Macbooks - Tell me about your setup

Meriphew · Post by **Meriphew** » Sat May 15, 2010 5:50 am

I'm looking to put together a new recording rig that centers around a MBPro (running Logic). I've been using a Mackie MDR 24/96 HDR up till now, and have never even owned a laptop, but I'm looking to update the entire setup. I'll be buying an audio/midi interface as well.

Tell me about your Macbook setup, including your interface, software, etc.

Thanks!

allyouneedisears · Post by **allyouneedisears** » Sat May 15, 2010 8:37 am

I'm happy with my Macbook/Duet setup. Its an older white macbook. I switched to Reaper from Logic. It really doesn't matter though, use what works for you.

plurgid · Post by **plurgid** » Sat May 15, 2010 9:20 am

Well, my setup is definitely low budget and not pro quality. The MacBook Pro is the most expensive piece of gear I have, in fact. But since you asked ... this is like i said, a low-budget setup but it works pretty great for just recording myself and my band.

I've got Logic 9 installed plus two audio interfaces:

a) presonus inspire 1394
this is cheap, cheap, cheap and doesn't sound fantastic at all. But I'm a keyboard player, and what this does is give me a really small, portable interface for driving my stage monitors (or my amp during practices).

b) Alesis MultiMix 16 (firewire version)
This thing is fantastic. Alesis in their infinite wisdom, discontinued the firewire version of this, and now you can only buy the USB version new. It boggles my mind really. In any case, you can still get the FW versions cheap on e-bay (I got mine for about $400). This is great because it's both a mixer that we can use to drive the PA for our band, and a multichannel audio interface. So I can capture all 16 tracks in logic. The preamps don't sound amazing, but for what they are, they're pretty clean to be honest.

Using the Audio/MIDI Setup control panel, in OS X you can chain devices together into virtual audio interfaces (an "aggregate device"). Another guy in my band, also has a multimix 16, and so when we want to get serious about recording, we can chain those two suckers together to get 36 simultaneous tracks, and the macbook keeps up with them with logic's "24 bit recording" option turned on, just fine.

everything on our myspace page was recoded through the Alesis and mixed in Logic. I'm not saying it's the greatest, 'cause I'm really still learning how to do this ... especially in terms of mic placement, room treatment and especially mixing vocals (and convincing the vocalist that he really does sound just fine without needing to have a full cathedral's worth of reverb) ... anyhow maybe this will give you an idea of what you can do with the modest setup I've got ... or at the very least is some shameless promotion on my part ....

http://www.myspace.com/thethumblesshitchhikers

Nick Sevilla · Post by **Nick Sevilla** » Sat May 15, 2010 9:25 am

I have a :

Mac Book Pro running Mac OS 10.6.2
2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
2GB RAM

I use it with both Logic Pro 9 and PT 8 LE.

I have both a Motu 828 mk3 and a PT micro Mbox (the "dongle").

Also, I just got a new Glyphtech PortaGig 500 GB hard drive. Amazing! 500 GB and FW bus powered for editing on a plane / car.

Cheers

Meriphew · Post by **Meriphew** » Sat May 15, 2010 10:06 am

I was planning on maxing out the RAM (8 GB) on the MBPro that I buy. It's my understanding that you can run a Macbook at 32 or 64 bits depending upon how you boot. Is the MB able to take advantage of all 8 GB's of RAM in 32 bit mode, or only in 64 bit mode?

Thx for everyone's insight so far.

plurgid · Post by **plurgid** » Sat May 15, 2010 10:35 am

if you're running the latest version of os X (10.6) -- which you will be, by default if you buy it new, it'll come pre-installed -- ... the OS is 64 bit by default (I don't think there is even a 32 bit boot option, though I could be mistaken). It will be capable of addressing all 8Gb of RAM with no problem out of the box. You won't even have to mess with it.

Logic 9, on the other hand is interesting in that respect. Once you've installed it, it's gonna download patches. After that, you end up with two versions of Logic ... "Logic Pro" (the latest patched version) and "Logic Pro 9.0.0" (the pre-patch version).

The newer version (just "Logic Pro") allows you to run the application in 64-bit mode (by UN-checking the "open in 32-bit mode" option in the file info dialog).

Running Logic in 64-bit mode gives it access to all that RAM without having to engage in memory paging shenanigans, and so that's a good thing (esp if you're recording an insane number of tracks simultaneously). Hardly any of your third party plug-ins are gonna work in 64-bit mode though, which is why it defaults to 32-bit mode I think.

ctmsound · Post by **ctmsound** » Sat May 15, 2010 10:59 am

macbook pro rig. click on the mobile audio link

http://www.ctmsound.com/

knobtwirler · Post by **knobtwirler** » Sun May 16, 2010 6:44 pm

At home I run a Macbook Pro with Pro Tools 8 M-Powered, with the FW1814 interface, it's a workhorse. I've also set up my friend's MacBookPro with Logic 9 to run with MOTU 828 and that was as painless as installing the software and MOTU driver.

dgrieser · Post by **dgrieser** » Sun May 16, 2010 7:24 pm

I've got a 2.16 ghz MB pro, 2 gb ram, 100 gb hard drive. I mainly use a Duet with Logic Express 8. I also have a Firestudio 26x26 when I need more inputs. I also have Reaper but have been using Logic more these days. I've recorded 6-8 tracks at a time direct to the internal drive for 1 hour sets at live shows without a hiccup. Everything works just fine.

biasvoltage · Post by **biasvoltage** » Mon May 17, 2010 6:06 pm

2007 MacBook, 2GB memory, just upgraded to a 500GB internal drive, OSX10.6, ProTools 8. I run a daisy chain, MacBook===>External Firewire drive===>002R.

Meriphew · Post by **Meriphew** » Tue May 18, 2010 1:33 pm

Anyone using a SSD vs. a 7200 rpm drive? Which is preferrable?

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Macbooks - Tell me about your setup

Macbooks - Tell me about your setup

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