- Best Mac For Music Production 2019
- Best Mac For Musicians
- Best Mac For Music Producing
- Mac Pro For Music Production
- Best Mac For Music Recording
Mac Tips
Mac TipsJanuary 31, 2019 | 14 min readIn this article, we’ll give you some great tips on how to choose a Mac for music-making. Stanza for mac.
In a nutshell, we believe the top three of the best Macs for music production 2020 are:
Aug 18, 2020. Download and install the best free apps for Music Management Software on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android from CNET Download.com, your trusted source for the top software picks.
- 27-inch 5K iMac—the best choice for music production
- 16-inch MacBook Pro—the best portable laptop
- Mac mini—the best budget Mac
Read further to find out why these models are the best computers for creating music!
Best Mac For Music Production 2019
- Mar 03, 2020.
- Jul 06, 2012.
With computers being the heart of modern music making, there’s no need to rent costly studios to record your tracks. Nowadays you can apply all your desired effects and polish tracks with your home laptop—especially if you know which computers are best for the purpose.
Music creators are drawn to Macs and for good reason—Macs are the most likely computers to become your right hand in high-quality music production.
In this article, we’ll cover the main aspects you should consider when buying a Mac for music production, and get our recommendations on how to choose between the top three Macs for musicians in 2020.
We’ll tell you all about:
- What’s best for musicians—Mac or PC?
- Recommended system requirements
- The best Macs for making music
- Things to consider before buying a Mac for music production
- Mac music software
Best Mac For Musicians
What’s best for musicians—Mac or PC?
Choosing between macOS and a Windows platform depends largely on your computer preferences and your collaborators. With the fast development of technology, the PC is right behind Mac. However, it's easier to get started making music on a Mac than on a PC. We’ll tell you why.
The standard audio drivers on a PC won’t do for professional music creation. A Windows user would most likely need to install extra ASIO drivers for their sound card and any other music hardware that they want to use, like MIDI controllers, then install the music software they want to use as Windows provides no native music apps so far.
However, a Mac user can just plug in their music hardware and launch the GarageBand app—Apple's free pre-installed DAW (digital audio workstation) available on Macs, iPhones, and iPads. It's a personal music creation studio for recording and editing multi-track audio as well as composing and experimenting with a vast array of virtual instruments, effects, and loops. Continue reading to learn more about this tool.
Recommended system requirements
The tech specs of the Mac you choose depend largely on the type of software you are planning to use and the complexity of your music projects. Make sure you know in advance the sample rate and bit depth you’re going to work at as well as the number of tracks and instrument voices you are planning to use on a regular basis.
The next step is to check the official system requirements for the program(s) you are going to run. This will help you determine the minimum required specs your Mac should have.
As a rule, for comfortable music production on Mac, you should have at least a 2.2Ghz i7 quad-core processor; it affects how fast your projects run (especially if they're huge). You will require at least 16GB of RAM, which is bare minimum as music production on Macs is a memory-extensive process. If you have less than 16 GB of RAM you’ll be able to use fewer instrument voices and your speed will decrease dramatically. As the basic configurations of the majority of Macs offer 8GB of RAM by default, consider some add-on options.
Most of all, your storage needs will depend on the size of the audio material you expect to work with. Professional software and various instruments for music production can use hundreds of gigabytes on your Mac, so the basic 256GB SSDs on some Apple laptops might be enough for starters. Still, you can consider some external storage options for your Mac in the future.
While video cards have always been essential for video editing and playing games, some of the latest audio software is GPU-accelerated as well. Pay attention to the type of video card required by your audio software and whether you’ll need to connect any additional displays.
Note: Keep in mind that the basic specifications listed are a minimum for music production software to function normally on a Mac. If you're ready to pay extra, we recommend getting the highest performance machine you can afford.
The best Macs for music production
We’ve researched the topic to compile the best Macs for music production. Here are our leaders:
27-inch 5K iMac—the best choice for music production
Being updated with new hardware in 2019, the 27-inch 5K iMac would be a reasonably high-end machine for home studios. Its RAM can be customized up to 64GB, and with the advanced processor, you’ll be able to use all the functions of professional audio editing programs. The big Retina display will make work with complex editing software more comfortable compared to smaller options. Besides, you’ll have four USB 3 ports together with two Thunderbolt 3/USB Type C ports at your disposal.
