Despite having only been released recently, there’s already an amazing Amazon Prime Day deal on the MacBook Neo. It’s down to just $549 in the Prime Day sale, which is spectacular value considering the performance it offers as a laptop for music production.

I recently gave it a solid four stars out of five in my MacBook Neo review for MusicRadar, and it genuinely surprised me with how ably it performs for music-making tasks, far outstripping what I expected for what is a budget Apple laptop in relative terms.

For me, the key takeaway from reviewing the Neo was that Apple machines are so powerful now that they needed to create a lower tier that is affordable for more people. Today’s MacBook Air M5 is as powerful as yesterday’s MacBook Pro, and thus, the MacBook Neo was born. It uses the same chip that’s found in the top-of-the-line iPhone 16, but that doesn’t mean it’s a slow coach.

From the moment I switched it on, I found the performance to be just as slick as that of my MacBook Pro M3, with it responding keenly to installing plugins, my DAW, and dragging over all my audio files from my external hard drive. I began using it with Logic, dragging in a shedload of audio tracks from a session I recently tracked at Spirit Studios with Josh from Squid Audio, and began by organising my tracks and adding in myriad busses to ensure that the session was neatly organised.

I then set about my usual mixing process, using oodles of spectral EQ, multi-band compression, de-noising treatments, and plenty of multi-band saturation to get the mix where I needed it to be. The MacBook Neo didn’t blink once in this entire process. From start to finished product, there was nary a hiccup in the entire process, which I have to admit was a complete surprise. Once I was done, with over 90 tracks and something in the region of 50 plugin instances, I was able to play back the entire track using the onboard audio driver at the lowest buffer setting, without any errors.

Now there are a few caveats here. First of all, I was using Logic, which is very well integrated into the Apple ecosystem, so it performs better than something like Pro Tools or Cubase does. Second, I only used stock plugins for the test so it can be recreated across multiple machines, which again are well-honed to ensure they perform at the optimum in Logic. This doesn’t mean it’d be rubbish with another DAW, just that the results you get might not be exactly the same as what I got. Also, if you’re using virtual instruments, then I imagine the track count would be a lot lower, as these are far more CPU-intensive.

I still think that the MacBook Neo is the best budget laptop for music production available right now, and with the extra £50 discount in the Prime Day sale, absolutely worth picking up if you need a machine that performs well without having to spend loads. In my experience, it massively outperforms Windows laptops at the same price, and for the student music producer or budding singer-songwriter, it’s a brilliant laptop to start your music-making journey on.

All the best places to shop at Amazon

• Amazon: All the best instrument deals
• Thomann: Up to 60% off Music Days sale
• Positive Grid: Huge 38% off Spark Summer Sale
• Guitar Tricks: 1 month of lessons for only $1
• Universal Audio: Up to 80% off half year sale
• Plugin Boutique: Bag loads of free software
• Waves: 200 plugins down to only $34.99

What is it?

Probably the most recommended machine when it comes to PCs for music production, the Apple Mac Mini M4 is the latest version of an absolute studio powerhouse. Pretty much every professional studio I’ve worked in has something similar at its heart, whether it’s a Mac Mini or a Mac Studio, and particularly for home studios, the Mac Mini is a great value option.

There are a lot of options when it comes to ordering a Mac Mini, but for posterity, my review model features an M4 Pro chip, 24GB of Unified Memory, a 512GB SSD hard drive, and shipped with macOS Sequoia 15.1, which will set you back $1,399. Of course, you can spec yours much cheaper if you don’t feel you need the additional power, with the lowest model coming in at a very reasonable $799 with the standard M4 chip and 16GB of Unified Memory. You’ll need to factor in screen, mouse, and keyboard if you don’t already have these to hand.

Specs can go well beyond this, of course, and with everything maxed out, the Mac Mini comes in at a whopping $4,499, with the most powerful chip, 48GB of Unified Memory, 8 TB of storage, and a 10 Gigabit Ethernet port. Undoubtedly overkill for music production tasks, the ability to tweak for your particular use case, or to future-proof yourself, is a useful one.

On the front of the Mac Mini M4, you’ve got two USB-C ports and a 3.5mm headphone jack, while the rear displays three Thunderbolt 5 connections, an HDMI port, an Ethernet connection, and the figure-8 socket for the IEC C7 cable. It comes with one in the box, but it’s compatible with 3rd party cables, too. One thing to note is that, unlike Apple laptops, you can’t power the Mac Mini M4 with USB-C as stock, but some users have managed to mod it to do this.

On the underside of the Mac Mini is where you’ll find a fan, and the housing for this raises the aluminium body up from whatever surface you place it on in order to provide good airflow. It’s also where the power button is, rather awkwardly placed. If you’re installing this in a permanent space out of the way in your studio, then you’ll want to utilize the sleep mode versus shutting it down completely every night.

Performance

Taking it out of the box, my immediate impression is that it’s shockingly small. It’s like the smallest personal pizza box you’ve ever seen, with dimensions that make it more akin to something like an audio interface rather than a fully-fledged PC. It’s an impressive build, and like all Apple products, it features the aluminium unibody design that will be instantly familiar. It’s lightweight too, so you could use it on the go, with it weighing much less than my MacBook Pro M3.

One initial point of confusion is the location of the power button, which, it turns out, is on the bottom of the unit, and at the back to make it doubly hard to get to. It’s because the design has shrunk so much since the M2 version that the button had to be placed here, but it’s something to be aware of if you’re planning on hiding it away somewhere in the studio.

Loading up a project in Logic I’ve been working on, the Mac Mini M4 handles anything I throw at it with aplomb. Using the Core Audio with the buffer size on 32, it doesn’t even blink as I start loading up multi-band compression, spectral EQ, or quickly run the built-in stem splitter in Logic to separate the demo guitars from the drums. Everything loads up super quickly, making it an absolute pleasure to work in.

The track count runs to more than 90 by the time I’ve finished, including buses and sends, but I don’t see the CPU meter go higher than a quarter during this time. It plays back the whole thing without any issues, with around 70 plugins in the project. Granted, these were all Logic stock plugins, which are very well integrated, and of course, Logic itself works very well in macOS. That means it probably wouldn’t be this simple if you’re using a DAW like Pro Tools or Cubase.

I duplicate the project twice to stress test the Mac Mini M4 and see what it’s capable of. With 291 tracks running concurrently, the CPU meter shoots up, but it manages to play back the full duration of a four-and-a-half-minute song without any errors. You probably wouldn’t get this performance with this number of virtual instruments, but it speaks volumes that this is a very capable machine that will handle pretty much anything you throw at it. I can’t imagine many hitting this high a number of tracks in the real world unless you're scoring for film.

Verdict

With the latest M-chips, Apple is going from strength to strength in the music-making world. The Apple Mac Mini M4 is so insanely powerful that I could see it lasting a decade or more in home recording studios. Paired with a solid audio interface, you’ll have a very capable machine indeed, one that’s powerful enough to handle most tasks and stable enough to be used in a working environment.

You should consider your initial spec very carefully, though, because this isn’t an easily upgradeable machine. In particular, the hard drive size should be a concern, especially as OS updates often end up taking up more room, and you’ll likely be adding more plugins and programs as time goes on. You won’t feel a huge jump between the 16GB and 24GB RAM versions, but if you can, always go for the higher spec.

MusicRadar verdict: For me, the Apple Mac Mini M4 is a no-brainer for the producer or recording engineer who wants a permanent home setup. Its small size makes it well-suited to fitting into a variety of spaces, and the performance is simply superb, making it a very capable companion for music making. The only thing I didn’t like about it was the power button placement, but apart from that, there’s very little to complain about here.

Hands-on videos

Alternatives

Specifications

What is it?

There’s an issue with the latest line of Apple silicon processors in that they’ve gotten too powerful for their own good. The huge leap in processing power we've seen over the past few years means that a MacBook Air is now just as powerful as the MacBook Pros of yesteryear. Ever-increasing costs, driven by AI and geopolitics, mean the MacBook Air may no longer be the budget-friendly machine it once was for the cash-strapped modern musician. With that in mind, the low price of the Apple MacBook Neo makes total sense. But is it actually any good as a laptop for music production?

Priced at just $/£599 (or $/£499 for students), it’s significantly cheaper than any other MacBook the company offers. It doesn’t feature an ‘M’ chip, instead opting for the A18 Pro processor, which is similar to what you’d find in the iPhone 16 Plus. It’s got 8GB of Unified Memory, and isn’t configurable for larger sizes to help keep the costs down. You can, however, configure the SSD with options for 256 GB or 512 GB, adding an extra $/£100 to the price.

The display is a 13-inch liquid retina, with an impressive 500 nits of brightness. The keyboard isn’t backlit like you get on the other MacBooks, but on the face of it, the design looks largely similar. The multi-touch trackpad features here, too, with Touch ID for quick and easy signing in and out. It’s also got a 1080p web camera to ensure you’re looking your best in meetings and video calls.

Dual, side-firing speakers provide the onboard sound, and it also has dual microphones to ensure your voice is captured clearly. Connectivity is limited, with just two USB-C ports, one of which can only handle USB 2.0. It also has a 1/8-inch headphone jack, but most users will need to factor in the additional purchase of a USB hub, particularly if it proves powerful enough for music creation tasks.

Performance

My review model is in Citrus, which is certainly distinctive when I pull it out of the box. It feels very much like an Apple product, though, with the smooth aluminium body and rounded edges of their more expensive models. The logo on the back is more subtle than you get on other designs, with a shade slightly darker than the rest of the body, but still lightly debossed as you’d find on a MacBook Pro or Air.

Opening it up, the keyboard is also colour themed, looking like a sort of mint-green nestled in amongst the Citrus background. After installing some programs and downloading some project files to test with, I feel that while the keys and touchpad are not exactly the same as those on the MacBook Airs I’ve tested and my own MacBook Pro, it’s really not far off.

It’s the typical comfortable experience with short travel keys that feel smooth and precise, and the layout is exactly the same, so if you’re coming from another Apple machine you’ll be able to dive in straight away. The trackpad also offers a similarly precise experience, although on the Neo you only get a single press, not the double press 'Force Touch' offered on the more expensive models.

It’s plenty responsive though, and as I load up a Logic Pro project I’ve been working on, I find I can quickly and accurately get around the session without having to adapt coming from my own MacBook Pro. It’s a pretty seamless experience moving from one to the other, although I’m sure users will miss the light-up keys when working in low light.

Getting stuck into my project, it’s around 90 tracks of recorded audio, including busses and aux sends, which is a reasonable amount for a modern rock production. Starting with my drums and working through the project while keeping an eye on the CPU monitor in Logic Pro, I can see it gradually starting to fill as I make my way through the mix, adding copious amounts of EQ, compression, and multi-band compression.

