Hello everyone, I’m a long time pc user and for business and day to day applications I have no issues. However I feel like my machine is beginning to become a little outdated for digital dj applications. I was thinking about picking up a used macbook (so expensive!) however I know nothing of apple products.
My question to all of you is what would you and why.
My current setup includes just a Kontrol s2 and my hp pavilion dv7 (AMD Turion II Dual Core M620, 2.50GHz, 4 gig ram, 64 bit windows 7, 500gb hard dirve)
MacBook Pro’s are nice. They’re expensive, but def worth it. If you buy one you won’t be disappointed.
If you think you still want a PC laptop, a great one fore audio work is the HP Elitebook 8560p. There’s a bunch of articles and threads about it’s abilty as well as youtube videos. I ran DPC Latency Checker on this machine while stressing it with Prime 95 and FurMark. It passed with flying colors with no red spikes. 5 USB ports and 1 firewire as well. You can do your own research on it though. Built to military spec, so they’re more bulky than a MacBook pro, and they’re still kinda on the expensive side ($1000-1500).
I was a Pc user too but now you have to kill me to go back to PC . Especially if you are a dj or some kind involved in music this is the right machine for you.Yes it s expensive but it s definetly worthy and much more.I remember that apple store once selling refurbished ones but ı dont know that it s finished or not.
At last I say Apple rules and So does the macbook pro.But if you can but the new ones.you will have i5 and 500 gb storage area which is pretty good.So does the battery adn the unibody and muchhhhhh moreeeee
I figured I would need a pro of some sort. Im going to try and find a used one. I dont think Id go any bigger than 13 or maybe 15in because mine is a 17 and its a beast. waaaayyy to big for what I need. Im gonna see about the referb from apple that might be a good buy
Couldn’t agree more, I was a long time PC fan (Had a PC at age 4 with DOS, yeah I’m a nerd). Anyways I made the switch and couldn’t be happier, I would NEVER go back to PC.
Especially with the new OSX 10.7 Lion, the swipe features make browsing a breeze, and you can customize separate desktops under “mission control”, not to mention the speed. You always have to option to Dual boot a windows partition as well for those rare programs that are Win only. Yes, macs are hella expensive but worth every penny if you ask me.
Only pitfall is the 2x USB slots.
Oh, and the new Solid State Hard Drives are awesome. Your computer can access files so much faster, boot up time is like 9 seconds flat, and it draws less battery power by removing the spinning disc! And there’s no worry of having your laptop drop only to defrag your magnetized HD and lose alot of data.
Go for the i5 or i7 if you can afford it, they are really fast.
And I have yet to encounter a virus, whereas my PC’s got viruses on the reg, even with anti-spyware/virus software.
13 inch is the best choice as ı do.SSD is great absolutly.The place where ı buy my macbook pro they tell me that ı give a 10 year guarantie definetly.And now ı understand them.İf you are a good user of computer you will use the apple , 10 times more than a PC.The virus are another issue which you dont need to think about and so does the heat.The unibody doesnt even get hot.I use it everyday and ı use it very efficently and it doesnt get hot.Always cold blooded
And the battery much more better than ever PC in the market.7 hours with wi-fi.and without wi fi more than 10 hours ı saw.You can easily use the Mac in a gig without charging it with full battery.
I made the switch. And besides the occasional game which isn’t supported by Mac that I’ve thought about messing around with, I’m MORE than happy with the transition. (I refuse to bootcamp so that’s my own issue on that aspect).
I’m still running OSX. But it’s just so damned simple to do anything. There is a bit of a learning curve, but it’s really not all that bad. Most applications that you’ll use work fine.
Really, I’m just happy with it. I really love the hardware. The keyboard, the touchpad, and the screen are great. Haven’t had any issues on that front. It’s also nice being able to get custom cases and the like for it, which you can’t do for most PC’s. (I have an orange plastic “speck” case on mine for protection).
And the battery life is godly. Esp. compared to the PC laptops I’ve had in the past.
That being said, it’s expensive and some people don’t like the OS. But hey, can’t knock it til you try it right lol.
[quote]Wow, I feel bad because I made the opposite switch to people here. For DJing anyway, went from Mac to PC. Mac was too limiting.
[/quote]
I’m also VERY interested to here about this :eek:
Alot of long time PC users get confused by just how intuitional the OS (and software) is.
You’ll enjoy it, its stable, and it’ll last … not to mention in 3 years when you want to update you’ll probably lose less than 50% of its value to a secondhand buyer.
