Recording Forum

[BlackHatHunter]

I've been thinking about getting a used Mac to use solely w/ garageband. It will not be used for anything else.

What minimum hardware requirements should I be looking for in terms of CPU and RAM?

Looking for real world knowledge here, from those of you who use this stuff.

Thanks!

[The EAKLE]

I've got a Macbook Pro with 8G RAM and it's never had a single issue running Garage band. I was told 4 Gigs might not be enough for recording and producing, so i sprang for 8 and it seems to be more than enough for Garage band. But i mainly use Studio One for recording, not garage band.

[BlackHatHunter]

Thanks for the info, I appreciate it very much.

[mike.sartori]

It depends on what your recording plans are. CPU and RAM doesn't come into play too much if you are only doing projects with a handful of tracks. Do you plan to make multi-track productions with live drums and lots of effects? Or are you planning to do simple demo tracks. For the latter, any intel based Mac will do, for the former, I'd try to find something with a quad-core processor; ram is not as important, you can upgrade it for cheap.

I'd suggest looking at used iMacs. You got a lot more value for your money than with the laptops. Also, if you can find one with a FireWire port, that will greatly expand your options when it come to purchasing an interface.

[BlackHatHunter]

Thanks Mike!

[WRGKMC]

Look at the program specifications for minimum Hardware requirements.

The minimum hardware to be able to record in general is actually quite low. It goes up depending on the DAW program requirements and CPU consumption for plugins. I been recording digital since 1995 and was able to record audio on very old computers. Its not the tracking that takes horsepower, its the mixing toos that suck CPU power. Also if you are running 32 bit, having more than 4G memory does nothing. 32Bit only uses 4G max so if you have more memory it never gets utilized. Anything over 4G requires 64 bit.

Interfaces may require minimum computer hardware specs too so make your decisions based on those two items then up it a bit so you arent slogging along when you need the horsepower. DAW hardware minimums insure the program will install and function, but you want a bit more so you arent sitting there twiddleing your thumbs when heavy CPU tasks are performed like mixing down.

[Zooey]

Every Mac released since 2005 meets the minimum requirements to run the version of Garageband/iLife that was current at the time of release of that Mac.