New laptop for Max
Hello, I am planning to buy a new laptop to use with Max and wonder what a good choice is. I have always worked with MacBook Pro models and would like to continue with Macs, but no models have Touch screens so far. Does anyone know if Max 8 will give the chance to work with a touch screen. Should I leave Macintosh??? - Does Max run just on an iPad?? Any help will be appreciated! Thanks!
Hi ANDREACARMEN,
AFAIK there will be no touch screen support built into Max 8 and Max does not run on iPads. Currently Mira/Mira Web in combination with a tablet is the way to go if you like to create touch screen interfaces for max. The laptop/computer will run Max but the UI can be mirrored to the tablet. The question "Should I leave Macintosh?????" - well this one will most likely cause a wild and emotional debate. I am also a Mac user since a long time and recently had to buy a new Laptop. All the arguments (extremely high prices of the new models, Company Policy, only USB-C/thunderbolt 3 port available, the mess with the adapters and and and) have been discussed at length. I took also at windows Models and tried to get used to Windows again. At the end I decided for the new MacBook pro Model. And so far I am (mostly) happy. Luckily I could afford the high prices at that moment.
Using it as a profesional the time I save in configuring, getting the machine stable and so on is - for me - still paying off. But I have to admit the prices reached limits.
And as I often work with many channels and hence with multiple sound card the CoreAudio Aggregate devices on macOS are indispensable. I could not find any equivalent for Windows. But our needs ad budgets are different, so I would not give any definite advise.
I could probably share some experiences with working with the new UBS-C/Thunderbolt 3 Ports: Mainly I use RME sound cards (I have some FireFace UC (USB) and an old FireFace 400 (FireWire 400). It general it works well together. Surprisingly very! stable is connecting the old FF 400 via a chain of adapters/converters: Thunderbolt 3 -> Thunderbolt 2 -> FireWire 800 -> Cable FW 800 to FF400. Sounds insane (and probably is) but worked flawlessly so fare also in live gigs.
Regarding the USB interfaces: Connecting them works also well, but In some special cases I still do experience some flaws that I try to figure out. The are some problems with making internal loopbacks (this is a function of the RME interfaces where the sound card looks back an output to an input (much like SoundFLower did but the processing is done on the DSP of the Interface and not on the main processor). A bit tricky is to make sure that e.g. the sound cards run dedicated USB busses. It seems to me that the USB 2.1 busses are dynamically created when plugging a device to a USB-C port, independently on the physical USB-C port they are plugged to. For a piece where I also need to connect a projector, I ended up using a thunderbolt 3 dock, that also has a monitor out instead of a simple USB-C VGA/HDMI adapter, to make sure that images and sound are processed on a different bus than the images....
... I guess that's more Info you asked for ;)
Jan
I have one of the current gen 15" MBPs and I would advise against it. I just picked it up from its 3rd keyboard repair in two months, two of the times requiring a complete top case replacement (something that will cost $700 once their repair program ends.
Beyond that it was very expensive (and underwhelming speed wise, especially for the cost), and the port situation isn't great. I went a route where rather than having dongles I just replaced all my cables with USB-C cables, and this works fine BUT there aren't many options for long USB-C cables at the moment (i.e. USB-C to USB-mini for controllers and such), and if I'm using a bunch of things at once, I haven't come across a single USB-C hub (as in, multiple USB-C inputs).
So I would give a serious thought to a non-Mac, or buy a used/refurbished maxed out 2015 machine.
About a year and half ago I was faced with a similar decision when my trusty 2008 Mac Pro bit the dust. So I spent a long time reading this forum and debating whether to buy an existing model or wait for the new models. I ended up buying a maxed out 2015 machine and the deciding factor for me was that Apple was and is still selling them as a "current" model. That meant that they would be less likely to make it obsolete OS wise for some time. You can find great deals on the 2015 models.
Good luck.
Unless you absolutely need to pay the Apple tax, I would consider a Windows 10 machine, since they give you more bang for the buck, ports you need, and run Max almost exactly the same. An older Lenovo laptop might be about 200 clams and will work perfectly.
If you need high-end video, things will be different, and a lot more expensive, but still about 1/3 less than Apple.
If you need touchscreen (why?) options are available for that, all the way up to Microsoft Surface.
But first check to be sure any externals you use are available on the Win10 side. Or find alternatives to those externals.
In other words, define all your needs precisely, then go shopping.