Got my First Mac !

gubble

Getting a bit bored of lockdown and want to have a dabble at home recording. I don't have a non work laptop so purchased myself an iMac that was for sale locally.

It's a bit old and isn't running the latest version of gargeband, but hey this is my first endeavour into such things and it was much cheaper than buying a s/h laptop and some DAW software

Using my Yamaha THR as an audio interface and having a blast recording along to some backing tracks and even having a bit of a jam with the onboard drumbeats etc.

There's so much to learn and play with but having a blast.

I'm also furloughed this next week so I'm expecting to spend occupy myself with this.

vivalacoulter

Great! I used to use Garage band a lot making little songs etc. Always thought it was an underrated product, though I much prefer the older versions.

There’s plenty of GarageBand guides on YouTube etc if you get stuck with something.

Milk

Logic Pro has a 90 day free trial for the full version I believe.

stratology

St. Vincent wrote all of her 2nd album on GarageBand.

John_A

Milk said:

Logic Pro has a 90 day free trial for the full version I believe.

It does.  Mines just expired, decisions decisions 

Milk

@John_A mine expired a week ago and bought it as I found it easier to use than reaper and worth the money

axisus

I still use Garageband. So quick and easy, brilliant for free!

Milk

@AXISIS ive just only realised I can get GarageBand on my MacBook haha. it was so fun to play around on on a iPad.

Nerine

I’m wondering how you find the transition to Mac OSX. 

I’ve used both in the past. 

For office productivity and gaming I’d use a PC. 

For anything creative I’d use a Mac. 

I wasn’t sure what the fuss was about until I’d used one and gotten used to it and subsequently bought my own. 

My Mac Mini has been running my PT HD Native  rig for 7 years now without a single issue. Not one. Pro Tools occasionally has its quirks and doesn’t respond, and that’s a rarity. But the machine itself... Absolutely bulletproof. 

Like, sometimes the chassis gets too hot to touch (and I appreciate this actually might be part of the design using the casing as a heat sink) but it just literally keeps going. 

I’ve found that editing video on it is a little beyond the intel HD4000 graphics and 2600k i7, but audio is no problem. 

I can run 150+ track mixes in PT and still have processing power to spare. 

The only, and I mean only, gripe is that the HDD is an SSD with only 256GB of storage and I’ve gotten to the point where I’m not sure what to delete to free some space up. 

Other than that, for £999 when I bought it brand new I dread to think how many times over it’s paid for itself. 

Looking at a 27” iMac now to consolidate a few things, have some more TB ports and generally be able to start editing some video for YouTube etc. 

The Mac Mini is going nowhere. I’ll sit it next to my PS5 and use it as a media machine for browsing the web etc. Would not surprise me if it keeps going for another 5 years at this point. 

Brilliant little thing. (And Mac in general IMHO)