I started on about half battery, and after a couple of hours of tweaking, it had run down so completely that it switched itself off while I went to get a cup of tea. It’s a far cry from what I’m used to with my MacBook Pro, but then this is a machine that’s really designed for students or business owners sipping vanilla lattes in coffee shops.

With the charger plugged in and my mixing done, I’m at around 70 plugins and ready to commence some stress testing. Setting the sample rate to 32 and using the Core Audio device on the Neo, I play through the track with no issues. The CPU meter spikes between halfway and three-quarters full, but it gets through the entire song, which is around 5 minutes, without any issues. Duplicating the entire project and trying again, I hit my first snag.

As soon as it gets to the middle 8, which features lots of additional tracks for atmospherics, I get the dreaded system overload. It’s over 180 tracks and around 140 plugins, which is not too shabby at all considering this laptop is designed for light use. Removing tracks one by one, I get to 171 tracks before any errors occur during a full playthrough. It’s a remarkable performance for a budget laptop.

There are some caveats to this though, the first of which is that Logic is extremely well integrated into MacOS, so it will enjoy superior performance to other DAWs. I highly doubt I'd get the same performance with my usual Pro Tools. The second is that I only used stock plugins for my testing, and that more advanced programs will consume more CPU power, so your real-world performance may well differ from mine. AI tools, virtual instruments like synths and drum kits, are a lot more power-intensive, so those working exclusively in the box will probably find they hit a lower track count.

That said, if you’re a beginner or student, I think this is a great laptop to cut your teeth on. Adding an audio interface will give a slight performance improvement, perhaps even more so if it features DSP, and for simple demos and recordings, I see no reason you couldn’t use the MacBook Neo as a production machine. It’s not going to satisfy power users, but then it isn’t really designed for that, is it?

Verdict

I had high hopes for the MacBook Neo when it was first announced, and I’m very happy to say it does not disappoint. It’s really great value for money considering the amount of processing power you get, and for simpler recording tasks, it performs admirably. It’s lightweight, looks great, and has many of the features of the more advanced and costly MacBook Air, making it well worth considering if you want an Apple machine on a budget.

Of course, it won’t satisfy professional producers or those who need insane track counts and huge plugin numbers. It doesn’t have Thunderbolt, which limits connectivity with more advanced hardware, and some users will definitely feel limited with just two USB 3.2 and 2.0 connections.

MusicRadar verdict: For beginners and students on a budget, the MacBook Neo can absolutely do a job as a budget laptop for music production. It’s not going to set the world of the professional musician on fire, but for those taking their first steps into the world of music creation, there’s no reason this can’t be your first laptop to start building up from.

Hands-on videos

Alternatives

Specs

There’s a very common saying in the pro audio world that not backing up your files is a mistake you’ll only make once. Whether you’ve got ten years of unfinished songs on your external hard drive or you’re just putting the finishing touches on an album for a rising artist, I've heard countless tales of storage devices breaking, corrupting, and being lost to the ether.

I know of several producers who have been close to completing projects for a big client, only to come to their computer the next day and find their hard drive has failed. Some of them have had to painstakingly recreate entire songs from scratch, or call the artist back in again to re-record, and this has had a knock-on effect on their work going forward. I myself lost around three years of music when a well-meaning relative decided to format and reinstall our home PC without letting me know first.

• Shop the full Amazon Big Spring Sale

So, if you want to avoid the agony of having to tell someone you lost all their data, or the pure pain of knowing all of your creations for the last few years are gone forever, it’s generally advised that you should follow the 3-2-1 rule when backing up your data. That means you should have three different copies of all your projects. This breaks down to two different media, for example, two external hard drives or a copy on a different computer, and one ‘off-site’ copy, like a cloud backup or a hard drive that isn’t connected to any network.

It’s World Backup Day today, the Amazon Big Spring Sale is in full flow, and we’re close to payday for most people. So, if you’re not already backing up your productions, then hopefully this is the kicker you need to start doing this essential piece of house cleaning. There are a lot of different hard drives available on Amazon, so I’ve done the hard work for you and found x deals on rock-solid drives that will suit any musician.

A few years ago, I decided to make the switch from a PC to a MacBook Pro for music production duties, and to be totally honest, I haven’t looked back. Despite its flaws, the MacBook is without a doubt the best laptop for music production by a country mile, and thus far I’ve found music-making on one an absolute joy.

If you’re thinking about taking the plunge yourself, Amazon has just given you the best excuse possible with some excellent discounts in its Big Spring Sale. There’s not a huge amount on offer, but what is there is definitely worth your while if you’re the creative sort. It includes the latest MacBook Pro M5, too, so if you’re looking for a top-tier machine, then this is a great chance to pick one up for less.

I’m not sure how long these deals will be around for, so if you’re in the market, now’s the time to pull the trigger. Here are the three best deals I spied on MacBooks that are perfect for music-makers.

Shop more sales

• Save up to 35% on live sound at Sweetwater
• Over 25,000 deals at Musician’s Friend
• Save 15% on Spark Neo at Positive Grid

Is the new MacBook Neo powerful enough to be used for music production? That’s the question that’s been on the minds of bargain-hunting beatmakers since this $/£599 laptop was announced earlier this month, and with the machine now in the hands of customers, we’re starting to get some answers.

The headline is that, yes, you can indeed run music software on the MacBook Neo, and if your processor and RAM demands aren’t particularly intense, you should be able to do so pretty successfully.

Producer L Dre is one of several YouTubers who have been taking the machine for a spin. In his video, we see him firing up Ableton Live and making a beat using multiple instances of Arturia’s Analog Lab plugin.

“Who would have thought we'd be having full Ableton running on an iPhone chip? That's kind of crazy,” he says, as he layers up the synths. In fact, he manages to get at least 14 tracks running with no issues, and there are more than 20 Analog Labs doing their thing before the machine metaphorically falls over.

Given that the MacBook Neo does indeed contain an ‘iPhone chip’ – the A18 Pro from the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max – and contains just a potentially limiting 8GB of RAM, that’s pretty impressive.

How does the machine fare when running Apple’s own Logic Pro DAW, though? I’m a Music Mogul has been testing that particular combination, running a variety of the software’s more power-hungry features and then stacking up the tracks to find out where it tops out.

Unsurprisingly, the Mastering Assistant, Stem Splitter and Chord analysis features all took longer to do their thing on the Neo than the M5 Pro MacBook Pro that was being used for comparison purposes – significantly longer in the case of Stem Splitter – but they got there in the end. The difference in session export times, meanwhile, was negligible.

But what of those maximum track counts? Impressively, the MacBook Neo managed to play back around 150 tracks of audio and MIDI without falling over. That’s significantly fewer than the 920 that the M5 Pro laptop could deal with, but it’s worth asking yourself how many tracks you actually need?

The MacBook Neo’s limitations did become a little more apparent when running a multi-gigabyte Kontakt sampler instrument – around 20 of these could be stacked up, compared to 170 on the M5 Pro – and the processor-intensive Serum 2 soft synth plugin also pushed the budget laptop’s capabilities. It still managed to run 30 instances of the same preset while playing back a MIDI file, though, which will be more than enough for a lot of people.

In fact, the bottom line appears to be that, if you want an affordable laptop to start making music on, the MacBook Neo is going to do you just fine. Yes, it’s nowhere near as powerful as a MacBook Pro with an M5 Pro processor but, as I’m a Music Mogul points out, he’s been comparing a $5k laptop to a $599 one, so what did you expect?

The BBC has dipped into its archive once again to give us another fascinating look at how the relationship between computers and music was perceived in the late 20th century.

This time, the year is 1986, and we’re at Hugh Faringdon School in Reading to see how a computer – a Yamaha CX5M, unless we’re mistaken – was changing the way that music was being taught. The clip comes from BBC Two computing show Micro Live, which you may well remember if you’re over the age of 45, grew up in the UK, and spent a lot of time trying to learn BASIC in the mid-’80s.

The CX5M was a dedicated music computer that could have its sounds upgraded with cartridges, and could receive note data from a MIDI or QWERTY keyboard. In the video, we learn that Hugh Faringdon School is taking part in a research project in conjunction with Reading University, designed to discover “whether a music playing home computer is fit to join conventional musical instruments” in the classroom.

We get to sit in on a class being taught by music educator Clare Tester, who asks her students to come up with a 1-bar melody using just five notes: E, F, G, B and C. Most of them set to work on the school xylophones, but Mark gets to jam on a synth.

After hearing a few of the melodies, the students are asked to vote for their favourite. Mark’s gets the nod – possibly because it wasn’t played on a xylophone.

Armed with Mark’s melody, Clare shows us how it can be recorded into the CX5M, which is running some simple notation software. “When using the composing program, the computer will take in any number of up to eight parts that you program into it and then it will play it back for you,” she explains. There are 46 sounds, and basic editing facilities.

We see Mark painstakingly choosing his note values and playing his melody, which is layered with others to create a larger arrangement.

What do the students think of this new technology, though? “The computer's better because it can store things longer in its memory than we could,” says one, but not everyone’s convinced of the machine’s potential.

“It's a bit of a shortcut because [when] you're using, like, a guitar or a drum, you're playing it on a keyboard,” points out a different pupil. “I would prefer to learn how to play the instruments. I think it's better than actually playing it on a keyboard.”

Clare Tester also has a criticism or two: she bemoans the fact that the computer can’t display or print all eight of its parts alongside each other so that students can see how they interact. Tasker also suggests that, after a while, the novelty of having the machine started to wear off.

“When we first had the computer, we used it virtually non-stop,” she says. “But interestingly enough, they did begin to miss playing the music for themselves after a while, which meant that we came up with a balance of actually playing the instruments on top of the computer in the background.”

Our narrator, though – who we think is Micro Live presenter Fred Harris – is quick to extol the benefits of music technology, which have become more and more profound as it has developed.

“Until now, creativity has been stifled by the need to acquire playing skills,” he argues. “Now, using the computer, any child can play a piano, organ, trombone, or drums and express creative ideas.”

For the finale, we get to see the students performing their piece using a pioneering hybrid setup of computer, various percussion instruments, brass, woodwind and synthesizer. The big question, though, is if Clare Tester is sold on the idea of having the computer in her classroom going forward?

“I think an excellent way of assessing the success of any new teaching aid is to ask yourself the question, ‘Would I still use it if I had to carry it up three flights of stairs?’” she suggests. “With the music computer, the answer is definitely yes. It's added a completely new dimension to the teaching of music in this school.”

Cue the end-of-day bell. Case closed, class dismissed.

In the midst of a good number of other product announcements, Apple has unveiled the MacBook Neo, an affordable laptop that’s designed to compete with Chromebooks and cheap Windows machines and provide “the magic of the Mac at a breakthrough price”.