Well Ive heard a number a reasons to switch to mac (DJ only im still keeping my office pc based)
what are your reasons for switching to pc? are you running some kind of crazy setup that needs the customization? when I was playing with my ableton and traktor I did a few things on my pc that supposedly come standard on macs. like I downloaded midi yoke to sync the two and that kind of stuff.
My mac just didn’t do all the stuff I needed it to do. It wasn’t rugged enough, the OS was too limiting for the all the programs I use and it was no more stable than my current windows 7 laptop. I moved to a Lenovo T420 from a pro 15". It was baptised by beer on my first gig out actually, and the drip tray meant that it managed to soldier on through the rest of the night, and all I needed to do was clean a few keys the next morning.
Now, I still love my mac, I’ve grown up using both OS’s, and I see why it’s so popular. But in todays world, with the stability of 7, and the sheer range of possible computers that are there to choose from, I don’t see the point in Mac being the only choice for DJ’s anymore. Yeah, 5 years ago when vista was a hulking piece of shit, but not today.
I can see what you mean about how the windows platform has increased ten fold with 7 as far as multimedia and being able to perform. The only place that I wish I had better performance though is when plugged into my s2. I just picked it up the other day and i am still working out the bugs for my setup, but I had similar issues when using my audio 8 as a dvs setup. it took me many attempts to get it to run right. I think the plug and play of a mac would just suit me better for its ease of use.
The one think im worried about though is my copies of ableton, reason, traktor, mixed in key, etc. I dont want to get a different machine and be like oh im shit outta luck lol.
is it true that if you unplug your controller and plug it back in you dont have to restart the program, it just works?
I don’t see why it wouldn’t. I often unplug my twitch, put my lappy into standby, turn it back on, browse the webs, then jump back into serato (having left it open), plug my twitch back in and continue mixing.
Ableton, serato, traktor, MiK, FL all work on both my mac and my pc.
A refurbished 13" MBP (early/late 2011) is a pretty good deal usually.
The new macbook airs with the ssd’s in them are foxing powerful. Marco Carola is using a 1.8ghz 13" macbook Air with a SSD and it seems to be holding up to touring
Im due for an upgrade to my MBP (15" 2.8ghz C2D), however im waiting for the Mac Pro and Macbook Pro redesign before I decide on a new laptop.
Id also say one thing for sure though, get something with an SSD. Holy foxtrot! the 13" 1.7 i5 Air with the SSD is REALLY fast. As a comparison to the 2.4ghz i5 13" Pro with a standard HDD its about 4x faster when doing the Handbrake test. When doing the handbrake test on the Air, its CPU maxes out but on the Pro it goes to about 70%. More powerful than most people will ever need.
This is just what ive found while playing around in the local apple store whilst being given dirty looks by the staff lol
Thats interesting I never really thought of the air because of how flimsy it looks. I agree that what ever my next machine is it will have a ssd and not a reg hard drive. they are a thing of the past lol
I agree with you about the Air looking flimsy. I know it isn’t, but i just wouldn’t feel safe using it. I was using my friend’s Air last week, and i felt like I was going to snap it in half.
switched to a macbook air a few weeks ago and I have never been happier (for DJing and Maschine). It’s all I really use it for.
Pros:
-Built-in MIDI (Traktor virtual out) beats the socks off of what’s available for Windows
-Lemur and other iPad apps work with no need for cumbersome setups and 3rd party services
-The Air is built really well. I used to use an HP ENVY and all the little imperfections that came with it annoyed me. ENVY was supposed to be a competitor to MBP style-wise and is no where near the build quality of Mac.
-Portability of the 13" MBA
-Resale value /opinion (though i think the 2011 MBA hit a sweet spot performance wise and should stay in high demand)
-Screen is top-notch
Cons:
-More $ for a lesser-spec’d machine
-Lack of upgrades for future proofing, i.e. RAM is soldered in and SSDs are still too expensive for +250GB
-Lack of USB ports. I hate USB hubs and my RGA has pulling devices left and right into a tangled mess. Really hate when my USB3 external isn’t recognized unless it’s plugged into the laptop port >
I still keep my laptop for games and 3D and Ableton and…
the Air is strictly DJ and a few utils. Well Facetime comes in …handy when talking to my girl across the world…but that’s neither here nor there.
How much memory do you have in the Air? It’s not expandable, right? My current white Macbook has 2GB, and sometimes I feel that Traktor glitches due to load problems.
