Thanks to the fierce competition, Apple is under more pressure to design the best Macs ever. As a result, we’re getting better and more powerful machines like the Mac Pro 2019, which is coming later in 2019 possibly alongside the rumored 16-inch MacBook Pro.
- How To Find The Best Mac For You
- Which Is The Best Mac For Business
- The Best Mac For Gaming
- What Is The Best Mac For Music Production
The first steps to building a home recording studio involve identifying the types of recordings you want to make and the type of dedicated space you have available to accommodate your home studio equipment.
In fact, if you’d rather not wait and want to get your hands on one of the best Macs now, there’s already quite a few excellent options to choose from, especially with Apple recently giving its MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro and 15-inch MacBook Pro much-needed refresh.
- The Mac Pro is the most used in a professional studio environment. For home studio applications, an iMac or MacBook Pro are more than enough. There is also a wide range of dedicated audio interfaces, MAC plugins, and music making software like Logic Pro that makes Apple computer a serious candidate for your music studio.
- As said earlier, having a Mac laptop for music production will be an added advantage of because of suitable pre-installed and app store apps. Lenovo Legion Y520 – Best and Cheap for Music Recording. Listed as a gaming laptop, but it will be suitable for music composing and production too.
To expand your choices further, the Apple computers are incredibly diverse. The best Macs cover everything from thin and light notebooks like the 12-inch MacBook, which is still on hand at third-party sites despite being discontinued, to professional workhorses like the iMac Pro.
Taking all these into consideration, it can be tricky choosing the perfect Mac for you. We put together a list of the best Macs we’ve tested ourselves – from iMacs to MacBooks – to help you with that important decision. Let’s dive in to all the best Macs you can buy right now, no matter your budget and use.
1. Mac Mini 2018
CPU: 8th-generation Intel Core i3 – Core i7 | Graphics: Intel UHD Graphics 630 | RAM: 8GB – 32GB | Storage: 128GB – 2TB PCIe-based SSD | Dimensions (W x D x H): 19.7 x 19.7 x 3.6cm
Mac Mini fans, rejoice! The Mac Mini has finally been upgraded with modern hardware, ushering Apple’s smallest Mac to the modern age and naturally warranting it the top spot in our best Macs list. This tiny thing is packed with 8th-generation desktop processors, a ton of RAM and some of the fastest SSDs we’ve seen – all while keeping the same adored form factor. It’s a tad pricier this time around, but with the raw speed on offer, you’ll find that it’s worth the price increase.
Read the full review: Mac Mini 2018
2. MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2019)
Apple’s productivity machine gets the latest Intel tech
CPU: 9th-generation Intel Core i7 – i9 | Graphics: AMD Radeon Pro 555X – 560X, Intel UHD Graphics 630 | RAM: 16GB – 32GB | Screen: 15.4-inch, 2,880 x 1,800 Retina display | Storage: 512GB – 4TB SSD | Dimensions (H x W x D): 34.93 x 24.07 x 1.55cm
If you want the most performance you can get in a MacBook without needing to pull off a heist, you’ll want to look into the MacBook Pro 15-inch. Now refreshed with hexa-core 9th-generation processors and up to 32GB of RAM, you won’t be held back by anything you throw at it – especially now that you can get Radeon Pro Vega 20 graphics. With that kind of performance, the MacBook Pro takes a lofty spot on our best Macs list without breaking a sweat.
Read the full review:MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2019)
3. Apple iMac (27-inch, 2019)
Apple’s most affordable all-in-one
CPU: up to 3.6GHz 8-core Intel Core i9 | Graphics: AMD Radeon Pro 570X – Radeon Pro Vega 48 | RAM: 8GB – 64GB | Screen: 27-inch (diagonal) Retina 5K display 5120 x 2880 | Storage: 1TB Fusion Drive – 2TB SSD | Dimensions (H x W x D): 51.6 x 65.0 x 20.3 cm
The iMac has long been one of the cheaper ways to get into the macOS ecosystem, and we’re glad that hasn’t changed. Though what has changed, we also appreciate. The new iMac is packing with 8th- and 9th-generation desktop-class processors, letting this stylish all-in-one reach that fabled 8-core performance. If you’re looking for an all-in-one Mac, the new 27-inch iMac might just be the best Mac for you, at least if you’re on a budget.
