will they let you run an older OS on it? cause i wouldn't buy it if not. many mixers are incompatible still.

It’s a beast, already overkill for what you’re describing. I don’t believe you’d see much of a difference, while DJing, between the base model and a completely optioned out one, at least for a long while.

However, if you edit video seriously, at all. You’d see the difference pretty quick. If you can afford it, I’d take the 32gb option – and the 8gb card is only $100 more than the 4gb (in your case I would NOT get the integrated option), fairly worth it since we're already hemorrhaging money, right?

Since none of this can be added later, if you’re looking to future proof, I’d do it. Don’t jump till you know Catalina won’t bork your hardware.

Make sure you leave room in your budget for the warranty, you won’t be servicing this one yourself.

Spot on you guys, thanks. Yeah future-proofing was kind of important to me, I'll be retiring my 2011 17" which was maxed out back then and still solid today.

What do you think delivers more bang for the buck, in terms of Future Proofing and video performance: $400 for 32GB RAM or $100 for the 8GB Graphics?

Sexy specs on this new MacBook Pro

I would do both

Let the hemmorrhaging commence!!

Yup... LOL

The one I specced out to replace my 2012 was $3200 before tax and applecare..

Core i9 is overkill but 32GB system RAM and the video RAM bump to 8GB is a no brainer. The baseline 1TB SSD in the i9s is fine for OS and just have to have the library on an external like most people have anyway.

Considering the 2011/2012 still run 1080p like a champ with MixEmergency you should have 0 problems what so ever.

I'd suggest going with a TB3 dock though to avoid any bus weirdness with the T2 chip which MAY be better on this model.

I gotta say, they might have given an apple-tax break on the SSDs (under a TB at least), but the margins on RAM are alive and well. When you mentioned “bang for the buck” I noticed they’re actually charging $400 for 16GB MORE ram. Strangely enough, if you bought the higher spec, adding 4GB of video ram (for $100), cost the same as adding 4GB of normal ass RAM – i.e. $400 for 16GB MORE ram. So, yeah, that’s kinda bonkers.

But yeah, if you want to get a 7-year run out of this one, might need those spendy gigga bits. Damnit.

Also: I hadn’t noticed, they axed the integrated GPU option entirely – they all have separate GPUs now. Cool.


Goal is -1ms latency. Mixing from the future.

It's still there:

"Apple is, of course, still including integrated Intel graphics (Intel UHD Graphics 630) and employing automatic graphics switching to maximize battery life."

arstechnica.com

www.apple.com

Oh for sure, but everything gets an actual GPU now, nothing with just integrated graphics (like on some older entry level 15"s) this might have been the case before, but haven't really kept up on the specs of those computers since they were too depressing to consider.

The 16” has me wondering if I can stomach spending $3,000+ on a laptop (Can’t! lol) I absolutely don’t need it, actually, none of us do. But damn, such an improvement.

I Wunder why you wanna update if your 17" MPB is still SOLID
If it aint broke, why fix it?

One thing i hate about apple is proprietary and lack of expandability
That to me is greed, you're pretty much stuck with what you buy.
If we all boycotted their products for just 1 year, then maybe they would learn their lesson
Its proprietary chargers, proprietary headphone jacks, proprietary ports, or shall we say, not the standard, inability to add ram, or swap your HD, and younknow what,
We all buy into it, year after year, well not me, yet

Yes it's solid, but not without effort. This summer I was having daily crashes in Serato due to heat. I had to disassemble the whole thing to re-paste the tiny cooling system under the logic board. That will be the last big project I do on ol' Betsy. It still runs hot even with smc fan control blasting my ears with fan noise

Doesn't it run cooler?

Good day Gentlemen-
Great discussion here, being that I’m in the market for Mac, just wondering if all the kinks got worked out with the Catalina program. Currently running DJ Pro at a basic rate on a 2011 MacBook Pro 17”. Im also afraid of the crashing.

Doesn’t really matter Serato’s GUI will still be glitchy as fuck. I think they wrote the program on an old Macintosh computer. The one with the floppy drive lol.

Most of us do not buy into it every year, the smart ones hold on 6-7 years on laptop (because it still works just fine) or 2-5 years on phones.

Hate it or not, nothing in the same price range does the same throughput as a Macbook Pro and that insane onboard RAM and storage, so you either are ok with it or you move on. Yeah, it's pricey, but I've gotten more than 7 years out of mine doing 1080p music videos on it week in and out. I can't recall the last time my PC laptops or desktops made it to year 5 without major overhauls needed.

