back to the home studio business!

[fdelorme]

After a hiatus if several years, I am back to the music business for pleasure.

I used to have my home studio built around a Powermac and an old version of PT.

I would like to update the hardware part. But, as the first time, this is quite overwhelming! At that time, I had a mentor that guided me with all my purchases to make sure all was consistent.

Should I go with a used Mac Pro? (seems to be the standard nowadays, base on what I can read here). And which version of PT should I go with, given the new releases?

Thanks in advance for your suggestions or relevant links.

Francois

[Craig F]

The one knock I'll give an old Mac Pro is lack of Thunderbolt, they're are some nice things coming interface wise on TB.
But that as a lot to do with what you want to do, so how/what do you want to do? (record real instrument [and how many at once] or are you more VI based)

[Darryl Ramm]

Another issue with an old Mac Pro is the motherboard SATA is only SATA II, which becomes a real issue with modern SSDs (and why would you use anything besides SSDs?). And that performance tesnd to affect everything, booting, backups, Pro Tools session capacity, etc. So if you go the old Mac Pro route just plan on adding a PCIe SATA III card to connect the SSDs to.

And if you mean used newer trashcan style Mac Pro, that is an option as well, they have superfast internal PCIe based SSD, and thunderbolt. But all IO expansion is going to typically end up being via an external thunderbolt dock, which can be a pain in the ass.

Depending on what you are doing, and if portability is appealing, don't discount a Mac Book Pro Retina.

[JFreak]

+1 for the retina MBP.

My mobile rig is built around the then top-of-the-line late-2013 rMBP (16GB memory, 1TB storage) and it works wonderfully with HD|native ThunderBolt and my trusty old HD interfaces. I expect this to last many future software upgrades too. Internal drive is so wicked fast I never even think about connecting external drives for any other task than backing up stuff. This is truly great.

[fdelorme]

Thanks a lot for all these good comments. I conclude from your comments that I should not go the Mac Pro route but rather the Macbook Pro Retina option, although I suspect it will be a lot more costly than an old Mac Pro (but perhaps I should see that as an investment).

I do mainly electronic music (synths mainly) and no live or acoustic recording whatsoever. Portability is not a issue, the studio is located in a small bedroom.

Is there an optimum requirement over let say a 5-year span for a rMBP?

Thanks again.

Francois

[JFreak]

rMBP cannot be upgraded later, so you better invest in fastest CPU out there, 16GB memory, and as large an internal SSD storage you can afford. You will thank yourself later if you buy a top-of-the-line laptop now.

[bangbangbang]

I'd like to do home studio business,
how can I do it ?

[JFreak]

Originally Posted by bangbangbang

I'd like to do home studio business,
how can I do it ?

Take all your money, invest in a set of very expensive gear, expect nothing in return

[Darryl Ramm]

You forgot... spend all your time getting it to work.

[albee1952]

If Mac is your preference, I would consider LAST year's Mini i7quad core(an apple store refurb can be a good deal on a great little computer). Regarding making money here, I found out the way to make a small fortune in the studio biz.....start with a large fortune...... I also figured out how to double my money at the casino. I fold it in half, stick it back in my pocket and go home