Advice on Mac purchase for music production

ten77guitar

I’m looking to buy a second-hand iMac soon. What would be the minimum spec recommend for fairly basic music production? 

There seem to be some fairly cheap ones on Facebook around £300, some with Logic Pro
installed but they date from around 2011. Are these now obsolete or are they still useable for a few more years?

It doesn’t need to be the fastest computer in the world but I also don’t want a clunky piece of sh*#, which every pc I’ve owned always ends up becoming within a few years.

Any advice from experienced Mac users?

octatonic

Personally I wouldn't bother with something that old.
2015 is as old as I would go unless you want to have an unsupported machine within a couple of years.
They are much slower than the current machines too.

Logic is a tricky one- technically the seller will remove their account for App Store form the computer.
When you sign in you won't have a license for Logic.
It might work but once you ever have to reinstall the OS you won't get it.
Also I am not sure if updates are possible.
It is only £200 and you get a hell of a lot for your money.

Danny1969

I'm a semi pro musician, I use a 2008 iMac for music production. Just Dual core, 4Gb ram and internal harddrive. It takes no more processing power to record 24 tracks of 24 \ 44.4 than it did 10 years ago. But for some reason people always think you need an i7 and 16Gb ram etc 
Used iMacs are a bargain for music production

octatonic

Danny1969 said:

I'm a semi pro musician, I use a 2008 iMac for music production. Just Dual core, 4Gb ram and internal harddrive. It takes no more processing power to record 24 tracks of 24 \ 44.4 than it did 10 years ago. But for some reason people always think you need an i7 and 16Gb ram etc 
Used iMacs are a bargain for music production

I take it you aren't running many modern synthesiser plugins then?
It isn't processor intensive to play/record audio only- try running multiple channels of Massive X or Diva though.

Danny1969

octatonic said:

Danny1969 said:

I'm a semi pro musician, I use a 2008 iMac for music production. Just Dual core, 4Gb ram and internal harddrive. It takes no more processing power to record 24 tracks of 24 \ 44.4 than it did 10 years ago. But for some reason people always think you need an i7 and 16Gb ram etc 
Used iMacs are a bargain for music production

I take it you aren't running many modern synthesiser plugins then?
It isn't processor intensive to play/record audio only- try running multiple channels of Massive X or Diva though.

I'm using Protools 8, lot of soft synth's, 30 tracks of audio...... been fine and really productive recently,  I get what your saying though, if you want the actual computer to do everything then the faster the better. If you want to use the computer as a recording machine with basic soft synths and drums then it's surprising how little spec machine you need 

octatonic

Danny1969 said:

octatonic said:

Danny1969 said:

I'm a semi pro musician, I use a 2008 iMac for music production. Just Dual core, 4Gb ram and internal harddrive. It takes no more processing power to record 24 tracks of 24 \ 44.4 than it did 10 years ago. But for some reason people always think you need an i7 and 16Gb ram etc 
Used iMacs are a bargain for music production

I take it you aren't running many modern synthesiser plugins then?
It isn't processor intensive to play/record audio only- try running multiple channels of Massive X or Diva though.

I'm using Protools 8, lot of soft synth's, 30 tracks of audio...... been fine and really productive recently,  I get what your saying though, if you want the actual computer to do everything then the faster the better. If you want to use the computer as a recording machine with basic soft synths and drums then it's surprising how little spec machine you need 

Yes and I take your point too.

The main issue with a machine of that age is it won't run the current version of Logic and downloading legacy versions can be a PITA.
I did it recently for someone where I had to install an old version of Mac OS on a spare drive and then download the right Logic version for it.
It can be a right faff, although not as much of a faff as trying to download a point release of Mac OSX.

ten77guitar

Thanks for the replies and interesting points from both perspectives. Just to clarify, my music production will be very basic - mainly just recording guitar over backing tracks. I take octatonic’s point about Logic though - would GarageBand be adequate for what I want to do?

octatonic

ten77guitar said:

Thanks for the replies and interesting points from both perspectives. Just to clarify, my music production will be very basic - mainly just recording guitar over backing tracks. I take octatonic’s point about Logic though - would GarageBand be adequate for what I want to do?

Garageband is very capable.
Most people don't come close to exploiting the power of Logic.
I would start with that and move to Logic once you find Garageband limiting.

ten77guitar

octatonic said:

ten77guitar said:

Thanks for the replies and interesting points from both perspectives. Just to clarify, my music production will be very basic - mainly just recording guitar over backing tracks. I take octatonic’s point about Logic though - would GarageBand be adequate for what I want to do?

Garageband is very capable.
Most people don't come close to exploiting the power of Logic.
I would start with that and move to Logic once you find Garageband limiting.

Yes sounds like Logic would be overkill for me at the moment. Found a late 2015 refurb on Amazon. Has the smaller screen but you get a 12 month warranty so I think I’m going to go for that. Thanks again for the advice.

spark240

Im on 2012 Mac mini , i7, an SSD is a major plus....

andy_k

I'm not fortunate enough to have a dedicated 'studio' space, so I make do with my 2009 Macbook pro, SSD,16g ram, i5 processor, and I have a similar spec Mac mini from 2011, during my 3 year Uni degree we were told by the 2 main tutors, 'Logic is best' Vs 'Protools is best', so the course was split 50/50 between those 2 DAWs, during my last year I switched to Reaper, and haven't looked back seriously.
Garageband and Logic have a well earned reputation, and the drummer feature is something special, but Apples constant upgrade path is relentlessly expensive. Pro tools is the 'studio standard' but again is an expensive luxury these days.
I am using Reaper in a wide variety of ways, location multitrack recording, simple demo creation, stem mixing even video editing and have yet to find something that isn't easily achievable.
If I was starting out, I think the new version of Reason , running inside Reaper would probably cover most of the bases for me.
I find myself opening a Logic project, and it seems so un intuitive after using reaper, and if I try and open a protools session I remember why it only really works well with studio hardware, in a studio, again feels very awkward after using the flexibility of Reaper.
I also use a PC as a back up option, and apart from Windows itself, Reaper stays awesome- for my needs.
We all have different requirements, but going in from the beginning these days doesn't necessarily require the latest gear.
For example, a new Mac, with Catalina installed will not run a lot of the latest plugins, and every time they do an OS update on a Mac, we are constantly warned NOT to update for fear of breaking an otherwise perfectly stable system. try not to get caught up in the upgrade path, unless that is what you want anyway.
cheers
andy k

Wazmeister

octatonic said:

ten77guitar said:

Thanks for the replies and interesting points from both perspectives. Just to clarify, my music production will be very basic - mainly just recording guitar over backing tracks. I take octatonic’s point about Logic though - would GarageBand be adequate for what I want to do?

Garageband is very capable.
Most people don't come close to exploiting the power of Logic.
I would start with that and move to Logic once you find Garageband limiting.

Great wisdom here 

mgaw

Wazmeister said:

octatonic said:

ten77guitar said:

Thanks for the replies and interesting points from both perspectives. Just to clarify, my music production will be very basic - mainly just recording guitar over backing tracks. I take octatonic’s point about Logic though - would GarageBand be adequate for what I want to do?

Garageband is very capable.
Most people don't come close to exploiting the power of Logic.
I would start with that and move to Logic once you find Garageband limiting.

Great wisdom here 

just echo that...no need to jump in at the deep end so to speak when most of our needs will be comfortably met with less than those ads would have us believe...