Prices start at an eye-catching $/£599 ($/£499 of you qualify for the education discount) and there are four colour options: Silver, Indigo, Blush and Citrus.

At first glance, arguably the most impressive thing about the MacBook Neo (aside from the low price) is that it doesn’t look like a budget laptop. It has an aluminium (as opposed to plastic) enclosure that should ensure that it feels like a ‘proper’ Apple product. However, rather than using one of the ‘M’ processors that you’ll find in all of the company’s other Macs, the Neo is being equipped with the A18 Pro, which made its debut in the iPhone 16 Pro in 2024.

While some will inevitably use this as a stick to beat Apple with (‘it’s just a phone in a laptop case,’ etc) and say that it should have used the M1 processor at least, there are already suggestions that the more modern and efficient A18 Pro could be at least on a par with that chip, which dates from 2020, and offer better performance in some areas.

What’s more, in comparison to the M1 MacBook Air, which the Neo is already being likened to, the new machine has some advantages. Battery life should be a bit better, the front-facing camera is slightly improved (1080p as opposed to 720p) and more modern WiFi and Bluetooth standards are supported.

In order to hit the low price point, though, Apple has scrimped in a few areas. RAM is locked at 8GB (there’s no option to upgrade this – either at the point of purchase or later on) and the base model has just 256GB of storage. There’s also a 512GB model, which adds Touch ID, too, and will set you back another $/£100, but there’s no option to have a backlit keyboard on either model.

On the connectivity side, musicians will definitely appreciate the 3.5mm headphone jack, but there are just two USB-C ports, neither of which has Thunderbolt capabilities (one is USB 3 and the other USB 2).

How will the MacBook Neo fare for music production, then? Obviously, we’re yet to test it (you can pre-order the machine now but it won’t be released until 11 March), but we have a hunch that it might just punch well above its 2.7 pound weight. Sure, it’s not going to have the processing grunt of the also-just-announced new MacBook Air M5 or MacBook Pro M5/M5 Pro Max, but as a starter machine for running GarageBand, for example, it might well do the job. Whisper it quietly, but a lot of musicians don’t actually need as much computing power as they think they do in order to fulfill their creative potential.

The counter argument to this is that, if money is tight, you’d be better off buying a reconditioned or ‘pre-loved’ MacBook that has better specs. We can see the logic here – particularly if you want to get best out of ‘Logic’ Pro, funnily enough – but it’s pretty obvious that buying second-hand is potentially going to get you more for your money than buying new – assuming your purchase is in good condition, works as intended and doesn’t break down after a year or two.

Thinking more big picture, it’s also interesting to draw a comparison between the MacBook Neo and the new iPad Air M4, as they have the same starting price. It’s indicative of how the computing market has changed that, here, the tablet has a more powerful processor than the laptop, but if you want an Apple machine purely for music production, the less powerful Neo might actually be a better bet.

Not only does it have the advantage of running MacOS, opening up a world of plugin possibilities that aren’t available on iPadOS, but it also comes with a keyboard and trackpad – extras that you’ll have to purchase separately if you buy an iPad, and at considerable cost if you want the official Apple variants.

Which leads us to think that, if you want to buy just one Apple device to make music on, and you need it to be portable – if you’re happy to stick to your studio, don’t forget about the fantastic Mac mini – the MacBook Neo would be a better choice.

We won’t know for sure, though, until we’ve tested one, which we’re hoping to do soon.

What is it?

It’s a bit of a left-field choice in a field dominated by MacBooks and the Mac Mini, but if you’re after a PC for music production, then you might well want to consider the convenience of the all-in-one Apple iMac M4. While admittedly not the first thing that comes to mind for musicians, as we’ll find out, it makes a rather stellar case for being the next centrepiece of your home studio.

The latest iMac design hasn’t changed all that much from the previous M-chip iterations, featuring a super-thin design attached to a stand. Essentially, it’s a 24-inch monitor with a computer built into it. It’s available in 7 colours, with my review model coming in a rather fetching pink number, and this is matched in the peripherals, which also feature pink accents, even down to the USB cables.

The 24-inch monitor delivers 4.5k performance, which means those waveforms will look crisper than ever, although it’s not as bright as the equivalent MacBook Pro with 500 nits to the Pro’s impressive 1000. Still, with over a billion colours, it’ll be absolutely fine for any music production needs, and you’ll still be able to watch your favourite shows on it with impressive clarity.

Aside from the base model which only features two Thunderbolt ports, all the other versions now have four Thunderbolt connections, perfect for pairing with a high-powered audio interface. Depending on which model you go for, these ports can support up to two external monitors at 6K, or one external monitor at 8K, should you wish to plug a large high-resolution screen in for those projects with massive track counts.

Apple’s Unified Memory is configurable from 16GB up to 32GB depending on how you spec it out, and storage space ranges from a 256GB SSD right through to a full 2TB. The 12MP webcam records in full 1080p, so you should look sharp as a tack when chatting to clients remotely, and while you wouldn’t want to mix on them, there’s a six-speaker system with force-cancelling woofers, which in plain English means two woofers firing away from one another in perfect unison to prevent unwanted vibrations.

Performance

Unboxing the Apple iMac M4 turns out to be a surprisingly laborious task, and the word over-designed comes to mind when I think of the box it comes in. Most people will only be doing this once, but I’m already dreading the thought of having to put my review model back inside when it comes to it.

Inside is a full-size Apple Magic keyboard with Touch ID and number pad (great for Pro Tools users), and a Magic Mouse. Both look rather striking with their usual white design offset by soft pink accents, with the keyboard having white keys and a coloured frame, while the mouse features the standard white top while being coloured pink on the underside.

Pulling the computer itself out of the box I wouldn’t call it lightweight, but it’s impressively skinny. I have an old Intel iMac at home and it’s much thinner than that. The attached stand manages to be quite skinny, but feels very solid once I place it on my desk. There’s a white bezel that runs all the way around the screen which runs counter to MacBooks which typically have a black bezel.

The power block has an Ethernet port built into it, and a pink cable that works similarly to the MagSafe charging cable you get on a MacBook. It’s quite a chunky thing, but the plug end clicks in satisfyingly and easily, feeling very robust once in place. In the box, there’s also a USB-C cable for charging the peripherals, coloured pink, of course.

Sitting the iMac on my desk and powering on, I’m greeted by the usual ultra-smooth Mac workflow. The screen is sharp yet has a silky glow to it, with the white bezel adding to the feeling of lightness. The Magic Keyboard keys are similarly soft, offering a very quiet typing experience that’s comfortable, although there are no legs to prop the keyboard higher up if that's your preference.

The Magic Mouse also feels fluid in use, adapting to your hand movements by zipping across the screen when you move quickly but staying steady when making incremental changes. It feels great and becomes an extension of my hand almost immediately, but I still can’t fathom that USB-C port placement. It means you can’t use it while it’s charging and for those running professional studios, the last thing you’d want is the inability to use your mouse while working with a client.

I also find myself getting frustrated with the scroll action, which I frequently set off accidentally as I go to click on things. Without a specific button to press on the mouse, it feels little too easy to set off without meaning to. As I go to click on something on screen, I instead end up scrolling down or up by mistake. Also by default there’s no right click enabled, so I have to press control and click, which doesn’t really work for my workflow. You can change this in System Settings though.

Downloading Pro Tools takes much longer than actually installing it, with the grunt of that M4 processor easily dispatching with such a simple task. With my DAW installed, I plug in my Audient iD4 MKII interface with my studio monitors and studio headphones to set about stress testing the Mac to see what it’s capable of with the D-Verb test.

This consists of playing a 1k sine wave for five minutes through a selection of audio tracks, each running 5 instances of the D-Verb reverb plugin on the insert. While this isn’t a realistic way people will be using their machines for production, it is a quick and easy test to see what a computer is capable of.

At the baseline level of 50 tracks, the iMac M4 barely got into its stride, hitting around 32% in the total system usage window in Pro Tools. Moving on up to 150 tracks, which is 750 instances of D-Verb I hit 40% of system usage, which is very impressive. Doubling that number to 300 and we start to see the needle moving higher, hitting around the 72% mark. Once I hit 400 tracks, which is a pretty astonishing 2,000 instances of D-Verb, it starts touching 90%.

With another 50 tracks added I finally get it to 100% capacity, which as it turns out is around the same as the MacBook Air M4 that I recently tested. It is a ridiculously high ceiling and as with all the Apple Silicon chip-equipped machines, more than enough performance for the vast majority of music producers.

Verdict

So is the Apple iMac M4 the right music-making machine for you? Well, it’s a bit of niche Mac for music production in my opinion. Yes, it has plenty of power for all your production tasks but buying a Mac Mini M4, a separate monitor, mouse, and keyboard will still be considerably cheaper than the iMac if you’re frugal with your choices of peripheral. The ability to separate your monitor and computer in the studio itself also makes this setup a lot more versatile.

If you’re short on space however, the iMac M4 would be a really good choice as it combines the two main elements into one. It is however, not as compact as a laptop, which then gives you the advantage of being able to take your music-making on the road with you. Depending on how you spec’d it, a MacBook could also be cheaper. It leaves the iMac in limbo a bit when it comes to music production, as I can’t really see it appealing to traditional recording studio work or the modern, mobile music maker.

MusicRadar verdict: While the Apple iMac M4 is more than powerful enough for the vast majority of music-making tasks, its form factor means that it sits in between the studio staple Mac Mini and a MacBook Pro or Air. For the majority of producers, the iMac probably isn’t the right choice, but for a specific bracket that work from a home studio and doesn’t need something mobile, it’s a fantastic way to save on space versus a traditional PC, and get an all-in-one workstation that looks and feels incredible.

Hands-on videos

David Lewis

SPACE DESIGN WAREHOUSE

Simple Alpaca

Alternatives

Specs

Apple certainly likes to make a big song and dance about its iPhone launches, but its new MacBooks and iPads are often announced almost apologetically, via website updates and press releases.

And so it is with the latest 14-inch MacBook Pro and iPad Pro, both of which contain the also-new M5 chip.

It’s a sign of the times that, first and foremost, Apple is talking up the AI capabilities of the M5. It offers a 10-core GPU architecture with a Neural Accelerator in each core - the end result, we’re assured, being that GPU-based AI workloads run “dramatically faster”, with four times the peak GPU compute performance of the M4.

The CPU, meanwhile, also has up to 10 cores (six efficiency cores and four performance cores), resulting in up to 15% faster multithreaded performance in comparison to the M4.

How much musicans will actually notice all of this is open to question. While heavyweight graphics users and AI aficionados may be drooling at these speed bumps, it remains to be seen how much of an impact they’ll have when you’re simply trying to make a tune in Logic Pro.