16-inch MacBook Pro—the best portable laptop
If you’re a touring musician—MacBook Pro with a 16-inch display is just for you! It’s powerful even in the basic configuration, and the Touch Bar is especially useful when you need to record music and change settings at the same time. With 4.3 pounds (2.0 kg)) of weight, MacBook Pro has a major advantage for musicians who are always on the road. Sims 2 brandi broke personality traits.
Mac mini—the best budget Mac
Why is Mac mini also on the list of the best Macs for music production? Mac mini had an update in March 2020 bringing in a 256GB SSD. Besides, it is a good choice if your budget is limited. What’s great about Mac mini is a small size, an additional audio-in port, In addition to this, this model can be customized with a more powerful processor and bigger RAM. But be ready to purchase a display, a keyboard, and a mouse to go with your Mac mini model.
Things to consider before buying a Mac for music production
When choosing the best computer for music production, consider these two key factors:
Portability
Among the first things to consider when deciding which Mac to choose is to think over whether you need a desktop computer or a laptop. The latter option is the best decision for musicians who work in many different locations and want to keep everything they need for work in one place.
Connections
Using a lot of additional instruments such as monitors, headphones, USB instruments, and other audio interfaces is essential. That’s why a limited number of USB ports might become an issue. Do check and compare the Connections sections when reviewing Mac specifications.
Mac music software
Here are our 2020 picks for the best apps for music-making on a Mac:
- If you're only getting started making music, GarageBand (especially the iOS version) has Smart Instruments that let you create a great-sounding drum, guitar, synth, or even orchestral parts without having to know how to play the instruments. GarageBand version 10.3 is full of surprises. New sound effects and instrument sounds and 1000 electronic and urban loops at your disposal are just the beginning. The Artist Lessons are finally free for those craving to learn songs taught by famous artists.
- Logic Pro X is called GarageBand's 'companion' and is, in fact, Apple's professional audio software. If you're an electronic musician and want to experiment with sound, you might opt for Logic Pro X. The great news is that you can get a 90-day free trial. However, you’ll need to run macOS 10.14.6 (macOS Mojave) or later. Moreover, this app is rather resource-consuming, so the best MacBook for Logic Pro X is either a 13-inch MacBook Pro or a 16-inch model.
- Ableton Live 10 makes your DJ experience really smooth. Being a DAW it offers empowered MIDI sequencing hardware and software. With this app working on MIDI controllers is hustle-free now.
- PreSonus Studio One 4 Prime is for you if you’re still deciding whether you’re just at the beginning of your music-making career. It is free! A perfect app to start creating music with. Being a full-scale digital studio it offers the Artist and Pro editions and an improved drum editor to make your instrument editing workflow easier.
- Cakewalk SONAR Mac Prototype is another free app used to be available on Windows only. However, now it can be installed on a Mac too.
- A few other notable Apple apps for musicians are MainStage 3 (a rig of effects and virtual instruments for live performance) and Music Memos (an iOS app similar to voice memos that are tailored to music drafting and integrate nicely with GarageBand when using it on Mac).
How to prepare your Mac for music recording?
Recording music does sound like a high-load process for your Mac. Full storage, apps responding longer than usual, or a spinning wheel on your screen may slow you down. So how to get back to productive work?
For starters, it's always a good idea to clean RAM memory. The rule applies—the more memory available, the faster your Mac should run. Memory Cleaner feature in MacKeeper frees up RAM memory with just a few clicks and lets you know which apps may be eating up memory without you even knowing it.
Another thing that may hamper music recording is the lack of free space. Music-making requires some extra gigabytes at hand, so you can use such MacKeeper tools as Safe Cleanup and Duplicates Finder to scan your Mac for old copies of files, caches, or apps leftovers and safely remove them.
I install the Samsung NVMe Controller instead of Microsoft one.Samsung NVMe ControllerDriver version: 3.0.0.1802Driver date: 2/12/2018I downloaded it from the Samsung. Tried to find any tips to optimization. V2.0.6812.41776.Then I run the test on the new AS SSD Benchmark software.stornvme Score on AS SSD 2.0The score is 3632.I did some research on the Internet. Driver windows 10 64-bit download. Samsung NVM Express ControllerI run the AS SSD Benchmark testing again on the new driver.The result is a little bit of improvement.
***
We hope our guide helped you choose the proper computer for music-making. Now go and grab your instrument or mic, plug it to your new Mac, and get rockin’!