Read the full review:iMac (27-inch, 2019)
4. MacBook Pro with Touch Bar (13-inch, mid-2018)
CPU: 7th-generation Intel Core i5 – 8th-generation Intel Core i5 | Graphics: Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640 – 655 | RAM: 8GB – 16GB | Screen: 13.3-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit display with IPS technology; 2,560 x 1,600 | Storage: 256GB – 2TB SSD | Dimensions (H x W x D): 30.41 x 21.24 x 1.49cm
The biggest issue with the older MacBook Pro was that it was still packing Kaby Lake processors while its rivals had moved ahead. Luckily, the MacBook Pro 2018 changes everything, making it more powerful than ever. It still has the controversial Butterfly keyboard, but that’s also been improved so that its quieter and more reliable. It’s not hard to recommend the 13-inch MacBook Pro 2018 to anyone looking for the best Macs.
Read the full review: MacBook Pro with Touch Bar (13-inch, mid-2018)
5. iMac Pro
CPU: 8 to 18-core Intel Xeon W | Graphics: Radeon Pro Vega 56 - Radeon Pro Vega 64 | RAM: 32GB – 256GB DDR4 ECC | Screen: 27-inch 5K (5,120 x 2,880) Retina display (P3 wide color) | Storage: 1TB – 4TB PCIe 3.0 SSD | Dimensions (H x W x D): 65 x 20.3 x 51.6cm
Professionals and creatives need something that can handle any workload they can possibly throw at it. If you’re one such user, the iMac Pro isn’t just one of the best Macs for you; it’s the only Mac to consider. Not only does it have a vibrant 27-inch 5K display with a P3 wide color gamut, but it also boasts the most powerful hardware Apple could get its hands on. It’s extremely expensive though, so it’s really only meant for folks who have deep pockets and need that unbridled power to get through their daily workloads.
Read the full review:iMac Pro
6. Apple MacBook Air (2019)
CPU: 1.6GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 | Graphics: Intel UHD Graphics 617 | RAM: 8GB – 16GB | Screen: 13.3-inch (diagonal) 2,560 x 1,600 LED-backlit display with IPS technology | Storage: 128GB – 1TB SSD | Dimensions: 11.97 x 8.36 x 0.61 inches (30.41 x 21.24 x 1.56cm; W x D x H)
Apple takes the MacBook Air (2018) and gives it a bit of refresh, adding True Tone technology to its display and an even more reliable keyboard. Unfortunately, it hasn’t upgraded the specs – which actually leads us to think that there might be a bigger update by early 2020. However, to be fair to this refresh, the 2018 version has already made our list, so this improved version is just as deserving or more so. But the best part is yet to come: this refresh is even cheaper, so you’re definitely getting more value for less.
Read the full review: MacBook Air (2019)
7. MacBook (2017)
Small and stylish
CPU: Dual-core Intel Core m3 – Core i5 | Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 615 | RAM: 8GB – 16GB | Screen: 12-inch Retina (2,304 x 1,440) IPS | Storage: 256GB – 512GB PCIe SSD | Dimensions (W x D x H): 11.04 x 7.74 x 0.14~0.52in
While Apple has officially taken the MacBook out of its MacBook lineup, many third parties are still carry it. And because the 12-inch MacBook has found its niche as an ultraportable and lightweight laptop, it’s still deserving of a spot on our best Macs list… that is, until stock runs out. It’s low on ports, but that’s hardly a surprise in a laptop this thin. It can support basically everything under the sun with its Thunderbolt 3 port, anyway. It’s not as powerful as the MacBook Pro, but if you’re looking for a MacBook that’s easy to take with you wherever you go, look no further.