Apple certainly isn’t hanging about in fitting the M5 to its computing hardware, though - you’ll find it in both the 11- and 13-inch iPad Pros, with prices starting at $/£999 and $/£1,299 respectively.

In terms of cost, this makes it very much a laptop replacement device, but if you’d rather have the real deal, the entry-level M5 MacBook Pro 14-inch costs from $/£1,599. It’s worth noting that, despite having a lower processor number, the M4 Pro and M4 Max versions remain the flagships, offering more CPU and GPU cores.

The M5 chip has also been added to the upgraded Apple Vision Pro headset which, thanks to the new Dual Knit Band, promises to be more comfortable to wear. With prices starting at $3,499/£3,199, though, it’s still far from comfortable on your bank balance.

All the new products are available for pre-order now, with shipping starting on the 22 October. Find out more on the Apple website.

What is it?

It used to be that music-making machines were better left to the realms of desktops, because laptops simply didn’t provide enough horsepower for larger tasks. Thanks to the recent breakthroughs in neural processing chips though, laptops like the Apple MacBook Air M4 make a strong case for not just assisting you to make music on the move, but becoming the centre point of your studio entirely.

Priced at £/$1,399, the MacBook Air M4 15-inch makes a great case for being the most versatile music-making machine on the market right now. Its M4 chip delivers over 38,000,000,000,000 (that’s 38 trillion) operations per second, which means it will make mincemeat of projects with 50+ tracks and CPU-draining plugins. It also has a dedicated Neural Processing Unit (NPU) to assist with AI-specific tasks like stem separation and sample management.

16GB of unified memory might not sound like much if you’re used to needing as much RAM as possible, but the difference here is that unlike traditional builds, there’s no separate memory for the CPU and GPU, which is a big bottleneck when it comes to performance. Here, the RAM is shared between the CPU, NPU, and GPU, which results in a much more efficient and speedy performance, as there’s no duplication of data going back and forth. It also means lower latency because every component has access to the same information.

The MacBook Air M4 boasts up to 18 hours of battery life, which thanks to the efficiency of the combined CPU, GPU, NPU, and unified memory means you’ll be able to run off your charger for a lot longer. It’s lightweight at just 1.51kg too, so easy enough to pack into a backpack to take on the go with you. It includes a 35W dual USB-C port compact power adapter, and a USB-C to MagSafe 3 cable in the box.

Performance

Unboxing the MacBook Air M4 I’m immediately taken aback by the new Sky Blue finish, which is a bit more Ice Blue to my eye. It’s very close to the traditional silver of a MacBook, but in the right light, the blue tinge looks very evident. Like most MacBooks, the anodised aluminium finish makes it a fingerprint and dirt magnet versus a more traditional plastic laptop.

The last MacBook Air M1 that I tested was a lot different in its design, whereas here the Air is much more like its bigger sibling in the MacBook Pro, offering a rounder and blunter design. As my MacBook Air M1 had a habit of sliding around and feeling quite sharp with its slim aluminium edges, this design change is a welcome addition for me. Despite the slightly broader build it still feels very lightweight, easy to carry around with one hand and barely there when I chucked it into my backpack to take to the studio with me.

The backlit keyboard is the usual comfortable MacBook experience, and the only thing I can see that’s changed from previous iterations is that the mute function key now has a slash through the speaker icon, not that I ever had trouble differentiating them before. It feels wonderful to type on, with a soft feel that’s not as clacky as some keybeds can be. The backlighting also means you can work easily in the often dark, moody light of a studio, with it being bright enough to be easily visible but not so bright that it blinds you.

The Force Touch trackpad feels exactly the same as the one on my MacBook Pro M3, providing a responsive feel that’s really easy to get to grips with. I wouldn’t rely on it for precise editing, and it can be awkward when dragging tracks and WAVs around in the DAW, but these are natural disadvantages rather than anything Mac-specific. The single touch to click and two touches to right-click work spectacularly well, and in all my testing, they never failed to provide me with the correct response.

The glossy liquid retina display looks fantastic, even if you’re only looking at the rather dated GUI of Pro Tools. Colours are vivid, lines are crisp and clear, and it’s super bright when you max out the setting. Of course, I’m primarily testing it for music production, but if you are dabbling in video editing or just want to watch the next episode of Alien Earth, it’s very adept for visual media.

There are only two Thunderbolt 4 ports however, which means once you’ve got essentials like your external hard drive and audio interface plugged into it, there’s no more space for MIDI keyboards, charging devices, or any other peripherals you might need. This means that investing in a decent USB hub is a must. It does have a 3.5mm headphone output though, which when combined with the generous processing power means it's entirely possible to mix using the default playback device and a pair of studio headphones.

With my DAW of choice Pro Tools installed in rapid fashion, I set about testing the limits of the MacBook’s capabilities by running the tried and tested D-Verb test. I create a session at 48 kHz and 32-bit float, with the buffer size set to 64. I then generate a sine wave over five minutes, before recording it onto 50 tracks, each with 5 instances of D-Verb running on the default preset. As expected, the MacBook ate this test up with just a measly 33% of CPU use.

Next I up the stakes, adding 200 tracks each with 5 instances of D-Verb, which is 1,000 plugins running at the same time. The System Usage window displays a steady 50% all the way through the five-minute track, and monitoring through a pair of headphones I don't hear a single pop or crackle the entire time. Doubling the count, I start to see some signs of strain showing, with 400 tracks resulting in the CPU usage bar bouncing between 83 and 96%.

It was only once I got to 512 tracks, the limit of my Pro Tools Studio license, that I got it to throw an error. While the D-Verb test isn’t wholly representative of how any music-maker would use a PC or laptop, it is a quick and easy way to determine what any machine is capable of, and the result is that MacBook Air M4 is an absolute beast for music production.

Verdict

There’s a reason you see Apple machines in studios all across the world, and even prior to the developments in Silicon-based chips, Apple ruled the roost. With this latest wave of M4 chips, an already iron grasp on the music market will no doubt be strengthened. No longer the realm of musicians working exclusively in the box, a modern laptop could now become the centrepiece of a more traditional home studio, allowing you to take your projects and plugins wherever you go.

The MacBook Air M4 isn’t perfect, the lack of connectivity being a particularly big factor if you use a lot of peripherals. With the price of USB hubs being relatively low it’s not a huge barrier to music-making, although if you need additional Thunderbolt connectivity the price could potentially stack up. It’s also still not upgradeable, although an M4 chip will easily last you ten years at the current rate of advancement.

MusicRadar verdict: As far as modern music-making machines go, the Apple MacBook Air M4 is an amazing choice for any kind of musician or producer. It’s got more than enough power to keep you in business for at least the next 10 years, whether you’re crafting EDM in the box with a pair of headphones, or recording a full band with an audio interface and set of monitors.

Hands-on videos

Bjørnar Kibsgaard

Thozi

L.Dre

Alternatives

Specs

There are numerous reasons why you might want to stress test your laptop for music production. You might want to understand the limits of how many tracks or plugins you can run in a session, how long you can push the boundaries of your budget laptop before it overheats, or if you’re on a Windows laptop, test a recent upgrade.

As the most important component for music makers, your CPU has a large effect on a multitude of aspects of music production. Every plugin you use takes a little slice of your CPU power, and the heft of your CPU also affects the ability to run lower buffer sizes in your DAW, enabling lower latency performance, which is crucial in the recording phase.

One of my first jobs was working in a computer repair shop and while the majority of my time was spent dealing with software issues, quite often I’d have customers coming in to upgrade or overclock their machines, seeking better performance. It’s all well and good buying a new laptop, upgrading your RAM, or adding an external hard drive to enhance performance, but how do you actually know if these upgrades or new purchases are having a marked difference?

This is where testing comes into play. It’s a relatively simple process to undertake, and can be done with stock plugins or using stress testing software available for free, so all you need to test your laptop is a little bit of time. One thing to note is that if you’re performing this testing to see what impact an upgrade will have, make sure to do some baseline testing before you install your new RAM or SSD.

D-Verb Test

Whenever I’m reviewing a laptop I will perform the D-Verb test on it, as Pro Tools is my DAW of choice. You can do something similar in any DAW, but you may need to tweak a few things in order to perform this test. Many of the tools out there for stress testing are merely for the purpose of trying out overclocked components or fault-finding, so for me, there’s more value in a test that’s a little more in line with what musicians will be doing in the real world.

To start with, head to your Playback Engine in Pro Tools and make sure that 'Ignore Errors' is unchecked. You’ll then need to generate a sine wave utilising the signal generator in Pro Tools. To do this, you create a mono audio track, select five minutes on the timeline using the select tool, and then use the Audiosuite menu to render the signal. Once this is done, change the output of the track to Bus 1, then create a new audio track with its input as Bus 1.

Next, you need to add five instances of D-Verb to the audio track, then we can start duplicating. I recommend starting with 25-50 tracks initially, and you’ll need to make sure they’re all armed for recording, but don’t arm record your original track with the generated sine wave on it. Before you commence, make sure to open System Usage in the Windows menu so you can see what’s going on with your CPU during the test.

Once your tracks are armed make sure you turn your studio monitors and studio headphones down, then you just need to hit the record button. This will send your initially generated signal to all of the duplicated tracks, running it through all of the reverbs and recording it to track. Let it run for the full five minutes and listen back at low volume for any signs of crackles or pops. It’s pretty dull listening I’ll admit, but part of the test is the ability for your computer to run under load for a decent amount of time.

You can monitor what’s happening via the system usage window, which will let you know how much of the overall CPU is being used, as well as what the individual cores are doing. Provided your machine is able to handle it at 25-50 tracks, keep upping the stakes until you get Pro Tools to throw an error. On a recent MacBook M4, I got to over 400 tracks before I encountered my first error, which tells you what a modern laptop is capable of.

This test can be run on any DAW provided you don’t have a limited track count, and is a good way to see how much your computer can handle before you decide to take on a behemoth project. Pretty much every DAW has a tone generator built in, so whether you’re running in Ableton, FL Studio, Logic, or Studio One, you can perform the test. Any stock reverb will suffice, as most reverbs tend to be quite CPU-intensive. Most DAWs also allow you to monitor your system usage, you’ll just need to do a quick Google search on how exactly to do it in yours.

Stress Testing

If you've recently upgraded your machine or are trying to overclock to get more performance, I highly recommend using Prime95, which is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux machines. Originally designed to help find prime numbers, it’s become popular with those who build their own computers in recent years, providing a great benchmark to see how stable your computer is under heavy load.

The process of using it is very simple: just download the software, install it using administrator privileges, and when prompted, select the ‘Just stress testing’ option. The software will then run through a variety of tests and you’ll hear your fans fire up at certain points, as it also tests the cooling systems and power supplies in your computer.

