MacBook Pro Question (PC users, go back to sleep)

[Appleluza]

I am thinking of getting rid of my old Windows XP PC (not much music stuff on it of note), getting rid of my MacBook G4 and my old iMac, and replacing them all with a new MacBook Pro, 17-inch, 2.16 GHz Dual-core Intel machine with 2GB.  I would get a second monitor, probably 23-inch, which would give me a lot more screen real estate.

I have thought about just getting a new qued MacPro, but when I honestley look at what I do in my studio, it is only project stuff for myself (no clients or work for others), I rarely if ever need more than 2 simultaneous inputs or outputs.  Even with my current iMac and DP5.1 which has better 'look-ahead' processing, I dodn't have problems palying back a ton of audio tracks and virt instruments with plugins, so it seems like the MacPro would be a lot of overkill for moi'.

What I do need is something portable, 'cause I like to lug this stuff around to other places and do remote recording and playing around while on business trips.

So, the big question is, if I can get everything in one laptop package, will I regret not having separate machines at some point?

Any thoughts, opinions, advice?

Rob Talbert

[Davidinoz]

I have a windows machine (nothing special) as my main PC and a mac G4 powerbook for portable stuff. I mainly use the windows machine purely because I have better software on it and I don't have (or want to pay heaps for) mac versions. The problems I see with your idea are
1. You'll have all your eggs in one basket - if the laptop dies you lose the lot.
2. If the laptop does fail it's nowhere near as easy or cheap to fix as a desktop.

BTW the only reason I have a mac laptop is because it was a hand-me-down from my wife . For 2 tracks and simple mixes I don't think there's a lot of difference between PC or mac. (let the flaming begin!)

[BassPlayer]

I just bought a 17inch HP laptop and that has a 1394 port so for remote stuff I'll be using it with an Prosonus Inspire 1394 interface. Yea it's a PC but it's got the 1.73G dual cores with 1Gig of RAM and 2 100Gig drives. It was around $1500 US. I'm sure you can get something similar as a Mac.

I really don't worry about losing data because it's got a dual layer DVD writer so I can put an 8Gig project on one disk.

I've been a road warrior for work for years now and I beat the crap out of my laptops (hey work paid for them but now I own one and I have to be more carefull =/) and for the most part the failures have been minimal. Just thought I'd give you another data point. I believe if you look at Jeffs setup he uses a laptop also. http://learjeff.net/

[DoozerDan]

I have a new intal inside iMac triple i    any way it's about the same specs as the Macbook pro, slightly smaller procceser 1.83 Ghz Dual-core Intel, and the only thing that I've found wrong with it is that I don't have enough RAM, I only have 512mg but seeing as your getting 2gig I think you'll be fine with just the powerbook, though 1gig would probably do the job. and be carefull that any software you get will run on intal Macs, some stuff won't.  And it also might pay to check up online and see if the type you want isn't one of the one's with the dodgy Sony battries the keep exploding, 'cause the last thing you want is you Mac blowing up in your face and one other thing, GarageBand (which comes with Macs) is quite good software, for just home/private use, not really powerfull, but it for the price  (free with any Mac you buy) not bad at all.  Hope this helps.

Cheers, Dan

[Appleluza]

One thing I was thinking is that this would probably make it easier for me to convert my wav mixes to WMA files since, I can't do that on the MAC (I can convert from WMA but not to it.)

With this new kind of Mac, I think I can press a button, flip over to Windows, open a piece of windows software, convert my file to WMA and upload it to MC.

Am I thinking about this correctly?

[DoozerDan]

You may be able to find programs for Macs that can convert to WMA, Here is a site http://www.freedownloadscenter.com  I think they might have some convertors.  I don't have Windows on my Mac yet, so I'm not sure if you can jusst flip to Windows and convert, I guess you'd probably have to have to stick it on a USB memory stick, or iPod just make sure that you enable disk mode so you can plug it up to the Windows if you use the iPod method. Also, you could always upload your files as MP3 like me    If you want more info about Windows on Macs than you should ask Gerk I do belive that he uses Windows on Mac.  Sorry I can't be of anymore help.