Actually, lots of people have been soft boycotting since 2016, it’s pretty standard advice to stay put, or buy 2015 or older. The BEST MacBook evar had already been made, but now there’s this one, it’s pretty clear they’ve learned something. And if it’s what it looks like, it’s the best serato laptop you can buy (and still don’t need). The 2019 13” MBP benchmarks are pretty fly as well (but still butterfly keyboard :( best to wait on that)

There’s a lot left over to complain about: no USB-A or SD, non-upgradeable, touchbar is meh, etc… The keyboard was a massive question mark for reliability before. Potentially, they’ve fixed it. That’s the biggest of deals for people that want to live that 7-year lappy life.

Also: USB-C IS a standard port, which can power the laptop from both sides, that’s convenient. It could also fully power plenty of smaller controllers if anyone wanted to start making that happen, but they’re not. USB-C is good, and we should want it in our hardware. RIP magsafe.


pour one out for a true solder.


Fingers crossed, wait for the reviews. Ars Technica usually includes thermal stats.


For SDJ, yeah, for your hardware/controller, maybe...gonna need to google-dive for that.


Bro, just use library view! Mans waveforms will never make him happy.


Popn’ is right, per usual, my MBP is 7 years old and still can rip. I am also very smart.

www.ifixit.com

they're doing a teardown today - so far so good.

the only thing that does not attract is that it does not carry usb ports because they were removed, something very important for a dj and has a perfect operation between hardware and software, I do not recommend any with only usb-c ports, it is only a personal opinion, however powerful whatever, then come the problems and complaints

FWIW USB-A is slow, finicky, and old AF. Rightfully, it should die. Apple was a bit over their skis 3-4 years ago, but USB-C has worked and does work. For the majority of people, you only need to replace a cord, and you’re done. Again, most DJs I see gigging nowadays, are already on USB-C MacBooks. It’s fine.

We might want to stop being so dramatic about the loss of USB-A, it’s certainly not worth going back to windows for.

Once you grab a thunderbolt dock you'll never want to go back..

Hey have any of you heard of the store, Expercom .com?

I stumbled across them trying to find a price break on the MBP16, and they are selling for ~$200 less on their site. Right off the bat, that's kind of big red flag for me, but I did some digging and found:

1) A+ on BBB
2) Strong reviews on Yelp etc. with the only negative reviews referring to their repair shop. All 5 stars for new Apple purchases
3) I called Apple and they confirmed Expercom's claim that they are a "Premier Partner", so, that's something
4) I called Expercom and they said that most Mac sales just drop ship from Apple, but some custom orders will be done through their shop, such as RAM upgrades using Expercom chips (huh?) instead of Apple chips for cost savings.


That last one freaked me out a bit, using off-brand chips. Also I've never heard of them. I figure as long as they're drop-shipping straight from Apple it might be a win. Has anyone ordered from them before?

Man, is $200 worth your piece of mind?

If you're gonna do 3rd party like B&H or some other big operation I'd wait a few weeks to a month to see.

Also the RAM is part of the logic board, I sure as hell don't think anyone is adding or removing anything legitimately. Maybe that's old verbiage that applies to older or different models.

Watchwww.youtube.com <- aint no one upgrading the memory post market unless you have some insane fabrication skills

No hardware, controllers, mixer have always been connected by USB to the computer, in addition to connecting hard drives, pendrives that you need an adapter, is that an advance or a delay ... for the djs it is not a good idea

I have a newer 15 Inch macbook pro that only has thunderbolt 3 ports. I love it. All i did was buy new Chroma cables for my controller and got new cables for my 2 external hard drives. no adapters needed. The setup is clean and very fast.

I've always used a Macbook Pro 13-inch. I just bought a new 13-inch less than 2 weeks ago, so it's in the return period. Should I return it and go for the new 16-inch so that I have the better keyboard?

Not only better keyboard but
Way bigger screen which is very nice if you do any phot. Video or audio editing

and a REAL ESC key!

Tough choice Mike, the 16” MacBook complicates things. I also prefer the smaller form factor, and the 16” suggest we could see a redesign shortly – I’d hope by this spring. I took a gander at the 16” on Friday, keyboard is nice – different enough to matter. More screen for the same space is nice, but it’s still a bit large for my usage. And it’s +$3000 if you want 32gb of ram.

In the case that there IS a 14” MBP coming, you might feel shortchanged. Honestly, if you don’t mind the butterfly keyboard, it’s a nice machine, but I do worry about the longevity of the keyboard (and the computer by extension).

Apple hasn't promised the updated keyboard on any other line and it would be dumb if they did because it would tank 13” sales, but the 15” (now 16) traditionally gets the first redesign. If you can wait, I would bet it’s coming in 2020.

www.macrumors.com

Like clockwork.

I'm torn. I went into Best Buy. They had the 16 inch on display. It seems so huge next to the 13.3. I am used to the smaller form factor. I don't do video. I run Serato for audio only. Maybe I should wait for the 13.3 (or 14 inch) with the better keyboard. The big display was pretty though. Decisions, decisions...-

I'm going to wait for the smaller version myself. I never liked the 15" models so I'm sure the 16" won't be for me either. a 13/14 would be ideal for portability.

