Using a Macbook Pro for recording??

[atheos]

The one and only possible bottleneck will be the hard drive, maybe not even that. I'd try first and buy more stuff only if needed. USB interface could be troublesome, though. I'd go with some FW800 interface like RME Fireface 800.

When it comes to interfaces and external hard drives, 96KHz audio at 24 bits needs about 2.3Mb/s so theoretically Firewire could handle about 170 tracks of 96/24 audio. Modern Macs have twice faster Firewire 800 so that's 340 tracks of audio. In theory. Of course it won't be even close in real life situation but if that's the theoretical maximum, 16 tracks over single FW800 bus should be no problem, even if the interface and hard drive are daisy-chained.

You can calulate bus speeds for different audio qualities etc. using Wolfram, it's pretty sweet for things like this: http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=96KHz+at+24+bit+in+Mbps

 

[D.A.R.K.]

When it comes to interfaces and external hard drives, 96KHz audio at 24 bits needs about 2.3Mb/s so theoretically Firewire could handle about 170 tracks of 96/24 audio. Modern Macs have twice faster Firewire 800 so that's 340 tracks of audio. In theory. Of course it won't be even close in real life situation but if that's the theoretical maximum, 16 tracks over single FW800 bus should be no problem, even if the interface and hard drive are daisy-chained.

in theory, yes.
ime, no. 16 tracks 24/96 with interface and hd daisy-chained with my macbook pro worked, but had major issues with monitoring/playback drop out (even though it did track correctly). might've been my system, but i doubt it, i use rme interfaces and g raid drives. my macbook pro has a ti chip set. the issue was typical result of "bottleneck".
when i added the additional fw 800 buss via card slot, the issues disappeared.
ymmv

 

[azureblue]

you can't mix FW 400 and 800 on the same bus / port. It will throttle down to 400 if you mix the two.

The best Macs for music (that can have only one internal drive) are the ones (like mine) that have separate FW 800 and 400 buses / ports. Audio on one, interface on the other. I can daisy chain two 800 FW drives and not run into problems with audio- in one port (FW400) and out the other (FW800).

But have a couple of friends running FW 400 8 channel audio interfaces daisied with a FW 400 ext. drive, with a MBP, and they don't have problems..

 

[groovking]

I record alot of bands in my studio and I use three firepods with a pc and I never have any problems with performance. I run usually 4 or five seperate headphone mixes, recording 24 tracks simultainously, no problems at all, ptretty much turn key Everybody is happy with the headphone mixes and the recordings come out great. Latency is not an issue.
I use as few amps as possible, preferrably none, but I invite pedals and pedal boards.I've been doing this for years, I actually have in use one of the first firepods produced I was told by Presonus. I have no problems with drop outs, crackling etc.
I run my DAW sofware on one harddrive with Windows XP pro and then I strip XP Pro down, deny it internet access (after updating machine), install no virus protection etc and make a few other changes. This drive is solely for the OS and the Daw`software.
I then send the processed signal to one of three other internal harddrives, no raid. I will not use any drive under 7200 rpm although you can.
I have no good reason to consider using a Mac, what I've got is rocksolid.
For higher bit rate recordings I am limited to 8 tracks, but thats another conversation.
My current box is an Intel i5-750, 4 gbs of 1333 ram, ti chipset, 3, 1.5 harddrives and one 320 for the OS and software.4 total drives.
There is no way to get a virus as I dont go on the internet with this machine I record with it. I also don't believe Macs can not get a virus.
I just retired my intel 2.8 ht which also handled the load very well. The new box is much faster and I notice the performance meter always stays down.
Maybe someday I will try out a Mac but right now I dont want or need to learn a new OS etc.

 

[MakiSupaStar]

main issue with macbook pro and recording is that only the 17" has a card slot now.
so, if you want to stream a lot of tracks to an external drive, the only option is to share one firewire 800 buss for both data and i/o.
which sucks if you want to get the best possible latency, bit resolution and a decent track count out of a laptop.
it has kept me from upgrading at this point, i can do great with my older generation 15" which has the additional buss.
before getting a fw adaptor for the card slot, i was having major issues due to the points described above.
as usual, mac will probably bring it back eventually.

+1. This has been the only reason I haven't upgrade to a new MacBook Pro. I would actually look at an iMac. A bigger screen is a really big plus when mixing/editing. Plus, if your only recording in a few places, an iMac is an easy machine to move around. In fact, I just brought mine over to my Dj's house yesterday. Put my keyboard and mouse in my backpack and I was good to go.

 

[Noseferatu]

+1. This has been the only reason I haven't upgrade to a new MacBook Pro. I would actually look at an iMac. A bigger screen is a really big plus when mixing/editing. Plus, if your only recording in a few places, an iMac is an easy machine to move around. In fact, I just brought mine over to my Dj's house yesterday. Put my keyboard and mouse in my backpack and I was good to go.

