When Apple unleashes their “best ever” whatever upon our very suspecting wallets, there is a natural response that is usually a broad spectrum between the GAS fuelled “OMG take my first born” all the way to the armchair critic classic “Apple is sooo over”. And with the new MacBook Pro comes a similar response, but from a DJ perspective, there’s a somewhat negative outlook, one that is seeing a lot of knee jerk stuff and nonsense being posted about what these new machines do and don’t mean. So please allow this old man to cut through the crap and tell it like it really is.
“I WANT ONE SOOOO BAD”
Yes you do. These are Apple’s smallest, thinnest, lightest, brightest, fastest, Space Greyest, bestest MacBook Pros in the history of Apple and the world ever. Everything before them now looks like a CRT telly gaffer-taped to a typewriter in comparison. The keyboard has the longest and narrowest screen Apple has ever made built right in ever for God’s sake — it’s doesn’t get much sexier than that.
But it’s a want, and not a need.
“APPLE KILLED USB”
They really didn’t. In fact, bar the ironic retention of the mini jack, they added more USB ports and made them smaller, faster, and plug in any way up via adoption of USB-C. And now you can plug your stuff in on both sides of your MacBook Pro too.
So Magsafe has gone, but this article says that you can use pretty much any USB-C power supply. So should you forget yours, or as usually happens break it after 12 months and 1 day, you can go buy a cheaper and probably longer lasting one, or indeed have a stronger chance of borrowing one, even from a phone or PC. And if you absolutely positively gotta have Magsafe, Griffin has you covered.
And just to clear his up — USB-C is non-proprietary and doesn’t require the Apple seal of approval. So you can replace your existing cables with some USB-C to USB ones for £5 each, and that’s a good one too. And there’s every manner of USB-C to whatever adaptor or even ethernet/HDMI/ethernet hubs too.
“I’M GOING BACK TO WINDOWS”
No you’re not. Why? Because Windows that’s why. You moved from Windows for a reason, and that hasn’t changed. I have a Surface Book, and have used it on and off for projects. As a test, I forced myself to use it yesterday as a day-to-day machine. No. Just no. It’s a doubtlessly beautiful and clever machine, but I just can’t learn to like Windows 10.
Speaking as a decades deep Mac user, this is my preference through many years of using both. If your Windows experience is sublime, then I’m genuinely very happy for you. I just prefer* the Mac experience and will happily pay more for it. And said experience also shows that Mac switchers never switch back.
* Just to make this absolutely clear — prefer means just that. I’m not saying Mac is better than PC, and history has shown that circular flame wars where neither logical reasoned discussion or FULL CAPS death threats have persuaded anyone switch from one OS to another. Ever. Such things are at the top of my “things I no longer give a fuck about” list and will be dealt with accordingly.
“MY OLD MAC IS TOO SLOW”
It’s really not. Don’t let the GAS cloud your judgement. Laptops have been more than capable of running DJ software without breaking a sweat for many years. The processor bar barely moves in my 2014 MBP in any DJ software. And the elderly 2008 white MacBook sat next to my Rane Sixty Four does not complain one bit about running Serato DJ.
“I’LL BE A BETTER DJ”
No you won’t. Your skills will remain the same. Your music will sound no better. Your mixes will not improve. You’ll still crash beats and pick the wrong tunes. You’ll still have to take requests, but now have to put up with “oooh is that one of those new MacBooks?” and lunges for the Touch Bar.
Plain and clear — having a better laptop will not make you a better DJ.
It’s not all good in MBPLand though. They are incredibly expensive, with the full fat 15″ experience (which is seemingly stuck at 16Gb max) coming in at £4.1K plus any cables, adaptors, and hubs you may need. And we brits find ourselves in the shitty days of straight dollar to pound conversions too. Happy now brexiteers?
So my £2K top spec 2014 MacBook Pro still performs eats everything bar the most complex of video editing jobs, and from a DJ perspective, that’s unlikely to change for many years to come. The simple task of playing one track to the next has been considerably overpowered for a long time now, and any subsequent leaps in tech are likely to be wants rather than needs.
Bottom line — Apple did just release their best MacBook Pros ever, but it’s up to you if you really do need one. Hint, you don’t but you’ll get one anyway right?