Here's a to the point primer on buying a Mac for Music Production. This is the most up to date info, as of September 2020.

Given that I just went through the process I thought I'd share this with my readers so here goes. 

For making music some macs are good buys others not so much

First off let's start with the obvious first or most popular choice for DJs producers which is the Mac Book Pro.  Right now it's a good time to buy with the 13 inch sizes just getting refreshed with 10th generation Intel processors and I believe bigger hard drives.

To the me the 16inch is nice but I have very little needs as far as portability so it's not worth paying a premium for. 

What About Apples New ARM Based / Silicon Processors?

That's a fair question but it's still too early. 

1. They aren't out yet and are rumored to be this fall.  

2. Even with the release it will be with the latest OS and you don't want to be an early adopter in the music field with Apple's latest and greatest because music software is not instantly available, tested, and fully ready.

If you're making music you don't want to be an early adopter, you're asking for headaches. And this pertains to software, not hardware. Apple expects the shift to be fully on board with their new processors to take 2 years so if you really need a new mac as I did don't hold out.

My mid 2011 iMac is still going strong but I figured it was better to upgrade now and sell it for some $$ than to keep holding on until it won't run.  Besides the new Apple Credit card allows for interest free monthly payments. 

This aside stick to what's currently for sale, but everything for sale isn't worth buying for music production.  There's a bunch to rule out such as the cheapest and most expensive.

The Macbooks and Macbook Airs are fairly under powered. The iMac and Mac Pros are too damn $$, which basically leaves the iMac, Mac Mini, and Macbook Pro. 

Sticking with what's popular you can't go wrong and save money in the process getting a refurbished Mac Book Pro.

Apple Desktops for Music Production

Right here we have the iMac 27 that just got a reboot and is a great way to end the long running external design as well as the last hoorah with Intel processors. 

The iMac has a lot going for it:

• 10th generation processors
• User friendly memory upgrades
• The Value of an all in one
• Pretty strong GPU (Not that our graphics needs are intense making music)
• Decent hard drive space

While I love the 21.5 inch model, not sure this will get a similar update.  The RAM is not easy to upgrade on your own, and it's out dated. This is not worth purchasing, you're better off getting the 27.

The 1 drawback of the iMac is the lack of Thunderbolt 3/USB-C Ports with only 2 of them. This doesn't seem very future proof but I'm sure it's workable. 

The Mac Mini 2018 - 2020 for Music Production

New documentary called "The Sound of Berlin" is out now.

New York City based House Icon, David Morales calls out Kanye West for stealing one of his bass-lines.

In 1988, Acid House swept Britain - NYTimes w/ the story.

Psyk discusses new alias "MAAN"

"DJ Samuel" aka Sam Paganini shares an early mixtape from the 1990.  Listen on SC.

Young rising star Avision / Anthony Cardinale shares production tips --"His tracks and remixes have been released by such esteemed labels as Intec, On Edge Society, InMotion LTD and Mark Broom's Beardman Records, and supported by the likes of Chris Liebing, Pan-Pot, Joseph Capriati, Ben Sims, Paco Osuna and many more."

And in other news Pioneer and Native Instruments have dropped new stuff.

Competition is always good.  Pioneers release isn't such a big deal - yet another controller in the XDJ line.  This time it's a less costly version of their XDJ-RX.

Native Instruments drops a ton of stuff w/ Traktor 3 coming soon along with updated S2 and S4 controllers.  The S4 comes in at $899 which is less that Pioneers DDJ 1000 and new XDJ RR.  Between these 3 offerings there's a good amount to choose from for the serious DJ who doesn't want to shell out big bucks.

The Traktor S4 MK3 looks interesting!  While full details are limited it looks like it can run as a stand alone mixer which is a win for anyone with a turntable and it can play from IOS with the Traktor DJ app.  However the app has collected dust for a while - to me the question is if you can run 4 tracks with the controller playing from the Traktor DJ app.

