Computer for recording

[LisaL]

I’m thinking of picking up a Mac mini so I can use GarageBand fur recurring. The iPad is too cumbersome and I need it for sheet music.
I’m thinking of a Mac mini. The new one only has 8 gb ram to start which seems ridiculous in 2023.
Is that going to be enough to use?
I don’t think garage band is too heavy of a program but I have used it too much to really know.

 

[happyrat1]

I just picked up the M2 512 Gig model with 8 gigs of RAM and it seems to run Logic Pro X just fine.

Mind you I haven't really pushed a lot of soft synths but importing and playing a 16 track MIDI version of a 4 minute song did not seem to tax The default GM soundset at all.

It does have a nasty habit of freezing or losing mouse control every once in a while and the USB in general seems to "lose" track of random devices after it's gone into sleep mode.

I'm also not too thrilled with the way MIDI devices are set up in the first place but I've made my commitment.

Gary

 

[Biggles]

The starter Mini has 8Gb and 256Gb but it is easy to spend far more adding more RAM and onboard storage, a basic £650 > £1250 when the RAM is upped to 16Gb and internal drive to 1Tb.

Our 10 year iMac has 16Gb RAM and a 2Tb drive of which 650Gb has been used so that may help you in deciding the spec.

We upped the spec to cater for Video Editing which is far more demanding than Audio only and it handles HD and 4k video files with ease.

 

[ecoutezpourentendre]

In my experience, the use of plugins and vst’s generally are the cause for computer lag when recording into a DAW. And the number of tracks will affect computer performance as well. 8 gigs is the new minimum for sure… but will run Garageband adequately. The new versions of Garageband and Logic are filled with bells and whistles which clearly prefer ”better” computer.

I continue to use a 2010 iMac with maxed out ram [16gig] for digital multitrack recording with Logic 9.

The macMini should be fine at its base config, but always nice to have the extra ram if you can fit it into your budget.

PEACE

 

[62stratcat]

I have a MacBook Pro with the M1 processor and 8GB of RAM and have not had any issues running Logic Pro. I also run Pro Tools without any issues also. You will love the Mac Mini.