The Retina Display Mac will not show the clearest picture with Scratch Live. You will have to adjust the reolution settings in order to get it to look fairly descent.

The Non-Retina Display Macs will not have that issue.

Other than that, most of them will come with the Mavericks Operating System. This OS is new and is not Officially Supported by Serato, but there are people running it, so it should be possible.

It would be best to get one with 10.8.5 instead of Mavericks 10.9 (if possible).

Other than those issues, the Mac Book Pros have all the power you need to run Serato and Video.

Hi Rafael,

Thanks for your reply. Well I do want the most compatible Macbook Pro that will run smooth without any issues. The main use of my computer will be for using it with Serato Scratch Live, so maybe the best thing is to save a little money and buy a refurbished 15.4-inch MacBook Pro Quad-core Intel i7 (NON- retina display). Do you think that would be a smart move? I also wanted to know whether a Solid State Drive or a Serial ATA @ 5400 rpm drive is better? I'm looking at these right now... what do you think would be my best choice?

store.apple.com

Any suggestions Rafael? I really want to buy it today :)

besides that my last question is whether it makes sense to keep the music on a separate hard drive from the serato software... I only ask because sometimes using a separate drive to serve media files help with speed issues but maybe it doesn't matter w/serato..

This is what I would do. Save some $ and get a great machine that will not have the Retina issue.

You can put the Music on any Drive that you would like (Internal or External). They key thing to remember is always leave 15% of the total drive space free. If you do not, the drive will react slow and cause issues.

I just bought the new MAC pro with Retina 1 week ago and installed my SSL - 3 and it works just fine no issues at all

Lenny Bryson: Thats great. Many have reported the program visually not appearing as clear as it does on Non-Retina machines.

I am not sure!!! 1st Mac book for me and just know I am happy with this computer right now.

I'm glad you're happy with your new computer Lenny, but that comment "I am not sure!!" is not so reassuring. Is there any way you can take a screenshot of the graphical interface for Serato Scratch Live and post it online for us so we can see what it looks like? People have been saying the interface does not come in as clear as it does with the non-retina displays. It would really be helpful to see an example!

I just attached two pictures for you to Look at. The reason I said not sure was the fact that I have been using a windows PC for the last year with it and just upgraded. With that being said it was a big improvement over the PC, It took me a month to pull the trigger due to the cost and I did the same thing you are (should I go with a refurbished old style or the new style) I have the same issue that I want to buy the new Rane 64 but now I find out Serato DJ does not support the Denon SC 3900 and now what I have to go to the 68 if I want to continue to use them with my Serato SSL and use MIDI because YES I do need 4 Chanel's and 2 MIC inputs. The best thing I can say is compile as much information and base your decision on that. I hope this helps with your decision. I am sure that either way you will get a great computer.

Lenny

personally, i went with this one a few months back. i'm a mobile DJ, so i added the 3yr accidental coverage to it. when i was making my decision, Serato and the Retina display models were having issues. since i run Serato Video, i couldn't wait for any fixes.

i will say that i am beyond happy with my MacBook Pro
www.microcenter.com

Hi Lenny,

Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately the images are not showing up online. If you still have them, I'd love to see them. You can email them to me at bulletproofmarketing (at) gmail.com.

Hey VJ,

This configuration is pretty close to yours, maybe not as good but pretty close and about $800 less. Think this is a good option?

store.apple.com

looks good. the only thing i would do is add more RAM, but that's about it.
the display on the one you are looking at is slightly better (1680 x 1050) than mine (1440 x 900).
overall, you will be really happy using a MacBook Pro with Serato. I tried with Win7, but it wasn't very stable. not to mention, the annoyance of how USB works, and how if you have multiple devices (i use Dicers, a MIDI mixer, and an ext hard drive), you MUST plug them in the exact same ports every time.

Awesome, I just bought it. Thanks bro! Hopefully it'll run fine on the 4GB ram. :)

congrats! really, it should be fine with the 4GB for now. I do a lot of video editing on this machine, so it helps out.

Sorry just getting back now. I think you will be very happy with this unit. Let us know once you get everything up and running.

Lenny