The Mac is an obvious candidate if you’re looking for a computer with which to make music. The choice can be overwhelming, though, with devices ranging from a few hundred dollars or pounds to thousands more than you might spend on a car. In this article we compare them all and explain which Mac is right for you.
There was a time when music production required hiring a studio, but technology moves fast. During the 1980s, there was a revolution in analog home recording kit; then the 1990s saw home computers gradually take over. Today, you can do everything from recording pop songs to mastering movie soundtracks on a Mac. But which Mac? That’s the question we’re here to answer!
Why use a Mac for music production
Whether you choose a Mac or PC for music production is largely down to the platform you prefer and who you’re collaborating with. However, there are a few reasons why musicians who choose to use Macs do so.
One reason is the simple fact that Macs are incredibly easy to use, so musicians don’t get sidetracked trying to set things up or fix problems. The recent addition of the M-series of Apple-made chips also means that they are very powerful, often outperforming Intel-equipped PC equivalents. Mac laptops are also slim and light, with superb build quality – a benefit if you are carrying them around to gigs as well as using them in a studio.
Best Mac configuration for music production
If you are going to make music with a Mac then there are a number of things that you need to consider. We’ll run through each of these below to help you make your final decision.
Software
Apple
The software you use – your Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) – is as arguably as important as the computer you choose. There are plenty of options available on macOS, which you can read about in our round-up of the best music recording software for Mac.
Two impressive packages you can only find on Macs are Apple’s own Logic Pro and its enthusiast-focused cousin GarageBand. (Read our Logic Pro and Garageband reviews.)
GarageBand is essentially an audio sketchbook, albeit a powerful one in the right hands. It’s great for quickly getting down the bones of songs or compositions, with plenty of support for plug-ins. We know of several professional musicians that use it for creating demos of ideas, which they can then share with other musicians in the early stage of writing. Best of all, GarageBand comes free with every Mac, just another good reason for using Apple’s computers to create your music.
When they want to get serious though, there’s a good chance they’ll switch to Logic Pro X, which is the far more powerful and feature-rich DAW.
RAM
Music software is notoriously hungry for memory. A lack of RAM (in Apple terms this is referred to as Unified Memory) becomes a serious bottleneck in any pro-level project. You’ll be able to run fewer instruments and fewer effects; you’ll spend more time rendering and less time doing things live.
Consider 16GB your minimum. This shouldn’t be difficult, all Macs and MacBooks can be equipped with 16GB RAM – and we recommend that you do configure your Mac to at least this level, if not more. Note that M2 and M1 Macs ship with 8GB RAM as standard. The M2 Macs can be updated to 16GB RAM and top out at 24GB, while M1 Macs could only support up to 16GB RAM. If you think you might need 32GB RAM then you will need to upgrade to the M2 Pro (an option in the MacBook Pro or Mac mini), which comes with 16GB as standard and supports 32GB. For 64GB or 96GB RAM, you need the M2 Max (an option for the MacBook Pro or Mac Studio). And for 128GB or 192GB RAM you’ll need to look at the M2 Ultra (in the Mac Studio or Mac Pro).
Storage
Storage is likely to be an important factor in your decision. All Apple Macs use SSDs and have done so for many years now. This is a benefit because hard drives can be a bottleneck due to their relatively low speed compared to SSDs, and they can be noisy.
However, SSDs are far more expensive per GB than hard drives. Entry-level Apple notebooks have 256GB SSDs, but pro instrument and effects collections when installed can require hundreds of GB, and that’s before you even start to add your own music files. So you probably want a minimum of 512GB SSD with your Mac. Another reason to avoid the lower-capacity Macs is that we’ve found the smaller SSDs to be slower than their larger-capacity counterparts.
You must figure out what you’ll need, and whether assets will be stored internally or externally. External drives can be fine for large sample libraries and the like, especially when connected using Thunderbolt, but you then need to determine how to take everything with you if you’re a musician who works with people in many different locations. Cloud storage might be a good option here: check out our Best Cloud Storage Services for Mac.
Portability
Speaking of being at different locations, you must decide whether you need the Mac to be portable or not. If you’re always moving around, working with various musicians in different countries, a Mac Studio probably won’t fit in your hand luggage. But if you’re a solo musician who only ever creates music in a home studio, you could get more bang for your buck with a desktop machine such as the M2 Pro Mac mini.
