Electronic Music 411 - mackbook or pro

04/15/08 + ssb0

i'm sorry if this has been asked for a thousand times but i can't find a proper answer.
i'm going to buy a new lappie and switch to apple. but its a big dilemma wich one to choose.
i have the money to buy a pro but i'm a really poor guy so that money will quite be all the money i have, wich i don't care about too much for this purpose if it's nescesary offcourse(just informing you that's a big thing for me financially so i can't make mistakes).
my actuall question is offcourse if i should buy a pro(can't afford expansions on the thing, i have like 1800 euro's) or if the mackbook is good enough for me. i want to be prepared for suprises the next 3-5 years and i pretty much will boost the machine to the max(i like to fit 10 songs in one set for gigs, remote them with 3 midicontrollers and process or record audio all at once and stuff like that).
first i was planning on buying a pro but then i heard that if you used it for music(production, preforming or whatever) it wouldn't matter.
so i wan't to ask you guys for an opinion/advice. it would come handy to save some money, but if it's nescecary i would gladly spend all of it on a good new system.

05/08/08 + ssb0

could you try it with 64 channels for me? just to be sure.
(if you have a MBP 2,4ghz,2gig,5400rpm or less)

edited: May 08 2008 + nagrom

i don't want an external hdd because of the traveling involved. i travel alot between practice room and home so i want to kee╬ it compact.

You can get a 160gig external hard drive that's smaller than a mouse now. Things are changing.
link

Recent blogs: Interview: Mark N./Bloody Fist Records, Je Suis en Montreal, Electronic Music Search Engine

05/08/08 + Tripnik

if you're thinking about getting into video get the pro. Screen size is not as much a consideration as graphics processor. The pro's are equipped to SCREAM through opengl stuff (says the jitter list). if you know for certain that you'll only be working in audio, the regular macbook should be fine.

Recent blogs: another 8bit bEtty vid, NYC Open Space, he can jog exposed

edited: May 10 2008 + ssb0

i've ordered a Macbook PRO(!) btw.thanks for advise.

05/10/08 + cloudburst

awesome. which one did you get? did you go for the 7200 drive?

enjoy. expense aside, they are fantastic super-nice fun awesome machines.

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05/11/08 + ssb0

i bought the 5400 rpm(2.4 ghz, 2 gig ram). in my local musicstore they told me i won't reach its limits until 64 tracks of audio so why bother.

05/11/08 + Tripnik

link
just sayin' is all ;)

Recent blogs: another 8bit bEtty vid, NYC Open Space, he can jog exposed

05/11/08 + elronhubbard

just out of curiosity how do you tell if your macbook is a santa rosa chipset version?

Recent blogs: stalking aaron funk, Hubbard's Continental Burger, ok so i just bought a mac

05/16/08 + ssb0

posting this message from my new MBP!! picked it up 3 hours ago.
it's a bit frustrting though it's all new for me, this OS.
but i'm happy with my buy.

05/16/08 + ssb0

how do you guys keep your MB(P) nice and clean? in terms of software organisation, since its not possible to choose a folder were you want your software to install (like in windows) right?
what"s the best manner to keep Leopord organised and synoptic?

05/17/08 + Tripnik

most of the software is installed in the "applications" folder by default. You can almost always change this if you'd like while installing though.

Macs do a pretty good job of setting up an organization context for you already. There is a movie folder, a music folder, applications, etc. Audio plugins go in Library/Audio/Plugins. In that folder you'll see a bunch of folders already made for various types of plugins like vst or au.

If you want to change almost anything, go to the apple menu and select system preferences. This is kind of like the equivalent of pc's Control Panel.

Recent blogs: another 8bit bEtty vid, NYC Open Space, he can jog exposed

05/17/08 + Zanf

elronhubbard said: "just out of curiosity how do you tell if your macbook is a santa rosa chipset version?"

link

From that link, I would summise that if you look on system info and see some of the spec listed [most tellingly 800mhz FSB] then I would guess you have Santa Rosa chipset. If its 667Mhz then its the older one.

Recent blogs: STFU Marseille live sets, Taking Liberties, Albert Hofmann

edited: May 17 2008 + Zanf

ssb0: One thing Ive found that I love about my mac is that applications are pretty much self contained: if you delete the package from the apps folder, the application is pretty much uninstalled [there may be library files leftover etc]. You can get tools like AppZapper that is 'the uninstaller Apple forgot to include'.

To get your head around the way the system is built, it helps if you understand a little about Unix/FreeBSD structuring. It can be a tad overwhelming when coming from Windows first of all.

What I would suggest now is do a search of a few sites like lifehacker for '10 best apps for osx' to get a few tools/toys for free/cheap, like this: link

Also, here's something I invested �30 in the other day that could help to recover my MBP if it is ever stolen: link its a bit of software that runs at low level and if I notify the company that my MBP has been stolen, they mark the database and the software starts sending 'signals' to them as soon as it goes online. These include the internal & external IP addresses, screenshots of what the thief is doing with the mbp and hilariously, photos from iSight. They then liaise with the police and the ISP the mbp is broadcasting from and use the collected evidence to recover & prosecute. To ensure this works, you'll need to lock the firmware to prevent the OS being overwritten, with the utility on the install disk and create a non-passworded account [guest acount is already set up - just enable it]

Recent blogs: STFU Marseille live sets, Taking Liberties, Albert Hofmann

05/17/08 + Tripnik

holy crap zanf! That software sounds awesome. I love the idea of being able to monitor what the thief is doing and get pictures of them. What a good idea!

Recent blogs: another 8bit bEtty vid, NYC Open Space, he can jog exposed

edited: May 17 2008 + Zanf

I found it after someone commented on this story [not at that particular site] but that user in the story had a .mac account.

I dont think that you actually receive the images/screendumps - just the company and unlike the .mac account, its a one off payment, not $$$ per year.

Recent blogs: STFU Marseille live sets, Taking Liberties, Albert Hofmann