You can run the test for any amount of time you like. The makers of Prime95 themselves recommend anywhere between 6-24 hours for optimal results, but if you don't have that amount of time you can run the test for however long you're typically using your computer. You can then check the results in the results.txt file that’ll be generated in the folder you extracted the program from.

One limitation of this test is that it’s primarily designed to detect faults, rather than simulate actual use. So if you own a newer laptop that is working fine you may not find out much doing it this way. If you’re overclocking your machine to extract more performance for your music-making however, or you’ve recently added more RAM, it’s a great way of seeing how much pressure you can put on your components and how stable the system is overall.

Conclusion

So there you have it, two relatively simple and free ways to see what your music-making machine is capable of. Of course, you can perform these tests on a desktop PC or even an iPad if that’s how you make your music, whether you’ve made a change recently, or you just want to find out just how far your computer can take your music production.

You probably don’t think too much about the hinge in your laptop, you know, the bit that allows the two sides of the machine to pivot open. Who does?

But did you know that a) Apple have been putting sensors in the hinges in their MacBook series since 2019 and b) you can transform the hinge into a creaking door, and even a theremin?

No? Well, one developer, Sam Henri Gold, a man who quite possibly has too much time on his hands, has been beavering away and has written some code that allows you to do just that. And, inevitably, he’s gone kind of viral with his discovery.

This is his creaking door MacBook…

Did you know your MacBook has a sensor that knows the exact angle of the screen hinge?It’s not exposed as a public API, but I figured out a way to read it and make it sound like an old wooden door.

— @samhenri.gold (@samhenri.gold.bsky.social) 2025-09-10T13:09:26.808Z

And then a little while later we got theremin mode. (Of course, the theremin, notoriously, is the only instrument you play by not touching and you’re adjusting the pitch here by moving the laptop. But anyway, it’s impressive, isn’t it?)

you know what? fuck it. theremin mode. github.com/samhenrigold...

— @samhenri.gold (@samhenri.gold.bsky.social) 2025-09-10T13:09:26.651Z

It seems that at present those two sounds are the only ones on offer. But clearly, there’s potential there to have as many sounds for opening your MacBook as there are ringtones.

If you are impressed (and, crucially, if you have a MacBook) you can pick up the code for the creaking door from GitHub, by clicking https://github.com/samhenrigold/LidAngleSensor.

And the one for the theremin at https://github.com/samhenrigold/LidAngleSensor/releases/tag/1.0.3.

Teenage Engineering has drawn its fair share of criticism over the years for the price of its products – many fans of the brand have felt priced out of purchasing desirable instruments like the OP-1 Field and OP-XY, and releasing a $1,599 flat-packed desk didn't exactly do the company any favours.

In it defence, though, it should be noted that the Swedish design wizards have released some affordable products. Teenage Engineering's Pocket Operator is surely one of the best-selling pieces of budget music gear in history: the PO-10 launched at $59 a decade ago and the price of all Pocket Operators has remained well under three figures since.

This year, the company is addressing its avaricious reputation with a series of attention-grabbing offers rolled out on a monthly basis under the banner of Flipped Out '25. This kicked off in June with the head-scratching decision to invite customers to pay what they want for the OP-1 Field, choosing a price from a given range that went from reasonable discount to daylight robbery.

Next up in Teenage Engineering's calendar of promotions isn't another discount – it's a giveaway. The company has designed a DIY computer case and is giving a limited amount away for free (excluding shipping) with a limit of one per customer. Named Computer-2, the case is a plastic successor to Computer-1, a build-your-own aluminium PC case released in 2021.

Computer-2 is a small form factor case built to house a mini-ITX motherboard, SFX power supply and dual-slot graphics card up to 180mm. Constructed from a single piece of semi-transparent foldable plastic, it features snap-in hooks and flexible living hinges for convenient, screw-free assembly and disassembly – a novel design indeed.

Why is Teenage Engineering giving Computer-2 away for free? Aside from the obvious explanation (marketing stunt) it seems that the design was something of an experiment: a statement on the company's website says that the project was inspired by the goal of designing "the cheapest computer case in the world".

"Our engineers worked day and night to really push the limits and they went beyond all expectations," the company says. "They engineered it all the way down to a cost of 0. Now, that's Teenage Engineering."

Sadly, it seems as if Computer-2 is already "sold out" in Teenage Engineering's online store, mere hours after launch. However, as we're based in the UK, it's still worth checking to see if stock is available in your location.

Find out more on Teenage Engineering's website.

Great news for electronic music makers of a retro persuasion, or simply those who are looking for something ‘new’ to try – the Commodore 64 is back.

Yes, no more trawling eBay and car boot sales for you. Now – courtesy of a reborn Commodore – you can purchase a perfect, new, improved 2025 incarnation of the best-selling home computer from 1982, and literally get back to the future.

The Commodore 64’s MOS Technology 6581 Sound Interface Device (better known as the SID chip) had a sound all of its own, breathing life into videogames and music programs and knocking the basic bleeps of its rival Sinclair ZX Spectrum into a cocked hat.

Musically the C64 certainly had the edge, and, armed with the new chip’s polyphonic power composers such as Chris Huelsbeck ran wild, creating genuine soundtracks for video games (do check out his legendary work on Turrican) for the first time.

Classic cuts

By today’s standards the SID was distinctly limited with just three voices, but four waveforms, and a multi-mode filter gave the C64 a sound all of its own. So much so that in the years following the C64’s physical demise (and the death of the entire Commodore computer in 1994) countless emulators and hardware spin-offs have popped up to satiate those wishing to recreate that distinctive genre-defining ‘chiptune’ C64 sound.

And what better way to get a SID as part of your set-up than inside an entire faithful recreation of the C64, warts and all, in 2025!

The rebirth of Commodore comes courtesy of YouTuber Christian Simpson who originally only sought a licence to create an emulation but ended up buying the entire Commodore brand, its logos and the rights to all of its creations.

And his first hardware off the block (alongside a raft of T-shirts, sweatshirts and other branded retro goods) is the new C64 available in Basic, Starlight, and Ultimate Founders Edition forms.

The company now intends to begin shipping their first hardware in October of 2025.

“We've been sleeping for 30 years. Please excuse us,” the company says on its ‘new’ website. “Now we're back, you know we had to start with the best-selling desktop computer of all time.”

The new computer features a modern AMD Xilinx Artix-7 processor running the show, alongside 128MB of DDR2 RAM and 16MB of flash memory – marked increase on the 64 KB of the original.

Rather than simply emulate the C64 in software, a programmable FPGA circuit replicates the full chipset meaning that original peripherals (should you still have some in a box in the attic) can plug in and work just as with the real thing.

In fact, the new Commodore promises that the new unit is compatible with “over 99%” of original soft- and hardware.

And while it sports a new, obligatory HDMI port for output, it still maintains the original cartridge slot and DIN-8 connectors. Plus – in a first for a C64 – USB ports A and C for the connection of keyboards and other modern hardware, alongside Wi-Fi and Ethernet.

It even comes with a USB stick containing 50 retro games and demos, including a whole new game in the Jupiter Lander series.

The Basic unit carefully copies the original beige of the original while the Starlight Edition features a transparent case with RGB lighting inside.

Top of the tree is the Founders Edition limited to a run of 6,400, which aims to copy the Golden Anniversary Edition, originally made by Commodore to celebrate the sale of its one millionth unit. This model features an amber-tinted case and gold-plated keys.

Prices are $299 for the Basic, £349 for the Starlight and $499 for the Founders Edition.

Find out more at the reborn Commodore.net.

There are sales and savings popping up everywhere at the moment, thanks to the Prime Day music deals. So if you’re on the hunt for a new laptop for music production, it’s a great time to strike while the iron’s a lot cheaper than usual.

As Prime Day is now nearly a Prime week, running from July 8th to the 11th, we can reasonably expect that this year will see more discounts than ever before, becoming an event more akin to a summer Black Friday than its origins as just a single day of deals. That means more prices being slashed, and more time to save big on the music gear you want.

• Shop all the Prime Day music deals at Amazon

I’m a laptop user who moves frequently between a proper analogue recording studio and my home studio, and my MacBook is my most prized possession. I spent a lot of time researching what to go for before I bought it, and in my job as a gear reviewer, I’ve reviewed a few laptops in my time. Add in an early stint as a young man working in a computer repair shop, and it’s fair to say I know a few things about computers.

Coupled with my job finding the best deals for musicians, I’ve elected to scour all the websites with major sales, including Amazon, to pick out the best deals for musicians looking to take the plunge.

Whether you’ve got a small budget or a large one I’ve picked out a selection of laptops that will cover all bases, and every single one is more than capable of handling the task of producing music. I’ve ordered them by price too, to make it easier to browse.

Top laptop deals

What is it?

Designed as part of a new generation of content creation-friendly laptops, the Asus ProArt P16 promises plenty of processing power and a boatload of functionality that should be useful for those after a laptop for music production.

My review model is the H7606WI, which is packing some serious hardware. It’s got a 2GHz AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor with an AMD XDNA neural processor (NPU), 64GB of LPDDR5X memory, a 2TB M.2 NVMe PCIe 4.0 solid-state drive, and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 GPU with 8GB of GDDR6 VRAM.

It retails for £2,499/$2,899.99, but Asus does offer a less opulent version with the same processor but less RAM and hard drive space, which retails at the $2,199 mark - although this is currently only available in the US. It's similarly priced to the working engineer's choice of laptop in the MacBook Pro, and clearly trying to vie for some of that Apple-dominated working creative market share.

A 16-inch 4K OLED screen with touch functionality promises the best-looking mix window you’ve ever laid eyes on, and it sits in a cool all black everything shell that’s much more professional-looking than the RGB-heavy laptops you often find with this level of power.

The touchpad is large and features a small circular imprint in the top right, which I’ll come to later. For ports, you get two USB-C, two USB-A, an HDMI port, a 3.5mm audio jack, and an SD card slot. It’s plenty for connecting all your MIDI keyboards on a modest setup, but there’s no Thunderbolt support for interfaces that require it.

Performance

Sitting down to load up the laptop for the first time, I immediately notice how glossy the screen is. With the sun streaming in from my left-hand side via my patio doors, I have to adjust the angle in order to see things better. Probably not much of an issue in the typically dark environments of the studio engineer, but something to think about if you spend a lot of time working in the coffee shop or sunnier climes than your average recording studio.

Downloading and installing my DAW of choice, Pro Tools, is a smooth procedure, and the installation itself doesn’t take long thanks to all that processing heft. Loading the DAW happens quickly, but I’m greeted with a comically small interface thanks to PT’s lack of compatibility with high DPI scaling. A quick visit to the settings gets me back to normal, and with the driver for my Audient iD4 interface installed, I dive into phase 1 of seeing what the ProArt 16 is capable of.