Im sure Traktor users are psyched for Traktor 3.0.  I'm more of a Maschine user so I'm hoping a big Maschine update is coming soon.

Let's talk techno samples.  Here are the problems I wanted to solve. Now if you don't have a reason to do this you can end up drowning in near pointless activity.

What I wanted to do was make better use of the samples I do have, pick more specific sounds which will help define the music I make, have it better organized by mood/genre. Organizing by mood/genre is important - for the same reasons you'd organize playlists for a DJ set. Different songs are more appropriate for different parts of the night. Same for samples. The problem with samples is that they aren't organized by energy or feel so you can just end up with a bunch of kicks or hats.  Different kicks are better for different kinds of tracks.  The same applies for bass, lead sounds and so on. 

I also wanted my samples key labeled which makes things sound tighter and more cohesive. And when you get things sounding great at the onset it means less time mixing.  Plus key labeling makes it easier to pick out what samples to use. (I tend to focus around the Key of A or something close to it)

Here we go.

Before I get into these tips let me give you a little back story.

The first sample pack I ever bought was a double data compact disk. This was ages ago and it was by East West which is still around today. However finding usable samples for underground music or techno was not an easy task.

Imo very little was actually good - like 5% at best.

So when modern producers started making packs I found them to be tons better however I'd still use less than half of the pack's content.

More on this in a moment.

Over the years I'd grab packs from beatport when they do really deep Holiday sales - this doesn't mean I'd gorge myself on them.

To date I have maybe 20 or so packs in total including 5 (Maschine) Native Instruments Expansions. The NI ones are quite good BTW.

Anyhow it was time for me to start getting more particular about my sounds so it was time to get them organized.

What I did was make one folder called "select samples" - this folder would Be a home for the good stuff I'd use.

So, I went through each pack and searching for kicks loops hi hats synths riffs noises and so on. I then put them in folders.

From there it was easy to find gaps in my sonic palette. To fill those gaps I signed up to Splice for $8 to get more interesting usable stuff.

The beauty of Splice is you only get the samples you hand pick - I have about 79 so far.

You want to organize your sounds so they represent the frequencies in a club track. This way when your selecting stuff you'll have the spectrum covered. Now leads and melodic content may come from synths and stuff - I'll get to that.

Anyhow once your done and trust me this can be a never ending task, but once an initial pass has been done you'll want to key label your sounds.

I have an old copy of Mixed In Key version 5 that was up to the task. All I needed it for was to key label my samples - the ones that were missing this that is.

The benefit of having your stuff labeled by key is that when you get a groove going and then reach for your keys for a melody or bass line you know what key to play in.

Synth presents are another animal to organize - honestly I have yet to go there, but that's next on the list.

In short a good first pass at this would be to:

• Hand pick the samples you actually do lik
• Categories them into folders - kick, hat, ride, bass, top loop etc
  • You could make sub folders as needed (Peak hour kick) but it might not make sense to go too crazy on this
• Spot categories of sounds your weak in - for me this is lead sounds, plucks, noises, and metallic percussive sounds - use the image below to see what "space" your techno samples occupy.  Tracks that sounds "big" and "full" tend to fill out the entire spectrum.
• Keep in mind this is an on going task that will evolve over time. Don't let this become overly time consuming.  Use a timer.  This is a way you get smarter and more precise about the sounds you do choose to use.
• Organizing is helpful but organizing is not producing

Beatport

Splice (Pretty solid for shopping techno samples by label (Sample Magic, Audio Tent) or by artist collection. Remember you can download them individually and combine them in your own sample packs or re-packs.

Raw Loops (A Personal Favorite)

Native Instruments Expansions - also quite especially if you're using Machine or Komplete Control

Samples from Mars - great for samples of analog gear

Personally I don't go out lookin for free stuff.  Anything worthwhile isn't typically free. 

Designing your own samples for techno is a another story soon to be covered. 

In the meantime have a look at these free samples I've put out in the past.