Laptops

Gear
1

My old tablet if getting way to slow for my likings and was thinking about getting myself a laptop. It’ll mostly be just for bass stuff and was just wondering if there is anything specific I should be looking for before I buy. I’m not very techy so I have no idea about this stuff.

3 Likes
2

Like my uncle Jack “The Ripper” used to say… lets do this by parts:

  1. What’s your budget ?
  2. What are you mostly familiar with? Windows, Apple, Linux ?
  3. Screen size?
  4. Mostly as a desktop replacement or you’ll be moving it around frequently ?
  5. What devices are you going to connect to it?
1 Like
3

I guess I should’ve added that.
Budget-under $500 hopefully

windows

Size- 12-15 inch should be good

Movement- it’ll be pretty stationery in my practice area

Devices- really don’t know as I’m new at this stuff. I just use the tablet for courses and tabs, I’d like to hook up a daw though

1 Like
4

I hate Apple and MacOS specifically and all my “serious” devices are Windows, also my two Laptops.

But: I would always try to get a Apple MacBook or tablet with M1/2/3 cpu for music production. They have great performance and even better battery life time!!!

3 Likes
5

Finally, a topic here that I feel like I have any expertise on at all. Given the budget and requirements, if I were shopping for a laptop atm, I’d probably go with this one.

4 Likes
6

Yeah… I support you on this.

It’s not a super massive-mega machine, but for Audio, doing the lessons, etc… it will work! I don’t expect you to go into multi tracking just yet, so the CPU, while low on cores will work (And this CPU is not in the complicated Intel CPUs that break list)

3 Likes
7

I’m pretty anti-apple lol

2 Likes
8

There are cheaper paperweights, I agree!

But if you replace OSX with Linux, they actually improve a bit!

1 Like
9

I have successfully abandoned everything LINUX/UBUNTU from my life and couldn’t be happier!
Also, if you only want to do music stuff, why LINUX? Apple is really quite good for this purpose, very likely even better than my beloved Windows.
If I had understood that earlier, one of my laptops or tablets would surely be an Apple…

1 Like
10

I didn’t say for Music… I said overall.
But Linux also works for music… and it’s your fault for choosing Ubuntu :smiley:
I used it 2-3 times… only Mandrake / Mandriva is worse :smiley:

2 Likes
11

I would go with this. Looks like a good budget machine. As it will be mostly stationary and it has an HDMI socket, I would also add a monitor. They don’t cost much and would only put you about $30-40 over the budget but everything will be much easier…except travel then just leave the monitor behind. Second advantage is that you can operate the two screens together when at the desk. Trust me once you have a DAW up on the monitor you’ll be wanting a bit more playing field than that 15.6" screen will give you.

Any of these would do the job:
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=hdmi+monitor&crid=1E370JUCNTUX6&sprefix=hdmi+monitor%2Caps%2C211&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

2 Likes
12

This is why I don’t normally let my devs gather requirements from customers. I’ve seen a few arguments break out between customers and developers, where the well meaning dev is trying to convince the customer that their requirements are wrong.

Edit: To be clear, I agree Chris. I also prefer MacOS to Windows or *nix.

1 Like
13

Don’t agree with me! EVER! :slight_smile:

I hate everything Mac. From experience. But for music stuff and with the M1/M2/M3 everything changed. For a music-only device I would use an Apple now … with Logic Pro.
For everything else it’s Windows or Android…

1 Like
14

I’m a Mac guy so I can’t recommend anything else. As for big iPad we own M1, M2 and M4 big iPad Pro. Unless you are using them side by side you can’t tell the difference in speed. Using Final Cut Pro makes the difference though.

I probably won’t buy an another MacBook just M2 Mac mini and IPad Pro is plenty for me.

2 Likes
15

The stem splitter in Logic beats any of the others that I’ve tried. :grinning:

1 Like
16

Just got an M4 13" iPad a few weeks ago. In terms of raw power, I feel like it could beat my 15" M2 Air.

1 Like
17

Yeah … that is why I am thinking of making one of my Intel machines to a hackintosh.
Just need to get an OS-X image and off we go…

18

You never faced a major outage because Apple decided to upgrade systems and block access to specific tools and libraries… hence stopping an entire work force.

Only people in Windows / Linux were able to work.
Needless to say, Apple lost the contract for Hardware renewal, because they couldn’t rollback and refused to work on alternatives.

Any Mac thing was reinstalled with Either windows or Linux, depending on needs.

Dell became laptop supplier.
Workstations started being built based on needs.

Saving for the company: ~3M€. / year.

2 Likes
19

I also haven’t spent the past month fighting with my PC to figure out the buzz either. :person_shrugging:

At work, our shop is 100% Windows. My preference for Apple only applies to personal stuff.

1 Like
20

Grounding issue, not PC issue. :slight_smile:

1 Like