Is this Mac good enough

[ole Jason]

It may not be what you want but in that price range you're probably going to be much better off with a PC. Should be able to get a refurb or IT department i7 based machine in that range.

 

[Dana R Gregory]

I have been a Mac user since the iMac came out in 1998. Never looked back. I was a tech for a while, working on both Mac and PC. IMHO, the Mac is superior in every way. It is soooooo much easier to use than Windows, especially with iTunes. I use mine mostly for music and wouldn't even consider a free PC. Once you go Mac, you will never look back.

 

[PJMustangFreak]

Absolutely 100% workable!!
I currently run a mid-2012 MacBook Pro laptop! Not only to I record high quality music through Logic Pro X, but I edit video with Final Cut Pro. Both of these programs are pretty hardware-intensive, and I can have them both open and functional at the exact same time with zero lag!
Check out my YouTube and you can see the audio and video editing I've done on this computer in lightning speed. (No, this isn't self promotion haha) I'd just hate to see you go out and spend more than you need to because of forum peer pressure.

 

[roller]

... unless they're sold by Apple who will give you a warranty that's as good as one of their new models. I've purchased several Apple-sold refurbs = GREAT computers!

Avoid refurbished laptops like the plague.

 

[Jebberz]

I have the same model. Memory and HDD are upgradable. I put an SSD on mine and boosted the memory to 16gb and I have a machine that is sufficient to fulfill all my musical needs

 

[longfinger]

That laptop in you OP is plenty fast enough to do multi-track music production.

I've made 5 jazz albums on a 2009 MBP 13", 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo with 4GB of RAM. (I got it in 2014 when it was 5 years old already. 5 years later it is still excellent. Internal battery is easily replaced.) The laptop you listed is faster and newer than that. Replace the HDD with a SSD and the computer will FEEL noticeably faster and more responsive.

Use Logic or Garageband, versions that fit with the hardware well. (After a while, stop getting the latest versions, and stay with the version that works best on your machine.) The built in Firewire ports are useful, and the one you listed has Thunderbolt as well.

Excellent buy, if the specific unit is in good condition.

That 13" MBP with the built in optical drive was a real winner of a design. It had customers for 7 years(!!) on the market for many reasons.

 

[Tom Gallo]

For a long time I used a 2012 mac mini for recording without any problems. If I were looking for a budget mac now, I'd get a 2012-2015 i7 based system.

 

[Dabndug]

If you're looking to use a lot of virtual instruments and plug-ins, you'll probably need a better CPU (as well as adding more RAM). If not, the i5 is fine.

You'll also want to ensure the HDD was replaced as part of the refurb. 99% of hardware failures I've experinced have been with aging HDDs. Even a well- maintained HDD has a limited life.

 

[MultiScaleMale]

Typing on a late 2013 MacBook. It's running fine and I have vey little reason to upgrade, but I'm running an SSD and have 16GB of RAM. Have done some stuff with GarageBand, but not much. If 300 is your budget, that's your budget and it should do most of what you want. As always, with a limited budget you'll be buying something to replace it sooner than if you put some more bucks in now.

 

[mikewalker]

Buy it, wipe the drive and put AVlinux on it, and run MixBus or Ardour as your DAW...

 

[GreyMark]

Why's that?
I've always used refurbished hardware and always has good experiences
I find sometimes they are better then what comes out the factory cause someone has taken the time to go in and fix it up rather then being mass produced

It is equally "mass produced" as you are only dealing with second hand factory products. The problem with laptops in particular is that unless you are willing to spend a lot of time and effort, it will be almost useless once the keyboard is no longer functional. Think of how you treat your keyboard when you feel a bit frustrated. Now, think of how you would treat it if you hadn't paid for it and the company you work for had, as is the case with most refurbished laptops.

I am not suggesting that there is no value in second hand laptops, but to think there is some kind of advantage to buying them is probably a mistake.

Unless you really want to use GarageBand in particular, you would end up with better performance if you buy something that is not increased in price because of the "Apple" name. A long time ago Apple made superior hardware for some functions but those days are long gone. When you use an Apple PC in 2019, you are just using Intel PC hardware with a fluffy version of FreeBSD on top of it. There is no longer anything special about Apple hardware but the price.

Unless you plan to use the device for more functions other than recording at one point in time, two fast cores is probably the best thing to focus on.

 

[GreyMark]

I have been a Mac user since the iMac came out in 1998. Never looked back. I was a tech for a while, working on both Mac and PC. IMHO, the Mac is superior in every way. It is soooooo much easier to use than Windows, especially with iTunes. I use mine mostly for music and wouldn't even consider a free PC. Once you go Mac, you will never look back.

A Mac is a PC. When you had your iMac the hardware was still slightly different to an Intel PC build. That is no longer the case.

 

[john_g]

That should be completely fine for what you are doing. I still use my 2009 MB Pro all the time. I got a new Macbook about a year ago and I use the 09 MB and Mainstage at gigs for keys and samples. Works great. Recorded all our tracks into Logic at a couple of gigs too with no problems. And you can swap out the hard drive and memory if you want...something you cant do anymore on Macs current laptops. I HATE that. Ive been using Macs since 1987 (Im a graphic designer and the only people using Macs for years were artists and musicians) and I have been seriously thinking about going PC next time around, I dont like some of the stuff they are doing since Jobs died even though I would miss it.

 

[ctmullins]

When you use an Apple PC in 2019, you are just using Intel PC hardware with a fluffy version of FreeBSD on top of it. There is no longer anything special about Apple hardware but the price.

A Mac is a PC. When you had your iMac the hardware was still slightly different to an Intel PC build. That is no longer the case.

A Sadowsky is just a Fender with a fluffy preamp. There’s no other difference.

 

[Clark W]

But yeah, ten years. Can’t do that with Windoze.

