This morning at WWDC, Apple announced the newest refreshes to their Mac lineup, and much to the despondency of Mac Pro users everywhere, only offered a modest processor boost to that line of professional workstation systems. Since most Apple music-makers were hoping the Mac Pro would at least see a reboot with the newest Intel chipsets in tow, this news was pretty depressing for everybody…
… Except me. I haven’t turned my Mac Pro on since November of 2011. In fact, as I’m pounding this out on my Macbook Pro, the Mac Pro is still on the shelf in Los Angeles and it misses me way more than I miss it.
For the last decade or so, I have dreamed (with my best friend and fellow composer Rob Eisler) of a Mac set-up that could withstand the rigors of the road and fit in a carry-on luggage, yet handle the writing, production, and mixing stages of a feature motion picture score when and where I needed it to. In short, I was pining away for the ultimate “mobile rig”. With software testing the bounds of hardware every step of the way combined with the ever-annoying notion of Moore’s Law, I haven’t been able to make this happen and it was starting to look as though it never would. As I embarked on a string of international projects in early 2011, though, the need for such a set-up was no longer just a wish, but a necessity for me — I simply couldn’t cart my Mac Pro and all my gear back and forth between LA and southeast Asia every two months for a nine-month stretch. I did it, but holy shit did that poor beautiful (the day I left LA, anyway!) Mac Pro ever take a ruthless beating in the process! I think the dudes at Virgin Air were absent the day they taught “Mac Handling” in flight crew school. They beat the piss out of that poor (new!) computer, so much so that when I finally got all set up in Kyoto I had to go and buy a new one just to ease my fear that my old one was going to fade with a whimper any day.
But in late 2010, as I was just starting to jot down the first ideas of what would become Eastern Chronicle, I was recording an episode of the SCOREcast Show with Brian Ralston, who had just finished purchasing and configuring a new Mac Mini as a supplement to his existing studio rig. As Brian serenaded me with the story of his new little addition, the idea started becoming a reality: I could build a rig with a Mac Mini and perhaps at least start my journey toward my dream mobile system. What I didn’t know is that within a few short weeks, I’d be shelving my Mac Pro enthusiastically in favor of a whole-hog mobile turnkey system that I could literally shove in a carry-on backpack and unfold in ten minutes in any hotel room on Planet Earth.
So, screw you, Apple! Screw you for making me a disciple, yet again, as you have so many times over in the last fifteen years. Screw you for making cool stuff and getting me addicted like a fat kid on Butterfingers! Screw you for innovating and pushing boundaries and making me fall in love with form, function, and efficiency. And screw you, most of all, for taking away the precious Mac Pro, ignoring your “pro” user base… and forcing us to embrace new ways of using emergent technologies that enable us to do what we love to do. For, if it weren’t for you, we’d just keep on being comfortable.
And God knows, were there is comfort in art… there is also irrelevance.
Justin Bieber at Billboard
SCOREcast 37
10 Things Every Creative Artist Might Consider Embracing
Unfortunately it's economics, they just don't make anything like a significant amount of money selling Mac Pros. Me, I'm going to sell my Mac Pro (dual quad core Xeon) AND my older Macbook Pro, for one of the new Macbook Pros with Retina Display, Ivy Bridge, etc. It'll be more powerful than my old Mac Pro anyway, and will go everywhere. No more managing two systems, making sure they're in sync with the same set of plugins, etc. etc. It's the way!
To each his own. I love working on my MacBook Pro, but for anything medium or large-sized, I really need the power of the Mac Pro. That'll change in the next few years, but I'm a long way from being able to replicate the work I do on the Mac Pro on a smaller computer.
Agreed. They really need to step it up.
I don't think it's a question of replacing your Mac Pro … although I would challenge that by saying, yeah, you're probably right — you can't do what you do without a Mac Pro… Until you start doing what you are doing without a Mac Pro.
Everybody says that or has said it (including me), but the reality is that the majority of composers are sitting on way more power than they even know what to do with or could ever truly utilize, and even then, there are so many more effective and efficient ways of working. If the ratio of output to CPU power was tilted in favor of a big bombastic and massively ear-assaulting sound coming out of our studios, then yeah… sure. Maybe. But for most… I'm not convinced.
Great post, I'm traveling between Playa del Carmen, MX and Los Angeles with my studio and the last thing I need is another back-ache. My imac is great, I can sling it on my shoulder but I'm going to get a Mac Mini for the next trip. That will save me one less carry-on and I can plug into a LED TV no problem when I get to my workspace.
Yes. The Mini rocks! Are you back in town yet?
Jay Costa flying back tonight!
It seems Apple has quietly release Quad-Core mac mini's, Just what I've been waiting for.
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