Best laptop compatible with Apollo X4

[Mark Hatcher]

I gave up trying to get a pc to work with my Apollo quad. It’s obvious I have to go with a Mac. I’d like to stick with a 14” laptop but I don’t know much about Macs.
Could someone please give me some advise?

Thanks!
Mark

[jim1960]

Originally Posted by Mark Hatcher

I gave up trying to get a pc to work with my Apollo quad. It’s obvious I have to go with a Mac. I’d like to stick with a 14” laptop but I don’t know much about Macs.
Could someone please give me some advise?

Thanks!
Mark

The 14" MacBook Pro is a beast and can handle a ton of native plugins should you run out of dsp on your Apollo. The base 16gb of ram should be enough unless you use a bunch of virtual instruments. I don't know what your main drive needs are but I'd upgrade from the 512gb.

[martingitdave]

I purchased a 16” MacBook Pro M1 Pro earlier this year thinking I would need the bigger screen and power. The new MacBook Air M2 (just released) would have been a cheaper and probably better fit. If you need the larger screen, get it. Otherwise the new Air is probably the best bet.

[ChuckS]

I had been using Windows for my recording setups until I got a Metric Halo ULN-8. I gave up trying to use the ULN-8 (in stand-alone mode) with Windows and picked up a 16" Macbook Pro (16G ram and 1TB SSD) last week. Seems to have solved my problems. B&H Photo has $200 off the 14" Macbook Pro (16G ram and 1TB SSD) right now.

[Mark Hatcher]

Originally Posted by jim1960

The 14" MacBook Pro is a beast and can handle a ton of native plugins should you run out of dsp on your Apollo. The base 16gb of ram should be enough unless you use a bunch of virtual instruments. I don't know what your main drive needs are but I'd upgrade from the 512gb.

Thanks jim1960, No virtual instruments. It's really for sound samples of my guitars.

Mark

[Mark Hatcher]

Originally Posted by martingitdave

I purchased a 16” MacBook Pro M1 Pro earlier this year thinking I would need the bigger screen and power. The new MacBook Air M2 (just released) would have been a cheaper and probably better fit. If you need the larger screen, get it. Otherwise the new Air is probably the best bet.

Thanks! I’ll read up on the new Air

Originally Posted by ChuckS

I had been using Windows for my recording setups until I got a Metric Halo ULN-8. I gave up trying to use the ULN-8 (in stand-alone mode) with Windows and picked up a 16" Macbook Pro (16G ram and 1TB SSD) last week. Seems to have solved my problems. B&H Photo has $200 off the 14" Macbook Pro (16G ram and 1TB SSD) right now.

Thanks. 16G ram with 1TB SSD sounds like it will do the trick.

[martingitdave]

Originally Posted by Mark Hatcher

Thanks! I’ll read up on the new Air



Thanks. 16G ram with 1TB SSD sounds like it will do the trick.

Just to confirm, I did 16gb and 1TB on my M1 16”. I use 32gb for my windows laptops for engineering. Evidently not needed for the Mac and music.

[ChuckS]

Originally Posted by martingitdave

I purchased a 16” MacBook Pro M1 Pro earlier this year thinking I would need the bigger screen and power. The new MacBook Air M2 (just released) would have been a cheaper and probably better fit. If you need the larger screen, get it. Otherwise the new Air is probably the best bet.

For Mark's intended use I'd agree that the Macbook Air (M1 or M2, 16GB ram, 1TB SSD) would be plenty powerful and cheaper than a Macbook Pro. I'm not overly familiar with the laptop line, but I believe the Macbook Pro has a bigger screen, faster SSD, more thunderbolt ports, and has the M1 Pro chip. The Macbook Pros also have a SD card port and a dedicated HDMI port. They are however, bigger and heavier than the Air's.

I went with the 16" Macbook Pro because a large laptop screen is better for me for field recording (I may have up to 12 channels being recorded and displayed on my DAW as well as having my audio interface console running) and when at home I like to connect the laptop to a 2nd monitor as well as to my audio interface.

[runamuck]

Originally Posted by Mark Hatcher

I gave up trying to get a pc to work with my Apollo quad. It’s obvious I have to go with a Mac. I’d like to stick with a 14” laptop but I don’t know much about Macs.
Could someone please give me some advise?

Thanks!
Mark

Hi,

What have you discovered that makes it obvious that your Apollo won't work with your PC. I have one and all is well.