If you are studio based you may think that you need an iMac so that you can take advantage of the large display, but you can plug in an external display to any Mac, so even if you had a laptop Mac you could happily use it with a 30-inch screen when you are at your desk.
Ports
You also need to consider the other kit you want to use. If you don’t have any extra kit (if all of your music-making happens inside a Mac) then this won’t be a concern, and, in theory, any Mac might do. But if you have a pile of audio interfaces, USB instruments, headphones, monitors, and other vital hardware, trying to get by the two USB-C ports found on the MacBook Air and entry-level MacBook Pro models will drive you to despair. (In which case you might want a USB hub to use with your new Mac).
Luckily in recent times, Apple has added more ports to its newest Mac laptops, so you will find SDXC, Thunderbolt 4, HDMI, and more on the side of the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro. The Mac mini and Mac Studio also have a nice selection of ports.
Apple
Processor
High-end audio work can be extremely processor intensive, especially when using professional plug-ins and effects. If your demands are great, you’re going to need a Mac with fairly serious processing power. Ergo, whichever Mac you decide to buy, avoid low-end models that seem to lurk in the line-up to enable Apple to say ‘from’ and use a lower price-tag in marketing material. That said, the current crop of entry-level Macs with their M2 Chips are proving to be quite formidable.
For the ultimate option turn to the MacBook Pro, Mac mini or Mac Studio with the M2 Pro or M2 Max. The M2 Ultra in the Mac Studio and Mac Pro might also appeal, but would likely be overkill.
Graphics
There’s also the question of the GPU. Historically, recording and editing audio didn’t utilize many graphics card resources, unlike 3D design and video editing. Things are more complicated these days as some audio software is GPU-accelerated. It’s also a factor should you require additional displays. Apple’s M2 Macs offer 8 or 10-core GPUS and should suffice in most cases.
If you think you will benefit from more graphics prowess then look to the 14-inch or 16-inch MacBook Pro with the M2 Pro (16 or 19 graphics cores) or the M2 Max (30 or 38 graphics cores). The Mac Studio and Mac Pro go further offering the M2 Ultra with 60- or 76-core GPU.
Display support
Speaking of external displays, note that if you want to plug in more than one additional display the standard M1 and M2 MacBooks won’t officially support more than one additional display (although there are ways around this, see: How to connect two or more external displays to Apple M1 or M2 Macs). The Mac mini, Mac Studio and all other MacBooks support a number of external displays. This could matter if you wish to use graphics with the music you play.
Best Mac for musicians
1. MacBook Pro, 14-inch, M2 Pro (2023)
If you want a good-sized screen, plenty of ports, and plenty of power the 14-inch MacBook Pro, introduced in January 2023, is a good option (and the 16-inch MacBook Pro if you want an even bigger screen). Both come with the M2 Pro chip and 16GB Unified Memory (aka RAM) as standard. This can, of course, be upgraded at the point of sale, maxing out at 32GB for the M2 Pro (you can get up to 96GB in the more expensive M2 Max models).
You’ll get 512GB or 1TB storage as standard, with the option to increase that to a mega 8TB. There is no 256GB SSD option for the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro, which avoides the whole issue with slower SSDs that plagues the 256GB SSDs.
Those are all good reasons to choose the larger MacBook PRo over the 13-inch model, another is the M2 Pro, which brings extra GPU cores (16 or 19) that can be used to crunch the numbers needed when using loads of plug-ins, VSTs or rendering multi-channel compositions onscreen. Should you want the most powerful MacBook Pro you can buy, then you could look at the M2 Max, which maxes out at 38 GPU cores.
This is an expensive Mac, but we often see very good discounts so we strongly recommend that you shop around to save. Check out these MacBook Pro deals for the best discounts.
2. MacBook Pro, 13-inch, M2 (2022)
Not every musician has the budget for Apple’s M2 Pro-powered MacBook Pro though. The good news is that even the 13-inch M2-powered MacBook Pro is worthy of consideration for music-making.
The 13-inch MacBook Pro, introduced in June 2022, uses Apple’s M2 chip. The M2 is powerful enough to offer great performance and make short work of projects with plenty of layered tracks, effects, VSTs, and give smooth playback without stuttering or overloading. True, the baseline model does only come with 8GB of RAM, so we’d advise upgrading this to either 16GB or 24GB at the time of purchase, as you can’t make any adjustments later on due to the non-upgradable way these are built.
