iMac for high school student

[JFreak]

I would take i7 with 8GB rather than i5 with 16GB

[B4ldypaul]

Hi. We found a used 2012 27' locally for a good price. It's the i5 model, but seems to be running the software just fine for the time being. We can always add memory later. I've got him set up with a student licence etc., and I'll get him to sign up to the forum. Thanks.

[JFreak]

I'm sure it is fair enough... just resist updating to latest and greatest as it is (let's face it) already an old computer

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by B4ldypaul

Hi. We found a used 2012 27' locally for a good price. It's the i5 model, but seems to be running the software just fine for the time being. We can always add memory later. I've got him set up with a student licence etc., and I'll get him to sign up to the forum. Thanks.

A very useful thing you can do is encourage you son to read though the Pro Tools installation guide and do everything listed there under systems optimization. That can make a huge difference to how reliably Pro Tools runs, and is part of being a competent Pro Tools user.

If he has not already found this he should look up beginners tutorials on YouTube showing things he wants to do and follow those along, its a much more effective way to learn than trying to guess your way through stuff with such a complex piece of software.

The Pro Tools Reference Guide is huge but is a searchable PDF already installed on the Mac... and if he reads key parts of that (e.g. track types, signal flow stuff is a good read for anybody) he'll know more useful stuff than many Pro Tools users.

And the final piece of advice is if you son has a problem he should start at the "help us help up" link up top of each DUC page and try basic trouble shooting there if it seems relevant but don't wait too long before asking here (and supplying the expected info).

[JFreak]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

And the final piece of advice is if you son has a problem he should start at the "help us help up" link up top of each DUC page

+1 thumbs up for this

[B4ldypaul]

Thanks, I’ll point him towards the help pages on the forum. We’ve been working through the optimisation stuff (last night we ran an Ethernet cable so Wi-fi could be turned off).
He’s a couple of years away from a college course, so the Mac will hopefully serve him until then. I’ve still got a controller keyboard and audio interface/microphone to buy - that’ll need to wait until Christmas! He seems to be enjoying the research and it’ll give him time to work out exactly what he needs.