Read the full review: Apple MacBook (2017)
Michelle Rae Uy, Bill Thomas and Gabe Carey have also contributed to this article
- Want more choices? Check out our list of the best laptops 2019
- Stay safe online with our pick of the best Mac VPNs
A Recording Studio for Your PC
There has never been a better time to buy digital audio workstation (DAW) software. Twenty years ago, to record a music album at a professional level, you needed a sizable mixing console, several eight-track digital records (such as ADATs or DA-88s), and a good selection of outboard compressors, reverb units, and other effects, plus a two-track deck to mix down to. In other words, you were looking at about $10K to $15K worth of gear to start—and that's before you got to microphones, speakers, and other accessories.
If you were on a budget, you'd probably stick with a tried-and-true Tascam or Yamaha four-track tape recorder and Alesis compressor, get used to bouncing tracks in mono, make peace with tape hiss, and remember to clean the tape heads every week. And you'd be sharply limited in the kinds of projects you could produce. The only easy multitrack recording you could do at the time was with MIDI, with hardware synthesizers or samplers, and maybe with a Mac or an Atari ST computer attached as a sequencer.
It's an entirely different world now. Software packages that cost a few hundred dollars now deliver hundreds of audio tracks and incredibly flexible editing. Some programs are even free. You can create as many instances of effects plug-ins as you want, including spot-on emulations of compressors that cost several thousand dollars each, and attach them to as many mixer channels as you want. It's all nearly unlimited and 'in the box' now.
Choosing the Right DAW
From the standpoint of someone recording 20 or 30 years ago, a DAW today is like a giant candy store; it's as if you can do almost anything. For the newcomer, though, it may seem almost hopelessly complex. Choosing the right audio software can be quite difficult. Most of the famous packages like Pro Tools and Logic have been around for decades. They've grown incredibly powerful, and as a result have user interfaces that are as complex as…well, professional mix consoles.
So how to decide? To help with this task, we went out and tested the most popular DAWs. Numerous venerable (and excellent) recording magazines have reviewed these applications many times over the years. That's great for the existing user base of each DAW, but maybe not always quite as clear for newcomers. In each of our reviews, we did our best to approach each product as a whole, rather than devoting the majority of the space to just the latest features that were added in the most recent point update.
Before we get to the specifics, the simplest program for audio editing is a two-track editor; probably the most famous example here is the free Audacity. While Audacity aspires to some extremely basic multitrack recording with overdubs, its real use is as a solid stereo editor. If you're recording a podcast or editing a clip of your kid's piano recital that you recorded on your phone, Audacity is an excellent choice; you can probably start and stop there. If you need something more sophisticated, read on.
It helps to think about the kinds of projects you want to create. Are you planning on producing beats for hip-hop or fully electronic compositions? Do you want to record multiple musicians playing live instruments at once? Will you be using your setup to score for
How To Find The Best Mac For You
What Comes With Each DAW?
The good news is all of the packages can we tested can more or less do all of the above tasks, with a few notable exceptions. The trick is that each program has strengths in different areas, and some tasks may be a bit more complicated in one than they are in another. One overarching rule to decide faster is to look at what your colleagues or friends are using, and then choose the same package. That makes it easier to share tips or even projects between each other, rather than being the
Another is to look at what's bundled with each program. Would you prefer a DAW that comes with a ton of virtual instrument sounds, such as synthesizers, sampled violins, guitars, and electric basses? You may want to look at something like Logic Pro X, Cubase Pro, or Studio One, all of which include many gigabytes of sounds and loops. Do you have or plan to buy your own instrument plug-ins you want to use? Reaper is a fully stripped down DAW at an excellent price, and it makes an excellent host for third-party VSTs. It's also great if you're recording a band full of live instruments and don't need much in the way of virtual ones. Do your tastes lean toward the electronic and synthesized realm? FL Studio, Reason, and Ableton Live
Often, it comes down to the details and the editing philosophies. Do you prefer pattern-based recording for electronic music? FL Studio is going to have plenty to offer. Would you rather have a 'do-it-all' DAW with a large built-in sound library at a low price? PreSonus Studio One beckons. Do you want to not just be able to bring projects into major studios, but collaborate online and also open sessions directly as you work on them with others? It's impossible to top Avid's Pro Tools for this. Is the music already done, and you work in post-production and want to produce more professional podcasts or videos? Adobe Audition is a prime contender for these tasks. And if you've got a Mac, it's worth giving the free GarageBand a spin, if only because it's more powerful than it ever was and you already own it.
