VO-BB - 19 YEARS OLD!

[tackerman]

MacBook or MacBook Pro? Boot Camp 1.1 or Parallels Desktop??

I'm trying to keep costs down and operation simple.

Any thoughts from the Mac users on the board? What's the minimum you could buy and still have a satisfactory VO machine? (Memory, speed, etc)

[Deirdre]

Dang-- those black Mac Books are some nifty.

I wonder about the Pro versions-- I mean I wonder if it's worth another thousand bucks or whatever.
The Black or White Mac Books are plenty powerful for audio.

If you're going to be doing video as well, I'd say go for the Pro.
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DBCooperVO.com

[tackerman]

Yup.

I was thinking about one of the black MacBooks w/ beefed up memory.

Video would be nice but not a necessity.

[Jim Barton]

I purchased a white Macbook from MacMall. It has the same specs as the black one for about $150 less than the black. (Intel Core Duo 2GHz, 1GB DDR2, 80GB SATA/100, Intel GMA 950 graphics 64MB, 13.3" TFT 1280x800, SuperDrive(DVD+-R/CD-RW), Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11g WLAN, Bluetooth, Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger) Plus they threw in a b/w laser printer and a cheap 15" case for the macbook. Plus the shipping was free, and no tax was charged.

As far as the debate between Boot Camp and Parallels... I've never used Parallels, but I hear that, since it's a "Virtual" partition, some Windows programs have trouble running. I installed Boot Camp with no problems, followed that with the install of Win XP Pro, also with no problems.

On the Windows side, everything runs just fine. The only problem is the keyboard...since it's a Mac keyboard, there are some things that you can't do right out of the box. The delete key is a Mac delete, ie it's a back space. With a little downloading you can map another key to do true deletion. There's no right-click on the touch pad, so you have to do a shift-f10 move to acheive a right-click. There are probably other little hiccups, but they don't come to mind right now.

I tried a wireless mouse (Logitech V270) and went through three of them before I found one that didn't stall/freeze.

On the Mac side it's more predictable. I'm using an Mbox 1 with ProTools 7.1.1 (?) and it works very nicely. ProTools froze a few times when I first got started, but I think it's because I was recording with too many plug-ins in place. I've since stopped recording with plug-ins, waiting to activate the plugs (compressor and limiter) until after the recording is complete.

The Macbook is extremely quiet. I haven't heard the fan come on once. But the Macbook does run hot. When Apple announced its recall of the iBook batteries I was surprised that they didn't include the MacBook batteries as well.

One thing for users of previous versions of ProTools LE...you have to purchase a $70 upgrade to v.7.1. This also covers whatever Digi plug-ins you may have been running. It does not cover any non-Digi plugs, like WAVES. I now have a $450 bundle of WAVES plugs that I can't use on my new macbook without purchasing a $190 license from WAVES. Bad business.

Anyway, thought you might be interested in this little experience. All in all I love the Macbook. Max out your memory (I got 1 gig...you can get as much as 2 gigs.) Purchasing a black Macbook should be done only for cosmetic purposes. Oh, as far as the Macbook Pro...I think the real difference would be appreciated by graphics people. As far as I can tell there's no difference in anything that affects audio.

Jim

[tackerman]

Hey Jim!

I wondered if you ever got your Mac. Thanks for the detailed response!

Tom

[BenWils]

I agree with DB on the Macbook being enough for audio only.

Jim, not sure if you have checked into your main property settings for the Mac to cure that "no right click" thing. I am not sure if you were talking about only in Bootcamp or not. I know out of the box the Mac Pro (tower)does not have the right click set up on the mouse control. Just some random thoughts.
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Ben


"To be really good at voiceover, you need to improve your footwork and hip snap."

[Jim Barton]

[BenWils]

Ok, sorry not sure what you meant.

Yes, the Mac Pro was not set up with a function for the right click, out of the box. I had to go in and set what the right click function would do.....it was as if it did not have a right click because the mouse is one solid unit with a small scroll in the middle. I changed the settings and now I have a right click.
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Ben


"To be really good at voiceover, you need to improve your footwork and hip snap."

[Deirdre]

You guys do know about Control-click, don't you?
That's the Mac equiv of a right click in the Mac environment.
My Kensington 2-button mouse works like a charm and I love my right-clck now.

About Mac Heat--

I chock mine up-- it's never flat on any surface. I have a little 1-inch square, 6" long rectangle of wood I use to chock up the back. I also have one for the front if I'm making it sweat.
If I'm doing big MP3 conversions or some other kind of pin-the-processor stuff, I sometimes run a little desk fan while the Mac is working. What the hell? It's in here anyway-- the fan.


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DBCooperVO.com

[TC]

A MacBook will be certainly be more than good enough for you to do audio, but you might want to consider some other long-term considerations, especially if you're also going to use it for other purposes. Everything I mention here is dictated by personal taste rather than hard-and-fast rules of what's "good" or "bad," but they're the type of things that sometimes don't get fully considered during the euphoria of the original purchase.

I believe the MacBooks only come with those glossy screens -- a non-issue for some people, but it would drive me batty. You should use them and see how you like the screens.

I'd also go to an Apple Store and get good and acquainted with the keyboards on both models. Again, it's a matter of personal preference, but the keyboards are different, and you may find that one or the other is not to your liking. A friend of mine has an iBook (the MacBook's predecessor), and he grew to hate the plastic-y feel of the thing -- says he always feels like he's using a kids' computer.

And then there's the issue of using a screen that small. I love my 12-inch PowerBook, but I know some people who could never tolerate such a small workspace on their computer. The MacBook Pros have the bigger screens. Use them both and try to work with applications like GarageBand or iMovie that require lots of screen real estate and get a feel for whether you're satisfied using the space you've got.

Also, for what it's worth, I've heard that Boot Camp will probably be built right in to the next release of the Mac OS, which comes out next spring. The belief is that it will operate pretty seamlessly. But that's just what I've heard; I don't know much about it, because I've never used it.

[TC]

[Tom Greenlee]

I have the MacBook Pro 17" , 2.16 Ghz version. I LOVE IT! I've always been a PC user until this purchase, but I don't miss it. The keyboard did take some getting used to, but I've grown accustomed to it and it's like normal now. Bootcamp works flawlessly on my machine. I do all my voice over work on the windows xp side, but everything else I do in Mac. I love the fact that I can boot into either OS. The machine itself is very very quiet. I have no problems with it at all. I believe another difference between the pro and the regular macbook is the number of and types of ports built into the machine.....the pro 17" version has 3 USB 2 ports...1 firewire 400 port and 1 firewire 800 port. The pro does have the glossy screen which I wasn't sure about before I got it....I didn't know if it would be a problem for me or not....but to be honest with you...although it says it is a glossy screen, I notice no reflection or glare from it....I wouldn't call it a glossy screen if I were describing it. I get the same feel from it as I do my work laptop which is non-glossy. I'm one of those people that wouldn't be able to tolerate the smaller screen. I find the 17 inch to be ample screen space and even appears larger than 17 inch to me.
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TG2

"Communication without intelligence is noise; Intelligence without communication is irrelevant."

Gen. Alfred. M. Gray, USMC
Former Commandant of the Marine Corps