What is the best MacBook for music production?
Image Credit: Apple
Apple’s redesigned MacBook Pro 14 and 16-inch with the new M1 Pro and M1 Max are the most powerful laptops from Apple.
Apple first announced their transition away from Intel and to their own silicon Macs at WWDC 2020. Their first three products featuring the M1 chip were the Mac mini, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, before also coming to the iMac and iPad Pro. These five products were praised for their power and efficiency. Since the launch of M1, pros have eagerly been awaiting something higher end. At Apple’s latest event, we finally saw the launch of the new MacBook Pro with M1 Pro and M1 Max, along with new AirPods, HomePod mini colours and Apple Music Voice Plan.
With up to a 10-core CPU and 32-core GPU, M1 Pro and M1 Max MacBooks are perfect for editing massive spatial audio projects with hundreds of high quality tracks and effects. After the event, Apple updated their pro music creation software Logic Pro with spatial audio features, royalty-free Producer Packs and extra power to take advantage of all that extra power. Apple says the 10-core CPU in both chips allow for up to 3x more Amp Designer plug-ins in Logic Pro when compared to the previous-generation high-end 13-inch model.
Beyond performance, Apple redesigned the entire laptop with an improved display, battery life, camera, audio system and connectivity. Connectivity is improved with more ports including a headphone jack that supports high-impedance headphones. The audio system is improved with “industry-leading, studio-quality” microphones that have an even lower noise floor, for clearer calls and recordings, plus a high-fidelity six-speaker sound system, from two tweeter and four force-cancelling woofers, ensuring a clearer soundstage and 80% more bass. The new speaker system supports spatial audio, bringing a three-dimensional, theatre-like listening experience to music and movies in Dolby Atmos.
The MacBook 14 and 16-inch with M1 Pro and M1 Max are available to pre-order today online. They will be in stores and start shipping on Tuesday 26th October. The 14-inch MacBook Pro starts at $1,999, while the 16-inch MacBook Pro starts at $2,499. Both laptops are configurable with different chips, memory and SSDs.
While these new laptops are the best option for those looking for the most powerful music production notebooks, the older and less expensive M1 Mac mini, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro and iMac are still great computers for lighter workloads on a tighter budget. Beware of potential updates coming to MacBook Air in the next few months. We are also expecting to see M1 Pro/M1 Max chips to hit products such as the higher-end Mac mini, larger iMac and a Mac Pro next year.