The M2 MacBook Pro is also the last remaining MacBook to feature the Touch Bar, which can be really helpful for adjusting settings or scrubbing through a timeline. You do only get a couple of USB-C/Thunderbolt 4 ports, but these can be expanded via a USB-C hub if you need more connections for external peripherals or drives. If you want power and portability, then the 13-inch MacBook Pro with M2 is quite the workhorse.
3. MacBook Air, 13-inch, M2 (2022)
The 13-inch MacBook Air with M2 is another Mac laptop that could be considered for your DAW. In terms of weight, it’s the lightest of the current crop at 2.7 pounds/1.24kg, but that doesn’t mean it’s a lightweight in the performance stakes. The M2 model is claimed by Apple to be 1.4x faster than the previous M1 version, plus you also get a little more display space as it was increased from 13.3-inch to 13.6-inch.
Due to Air’s power efficiency, the laptop also comes without a fan, which could be a godsend if you record near the laptop. As with all Macs, there’s a 3.5mm headphone jack so you can edit on the go without worrying about latency.
The MacBook Air is a little less powerful than the MacBook Pro, but you can choose a model that meets our requirements of 512GB storage, and you can up the RAM to 16GB or 24GB as we recommend. The 512GB MacBook Air, upgraded to 16GB of RAM, costs $1,599/£1,649 from Apple, which isn’t exactly cheap (but Apple did drop the price by $100/£100 in June 2023. There is a cheaper $1,099/£1,149 model, but that only has 8GB of RAM and 256GB, but could be usable if your workload is light.
To save more money you might consider the M1 version, which is still available from $999/£999, we’d advise against this and suggest that you save money by shopping around for a good deal. See: Best MacBook Air deals. You can see how the two different models compare by reading our MacBook Air (M2) vs MacBook Air (M1) article.
4. MacBook Air, 15-inch, M2 (2023)
Feel like the screen on the 13-inch MacBook Air might be too cramped for your needs? In June 2023 Apple introduced a 15-inch MacBook Air. It costs more than the 13-inch MacBook Air, but actually represents good value for money in comparison to the 14-inch MacBook Pro, which has a similar-sized screen but costs a lot more. See: 15-inch MacBook vs 14-inch MacBook Pro for more information.
5. Mac mini, M2 Pro (2023)
If you don’t need the portability of a laptop the best value for money Mac for musicians is the Mac mini with M2 Pro, which launched in January 2023. For $1,299/£1,399 you can get the same chip that will cost you $1,999/£2,149 in the MacBook Pro. Sure you’ll need a separate screen, mouse and keyboard, but it’s still going to save you a ton of money.
It’s small, quiet, and has great connectivity options, along with an additional audio-in port that could be useful for legacy products. What more could you ask for?
6. Mac mini, M2 (2023)
If you don’t need the M2 Pro there’s a standard Mac mini with M2 chip, which starts at just $599/£649. If you already have a display, keyboard, mouse and are just looking for an engine on which to make some music, the Mac mini is a solid choice.
It’s small, quiet, and has great connectivity options, along with an additional audio-in port that could be useful for legacy products.
The Mac mini is currently available with the M1 chip and 256GB SSD for just £649/$599. There’s also a 512GB model for £799/$849. Double the RAM to 16GB, for another £200/$200.
If funds are low, the Mac mini is a great choice for making music. Here are the best prices for the Mac mini.
7. Mac Studio, M2 Max (2023)
Those looking to create professional-level music in the home or studio will definitely want to look at the Mac Studio. Aimed at the Pro market, but still affordable, this beefed-up Mac mini boasts the M2 Max SoC, with a 12-Core CPU and 30-Core GPU, or the M2 Ultra for 24-core CPU and up to 60 or 76-core GPU. Both options deliver enviable levels of performance.
Add to this up to 64GB RAM for the M2 Max, or 192GB RAM for the M2 Ultra, and up to 8TB of storage (all of which can be upgraded at the point of sale) and you have an incredibly potent Mac that can handle anything you throw at it. There are plenty of ports available, including 4x Thunderbolt 4 and 2x USB-C and 2x USB-A, so all of your outboard kit should be able to plug directly into the Mac Studio. As with the Mac mini, you’ll need to bring your own display, keyboard, mouse and speakers.
Check out the best deals for the Mac Studio to see if you can save on the usual price of $1,999/£2,099.