Using the good old-fashioned D-Verb test, I render a signal generator over a period of five minutes and feed it into 50 tracks, each with 5 instances of D-Verb loaded as inserts. With the system usage window open, I record arm all my tracks, minus the original signal I generated, and attempt to record the sounds. The CPU averages a very respectable 30% for the duration of the test, without a hint of any pop, distortion, or dropout.

To recreate this strain in a real-world scenario, you’d have to be running 250 plugins in a session, which is certainly more than I’ve ever used. Knocking it up to 100 tracks, this time the CPU hovers around the 40% mark, but again, no issues for the full duration of the test. 150 tracks? No problem. By the time I got to 300 tracks, I was hitting 80% of the CPU, but it still lasted the full five minutes, which is a ginormous 1500 instances of D-Verb running in the same project. It took 400 audio tracks for me to get it to throw an error, which is frankly insane.

With my stress testing done, I set about just using the machine to craft some tracks to get a feel for what it would be like as a daily driver. The trackpad immediately catches my attention thanks to its tactile feel and excellent responsiveness, a must-have when it comes to making music on the go. All of the gestures are intuitive, like two-finger sliding to scroll up and down, a double tap of fingers for right click, and I accidentally discover a three-finger side scroll works similarly to alt-tabbing.

The circle in the top left of the trackpad is designed to give you additional, customisable functionality in certain apps, like those from Adobe and video editing programs like DaVinci, but there’s no real benefit to this for music-making. As far as I can tell, no DAW supports this, and I could find no way to edit it for use in Pro Tools, Ableton, or Bitwig, which is a shame. I’m sure many musicians could benefit from an additional way of controlling their audio, particularly as a trackpad can be quite clunky for certain tasks.

When not using Pro Tools, the screen is phenomenal. I open up a demo session Ableton to see how it looks and every line is clear and crisp, making it great for editing audio and screening a busy session to find that particular clip I want to change. It's the same story in Bitwig, with the colours looking resplendent in the arranger window. If you're editing video or photos alongside your music-making, you certainly won't be lacking for quality here.

I find absolutely no problem making my way around the keyboard coming from my usual MacBook Pro, although I do find the short enter button to be a little annoying as I’m used to a larger button. It’s something I could get used to, though, and overall, the feel of the keybed is fantastic. It lights up nicely, which makes working in low light a breeze, and it feels pretty similar to my Mac, so I don’t have too much trouble adjusting.

I do notice that it gets quite warm on my lap, however. The underside of the laptop is more vent than anything else, and when I start to put some strain on the processor, the sound of the fans whirring up is pretty loud. This could definitely prove an issue for musicians, although you’d have to be using it very intensively to get this to happen. If you’re moonlighting as a video producer or editor, however, it’s something to bear in mind.

I got about six hours out of the battery using it from a full charge, so enough to do a mixdown, but not quite enough if you’re on a creative hot streak and want to continue for a full day. That was from a full charge and included me installing Pro Tools and my audio interface, running my stress tests, and bashing out a quick guitar demo for my band. I had the screen on full blast for the duration, the keyboard backlit, and I wasn’t careful to close background programs, so if you were a bit more frugal, you could definitely get more out of it.

Verdict

Overall, I can’t really fault the Asus ProArt 16 as a music-making machine for Windows users. The only real issues I encountered during my time with it were OS-related, and the amount of power on tap is plenty even for pro-engineers and composers running huge sessions.

Whether or not musicians should go for this over a similarly priced MacBook is merely a case of what operating system you prefer, because the Asus ProArt 16 has plenty of power to compete with silicon chip Apple machines, and it has that professional look sans any garish RGB lighting. It really is a viable alternative for those who don’t want to commit to the Apple ecosystem.

MusicRadar verdict: Offering up a plethora of processing power, a superb OLED screen, and a lovely feeling trackpad, the Asus ProArt 16 is definitely worthy of your consideration if you’re after a new laptop for producing music. It delivers plenty of power for even the most complex of sessions, and offers excellent usability thanks to the gorgeous screen and responsive trackpad.

Hands-on videos

Alternatives

Specs

PRODUCER WEEK 2025: Equally adept at producing music for immersive headphone listening or ecstatic dancefloor exaltation, Matt Cutler is a staple of the UK electronic music scene.

In the years following his last album, 2016's Levitate, he’s switched labels, moving over to London-via-Berlin collective Greco-Roman, and developed a new approach that weaves dream-pop vocals into richly textured electronica, drawing inspiration from My Bloody Valentine and Cocteau Twins.

A few years back, Cutler joined us to talk through his creative process and studio set-up, giving us an insight into the ideas and instruments behind his latest record, Always Inside Your Head.

MusicRadar: When did you first get involved with music production?

Matt Cutler: “Well it definitely goes back a long way. I'd been messing around with toy keyboards and tape recorders from the age of about nine, but I honestly don't know if you could class what I was doing back then as 'music production'.

“I got a computer game called Music for the PlayStation in 1999 which was a super basic sequencer, and you could also write little tunes and stuff on it, so I guess that was my proper introduction to how electronic music was actually made.

“By 2001 my family had bought a PC and I quickly downloaded a demo of FL Studio, or Fruity Loops as it was known back then.

"It was pretty much the same set up as the Music game really, so I was able to hit the ground running and started obsessively making my own tunes straight away. Happy to say I'm still using FL Studio as the main brain of my studio all these years later.”

MR: When and how would you say you became successful, or at least able to make a living from music?

MC: “Well, in terms of 'success' I kinda felt that around 2002 or 2003. By that time I honestly started to feel like my tunes were getting somewhere. It started to become my favourite music, and I'd happily listen to whatever it was I'd just finished all day. That was a big aim when I started out.

“In terms of any kind of financial success, that wouldn't happen for a long time after. I quit my crappy part time job around 2010 and moved from my hometown of Nottingham to Manchester to take it up full time.

"Me and my mate had just set up the Magicwire label and put out the “Pineapple Crush” 12'', and that was the tune that finally seemed to click with people. Enough bookings for live and DJ sets were coming in, so I just ran with it and didn't look back.”

MR: What is your overall philosophy or approach when it comes to music (playing, recording, production)?

MC: “It's incredibly simple to be honest with you: just make the music you want to hear. Everything else is secondary to that. There is no greater feeling in my life than when a piece of music I'm working on starts to take shape.

“For me, I have to be totally moved by what I'm working on long before anyone else in the world hears it. If you're trying to make music for other people or to try and follow trends, I honestly don't think it lasts... I think the key to proper longevity seems to be: make the music that moves you most and all the other shit will follow.”

MR: Tell us about the rest of the gear in your studio.

MC: “To be honest, I've always kinda come from the laptop musician school of keeping it mostly in the box... so it's tons of plugins that I've collected for the best part of 20 years, and FL Studio.

“I'm looking around now though and amidst the absolute mess that is my studio I can see an old Yamaha DX7, mainly used for the Rhodes preset for when I've been trying to capture that ‘80s movie / Spielbergian vibe in my tracks... [laughs]

"Roland SH-01A, as I couldn't justify spending the money trying to get an original 101, but wanted to get those glorious lead sounds down. Novation Ultra Nova which has been good for live stuff, an old Akai MPC2000XL, Akai APC40, Akai MPX16, a battered Roland SP404 not used since the 'Lemurian' days, though, I do often think about bringing that back.

“Two Technics SL-1210MK7 turntables, two Pioneer 2000NXS2 CDJs going into a Pioneer DJM-850. A couple of Rode NT1A mics which I've used for literally every found sound / percussion or vocal recording on any of my tracks.

"M-Audio controller keyboard, two Adam A7X monitors going into a Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 interface. A cheap bass guitar, an electric guitar... oh, and boxes of crappy little percussion instruments, shakers and bits of homemade things I can bash to make noise out of.”

MR: What are your favorite 5 plugins?

MC: “Honestly, I'd really rather prefer to keep specific plugins to myself as not to give TOO much away but I would say that a great deal of what I always use when I'm working on tunes are the FL stock plugins!

“EQ and reverb are by far my most used and I just know this stuff like the back of my hand. Sure there are tons of endlessly fancier plugins you could use but I really just want to stress that it's not what you use but how you use it... I've always kept it incredibly basic and those limitations have pushed me to be more and more creative over the years.”

MR: How does a track typically start structure wise and then progress?

MC: “Over the years it's changed so much, and will change generally from track to track these days, but I'd say that generally I'll start with chords. I'll try and lay down a progression that moves me and then let my brain respond to whatever the chords tell it to. Usually melodies will spring to mind from there and I'll start to jam those over the top.

“I'll chuck in a random drum break to guide all this usually and gradually build it up from there. I definitely feel like my major strength as an artist is the ability to respond to quite small or basic elements.

"Like, if I have some nice chords, I find it so easy to come up with the rest from there. It starts to snowball really quickly. It's just getting to that starting point that can be tricky.”

MR: How do you know when a track is finished or what advice do you have to complete a track?

MC: “The track is finished when I can listen to it without wanting to change anything. I often fall into the trap of finishing a track, exporting it and thinking I'm done with it only to then listen back the next day and realise there's slight tweaks needed - or sometimes whole changes!

“I guess I'm quite an impatient person so I always want to finish the track and move on to something new. What ends up happening is, I'll listen back to what I've done the next day and realise there's elements that could be better, then go back in and alter whatever it is that stuck out to me.

“It'd be much better to walk away from a track for a breather, when I think I'm done with it and go back the next day with fresh ears because I often end up with about 50 mixes of a track. Sometimes they come out quickly though, and they're always the ones I won’t touch afterwards. There's something about catching a vibe quickly and then moving on which has always appealed to me.”

MR: Talk us through one or two influences behind your last record.

MC: “Musically I wanted to capture the way Kevin Shields production on the My Bloody Valentine records, or the way Liz Fraser's voice glistens on the Cocteau Twins records, make me feel when I listen to them. So, it wasn't a case of trying to copy either band's music or trying to sound like them, but more a case of trying to capture the way they make me feel.

“So it was a case of listening deeply and learning about how I could apply that to what it is that I do. Tons of breakbeats, lush lead melodies and deep ambient textures... backed up with the most beautiful chords I could come up with, but with the addition of a big dose of hazy Kevin Shields-esque noise.

“A beautiful uneasiness to the tone and lush vocals that are much more about melody than specific meaning, so, using vocals more as an instrument - like another synth but a thousand times more organic.”

MR: How did the collaborations go?

MC: “Yeah, I knew this album had to have female vocals. The tracks that I was writing were kind of screaming it out to me. I was becoming obsessed with Cocteau Twins and Bilinda Butcher's vocals from My Bloody Valentine, and wanted to expand my sound to try and capture a similar feeling to what I was getting through that music.