Sure you can, it's all in the hardware you use, not the operating system itself. I have been building custom computers since 1996, use to do it for a living and have built hundreds of them over the years.

In 2009 I built a 3 ghz quad core system with 8 gigs of ram, running Win 7. That same box is still up and running today with only one upgrade ever done to it, the video card. Oh, and that same box has almost been on for that entire time. Only time it's ever been turned off has been during a bad thunderstorm, restarted after an update, and for the video card upgrade. It's not my main computer today, but it's still alive and kicking.
At the same time that I built that system I built a similar 3.4 ghz quad core system for a friend, who still uses it as his main computer today. Again it has only had video card and memory upgrades done to it.

But the record for the longest running Windows system I have built, that I know of, 2006, going on 13 years. That machine was built for a friend who is still using it today for their email and some database stuff.

The thing about computers is most are made with cheap components. I buy my parts and build them myself. It makes a difference. Example: Most middle of the road systems will use motherboards that use aluminum for the clad layer on the board. The problem with this is aluminum expands with heat and contracts when cool. So turning a machine on(heats up) and off(cools down), that uses aluminum in the board, will eventually develop cracks in the "paths" on the board causing it to have glitches and flake out. Typically you will get 3 to 5 years of life out of them at best. When I buy a board I buy one that uses copper instead of aluminum.

I can build a video or audio editing box that I would put up against a Mac any day of the week, especially if it's using Windows 7. But all good things must come to an end and Microsoft is ending support for Win 7 next year which really sucks, They're going to force us to Win 10 eventually, and sooner than later. Some of the hardware and software makers are already forcing us in that direction.

The biggest issue with Windows that I see is what are government systems going to do? From your local county, city, state, up to the Federal level, there thousands upon thousands of Win 7 systems out there that are a necessity to run this country. Businesses are facing the same issue. I currently work in the "Paint Shop" at MBUSI (Mercedes Benz), and they use Win 7 systems to run robotic control programs for the robots that paint cars. What happens when MS drops all Win 7 support next year?

I could probably build a Win based system, that if taken care of, could last 20 years if you could ever keep the operating system up to date and secure on it for that long. But that will never happen, not in this buy today, upgrade or replace next year, consumer mentality, that the tech world has brainwashed it's customers into living.

 

[crankypants]

Is this Mac good enough

No.

 

[dalahorse]

I would definitely say that Mac is perfectly fine for audio applications. With that, do be aware that MacOS 10.13 introduced some audio output distortion and disconnect issues with devices connected directly to the onboard USB ports. Not everyone seems to be impacted by it. There are several threads online about it and I, unfortunately, am affected on two of my Macs (2010 and 2017 MacBook Pro laptops). My workaround is to use the USB device (I'm currently using a Scarlett 2i4) for audio input, and the headphone out for audio output. Not ideal, but workable for my purposes. The newer MacOS versions have not fixed the issue. The recommended workarounds involve purchase of Thunderbolt or Firewire audio interfaces which tend to be much more expensive than USB interfaces. And, as already pointed out, the newest MacOS (10.15 aka Catalina) dropped support for all 32 bit applications. I'd recommend that you research all of your applications and plugins before considering that upgrade.

With all that said... There are no Windows PCs in my house and never will be. I've been a Mac guy since they came out in '84 and am part of the cult! I'm quite biased toward that platform. If I ran a professional studio, I'd be using higher end Thunderbolt devices and wouldn't be impacted by the USB bugs. I'd also not be in a rush to upgrade into Catalina on a stable production configuration.

Good luck with your decision!

 

[BooDoggie]

But yeah, ten years. Can’t do that with Windoze.

I have at least 2 Windows PC's that are between 15 and 20 years old and still work perfectly. They sit quietly in my office closet most of the time, but there is nothing wrong with them. I just don't use them much anymore. One of them is a Dell that I have set up with Windows XP on one drive and Windows Vista Ultimate on another. I keep it around since I have a 3D modeling software package that cost more than $30,000.00 that will not run on anything newer than XP and for testing hard drives. The other computer I built in 2004 when I opened my computer repair shop as my main workhorse for weeding out viruses and malware from infected computer hard drives. Just because Microsoft says you should stop using "outdated" OS software doesn't mean that the computer is done and should be thrown out. Of course software vendors don't support these OS's anymore, but that is irrelevant if you have older software that you want to keep using.

I also have a Windows 7 computer that I use daily that is about 10 years old now. It also is trouble free. The 2 newer machines that I have both run Windows 10 and are constantly acting stupid after Microsoft takes it on themselves to install unwanted driver updates without my consent or knowledge which often leads to having to re-install some programs to fix the errors. I really love the way Microsoft has teamed up with the hardware manufacturers to make computer repairs more difficult by building laptops that you have to take apart to disconnect the battery. Since Windows 10 does not completely shut down even though you tell it to shut down it holds crap in memory in a sort of hyper sleep mode, and the only way to stop it is to remove all power from the machine.

I run Studio One 4 on my main computer to do multitrack recordings. This computer is an i5 with 32Gb of RAM and a SSD main drive. Some of my recordings have 20 plus tracks using multiple plugins and midi instruments, and I don't think it would be any problem to double that and still run smoothly.

 

[ctmullins]

Sure you can, it's all in the hardware you use, not the operating system itself. [ snip ]

Fair enough, and thanks for the stories.

At the risk of straying off topic, I’ll just clarify my original point with “usually”. I too have lots of experience building, maintaining, and using PCs, and my firsthand and secondhand experience is that, for general usability, I can’t get more than perhaps six years out of one.

(Insert Micro$oft rant here)

 

[JLY]

A Sadowsky is just a Fender with a fluffy preamp. There’s no other difference.

Many would disagree with this analysis

but to each their own...