Even as portable as the iMac is, do you think it would be hard to take it to gigs and record live?

 

[BurningSkies]

Even as portable as the iMac is, do you think it would be hard to take it to gigs and record live?

First off, DO get a 15" or better. The 13" has very little screen real estate, and when you're running audio software you need as much as you can get. I've been running a 15" Pro for a few years and even that screen is small. I've recorded up to 16 channels live to FW without problem and only have gotten glitchy if I pile on a huge number of VST effects at the same time. I've been running to my onboard HD rather than an external, but it is nice to have one of the older MacBook Pros. I haven't tried to eSata drive yet, but will soon. I would expect no troubles.

It is portable at gigs or practice, BUT really it depends upon your interface and setup, rather than the computer. I haven't wanted to drag mine out to live gigs because I'd rather not spend an hour or so running lines to my interfaces while I really need to be concentrating on setting up to play.

 

[sailri]

I'm sorry but I am a geek and I dont see the sense of going with a mac. For far less money todays laptops are great and more powerful than the Macs from what I can see,
Why do they use 5400 rpm harddrives? ....And they are using Intel processors, which I like.
In a recording computer I look hard at the chipset, the firewirechip......Ti are rock solid.
mainly the speed of the harddrive and the processing power of the cpu and the ram. To me Mac is a cult thing.
If it can be done on a Mac it can be done as werll if not better on a PC or Laptop.
Just my 2cents from experience I have had.
I guess everyone is not the same so believe me I am not bashing Macs but you can get a much bigger bang for your buck with pc/ laptop. The processing power is far beyond what we were ever used to and we were recording for years now.
Software is so much more available also for pc, ....without having to buy more unexpected software.

Of course, while there is an "Apple Tax" there is also a Windows Tax that is frequently not mentioned. I've got both, and I realized after getting an iMac in January.......
Not paying $35-50 a year, per PC, for anti-virus, is nice.
Not having to install an anti-virus program that then slows down the speed advantage you refer to, is also nice. You take both a performance and cash hit there. And of course you take a security hit as well, as anyone having to rebuild an infected PC will tell you. If it is a cult, it's a cult of people saying "I just want it to work".... In fact, in my personal experience, the family members that are over 60 yrs old are the ones converting first, and the younger ones who converted as a result of their colleges using them more have no regrets either. But what made them a no brainer for me was when a sister had her work iMac suffer a hard drive failure, with all her business documents on it. She brought the repaired iMac home with the new blank hard drive, plugged it into her Time Capsule, hit a few buttons, and some time later just started using it again like it had no failure. She is not technical. She could NOT have done that with a Windows machine, because that feature just plain doesn't exist. She had to reinstall nothing. It "just worked".

 

[MakiSupaStar]

Even as portable as the iMac is, do you think it would be hard to take it to gigs and record live?

Well it depends how much you gig, how much you gig, and the environment you gig in. Beyond that it's a matter of trying to find a surface for the mouse and keyboard. But if you're gigging a lot, and you're gigging at bars and or venues where there are people drinking and grooving, then you're better off with a laptop. But for home, and rehearsal space the iMac might fit your needs better. I have ableton on my MacBook, but don't use it nearly as much as I do on my iMac simply because it's a better experience for editing and stuff. My MacBook is pretty much only used for recording. I use an external for storage/backup. It's stored on my iMac hd but backed up on my external. It never sits on my laptop. I run a network of 350 iMacs and I have seen too many of my teachers drop their laptops and wreck their HD's.

 

[MakiSupaStar]

Yeah, for those of you guys talking about building cheaper PC's, I hear you, and I have been there. But for me the problem is not the hardware, it's the OS. Mac OS X is much more stable, easier to manage, and 'invisible' that Windows. I used to have both, but then I realized that whenever I wanted to get something done quickly, I was hopping on my Mac, and that for the last two years of service all I was doing on my PC was running updates on it's spyware/antivirus/windows patches. I rarely used it and it still got the Melissa virus (remember that?? :scowl. Some guys like the tinkering with the OS aspect of Windows, I for one do not. I just want to plug in and record.

 

[magneezius]

I like to think of PC and Mac as Left Brain/Right Brain.

PC is like the the left brain = more analytical and orderly

Mac is like the Right brain = artistic and creative

this is just my analogy of the two platforms. At my job i run Pro Tools on PC and at home i run Pro tools on my mac. I use both for the same thing but both operate in a slightly different way.
Even mastering engineers i've worked with use both platforms.

With that said i tend to favor My mac because i appreciate its intuitiveness, and its creative work flow a little better.