Top 10 Reasons To Buy A Macbook For Making Music

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After years of putting it off, I finally succumbed to the world of Apple and bought myself a new MacBook. Two months after buying it I feel it is time to give my fellow musicians the heads up on this amazing machine. I only wish I had found out how good it was before now. Here are the top 10 reasons I could think of to buy a MacBook for making music:-

1. Garageband - Garageband has been underated by a lot of musicians - its basically a user friendly version of Logic. Its great for getting ideas down fast and the supplied plugins sound superb - especially some of the pads and synth leads. The audio side of things is also great and allows you to do Ableton Live like timestretching to keep your newly created loops in time. Another great feature is that it is Rewire enabled, which means you can sync it with other programs such as Reason, Ableton Live, Cakewalk Project 5 and loads more. Its not a replacement for a high end DAW, but its great as a quick sketchpad.
   
   
2. Excellent low noise, low latency soundcard built in. Because Apple owns Logic, its hardware has been configured to work with high end music applications from the ground up. This means that you can literally plug your instrument - whether it be a guitar, bass or keyboard and start playing and recording in Garageband, with low latency and excellent sound quality. With my previous windows laptop I would have to carry around a bulky USB audio interface around with me, which was a bit of a pain. The MacBook really allow you to be spontaneous - just plug in and you're good to go.
   
   
3. Its super fast - more tracks, more plugins, less crashes. The new MacBooks are super powerful and can handle pretty much whatever you throw at them. It used to be argued that because Apple used Power PC processors they weren't as powerful as Windows computers. That's simply not true now that Apple uses the same Intel processors Windows laptops use. Because the hardware and operating system are manufactured by Apple they also work seamlessly together. However, if you want to go faster, the new iMacs or Mac Pros may be a better choice for professional DAWs, as they have faster hard drives, which is always an advantage. If you are a big user of plugins you might also want to increase your RAM to 1GB, although I have been fine with 512MB. Personally, I chose the MacBook for its portability - it allows me to knock out a few beats while travelling on long journeys!
   
   
4. As used by the Pros! If you flick through the pages of magazines such as Future Music, you will see interviews with top producers and musicians and lists of the equipment that they use to make music. There always seem to be a heavy bias towards using a Mac as the centre point of their studio setup. If its good enough for the Pros' why not you? Check out this article with Super Producer BT and how he uses his Mac setup.
   
   
5. $$ The Price! If your looking at buying a new laptop why not go with a MacBook. You would be lucky to find a Windows based laptop that has more features for the same price:-
   
   1.83GHz or 2.0GHz Intel Core Duo
   Built in iSight webcam
   13.3-inch (diagonal) TFT glossy widescreen display
   Apple Remote with Front Row
   Up to 2GB memory
   Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950
   Slot-loading optical drive
   Up to 120GB hard drive
   Built-in 54-Mbps 802.11g AirPort Extreme wireless
   Analog and digital audio in and out
   FireWire 400 and USB 2.0 ports
   iLife ’06, Mac OS X Tiger. - This was the big selling point for me. The included free software is a lot of fun and the operating system features, especially Spotlight allow me to search for all my samples and patches on my hard drive really easily. This always seemed a chore on my Windows setup, although I think this might be addressed when Vista is released.
   

6. Design That Turns Heads - You won’t want to hide your Mac in a corner of your studio. As Apple says "You’ll want it front and center in your life. The Apple style shows in every detail, from its sculpted surfaces to its gorgeous Mac OS X graphics". Just the little design touches like the magnetic lid shut and power cord, which stops you dragging your new MacBook across the floor when you trip over the wires in your studio.
   

7. Create Hollywood style movies for your music. Or score a movie with Garageband's inbuilt music for picture abilities. "Connect your DV camera and turn your movies into spectaculars. Add graphics, titles, and sound effects in minutes. Then use your Mac to burn a DVD or post to your website". I'd never really been interested in making movies before owning the MacBook, but the ease of use of iMovie and iDVD have really got me into it.
   

8. Remote Control your music apps. With the aid of the handy Apple remote that comes free with your Macbook and this piece of software - Mira, you can control all your favourite music apps, for example I use it for controlling Propellerheads Reason - the transport controls and switching from sequencer to rack views, its so much easier than using your mouse. I also use it for controlling the record button in Garageband, its so much more liberating to press record on your sequencer when you are stood 20ft away from your laptop.

9. It also runs Windows XP. With the aid of an application called Boot Camp you can use Windows XP on your MacBook as easily as you would on any Windows based laptop. This allows you to use any Windows based music software you have which hasn't been ported over to Mac OSX. So its not like you'll lose any of the music software that you already bought for your Windows PC, which was one of my big concerns and a big reason for me not to switch.
   
   
10. It Just Works! No Viruses, Rock Solid Operating System, Built With Musicians In Mind, Super Fast, Well Priced, Ultimate Music Making Machine! Go check one out at your local Apple or Music Store.
    
    Although I was happy with my PC based setup, my new MacBook has helped me to take my music making to the next level and more importantly has made it a lot more fun!
    
    
    Other sites of interest:-
    Mac Audio Guy
    Mac Music
    Sound On Sound
    Apple MacBook
    
    
    
    
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