How Much Do You Want to Spend?
Closely correlated to the bundled instruments and effects is price, and that's a factor that can cloud the issue a bit. Many of the top-tier packages also have less expensive (or even free), feature-limited editions available. It's not as simple as saying 'Reaper is a budget DAW at $60 and Studio One 3 is a professional-level DAW at $399,' because you can also buy the stripped-down (but still pretty feature-rich) Studio One Artist for $99. What do you lose? What do you gain? We try and touch on this as much as possible within each review.
Which Is The Best Mac For Business
Which DAW Is Right for You?
In short, read our reviews (linked below) and try some demos where you can. But otherwise, don't sweat it too much. We spent countless hours testing these products and putting together both the reviews and this guide. Despite the complexity of the software here, we've found it's honestly tough to go wrong. It's not like computers or cameras, where you can clearly see that of the latest crop of products, a few perform well and a few don't perform as well as the leaders. These are all mature, well-established products, each with thousands of fans.
As a result, more than half of the packages in this roundup score at least four out of five stars. You can get professional-level results with all of them. Each has some specific workflows that work really, really well for some people—hence the endless 'X is the best and Y is garbage' arguments on the internet—but they all can work for just about anyone.
The Best Mac For Gaming
Even so, we single out two DAWs, one on the Mac and one on the PC, for Editors' Choice awards: Apple Logic Pro X, for its absolutely unbeatable value with its built-in instruments and effects plug-ins, and Avid Pro Tools, for its seamless audio editing and suitability up and down the pro studio chain. But we'd happily use any of the programs listed below for new projects. Choose one, learn its secrets, and get to work creating and editing amazing music and audio projects.
What Is The Best Mac For Music Production
Best Audio Editing Software Featured in This Roundup:
Avid Pro Tools Review
MSRP: $599.00
Pros: Still the cleanest audio editing workflow on the planet. Fast 64-bit recording and mixing engine. New cloud-based project collaboration tools. Robust, useful track freeze and commit options. High-end hardware and support policies are tops in the industry.
Cons: Lacks built-in pitch correction. No VST plug-in support or instrument track presets. USB dongle-based copy protection. Monthly fee required for new software patches past 12 months.
Bottom Line: Avid stays the course with Pro Tools and maintains its status as the standard cross-platform solution for professional audio editing work for music, film, games, and broadcast.
Read ReviewImage-Line FL Studio Review
MSRP: $299.00
Pros: Vector-based interface is attractively animated, and supports 4K, multi-monitor, and multitouch configurations. Brilliant loop and pattern-based MIDI composition tools. Visible automation clips are easy to manipulate. Light memory footprint. Free lifetime updates.
Cons: Convoluted, inflexible audio recording (in higher-priced versions). Must manually assign instrument tracks to mixer channels. Built-in sound library could use some updating. Lacks notation editor.
Bottom Line: If you want to produce some of today's slickest beats, right up to full electronic dance music tracks, FL Studio could be the ideal key to unlock your creativity.
Read ReviewAdobe Audition CC Review
MSRP: $20.99
Pros: Strong audio-restoration, sound-removal, and noise-reduction tools. Excellent stereo waveform editor. Useful visualization tools. Adheres to film and television broadcast standards for audio.
Cons: Lacks MIDI support. Only available via an expensive monthly subscription.
Bottom Line: Audition is a comprehensive audio editor for video post-production, podcasts, and audio restoration. It's expensive for what you get, though, and makes the most sense as a supplement to a video editor or as part of an existing CC subscription.
Read ReviewSteinberg Cubase Pro Review
MSRP: $559.99
Pros: Comprehensive editing and automation support. Robust plug-in bundle. Powerful mixer. Rock-solid stability.
Cons: Expensive. Dongle-based hardware copy protection.