Cheers, Daniel

[NickT]

I did see a Mac notebook that you hit a button and the screen literally flips to a windows desktop. I know the guy payed for that software.

Nick

[BassPlayer]

http://www.nch.com.au/switch/index.html?ref=google&ref2=c24switchmac&gclid=CPLspPKSxIcCFSi7QgodtCj2Lg

[DoozerDan]

Methinks this is what you saw Nick http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/virtualpc/virtualpc.aspx?pid=virtualpc  it's $219 for Windows XP but it dosn't run on Intel based Macs  typical all the good stuff only runs on the old Macs.....

[NickT]

Dan - Thats not it.

This was a mac product running on a duo. Parallels maybe?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTKz9llQeQs&mode=related&search=

Nick

[DoozerDan]

I looked up Parallels, it's cheaper than the Microsoft one that I linked, and it runs on Intel Macs.  I would personly use Boot Camp which is a Mac product which is free, but you can't just change to WIndows with Mac running, it's a dual boot sytem the use.  The only thing is you still have to buy Windows.....    well that is if you want to... Ah... you know...   

Cheers Dan.

[Gerk]

Paralells is ok, nothing super special speed wise, but would work to do this.

You _can_ make wma on a mac, but it's not an easy process   Right now I think it requires using ffmpeg at the command line.

I'd honestly just use APE files over wma -- they are a little bit bigger but are 100% accurate and people won't complain about having to use them ... wma's still pad the beginning and end of a track, they have have a smaller frame size than MP3 so it's generally not as noticable or at the very least acceptable amounts of shift.  For simple things like auditions or quick bed mixes for people to listen to (not track) MP3 is fine -- and in my eyes preferable.

Also of note, anyone who has updated to the very latest windows media player will be generating files that NO ONE not using windows can deal with.  Gotta love microsoft.  None of the non-microsoft players can deal with them yet, and microsoft doesn't do a WMP for anything but windows any longer.  I'm all for urging folks to NOT use wma for this reason.  Nothing like shooting yourself in the foot hehe.

Also I'd wait longer before doing a MacBook pro purchase.  I know a lot of people that have bought them, and of the ones I know probably 75% of them have had them back in the shop for service, motherboard replacements, etc.  Word on the internet is the rev2 motherboards (which apple service is installing in any repairs now) have rectified the problems.  Also rumor has it that they will be releasing an updated version before end of year, so if you can hold out I'd wait a little longer.  If you're doing it mostly to make wma files I wouldn't spend the $$ ... someone will come up with a simple solution to make them no doubt.

HTH

Mark

[Appleluza]

I have other [music] software from my pre-MAC conversion 18 months ago that runs in the PC world which would be nice to acces sonce in a while  -- I have old stuff I worked on over the years in some proprietary formats (anybody besides me on the planet ever used Musicator ??  It was actually a very good MIDI sequencer and very good notation engine, but I never liked the versions that did digital audio).  I don't have a very good PC anymore and gave my wife the one that had sound card and speakers.  I have two older technology MACs, so i thought I could get rid of the older MAC's and the really old PC and replace all with a single MACBook Pro.

I appreciate the advice on waiting. Nothing is compelling me to do this except the URGE TO BUY NEW GEAR which is always a good excuse for not actually writing or playing any music. 

Rob Talbert

[DoozerDan]

Gerk, what program do you use to change the files to APE?  Do you do it with Windows or Apple? 

[BassPlayer]

Also of note, anyone who has updated to the very latest windows media player will be generating files that NO ONE not using windows can deal with.  Gotta love microsoft.  None of the non-microsoft players can deal with them yet, and microsoft doesn't do a WMP for anything but windows any longer.  I'm all for urging folks to NOT use wma for this reason.  Nothing like shooting yourself in the foot hehe.

How does the work the Cakewalk users that export as wma? Does CW just used the installed codec?