I would take a 16” or 17”
I do audio editing for a living, pro tools, logic

I guess it's all about personal preference. I am used to the smaller and I have decided to wait as well.

With smaller bezels the current 13" body can easily be pushed to 14" for display. For smaller than that you're gonna need to to look at the Air moving forward.

This has happened with all of the Apple devices at this point.

Now if only they can squeeze in a dedicated GPU into the 13” or 14” body

^^This!

The expectation of an improved 13” is going to slow down sales until they give it up. This thread is more or less proof it’s going to happen. Do we believe in Apple again? My guess is the 16” is selling like crazy due to pent up demand, people that don’t even need it, want it. Again, this thread.

They need to get over the butterfly keyboard ASAP. Can’t wait for 15” retinas w/ busted out-of-warranty spacebars to hit CL for cheap; that’s gonna be a great plex server.

Let’s all be team players and NOT complain about that bezel. If there’s some “bezelgate” BS, it’ll delay a 13” redesign. F that.


It’s never happened, high hopes this. I certainly wouldn’t hold out for it, the “smaller” macbook has never had anything BUT integrated GPUs (which have become shockingly adequate, honestly). If you need the video card, just buy the 16”.

Again, a good time to note, we really don’t need this kind of performance to run humble ol’ Serato. My MacBook has half the single-thread speed of a 16” and I can mix 4-decks with minimum latency and no drop outs. Nobody’s computer is holding them back. Except maybe Tecniq, man needs that next level performance power.

If everything goes well I'm buying a 15" 2015 for a grand tomorrow, not sure if it's too old for that money though...

I've actually been holding on for that 16" but in the end I found it's a lot of money for just a computer and you should go for 32 GB RAM if you want to pass the test of time, that's above 3000, it's crazy if you don't make a living of it or are supa-rich :)

Does someone know if you can add more than 16 GB RAM to a 2015?

16GB is the max

I think the 2018s were the first model you could even get to 32GB on, and now they went full on the 64GB the year after!

Correct

Thanks guys just hope it last some years doing what I do: plain club mixing with T's and an SL2, also an mc4000 as a backup or when tired :) no video here, what I want to try and buy if it sounds good to me is p'n't and I heard that sucks your processor power should a 2015 be enough for all that?

That's not true. My 2011 MBP could handle Serato with PnT, Ableton Live (big project with a lot of clips) + NI Maschine software all at the same time with no problems.

I brought it up to 16GB ram ok... but you were talking processor-wise and when it comes to that, pre-2015 maschines are TOTALLY able to handle that!

So glad to hear that mate

yes!

New keyboard 13" are planned for 2020 maybe 6 months from now so they say...

Got that 2015 15" myself for a grand a couple of days ago, so far so good...mc 4000 and SL2 work quite well but still have to do the optimization...promising...

Ughh I'm torn if I should upgrade to the new 16 mac..i got a mid 2012 13 inch mac with 750hd,8gb ram,i7 that's never failed on me but it scares me if it craps out because I had it for like 7 almost 8 years...

Max out RAM at 16gb and throw an SSD in there

You can also remove the DVD drive and put a second internal drive for more storage or backup purposes.

Model doble gpu?

I think I will do all that for now even though the new mac looks nice but 3000 is a lot.

Yes, it comes with a dedicated 2GB video card besides the built in one

Pepehouse
you have the same model as my macbook, you don't need to optimize anything, that's the best purchase you could make

Well, my 16" arrived today. Seems Expercom.com is on the level. Saved $500 overall.

2.3ghz i9 with 32gb RAM 1tb SSD and 8gb video card. This thing screams. Bonus points for the unreasonably good speakers

Jealous on that video card. Especially since I know how far the 1GB on my 2012 has been streeeeeeetched at this point.

What a beast, congrats man.

I was going back-and-forth on whether to wait for a new 13 inch or go with the 16. I saw the deal from Expercom, so I ordered one as well. I thought it might be hard to get used to the bigger screen, but I’m loving it. And the keyboard is so much better than the butterfly.

Certifiably jealous, I’m 13” or GTFO (of my bag) – the 16” makes the 13” a complete no-go till they rectify the keyboard. So I’m still waiting.

Any of you one-percenters wanna weigh in on the interface lag? I’m sure the waveform mafia is dying to hear about it.

My original plan was to wait, so I sold my 13" and was planning on waiting until "wedding season" to buy a new laptop. But, then I booked a Christmas party and the Black Friday deal with Expercom was too hard to pass up.

Honestly if it's not butter smooth for the i9 15" early-2019 adopters, it's not gonna be any different on this one. Those waveforms are def something deep in the code that must be really hard to optimize. I do get jealous when I see how smooth a program like DJay Pro 2 can be visually, but the SDJ interface doesn't keep me from playing music.