Bottom Line: Steinberg Cubase Pro is a top-notch digital audio workstation particularly suited to MIDI and virtual instrument composers.
Read ReviewAbleton Live Review
MSRP: $749.00
Pros: Inspirational clip-based live and composition workflow. Fast navigation. Powerful automation. Suite version contains plenty of sample material to work with.
Cons: No track comping. No notation view. No pitch correction tool. Mixer view could be more robust.
Bottom Line: In its latest iteration, Ableton Live is a powerful all-in-the-box solution for composing music, particularly electronic-influenced, but it's not for everyone.
Read ReviewPreSonus Studio One Review
MSRP: $399.00
Pros: Fast workflow for music composition and audio recording. Robust included sound sets. Attractive drag-and-drop interface. Powerful free version. Multitouch-enabled on the Windows side.
Cons: No notation editor. No easy way to import session data or save I/O templates. MIDI editing is still weaker than the competition. Cluttered mixing console.
Bottom Line: PreSonus reinvented the common digital audio workstation in 2008 with Studio One; the latest version is the most inspired yet.
Read ReviewPropellerhead Reason Review
MSRP: $399.00
Pros: Versatile array of bundled instruments. Awesome sound set serves as instant inspiration for new electronic tracks. Fast composition workflow. SSL-style mix compression and EQ.
Cons: Aging rackmount-and-patch-cable UI idiom. No surround or scoring features. Track editing still lags the competition.
Bottom Line: Despite its flaws, it's tough to knock Reason as an all-in-one recording, mixing, and mastering tool, particularly if you're into electronic or hip-hop music and want a tremendous array of sounds and beats right out of the gate. It's still as much fun to use as it has always been.
Read ReviewCockos Reaper Review
MSRP: $60.00
Pros: Multi-channel audio recording, mixing, and mastering at a bargain price. Heavily customizable. Fast. Extremely light memory footprint.
Cons: No built-in instruments or loops. Uninviting, unintuitive interface.
Bottom Line: Reaper offers nearly all of the features and flexibility, if not the ease of use or visual appeal, of powerhouse digital audio workstations like Pro Tools at a fraction of the cost.
Read ReviewApple Logic Pro X (for Mac) Review
MSRP: $199.99
Pros: Excellent value. Stunning array of bundled instruments and effects. Terrific interface. No copy protection, unlike many competitors.
Cons: A few older plug-ins still need a UI makeover.
Bottom Line: Apple Logic Pro X 10.4 is a tremendous update to an already-excellent digital audio workstation, and if you own Logic Pro X, it's free.
Read ReviewAudacity Review
MSRP: $0.00
Pros: Free. Lots of editing options ideal for dialogue, sound effects, and trimming music tracks. Supports multitrack audio and batch processing.
Cons: Destructive editing only. Multitrack audio support is exceedingly basic.
Bottom Line: If you're looking to get started in podcasting or recording music, it's tough to go wrong with Audacity. A powerful, free, open-source audio editor that's been available for years, Audacity is still the go-to choice for quick-and-dirty audio work.
Read Review
Best Audio Editing Software Featured in This Roundup:
Avid Pro Tools Review
MSRP: $599.00Pros: Still the cleanest audio editing workflow on the planet. Fast 64-bit recording and mixing engine. New cloud-based project collaboration tools. Robust, useful track freeze and commit options. High-end hardware and support policies are tops in the industry.
Cons: Lacks built-in pitch correction. No VST plug-in support or instrument track presets. USB dongle-based copy protection. Monthly fee required for new software patches past 12 months.
Bottom Line: Avid stays the course with Pro Tools and maintains its status as the standard cross-platform solution for professional audio editing work for music, film, games, and broadcast.
Read ReviewImage-Line FL Studio Review
MSRP: $299.00Pros: Vector-based interface is attractively animated, and supports 4K, multi-monitor, and multitouch configurations. Brilliant loop and pattern-based MIDI composition tools. Visible automation clips are easy to manipulate. Light memory footprint. Free lifetime updates.