“I mentioned this to my mate Chris and he played me a few tracks he'd made with a friend of his, Morgane Diet. I'd explained to him what I was going for and he basically said something like “yeah she's amazing, kind of like Bjork at times”, and the tracks he played me were lush. Her voice stood out as pretty much exactly what I was imagining.

“Cut to a few months later and he's put us in touch through email. I started sending her little chord progressions and basically asking her to sing what came to her... I wasn't too bothered about lyrics particularly, it was much more important to me to get a feeling in the melodies - words weren't important as I knew she could communicate so much more this way.

“She'd sent me back folders full of clips - melodies she'd sung over the chord progressions I'd given her. From there I'd build songs around them. It became like the world's most insane puzzle trying to piece together the best bits over what I was working on.

"The vocals really made me respond in totally different ways than I would have done just working on my own and it was so exciting as the tracks started to come together.”

MR: How are you planning to translate this project into a live setting?

MC: “This is what I'm heavily in the middle of right now. The first live show is on November the 28th at Village Underground. I'll be bringing Chris Boot with me, who I mentioned. He's an amazing drummer. We toured the last album, Levitate, together. We'll be meeting up soon to jam some ideas - it really breathes new life into the tunes to have his live drums going off next to me on stage. It makes me improvise in different ways as well, which is exciting.

“From my end I'm basically building this massive Ableton project which I'll be controlling with a couple of Akai MIDI controllers. I'll be triggering and tweaking MIDI chord progressions from the tracks with a couple of synths, I’m still not 100% sure which I'll be taking out yet.

“I'll have the SH-01 there to tweak lead melodies live, and will basically be triggering hundreds of clips in real time. I've remixed most of the tracks and have them totally broken into tiny bits and MIDI keys and stuff, so I'll basically be building tunes live on stage which is something I've always kind of wanted to do, but never found the best way of doing it.

“It's so exciting to see it coming together so I'm really looking forward to the show and to taking it on the road next year.”

MR: What is on your wishlist studio gear wise?

MC: “Honestly, I'm so content with my messy little set up. You could take everything away from me but leave the laptop and I'm confident I could make interesting music quite happily for the rest of my life. Having said that, If anyone wants to buy me a Yamaha CS80 or 70M I would not be complaining. The holy grail for me.”

MR: What would you like to see developed in terms of studio technology and why?

MC: “Some sort of Neuralink type shit, which would cut out the middle man of actual studio gear and mean you could just imagine tunes into existence. That's always been the dream for me. I mean, I'm quite lazy, so I guess it'd suit me, but it's more the fact that I reckon most of my music sounds better in my brain than the stuff I'm actually capable of producing.

“It's always been that way to be honest. I am getting closer to bridging the gap though. I think that technology is probably not as far off as you'd think. Next hundred years we'll see mad leaps like that I think. As long as we don't blow ourselves up in the meantime.”

MR: What advice can you offer others who are starting out in music production?

MC: “Going back to what I was talking about earlier, honestly, I'd just tell anyone starting out to just try and make the music they'd like to hear in the world. Try and imagine the best music in the world and then spend your life trying to be a good enough artist that you can bring it into existence.

“I think people need to find their own way when it comes to art though. I wouldn’t want to influence a younger artist and take them off a path more suited to them. Maybe my advice would be: don't listen to advice! Do what feels right and don't overthink.”

MR: What track by any other artist do you wish you had produced?

MC: “Great question. I have so many... Honey Power by My Bloody Valentine. Specifically the outro section that comes in after the track is over. I think that is the most perfect piece of music I've ever heard. Everything You Do Is A Balloon by Boards Of Canada is a pretty perfect track. I'd definitely feel pretty good having come up with that.”

MR: Finally, what else have you got planned for the future?

MC: “Getting the Village Underground live show done is the first mountain I have to climb, so at the moment I'm not seeing anything too far beyond that. I'd like to get back into making tracks though.

"I have a bunch of things I started I'd quite like to try and tie up. Also I'm toying with the idea of putting out an EP of straight-up club music to follow up the album, so ideally I'd like to get bang on that as quickly as possible.”

Lone's Always Inside Your Head is out now on Greco-Roman.

PRODUCER WEEK 2025: It’s a fairly safe bet that one of the reasons you’re reading this is because you are involved in recording. For the majority of us, that probably means recording at home. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a professional carving a career from music, or a weekend hobbyist.

Today, the same tech is available to all of us. Even on the most meagre of budgets. But how did we get to this amazing point of musical democratisation?

It's taken a few decades to arrive where we are today, with one of the major turning points in recording history being the arrival of multi-track technology. It can be pinned down to the moment when Ampex developed the concept of an 8-track tape system.

We are all familiar with the ability to record one instrument on top of another - and keep going until we run out of tracks. It all started there.

It's very much the philosophy we use today, but back in the mid-50s, being able to achieve this involved lots (and lots!) of magnetic tape, a reel-to-reel tape machine and a mere 8 tracks at a time.

Due to their size and cost, these machines were the sole preserve of recording studios. But as with all technology, it only took a few more years for the technology to become distilled into something which could be regarded as domestic level.

Tascam led the charge, developing cheaper alternatives during the 1970s, with the ultimate release of the TEAC 144 in 1979.

This offered the ability to record four distinct mono tracks, one after another, directly to the ever-popular audio cassette. It also gave rise to the trademarked (and soon to be a staple of any amateur music-maker’s lexicon) ‘Portastudio’ branding.

Despite other companies producing machines with a similar capability. The term became synonymous, much like Auto-Tune or Hoover!

Given the developmental nature of electronic music during the 70s, it won't come as a surprise to learn that there was plenty of ground being broken by a vast swathe of artists an innovators

One notable trailblazer was Jean-Michel Jarre, who made use of his kitchen in his Paris flat to accommodate much of the equipment used to make his early synth-dominated albums.

It's also worth noting that Jarre did not conform to the usual multi-tracking norms, making adroit use of the limited equipment that he had available to him at the time.

Apart from a small number of classic synthesisers and home organs, accompanied by some early sequencing technology (developed by friends and colleagues), he used four Revox tape machines, as a form of manual multi-track, playing back one machine, before playing another track live on top, while recording to another machine

Complex and time-consuming it was - but the imaginative results speak for themselves.

Meanwhile, in London, the BBC’s Radiophonic Workshop was getting exceptionally experimental with tape, often manipulated by the use of razorblades - or stretching it around the studio.

This group of in-house engineers were tasked with designing soundscapes and eerie early electronic music for the BBC’s homespun sci-fi (including Doctor Who and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) and were heavily influenced by the school of music described as Musique Concréte.

While not a home environment, the inventiveness of the early Radiophonic composers required no small part of ingenuity - and a rather unorthodox approach to creating music using technology.

The seeds of electronic music’s experimentalism - and the notion of the producer-as-creator- were being sown.

We’re jumping around in time a little here, but these disparate islands of innovation were all heading to the same unified end point in which we’re now living.

Thanks to the invention of the Tascam Portastudio, many guitarists and singer/songwriters found themselves in the enviable situation of being able to create demos at home, by plugging in a microphone and recording directly to cassette.

There was nothing to stop electronically minded musicians doing the same - but as synthesiser technology began to become more affordable, the very same electronic musicians wanted more…much more!

It would take the arrival of the sequencer to really allow synthesists to join together a series of notes in a row.

Early sequencers only allowed a small number of notes to be assembled, but with the switch to digital technology, more notes could be curated - provided you had the time and the inclination to input the data.

Roland produced some fine examples of this technology, such as the MC-8 and MC-4, during the late 70s and early 80s, but these devices were noted for their complexity in operation.

It had less do with playing notes, and far more to do with entering numbers.

They also commanded substantial price tags; a MC-8 would set you back a hefty $4795 in 1977.

This early sequencing technology was reliant upon CV/Gate, which is still a reliable (but fairly primitive) means of triggering notes and changing pitches using voltages.

Several manufacturers, spearheaded by Sequential and Roland, decided that a better system was necessary, allowing the interfacing of different brands and machines, so that synths, sequencers and drum machines could all play nicely together.

Committees and research groups were formed. Meetings were held. Coffee was drank.

After a considerable hiatus, the various bodies settled on the MIDI format. This would become a dominant force in home studio technology.

The Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI to its friends), adopted the form of a 5-pin DIN plug, which began to appear on a number of different machines.

At NAMM in 1983, Dave Smith of Sequential fame, connected a Sequential Prophet 600 synthesiser to a Roland Jupiter 6, and played notes on one, while triggering the other. Mouths were agape.

And so, the protocol known as MIDI received its first successful public demonstration.

It didn't take long for companies to realise the potential of MIDI, with new sequencers that could take advantage of the technology in a multi-channel capacity. But it was the release of the Atari ST computer in 1985 that arguably changed everything.

The Atari ST provided a blueprint for the ecosystem we swear by today.

The Atari ST was a humble home computer, more attuned to playing Space Invaders or word processing duties. Yet it was fatefully equipped with two sockets, which displayed the freshly minted acronym MIDI.

It didn't take very long for computer programmers to realise the potential of this relatively inexpensive machine.

They repurposed its more domestic intent to the task of making sweet, sweet music.

Computer music, you might say.

Steinberg was the first notable company to break cover; Pro-24 allowed the sequencing of up to 24 tracks, with the added bonus of on-screen editing.

Even with the Atari’s small computer display, it was still substantially larger than the tiny screens found on dedicated hardware sequencers. It soon became the must-have technology for bedroom and professional producers alike. The ultimate home music-maker’s hub.

The only snag with a MIDI set up of this kind, was that you needed synthesiser hardware to be triggered live by the Atari. This is where things became expensive.

Home recordists started filling out their makeshift studios from floor to ceiling with keyboard and rack-based synthesisers. Often met with a disapproving look from their other halves (or parents!).

But there were two other essential parts to this jigsaw which changed the musical landscape at the same time.

Sampling was starting to come of age, thanks to companies such as Akai.

While professionals had been using instruments such as the incredibly fashionable and expensive Fairlight CMI (a behemoth of a sampling workstation), bedroom producers were using Akai samplers to record and reproduce beats, alongside other sampled instrumentation.

As digital technology began to supplant the analog gear of old, that initial wave of synthesisers and drum machines were cast off.

But back then, music stores could barely give away this old technology, while the secondhand ads were littered with old drum machines that nobody wanted anymore.

Why would you want an analog drum machine, when the realistic sample-based digital machines were supposedly so much better?

Well, tell that to the bedroom producers who wanted to snaffle a bargain!

A number of machines became the must-have-cheap-accessories, and most of them were made by Roland. The TB-303 bassline synth, along with the TR-808 and 909, were adopted by the next generation, to form the sound of acid house, house, rap and R&B.

