Mac Mini?

[MBantle]

Ive had both Microsoft and Mac powered computers, and a Mac Mini since 2014. The Mini is still holding up, and Ive recently swapped in a 2TB SSD, as well as run an external SSD with it. I left windows due to the blue screens, which left my studio out of operation for days and weeks at a time. The system was terribly unstable, and endless hassle. Since Ive changed to Mac, I have had none, zero, zip breakdowns due to the operating system, and everything just runs smooth.

For that reason alone, Im happy to pay a bit more, allthough I do dislike that the newer Mac’s have soldered components, which prevents you from upgrading the hardware yourself. Maybe with a Mac Pro you can? But a Mac Mini will serve you well for years, and still have a good resale value. The new Mac Mini’s are way more powerful than mine, so I’d bet it will be good. I plan upgrading myself in a year or two, and will definitely go Mac. Life is too short.

Every time I add too many tracks, my mac just overheats and logic crashes. My old mac mini was worse.

There you go, different experiences. I have two Mini's, though and they both perform the same. I make sure to optimize them for music production, though. Did you follow these guides with yours? https://www.sweetwater.com/sweetcare/ma ... imization/

I will say, that I didn't follow these guides when I had pc, so it might help eliminate any differences between systems. I can't be sure. Also I have learned with pc's, that if you get a big power supply for it, they are a lot quieter. So that might be something to consider. I can have my Mac Mini right beside my condenser mic when recording, and it's dead silent. That wasn't possible with any of the pc's I had.

Newer Mac's lacks i/o, though. It can be solved with add ons, hubs and converters, but that really is not music production friendly. But I can't run from the good experiences I've had with Mac Mini's. They have helped me out for sure.

Yes, different experiences. I have been using Macs for over 10 years (I am a Logic user) and never had any issues. Using it in a home studio environment, I really don't think that the lack of I/O is an issue. I actually prefer powered USB-hubs with power-switches for each port so you can switch on and off different USB-powered devices from a central unit (I am thinking of my Native Instruments Kontrol Keyboard sitting in a drawer under my desk, which has the power button at the rear side of the device....).

[NaeDae]

Regardless of experiences, Apple tells all of their customers to go f*** themselves regularly.

"Want to use a USB flash drive? F*** you go buy a $15 converter."

"Want to put fans in your $2000 laptop to keep it from overheating? F*** you we made that impossible."

"Want more RAM? F*** you go buy a whole new laptop."

"Still want to buy our computers? F*** you we're gonna overcharge you."

[mojobone]

As an owner of a mac, I suggest that if you're not attached to logic, you should get a computer that's not a mac. My (brand new) macbook pro kind of sucks for how much is was, and it isn't modifiable because apple intentionally welded components together that make it impossible to take apart. Want more ram? Want better fans? Then you have to buy a whole new mac. Even simple USB ports require external adapters because apple thought it'd be funny to not build the ports into the computer like every other cheaper laptop has always had. The only mac that can handle running DAWs with massive track counts are the most expensive mac pros (which could be matched with much cheaper PCs). I know you're after portability, so this wasn't on topic, but just wanted to make sure you understood the reason people hate on macs.

This is true for the prior generation of Minis, some recent Mac laptops and iMacs; the 'screamer' versions of the trashcan Mac Pro are plenty configurable and upgradeable but prohibitively expensive for many, if not most of us, but the Minis that came out last summer are not upgrade-hobbled; you should be okay with a new one. As ever, do your research, check the specs and ask questions here and at Mac-centric fora

[NaeDae]

Update: my new MacBook Pro died less than a year after I bought it, so there's that. Never buying a mac again.

[NaeDae]

Update: my new MacBook Pro died less than a year after I bought it, so there's that. Never buying a mac again.

I almost daily (but only for 1-2 hours, and not for music production) use a Dell laptop, which, if I recollect correctly, is from 2007.

Another story about Apple is, that my son tried to unlock my wife's iPad (without asking), and the thing died. Nothing could be done anymore (just from typing in random numbers!). Apple charged 300 Euros for a "repair" and gave us another (restored?) iPad. All non-cloud files were lost.

Tom

Yikes.

[sol1]

I use a Mac mini (late 2014) 3ghz intel core i7 16 gb 1600 mhz ddr3. It works great! is use the newest protools and reason. Disclaimer: I also use ua Apollo 8p and that has some processing power in it too.

good luck!

[AnneHouse]

I use a 2012 Mac mini i7 2.6ghz quad core with 16mb ram , logic or GarageBand or Studio One. Hangs up if I use more than one instance of stylus / Omnisphere / Kontakt in the same Logic session. I haven't tried those plugins with Studio one. If I don't do that, it works well.