Cons: Convoluted, inflexible audio recording (in higher-priced versions). Must manually assign instrument tracks to mixer channels. Built-in sound library could use some updating. Lacks notation editor.
Bottom Line: If you want to produce some of today's slickest beats, right up to full electronic dance music tracks, FL Studio could be the ideal key to unlock your creativity.
Read ReviewAdobe Audition CC Review
MSRP: $20.99Pros: Strong audio-restoration, sound-removal, and noise-reduction tools. Excellent stereo waveform editor. Useful visualization tools. Adheres to film and television broadcast standards for audio.
Cons: Lacks MIDI support. Only available via an expensive monthly subscription.
Bottom Line: Audition is a comprehensive audio editor for video post-production, podcasts, and audio restoration. It's expensive for what you get, though, and makes the most sense as a supplement to a video editor or as part of an existing CC subscription.
Read ReviewSteinberg Cubase Pro Review
MSRP: $559.99Pros: Comprehensive editing and automation support. Robust plug-in bundle. Powerful mixer. Rock-solid stability.
Cons: Expensive. Dongle-based hardware copy protection.
Bottom Line: Steinberg Cubase Pro is a top-notch digital audio workstation particularly suited to MIDI and virtual instrument composers.
Read ReviewAbleton Live Review
MSRP: $749.00Pros: Inspirational clip-based live and composition workflow. Fast navigation. Powerful automation. Suite version contains plenty of sample material to work with.
Cons: No track comping. No notation view. No pitch correction tool. Mixer view could be more robust.
Bottom Line: In its latest iteration, Ableton Live is a powerful all-in-the-box solution for composing music, particularly electronic-influenced, but it's not for everyone.
Read ReviewPreSonus Studio One Review
MSRP: $399.00Pros: Fast workflow for music composition and audio recording. Robust included sound sets. Attractive drag-and-drop interface. Powerful free version. Multitouch-enabled on the Windows side.
Cons: No notation editor. No easy way to import session data or save I/O templates. MIDI editing is still weaker than the competition. Cluttered mixing console.
Bottom Line: PreSonus reinvented the common digital audio workstation in 2008 with Studio One; the latest version is the most inspired yet.
Read ReviewPropellerhead Reason Review
MSRP: $399.00Pros: Versatile array of bundled instruments. Awesome sound set serves as instant inspiration for new electronic tracks. Fast composition workflow. SSL-style mix compression and EQ.
Cons: Aging rackmount-and-patch-cable UI idiom. No surround or scoring features. Track editing still lags the competition.
Bottom Line: Despite its flaws, it's tough to knock Reason as an all-in-one recording, mixing, and mastering tool, particularly if you're into electronic or hip-hop music and want a tremendous array of sounds and beats right out of the gate. It's still as much fun to use as it has always been.
Read ReviewCockos Reaper Review
MSRP: $60.00Pros: Multi-channel audio recording, mixing, and mastering at a bargain price. Heavily customizable. Fast. Extremely light memory footprint.
Cons: No built-in instruments or loops. Uninviting, unintuitive interface.
Bottom Line: Reaper offers nearly all of the features and flexibility, if not the ease of use or visual appeal, of powerhouse digital audio workstations like Pro Tools at a fraction of the cost.
Read ReviewApple Logic Pro X (for Mac) Review
MSRP: $199.99Pros: Excellent value. Stunning array of bundled instruments and effects. Terrific interface. No copy protection, unlike many competitors.
Cons: A few older plug-ins still need a UI makeover.
Bottom Line: Apple Logic Pro X 10.4 is a tremendous update to an already-excellent digital audio workstation, and if you own Logic Pro X, it's free.
Read ReviewAudacity Review
MSRP: $0.00Pros: Free. Lots of editing options ideal for dialogue, sound effects, and trimming music tracks. Supports multitrack audio and batch processing.
Cons: Destructive editing only. Multitrack audio support is exceedingly basic.
Bottom Line: If you're looking to get started in podcasting or recording music, it's tough to go wrong with Audacity. A powerful, free, open-source audio editor that's been available for years, Audacity is still the go-to choice for quick-and-dirty audio work.
Read Review