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Since I'm brand new to the audio post game and PT is the industry standard, I've decided to purchase MacBook Pro + PT9 in the near future. I have about $1800 to work with, so a loaded 13" MBP seems the way to go, budget-wise, but I haven't heard much about editing with this particular model around here.

I'm curious to hear some of your experiences with this setup if any of you have any. Are there any hiccups? Does it get hot or sluggish when working with video? Anything you can share would be helpful. This will be my first Mac so I'm just trying to be cautious and still have more research to do. I'm hoping this will be enough to get started on my mixing and editing to picture skills.

Specs via Apple.com:

  • 2011 MBP
  • 2.7GHz dual-core Intel Core i7
  • 8GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x4GB
  • 500GB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm

PT9 Compatibility via AVID: "17-inch, 15-inch, and 13-inch aluminum "Unibody" models with Core 2 Duo "Penryn" processors." (Doesn't list any other 13" models.)

Will this setup work? I'm itching to get my hands dirty! Thanks in advance!

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IMHO, any macbook from the past 4 years or so would be fine for sound editing purposes. As long as the hardware you buy will be compatible with the software you intend to get (check out the compatibility section on the digidesign website), then i think you can save some dollars that could be well spent elsewhere.

A few things to think about:

  • Do you really need a macbook? imacs tend to have more screen real estate (i felt like the hunchback of Notre Dame, mixing on my 13 inch macbook) and lower price tags.

  • While a new mac will come with a warranty and be nice and shiny and new; a secondhand mac will have a much lower price tag, but may not carry a warranty. I'd recommend scoping out refurbished macs from reputable sellers. The apple store, powermax and mac of all trades are good places to start. These often come with shorter warranties, but there are options to extend them.

I used to cut and mix without a care in the world on my old macbook (not even pro!) that i bought refurbished in 2009. Although the lack of firewire did annoy me towards the end. My point is that, unless you're running a ridiculous amount of RTAS plugs, or have 50+ tracks running in PT9, the new fancy processors won't benefit you all that much. And the money you save could go toward a better set of monitor speakers, a mic, or an all-important backup drive.

Happy shopping!

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Plenty of power!

You will want an external hard drive and monitor.

The thunderbolt port is a good investment for future interfaces.

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You will have no problems at all. I run 96 kHz, 24 bit sessions, and up till last month ran them on a standard 2.1 GHz MacBook.

I now have a 13" MacBook Pro which also takes everything in its stride. Every HD session that I have wanted to work at home on has worked reliably.

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