How much can I expect from Logic and my Macbook?

[noisedude]

I'm thinking of ditching Reaper/Windows and using my Macbook as my music machine. Basically cutting loose all my millions of freebie plugins and getting Logic Studio, the whole deal. I already have BFD2 that I want to use for drums.

My Macbook spec is:
- Core 2 Duo 2ghz
- 1gb ram
- 80gb hard disk
- Integrated Intel graphics

And my interface is a Yamaha i88x.

Am I going to be able to get good performance from Logic on the same OS X install as all my other stuff? Will I get decent track counts or do I need a higher spec machine? Is it possible to upgrade the hard disk in these or is it sealed away?

Any advice truly welcome because my Windows days are really behind me and as much as I love Reaper, it's just not happening on Mac and I do like the look of all these virtual instruments that come in Studio too.

[Adam P]

Upgrade your RAM and your hard drive. You should be able to do both for the neighborhood of $150 USD. They're both really easy to do as well, provided you have a small Phillips head screwdriver and a set of Torx drivers. Go 2GB of RAM and like 250 or 320 GB of hard disk space and you'll be fine.

[Elementmetal]

Hey man

You wont have any problems at all.

Upgrade your RAM as someone mentioned to 2GB and you'll be set.

Believe it or not i have 76 tracks on one song. Not all tracks being used - infact most are older takes until i delete em.. (i'm a horder when it comes to old takes - just in case).

Macbook works great with Logic

[noisedude]

Wicked. I'm still adapting to the Mac thing because my PC past whispers in my ear that I need more of everything, even though this is the most responsive computer I've ever owned.

I'll have to look into the hard drive thing because I don't want to invalidate my Applecare when it has almost two years to run. If that means I have to pay a tech to install a drive for me then maybe I'll cough up.

So:
- new hard disk
- more ram
- Logic Studio
- A bigger external backup drive for Time Machine


Actually, this really isn't as cheap as sticking with Reaper!!!

[antichef]

yup 2 gigs. For the new hard drive, stick with 5400 RPM - I went with 7200 on mine and it ran very hot and noisy, and eventually seized up and I lost a bunch of stuff. Also, I didn't notice a performance improvement (and truthfully didn't notice a performance problem with 5400)

[tojo]

yo if i replace the ram on mine with 4 gigs from owc, will it void my warranty? Or do i just have to keep the old ram just in case the mac gets wrecked (knock on wood) and then put it back in when sending back for repairs?

[Adam P]

RAM and Harddrives are considered user-replaceable parts on Macbooks and Macbook Pros, and as such, upgrading them yourself won't void your warranty or your AppleCare coverage. If you damage something else in the process of changing them out, that damage won't be covered however.

Doing the upgrades on the Macbooks is a cinch. Takes about 10 minutes, tops, to switch everything over. Here's the easiest way to go about doing it. Buy the new hard drive (its a 2.5" SATA drive, 9mm tall I believe) as well as an external enclosure for the drive (I got a package deal on NewEgg that had an enclosure and 2x1GB sticks of RAM from Crucial). Put the NEW hard drive in the enclosure and connect it to the computer. Use Disk Utility to initialize the drive in the enclosure. Download SuperDuper! and follow the instructions to create a bootable clone on the drive in the enclosure. When its done creating the bootable clone, shut your computer down and reboot it while holding Option. If the bootable clone was created properly, you should have the option of booting off the computer's internal hard drive or from the hard drive in the enclosure. Boot off the one in the enclosure. Everything should appear exactly as it did before. Once you've verified that this is the case, shut the computer down and swap the drives. Put the old hard drive (the one you're pulling out of the computer) into the enclosure, and you now have a handy external hard drive for backups or extra storage.

[ajmauburn]

Go ahead and go to 4 gigs or ram. I bought 2 gigs of ram from Macmacll.com for like fifty bux. It's easy to install, if you didn't know already.

[noisedude]

Originally Posted by ajmauburn

Go ahead and go to 4 gigs or ram. I bought 2 gigs of ram from Macmacll.com for like fifty bux. It's easy to install, if you didn't know already.

I've upgraded to 2gb now, it's the max this Macbook can take according to Apple.

Haven't bought Logic yet because I'm too flaming busy to do any recording!!

[TimOBrien]

(Dont forget you don't have to completely ditch Reaper... there IS a Mac version!)

[JIMBOdrummer]

you can get 4 gigs of ram depending on the comp. I mean technically its like a "dual" 2 gig installation. but u basically get 4 gigs. I'm assuming its kina like RAID if you're familiar.

But ya upgrade your ram. the extra hard drive space won't increase performance. your gona wanna backup to an outboard hard drive so you shouldn't be saving to your comp in the first place so don't get a larger hard drive get a nice outboard drive.

your disk space is like a file cabinet and RAM is like desk space. the more RAM you have the bigger "desk" you have... IE the more programs you can use orrrr the better one program with run...... especially one like logic. also i recommend closing everything while running logic.

[keat_taylor]

if it's not a new macbook, you can upgrade to 4 gigs but the max responsive is like 3.14 gigs of ram so you'd be fine doing one 1gb stick and one 2gb stick.

[chazzyb]

your external drive is firewire 800 to keep up!