macbook air OR macbookpro for sound editing ?

Hello

Im considering in buying a mac for my upcoming dream on sound editing.
I cant seem to decide if i should go for a macbook air ( comfort / slimness) or i should go with the macbookpro ( better editing performance).
I know i wont need a great GPU for sound editing other than a little game playing on medium graphic etc... just the CPU , RAM and SSD drive is what will make all the difference.

any idea whats the right choice ? whats the right CPU i should go for hardware and so on ?

Also , atm ill be using "pro tools 9" for the work/editing.

Thanks in advance

 

for sound editing are you planning on using an external DAC for audio input/output. another thing to look at is if you plan to interface with firewire / USB / Expresscard mixerboards and audio equipment.

 

no external DAC. I will however plan on using external hardrive for editing or transfering massive amount of data .

 

you will want an external DAC the Cirrus Logic integrated audio is pretty sub par. external HDD on USB 2.0 will be a bottleneck until we start to see external Thunderbolt Drives

also I have no idea how well the ULV CPU in the air will do alot of simultanious tracks. I know our audio guys at work hated them on previous generations the full volt CPU in the MBP should be around 20-40% faster

 

Are you considering the current MBA / MBP or a few generations back?

Basically, any of the new computers available should be fine. They are all very fast. Make sure your input and output requirements can be handled adequately by the computer you choose.

 

looking for the current ones. just fearing heat problems with the macbookair when it comes to editing on the i7 dual core along with poor cooling ?

 

that really depends. The more tracks you have the higher is load.
It may even come down to both systems not packing enough power.

 

Pro Tools 9 should run just fine on either a 2011 MBA or 2011 MBP even with a fairly large amount of tracks. I know a local blue grass band that use Pro Tools 9 on a 2009 white MacBook that belongs to the drummer. They are able to do quite a bit before it starts to slow down and that is with a Core 2 Duo processor and 2GB of RAM.

I think the MBP (even if it is just the 13" baseline or 13" i7 version) would be able to handle a little more simply because it can work with 8GB of RAM whereas the MBA is capped at 4GB. You should also know that the performance differences between the i5 and i7 in the 13" MBA (and even the 13" MBP) are slim to none. The i7 processors make for better benchmarks but those don't always translate to something you would observe in the real world.

All-in-all, I think either system would be fine so long as you don't get into really complex mixing and keep it down to 20-30 tracks (which is what the blue grass band normally has per song, anything higher will slow their system down). I think the larger factor, at least if you are comparing 13" MBA to 13" MBP, will be the resolution of each model (unless you plan on outputting to an external monitor). The 13" MBA has a higher resolution making it a little easier to edit multiple tracks whereas the 13" MBP would require more scrolling. Of course, even the baseline 15" MBP would be better than all of them due to its quad-core processor, 8GB of RAM, and larger higher resolution display.

 

Thanks alot for the detailed reponse , just the detaisl i was looking to clear my mind, also wanted to ask you, is it possible to upgrade the MBA to 8gb RAM ? outside of what apple is offering as in aftermarket ?

 

no, none of the MBA's are upgradable, the RAM is soldered on

 

thats the bummer, I figured 8gb RAM is alot better performance than 4gb when it comes to 20-30 tracks editing at the same time ?

that is the only thing preventing me from deciding if i should get the mba or the mbp

 

That's just one of the big reasons a MBA is not the ideal machine for music production. Sure, any Mac can "run" the software but the limitations of the computer are what you need to consider. Each Mac has it's purpose and TBH a Macbook Air is the wrong machine for music production. The lack connectivity is the biggest reason to avoid it.
The MBA is an ultraportable and it's designed with the on-the-go business class user in mind and it's for general purpose computing.

 

Right, the connectivity is going to be a big issue especially since you will need to use an external sound card in order to properly produce music. Although I think the integrated audio isn't that bad, it will still pick up interference. Plus you will want a sound card that will give you more control over what you are listening to. The on-board sound is OK for a small time band using Garage Band for bare basic recording and editing but, if you are going to step into Pro Tool territory, you will want to use an external sound card.

That right there is going to consume 1 USB 2.0 port which leaves you only one additional USB port for plugging in the sound board whereas you could use 1 USB port for an external sound card with a MBP and use FireWire 800 for the sound board while still leaving one additional USB port open for anything else (a keyboard/mouse, external hard drive, etc.). Both the 2011 MBA and MBP models have more room for expansion via Thunderbolt but there are currently only two accessories that use that port and none of them will help you at this time.

Either way, given the MBP's ability to use 8GB of RAM and its port options, it would be a better choice for sound/music editing especially since the MBA's design is focused solely on that of being ultra portable.