Computer for University?

[jamiecockrill]

My Brother's off to Uni in September and he's doing a music course of some description. They seem to be quite big on Apple Mac's up there, but I've never really got along with the darn things.

Anyway, I was just looking for some advice on what perhaps he should be thinking of, in terms of a computer which will allow him to mix and master his recordings himself (the recording itself in done in a Pro studio). He's quite keen on a notebook, so that he can take it to and from the studio easily, plus obviously some sort of external HDD. He's on a pretty tight budget, so the best Apple he's likely to be able to afford is the 13" MacBook. However I haven't a clue about those things and I'm not entirely sure if it'll run the software he's likely to use.

If anyone out there has done a course with a heavy emphasis on recording, it'd be great to hear from you! As far as I've gathered the software is all site-licensed, so the cost of that is not a problem.

Cheers

[asanders]

For recording, mixing and mastering there is no doubt that mac is the way to go.

I use a MacBook and they are fantastic! Good value, powerful and very portable. The only problem he is going to come across is software issues because all the current pro audio packages such as pro-tools, logic and cubase havent released an intel mac version. This means they will still run but not nativly so the performance wont be great. If he gets a 120gig Hard drive he might not need an external, depends how much he does but any fire-wire or USB 2 one should be ok. The studio he uses will probably run G5s and the nearest laptop to that are the old G4 powerbooks which you cannot buy new anymore but they are still excellent machines.

Hope that helps!

Adam

[jamiecockrill]

Hey Adam,

Thanks for that, I'll keep my eyes peeled on the 'bay for G4 Powerbooks I guess, otherwise he's gonna have to get saving and cut back on the beers! I've gotta admit those MacBooks do look rather nice.

[Nick F]

Make sure you check the Apple education store and the refurb store for some great bargins.