but if I should save up more because somthing for 200 is crap, let me know. I am a beginner I have yet to purchase any Hardware/Software, I have only been playing around FL Studio Demo.
 
deRaNged 4 Phuk'dup said:
I never compared Snap on for that reason. Sometimes you actually do pay more and get more. But don't act like beyond flavor and smoothness going down theres a different between even Courvoisier and E&J, lol. You're lying to yourself if you say you're not gonna get the same drunk result from both.

You get what you pay for with alot of musical tools. More keys and functions on a controller justify the price. More Ram/sounds in a module justify the price. But if we're comparing 2 MPC 2000XLs built the exact same way other than one having a customized skin and JJ OS installed, we can't really JUSTIFY a difference in price. We gotta say..."f**k it, I paid more because it was nicer looking and seemed cooler".

That's the state of denial most Mac users are in. If you didn't buy you mac for specified software(maybe dedication to Logic?)There's no other justification than "f**k it, it seemed cooler". But don't act like there isn't REALLY PROFESSIONAL SOFTWARE(Sequoia, Soundforge, even SONAR, FL Studio)in the PC realm that justifies a waaaayyyyyy cheaper solution. Stability is BS. I own too many comparable products from Apple and PC to even begin to pretend. I can plug my iPhone up to my PC laptop and use iTunes no different than i can on my iMac.

I have a Netbook Laptop with almost identical specs as my $1,500 iMac that cost me $399(I got a late 2009 imac and bought the laptop in 2011, but still). Oh no, it doesn't have a backlit LED and artsy screen background pics!!!

I have no problem admitting I like nice things. But justifying a Mac over a PC is like justifying Platinum over white gold. Acura over Honda. Blemished/chipped diamonds you have to look thru a magnifying glass to see flawes in over a VVS of Flawless. And that's where my buck stops, cause all my stones are CZs and clowdy flawed rocks. lol.
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To each their own. I enjoy both platforms. My laptop is a MacBook and my pc is one I built from scratch. I still use hardware in my lab so either works platform works for me since I am not really using vst's. I believe the MacBooks are pricey, but build quality is good and I enjoy the included programs...ie..iPhoto, GarageBand, etc. Whether they are worth it or not is subjective. I got my moneys worth out of mine.

If I was using a rig onstage, I think I would use a Mac, but that is just my preference. If price was a big consideration then I would go PC.
 
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I am about to upgrade my macbook pro to 16gb ram and get windows 7 with VMware for FL using ...

---------- Post added at 09:13 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:10 AM ----------

I was thinkin to get a new laptop some sort of HP pavillion Quad edition but my budget is not too big and i think to go for the VMware scheme .And with those 2k fore the new laptop will bye some sick VST's...
 
^^^Unless something changed with the update, VMWare fusion will cause latency without an interface, just giving you a heads up, lots of Macbook users don't rely on interfaces while on the go.
 
If you're a fan of FL, I'd honestly go with a PC with identical specs to the Macbook you were interested in if you're on a budget. You won't have to run around with an interface just to fix latency issues and you'll save a few hundred bucks for other stuff. I sound like I'm playing down apple products, absolutely not. If you were a fan of Logic, I would ONLY recommend a Macbook for your situation.

Another option would be running Bootcamp, but that's partitioning part of your Macbook to work as a windows computer. You'd havew to shut down and reboot every time you wanted to switch operating systems, and your files from one OS won't appear in the other. So if all of your music is on the Mac side of your computer and you hear a song you want to chop something out of, you'd have to email it to yourself or transfer it to an external drive, shut down, reboot to the windows side, open it up in FL. That's not good workflow IMO.


Newegg.com - PCs & Laptops, Laptops / Notebooks, Laptops / Notebooks, Intel Core i7

Everything on this page at least has identical specs to a top end Macbook Pro. Made with the same parts. Craftmanship debates can even be trown out when comparing to stuff like a Sony Vaio. Only difference is operating system.

Comparing will give you real clarity.

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_mac/family/macbook_pro/select
 
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Most software companies (except Pro Tools) now opt to produce a 64 Bit pc plugins/ workstations as well as their usual 32 bit which to be fair can run on super fast PC's at a fraction of the cost of an equivalent Mac. If you opt for a laptop (Portability), external sound cards offer pretty easy interface with very low latency and incredible sound - Focusrite 2i2/ 2i4 super priced. also more add on software available for PC. Processing capability is possibly most important, you need a system that can handle as much action as you can throw at it to achieve the best results. multi-core 64 bit processors reign king. If you decided to build your own system these guys offer really great advice and valuable tried and tested options. - Pro Audio - Scan.co.uk
 
^^^Alot of the cost is going into features you won't need for music(3d viewing, backlit keys, enhanced sound/speakers that are still gonna be useless for mixing, high end graphics card, blue ray, exterior look, ect.)Nothing wrong with paying for these things if you utilize them, still saves you $1,000 when compared to an equivalent Macbook and you shouldn't need to swith laptops for music for a good decade, lol. If you like computer gaming as well, why not, spoil yourself a little, it's a great computer.

If I was in the market for a laptop, I would buy it without thinking twice and have no regrets.
 
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