Jim

[Mark Hatcher]

Originally Posted by runamuck

Hi,

What have you discovered that makes it obvious that your Apollo won't work with your PC. I have one and all is well.

Jim

I bought a Dell 15 XPS because it had the power and Thunderbolt. I have never gotten it to work well which was exasperated by the lack of UA support for PC.
Meanwhile I'm seeing others using Macs without any problems.
So I'd say the discovery is UA is simply designed for Macs and has little interest in getting around to pcs.

I'm glad to hear you are happy with the performance you are getting with a pc. I'm sure you are more adept than I have been getting around the obstacles. I, like most, give up. I've got guitars to build.

[jim1960]

Originally Posted by Mark Hatcher

I, like most, give up.

I don't blame you. PCs can be a PITA sometimes. Weird problems pop up and tracking down the cause can be infuriating. I use both and for a long time preferred PCs but in the past few years I've had a change of heart.

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by Mark Hatcher

Thanks jim1960, No virtual instruments. It's really for sound samples of my guitars.

Mark

Mark are you doing video demos as well, or likely will do that in the near future ?

So with the M2 air-- in more or less the same configuration of 16 GB RAM and 1 TB storage (which as others , I would also recommend ) You will save about $400 with base model Air and about $300 with Air with the upgraded GPU core count to 10 again (better for video rendering) .

Probably the major difference between the MB-Air and MB-Pro is that the Pro comes with a dedicated charger port and 4 TB ports the Air has to use one of only two TB ports to charge....Am I correct in thinking the Apollo connects via TB. so with the Air that leaves only the one that you have to use when charging peripheral (maybe not a big deal ??)

[Mark Hatcher]

Originally Posted by KevWind

Mark are you doing video demos as well, or likely will do that in the near future ?

So with the M2 air-- in more or less the same configuration of 16 GB RAM and 1 TB storage (which as others , I would also recommend ) You will save about $400 with base model Air and about $300 with Air with the upgraded GPU core count to 10 again (better for video rendering) .

Probably the major difference between the MB-Air and MB-Pro is that the Pro comes with a dedicated charger port and 4 TB ports the Air has to use one of only two TB ports to charge....Am I correct in thinking the Apollo connects via TB. so with the Air that leaves only the one that you have to use when charging peripheral (maybe not a big deal ??)

Thanks for your input KeyWind,

You are right that the Apollo connects via thunderbolt. I’m leaning toward to MacPro because of the extra ports including the SD and video ports. Plus the slightly larger screen.
I have been doing video as well. I’ve been so concentrated on just getting the Apollo to work that I haven’t really thought through the other possibilities that might open up with the right choice.
I’ll need to explore what else I may want out of this new purchase.

Thanks to everyone for your helpful remarks. You’ve gotten me to take a broader view on what I’m hoping to accomplish here and do a better job determining my needs!

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by Mark Hatcher

Thanks for your input KeyWind,

You are right that the Apollo connects via thunderbolt. I’m leaning toward to MacPro because of the extra ports including the SD and video ports. Plus the slightly larger screen.
I have been doing video as well. I’ve been so concentrated on just getting the Apollo to work that I haven’t really thought through the other possibilities that might open up with the right choice.
I’ll need to explore what else I may want out of this new purchase.

Thanks to everyone for your helpful remarks. You’ve gotten me to take a broader view on what I’m hoping to accomplish here and do a better job determining my needs!

Just to follow up a bit. If you are going to do video
Another plus for the MBP is the the additional TB/USB-C ports or the HDMI out for another display
Now one can certainly edit audio video and photos on the 14" ( and it may be that I am just spoiled with large displays ) But once you start doing on something like like a 27" screen and up you will not want to be limited to 14

I would suggest (even if just for future reference ) the ASUS line of displays for moderately priced high quality display

[Mark Hatcher]

Originally Posted by KevWind

Just to follow up a bit. If you are going to do video
Another plus for the MBP is the the additional TB/USB-C ports or the HDMI out for another display
Now one can certainly edit audio video and photos on the 14" ( and it may be that I am just spoiled with large displays ) But once you start doing on something like like a 27" screen and up you will not want to be limited to 14

I would suggest (even if just for future reference ) the ASUS line of displays for moderately priced high quality display

Thanks KevWind! I’ll check them out.

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