Thread What to do? Macbook pro or macbook and then a mac pro in a few years?

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snurferb

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1 Posted on 02/09/2009 at 22:17:27

I am trying to get into a more professional level of recording. I currently have a macbook from a year and a half ago. I am using garage band for now just to get used to my equipment. I have an AKG condensor mic, and presonus inspire interface and and midi to usb cable interface. I am going to be going to school for recording and will be getting a new macbook but am thinking to upgrade to a pro since the new ones have no firewire. My interface uses firewire but the mbox mini I am getting with school is usb which is almost like mine with one less xlr input. I want to do engineering and producing seriously so I am thinking about getting the pro to handle all the gear I'm going to have to start getting in a few years. Wondering if it might just be better to spend the 1,200 on the macbook and just forget about my interface and then just buy the mac pro when I'm ready or just upgrade to the macbook pro now and use that primarily for editing and whatnot for my first few years. how does higher end gear connect to computers? Do they use firewire or something else?

Thanks,

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Anonymous

2 Posted on 02/11/2009 at 08:11:51

Highest end mobile audio interfaces for mac are still in FW400 : Metric Halo ULN2 and 2882, Prismsound orpheus, Lynx Aurora, Mytek 8x192DIO and more ... all of those are in FW400. So I think that if you plan to go deeper in mobile recording you should stick to a MB pro or the white MB wich still have firewire and have been upgraded to the latest nvidia graphic chip (and wich is WAY cheaper than a MB pro).

For non mobile operation (like a mac pro) the highest end is to use PCI-e cards with digital inputs and outputs (AES/EBU, Adat, MADI, etc) with external DA and AD units like lavry, prism, merging, apogee, d.a.d (etc) and the pre and outboards that you like (plus a studio clock if you have more than one AD and one DA unit).

snurferb

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3 Posted on 02/12/2009 at 14:28:35

Thanks for the response. I looked in to what you said and those products and more in to the macbooks. I've had the white mac book already and the body is falling apart a little and such. I looked on the macbook site and it said the pros come with the express card slots and I found on the apogee site I think it was they have mobile convertors. I was thinking that the next few years I'll be slowly building a home studio so if I get the pro I can use that since I can have access with firewire and the express card. If I just get the macbook my option is usb or line-in. So I would have to get a mac pro very soon in order to do much which means dropping over 3000$ at least for a computer. Am I correct on the express card stuff? Would you agree with me or recomend something else?

Brett

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