I’ve been producing music for a long time, and I was always a die-hard PC user. My main recording PC has been going for a long time now and is finally starting to show its age. With the cost of upgrading my CPU, RAM, motherboard, and adding some more hard drive space, I’m starting to think it’s time to take advantage of the Black Friday MacBook deals and jump ship to the Apple bandwagon.
It’s not been an easy decision, but I feel like the timing is perfect for me to make my move. I’ve got my eye on a MacBook Pro M3, which combines the best in future-proofing, value for money, and the portability a laptop for music production provides. It’s a big change from my current PC, but here are the reasons that I’ve decided to switch allegiances.
1. Portability
Switching to a MacBook is going to allow me to make music anywhere, and in the modern age, this is a really useful function. Thanks to the Apple Silicon chips a laptop is now powerful enough to compete with a desktop, which means I can take my music-making anywhere. Armed with a compact audio interface I can even record on the go, which certainly makes my work trips a lot more interesting.
2. Efficiency
A MacBook with a Silicon chip is infinitely more powerful than my old Intel, and while there are Windows laptops with similar capabilities, there’s no doubt that for a lot of music-making tasks, the Mx chips are superior. The neural engine is great for audio tasks and it’s very energy efficient, meaning you can get better use out of your laptop when you’re on battery power.
3. Integration
I recently began studying a music production course and every studio is equipped with an Apple machine, which meant integrating with my Windows machine was essentially impossible. It’s not just my place of study though, every professional studio I’ve been into runs on the Apple OS, so ultimately if I want to be able to integrate with these places, then I need to be part of the Mac ecosystem.
4. Future-proofing
Even at this point, the M1 Apple chips are more than powerful enough for the majority of music production tasks. That means if I go for my favored MacBook Pro M3, I should be future-proofed for a good while yet. My Windows PC lasted me a long time, and with any luck my MacBook should do the same keeping me with plenty of processing power for at least the next ten years.
5. Connectivity
If you’ve ever been PC shopping with audio in mind, you might have noticed that not many PCs carry Thunderbolt natively. Plenty of laptops do however, which means you can use more powerful audio interfaces as part of your rig. As I like to do my work within the Universal Audio ecosystem, having Thunderbolt as part of my rig is a must-have, which is another tick in the box of an Apple machine.
6. Usability
Despite there being a slight bedding in period switching from Windows to Mac, overall I’ve found the Mac user experience to be super smooth when I used one for work a few years ago. For me, my chosen DAW Pro Tools just works better on a Mac and I’ve found that overall the experience is a lot less intrusive than Windows with fewer popups. Everything feels a little smoother and a little more creative-user friendly, particularly as the Mac built-in audio driver is far superior to its Windows equivalent.
Conclusion
Interestingly despite all the reasons listed here, it’s actually a pretty close call between the two. I very nearly decided to stick with PC but ultimately for my circumstances, the benefits outweighed the cons. I do understand this will be a matter of personal preference for most people, and that some might feel my reasons aren’t just, and that’s okay.
Ultimately the main kicker for me was that the wider recording industry uses Macs for the most part. Much like if you want to work in the industry you need to learn Pro Tools, your life will be a lot easier if you’re working on an Apple machine whether that’s collaborating with others or just giving yourself access to better monitoring and purpose-built rooms.
Black Friday MacBook deals
I'm going for the Apple MacBook Pro M3 Pro 160inch as a replacement for my old PC, as it meets all the criteria I need. I wanted a bigger screen so I could mix comfortably on the go, and plenty of connectivity to allow me to integrate even if there isn't a hub present.
If you want something ultra-portable, then a MacBook Air is the way to go. It offers plenty of power but runs silently as there are no fans, and the M3 chip will comfortably handle the majority of music-making tasks.
The perfect combination of power, portability, and connectivity, the MacBook Pro M3 14-inch is probably the best bet for the majority of music makers. It's rapid fire CPU ensures it will easily handle huge project files, while the 14-inch screen makes it lighter and more portable than the 16-inch version.
