apple mac book pro

RobTang

rosiepony2003 wrote: »

thankyou. I will print your advice. All the extras you advise me to get - do I get these from a apple store? How much does an external sound card cost and why does she need extra monitors. Sorry but why will she need a dell u3011 monitor? Doesn't the mac have its own monitor. Sorry I am not very computer literate.

she dones't the u3011 is for people to show off how much money they have / can get their employer to fork out for.
Also the retina's only has 1 normal display out (I dont really could the thunderbolt ports) and im not even sure its hdmi will output the the u3011s native resolution.

I can say for the normal ones but the retina mac books do not have any audio inputs, which is a bit of a problem for audio recording I imagine, thus the need for a external sound card, costs could vary depending on quality.
Or some sort of usb midi input if those are the instruments she's using.

Actually come to think of think the macbooks are probabky a bit naff for this given the extra stuff you need... mac mini or pro would probably be better

WilliamO

I think you also need to clarify, with the teacher and your daughter, in what context do they compose a piece of music? Examples:

Is the teacher playing music on a keyboard via the apple mac and perhaps recording it onto the mac via a mp3 file whereby your daughter is then asked to write down the notes on sheet music and perhaps play them back using the apple mac? - in which case she might not need a mac in order to practise the same piece of music at home.

Is she editing the music?....on a mac? and therefore needs a mac or can she do the editing at home on her windows computer? (if she had a windows computer at home of course).

In other words, what is her role in the composing/writing and what is the teacher's role. It may be a case of the teacher preferring the student to have the same equipment, but is not necessary. Then again it could be they are doing something mac specific? You need to ask the teacher why it is so important for your daughter to have a mac.

WilliamO

tombruton87

rosiepony2003 wrote: »

thankyou. I will print your advice. All the extras you advise me to get - do I get these from a apple store? How much does an external sound card cost and why does she need extra monitors. Sorry but why will she need a dell u3011 monitor? Doesn't the mac have its own monitor. Sorry I am not very computer literate.

she doesn't need these extras for the most part, the extra screens make it easier to work that is all, I would personally say one of those dells is better than 2 1080 23" monitors

The only 2 extras she will need fairly quickly are an external sound card and a pair of decent headphones.

The reason for these being essential are if she wants to use any external inputs or outputs she will need a card, so recording guitar anything like that. The ones you get in a mac just are not designed to do that.

headphones because what comes out a pair of cheap speakers is not what it will actually sound like. Getting decent monitor headphones is much cheaper than getting monitor speakers. If she continues with it long term she will need them at some point.

tombruton87

WilliamO wrote: »

I think you also need to clarify, with the teacher and your daughter, in what context do they compose a piece of music? Examples:

Is the teacher playing music on a keyboard via the apple mac and perhaps recording it onto the mac via a mp3 file whereby your daughter is then asked to write down the notes on sheet music and perhaps play them back using the apple mac? - in which case she might not need a mac in order to practise the same piece of music at home.

Is she editing the music?....on a mac? and therefore needs a mac or can she do the editing at home on her windows computer? (if she had a windows computer at home of course).

In other words, what is her role in the composing/writing and what is the teacher's role. It may be a case of the teacher preferring the student to have the same equipment, but is not necessary. Then again it could be they are doing something mac specific? You need to ask the teacher why it is so important for your daughter to have a mac.

WilliamO

It would appear but I maybe wrong by the OP that she is doing some sort of production work, hence logic.

HDMI will output to to native u3011 resolution. HDMI is essential DVI-D with a few other bits. The thunderbolt ports can be used as mini-dp or adapted to vga or dvi so connectivity is not an option

as mentioned to audio is and no matter if u went with a mac mini or mac pro you still need to fork out some money for a decient sound card

pinkduvetdiva

I use GarageBand to do my songwriting-it came as an app on my MBP ready to install when I bought it.

rosiepony2003

thanks everyone. I will have a word with the person she writes and sings songs with and come back to you. To recap: at moment you are advising me to get a pro mac or mini with sound card and headphones.

tombruton87

no you want a macbook pro, as this will let her take it around id go for retina,

knightstyle

Don't forget to look on the UK Applestore site for refurbished, they really are as new and come with the full g'tee. Or even better can she get an educational discount through college?
You can also get the g'tee and free help extended to 3 years with Applecare but do not buy from Apple, there are several sellers on Ebay for around half the Apple price, make sure you are buying the unopened pack, not a code to get Ebay protection if it does not arrive.
This is posted with my 4 year old 13inch Macbook which has never let me down in spite of traveling all over the place with me. So I feel they are worth paying a bit more for.