More Related Articles
Last Updated: March 5th, 2019
Music player software has been in trend soon after the launch of smartphones several years ago. Mobile operating systems including Android, iOS etc along with the PC supported OS such as Windows, Mac and others have provided a provision to launch in-built music player software along with the launch of the operating systems. The basic idea behind thinking to give the importance to the music players by the biggest IT companies only lies in the fact that the music players are one of the most used software installed frequently by the users in all the kinds of devices including mobile, tablets, PCs and even others. So far as the matter of best music players for Mac is concerned, Apple’s iTunes has already been launched as per the Apple’s provision, however, it is not at all suitable for the music lovers who want to use their individual selected music library and operates them as per their desire. Unlike Apple’s iTunes, a music player must be extremely lighter and faster and should have the ability to get easily organized with custom playlists, audio profiles, music library, multiple formats of the audio etc to name a few.
Best Music Players For Mac (2019)
Best Mac For Music Producing
1. VOX Music Player
It is one of the best music players developed exclusively for Mac which holds all the best properties inside it being loved by the music lover community. Playlists can be created with quality to properly organize the music lists. One of the major features of the software is that it allows you directly drag and drop the songs into the playlist to without any issue. In addition, the SoundCloud account can also be connected and our own music can also be synced with both the accounts very easily. Several formats of the audio are instantly supported without any problematic issues.
2. Audirvana Plus 3
The software has been developed exclusively for the audiophiles and delivers a best quality audio output to the music lovers of Mac platform. The software is made equipped with surprising syncing as well as the structural ability and therefore, soon after the queuing or deleting up the music files from the concerned destination, it automatically reflects inside the software’s app. Top rated and high-resolution music formats are exclusively supported as well as the users can sync TIDAL as well as the Qobuz account simultaneously in case the music is not locally stored on the Mac.
3. Clementine
Clementine is one of the most renowned open source music players all over the world acting more than just our simple music player. In comparison to the other players, syncing, the facility has been made more enhanced with instant syncing with several sources such as Dropbox, Google Drive, SoundCloud etc. The best-loved feature about the software is that, in addition to frequently playing the music, it provides added information about the song being played via the software. It also handles remote app for the android supported mobile phones for controlling distantly played music.
4. Tomahawk
This music player supports several platforms including Linux, Windows and even Android in addition to the Mac OS. The app has the capacity to scan the hard disk drive of the Mac OS and add the music files itself inside the music library for instant play. The software also supports plug-ins for music streaming service providers. Being an open source music playing platform, it is also compatible with extracting and playing music from YouTube as well as other video platforms totally for free.
5. Swinsian
The software is compatible with several audio formats and thereby almost all the music of all the formats can be played without any issues. Music libraries with the biggest collection of music files can also be managed with comfort. Podcast player is made inbuilt inside the app of the software which is highly appreciated by podcast lovers. Smart playlists can also be created based on the filters of several categories.
6. Musique
It is one of the extremely light weighted software and thereby the OS does not have to bother about the functionalities and the space taken by the software on the device. The software has also been made available with Linux and Windows platform with an extremely simple user interface. The software mentions several other useful information about the song and it is also completely free for downloading and can also be donated to developers as per the user’s desire.
7. Pine Player
This music player app is made available to download completely for free and use supporting multiple audio formats and exclusive features and specifications such as crossfade and even the gapless playback. Drag and drop facility has also been introduced which helps to add the music files instantly to the library to get them played without any hassles. It also reflects the file type being played can quickly be downloaded from the Mac store for instant use.
8. Nightingale
It is a lightweight open source music player whose updates are yet provided by the developers with the best user interface. The music software provides an advanced kind of library management facility along with the frequent and gapless playback features and soft to feel interface. DRM audio can also be along with Windows media supports.
9. Quod Libet
Quod Libet is a Latin name meaning thereby “Whatever you wish”. It is also one of the most famously used open source music player which was designed and developed as a cross-functional and exclusive platform from the get-go firstly in the year 2004 with best functionalities. The software interface is extremely easy and handy to use and is therefore been placed under the best music players for Mac category.
10. Elmedia Player
Mac Pro For Music Production
Highest standards of audio files are exclusively played with the interface support of this top end and quality rich software. iTunes content is smoothly operated on the environment except for the kind of support for the DRM contents. Music can be effectively streamed from one Mac environment to another Mac environment and the software also works fine as an exclusive music assistant to keep track and records of all the music files with the best organizational structure inside the playlists.
Best Mac For Music Recording
Listed above are the best Music Players for Mac OS X and an alternative to iTunes. Which is your favorite Music Player for Mac OS X? Share your views in the comment below!