What's even more astonishing, is that the influence of these machines on production remains firmly in place today. The price of these classics surged - and a quick scan of the secondhand market reveals there's no sign of that abating.

It's a far cry from the time when we once saw TB-303s in the bargain bin, for less than fifty dollars! (Yep, that really happened!) If only we'd had our crystal ball to hand.

But despite the cherished status of these hardware classics, the dominos had already fallen. The switch to digital technology would have an exceptionally profound effect on bedroom music making.

As Atari dealt with financial struggles, musicians found themselves moving away from the platform, in favour of Windows based PCs, and - eventually - the creativity-angled Apple Mac.

The larger computer chassis also provided the means of employing PCI cards, equipped with audio inputs and outputs. What had been the preserve of the professional market, was now at the behest of the person on the street, at a fraction of the price.

With more advanced computers came the ability to mix and process audio within the computer itself, rather than the previously accepted standard of using a mixing desk with an effects unit.

Waves was the first company to explore this concept, through the release of their Q10 Equaliser in 1992, but it was Steinberg that standardised the tech, through the adoption of their first VST (Virtual Studio Technology) plugin, in 1996.

The floodgates were burst open, with Waves, Soundtoys, Native Instruments and more, all providing the means to adapt your audio within the computer, with the further concept of generating and playing synthetic or sampled sounds from within the computer too.

By the early 2000s, the DAW could easily handle samples and synth sounds internally, swiftly doing away with the need to buy additional expensive hardware. Although the arguments for whether hardware sounds better than plugins continues to rage.

Computers have now become smaller, interfacing simpler and speed faster…

So, where to next?

In a bizarre twist which could be likened to a completing of the circle, current trends are for the ‘clean’ signals (which we have lusted after for so many years) to become degraded and dirtier.

Companies such as Universal Audio can provide all the tools you need to revisit that flawed, compromised but cherished vintage sound, from mic-pre’s to tape machine simulators - and all within the DAW environment.

It’s like the mid-50s all over again!

Now you don't have to be so much of a bedroom producer, as a producer sat on a sofa with a laptop, or on the bus with your phone - if you prefer.

Home recording has no bounds, other than the imagination of the user pressing the buttons. For the price of a humble laptop, accompanied by any of the popular DAWs, you can turn out a track in an afternoon, and have it online before the end of the day!

Now that’s ‘real’ home recording, and there’s not a Fairlight in sight.

Apple did one of its ‘launch a few products without a keynote’ things yesterday, giving us refreshes of the MacBook Air, Mac Studio, iPad Air and standard iPad.

The physical appearances of all four products, it should be said, remain as they were, but inside it’s a different set of stories. In the case of the MacBook Air, this means an M4 chip and the option to include up to 32GB of RAM, up from the 24GB maximum of the previous M3 model.

Otherwise, it’s very much as you were, but the good news is that the 13-inch model now starts at $/£999 - $/£100 less than its predecessor - which is a nice surprise. The 15-inch model starts at $/£1,199, and both are available in sky blue, midnight, starlight, and silver finishes.

The new Mac Studio, meanwhile, is billed as “the most powerful Mac ever made,” this power coming from either the M4 Max or new M3 Ultra chip. Confusingly, it’s actually this new M3 processor that delivers the best performance: up to a 32-core CPU, 80-core GPU and 512GB RAM. You can also have up to 16TB of storage.

We’re not really going out on a limb when we say that a Mac Studio is overkill for the majority of bedroom musicians - for a more affordable desktop machine, check out the Mac mini - but if you do feel the need for a serious amount of speed, $1,999/£2,099 is the starting price.

Finally, those new iPads, starting with the new iPad Air, which comes equipped with an M3 processor as opposed to an M2. That’s not quite on a par with the M4 iPad Pro, but it does mean that the iPad Air (starting at $/£599 for the 11-inch model or $/£799 for the 13-inch model) sits in a nice middle ground between the new entry-level iPad, which has the somewhat dated A16 chip, and the top-end model.

One thing that storage-hungry musicians should note, though, is that at the iPad A16’s storage capacity now starts at 128GB rather than 64GB, which is possibly just as important as the processor upgrade if you want a current-gen iPad that you won’t fill up in a hurry but want to pay as little as possible for it ($349/£329, in this case).

All the new products can be pre-ordered now and will arrive in Apple Stores on 12 March.

• Our pick of the best Macs for music production
• And the best iPads for musicians and producers

Choosing the best iPad for music making is actually a bit tricky these days. Yes, the top-of-the-range iPad Pro is great, but it’s also pricey. And although the iPad Air is slightly more affordable, it still feels like it’s designed more as a laptop replacement than a secondary device.

And, let’s face it, for most musicians, the iPad is going to be a secondary device. You’ll likely have a PC or Mac as your main machine; a tablet is something you’re probably going to use when you’re travelling or noodling in bed or on the sofa in front of the TV.

This being the case, paying top dollar doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, and the good news is that one of the best iPad deals this Cyber Monday is on the very affordable 10th generation model, which was released in 2022. This is down to just $279 in the US (Best Buy) and £289 in the UK (Amazon), which is a pretty eye-catching price.

There’s no M series chip in here - instead you’ll find an A14 processor. This might be getting on a bit, but it’s certainly no slouch. In fact, it’s said that the M1 processor was actually based on the design of the A14.

The 10.9-inch iPad 10th generation also has 4GB of RAM inside it and, owning one myself, I can confirm that it’s still up to snuff. Having looked at the current range, I decided that, for my requirements, this is the model that offers the best balance between price and performance. Priced at $499/£499 for the cheapest model, I don’t feel like the new iPad mini is the answer for most people - yes, it has an A17 chip but the screen is smaller and it costs a lot more than the 10th-gen iPad, and as I mentioned, both the Air and Pro cost even more.

The slight downside is that the most affordable 10th-gen iPad only has 64GB storage, which can quickly start to fill up. But if you don’t go crazy with the number of apps you have installed - think about how many of them you actually use - and make canny use of cloud storage, it’s great value and will perform admirably.

I’ve been producing music for a long time, and I was always a die-hard PC user. My main recording PC has been going for a long time now and is finally starting to show its age. With the cost of upgrading my CPU, RAM, motherboard, and adding some more hard drive space, I’m starting to think it’s time to take advantage of the Black Friday MacBook deals and jump ship to the Apple bandwagon.

It’s not been an easy decision, but I feel like the timing is perfect for me to make my move. I’ve got my eye on a MacBook Pro M3, which combines the best in future-proofing, value for money, and the portability a laptop for music production provides. It’s a big change from my current PC, but here are the reasons that I’ve decided to switch allegiances.

1. Portability

Switching to a MacBook is going to allow me to make music anywhere, and in the modern age, this is a really useful function. Thanks to the Apple Silicon chips a laptop is now powerful enough to compete with a desktop, which means I can take my music-making anywhere. Armed with a compact audio interface I can even record on the go, which certainly makes my work trips a lot more interesting.

2. Efficiency

A MacBook with a Silicon chip is infinitely more powerful than my old Intel, and while there are Windows laptops with similar capabilities, there’s no doubt that for a lot of music-making tasks, the Mx chips are superior. The neural engine is great for audio tasks and it’s very energy efficient, meaning you can get better use out of your laptop when you’re on battery power.

3. Integration

I recently began studying a music production course and every studio is equipped with an Apple machine, which meant integrating with my Windows machine was essentially impossible. It’s not just my place of study though, every professional studio I’ve been into runs on the Apple OS, so ultimately if I want to be able to integrate with these places, then I need to be part of the Mac ecosystem.

4. Future-proofing

Even at this point, the M1 Apple chips are more than powerful enough for the majority of music production tasks. That means if I go for my favored MacBook Pro M3, I should be future-proofed for a good while yet. My Windows PC lasted me a long time, and with any luck my MacBook should do the same keeping me with plenty of processing power for at least the next ten years.

5. Connectivity

If you’ve ever been PC shopping with audio in mind, you might have noticed that not many PCs carry Thunderbolt natively. Plenty of laptops do however, which means you can use more powerful audio interfaces as part of your rig. As I like to do my work within the Universal Audio ecosystem, having Thunderbolt as part of my rig is a must-have, which is another tick in the box of an Apple machine.

6. Usability

Despite there being a slight bedding in period switching from Windows to Mac, overall I’ve found the Mac user experience to be super smooth when I used one for work a few years ago. For me, my chosen DAW Pro Tools just works better on a Mac and I’ve found that overall the experience is a lot less intrusive than Windows with fewer popups. Everything feels a little smoother and a little more creative-user friendly, particularly as the Mac built-in audio driver is far superior to its Windows equivalent.

Conclusion

Interestingly despite all the reasons listed here, it’s actually a pretty close call between the two. I very nearly decided to stick with PC but ultimately for my circumstances, the benefits outweighed the cons. I do understand this will be a matter of personal preference for most people, and that some might feel my reasons aren’t just, and that’s okay.

Ultimately the main kicker for me was that the wider recording industry uses Macs for the most part. Much like if you want to work in the industry you need to learn Pro Tools, your life will be a lot easier if you’re working on an Apple machine whether that’s collaborating with others or just giving yourself access to better monitoring and purpose-built rooms.

Black Friday MacBook deals

Having the very latest MacBook is all well and good, but it can cost you. Yes, you can save a packet if you shop the best Black Friday MacBook deals, but if you’re not bothered about having one of the latest M3 or M4 processors, there are even bigger bargains to be had.

Take this deal at Walmart, which brings the price of a MacBook Air M1 down to just $599. Now, we know what you’re thinking - didn’t this machine come out years ago? Well, yes, it was released in 2020, but such was the generational leap of Apple’s new Silicon technology back then that, even four years on, the M1 is a sterling performer.

“I’ve had my M1 Mac since 2020 and I still use it to review the latest plugins and DAWs without any problems,” says MusicRadar’s hi-tech managing editor Si Truss. “I haven’t even considered upgrading and don’t plan on doing so any time soon.”

Quite the recommendation, and one that we think will be endorsed by many M1-toting music producers. The MacBook in question has 8GB RAM and 256GB storage, so a portable SSD might be in order sooner rather than later, but this is undoubtedly a lot of computer for the money. You can even choose your colour: gold, silver or space grey.

I don't want to worry you (you know there's a but coming, don't you?), but (there it is) Cyber Monday could be your last best chance to snag a new MacBook at a heavily reduced price. And, not to worry you even more, but there's not much of Cyber Monday left.

Whether you're upgrading your existing music production MacBook or making the jump from Windows - don't worry, we're not going to start debating which is the best operating system here - some of the best deals on the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro are still available, but they won't be around for much longer.

I’ve had more MacBooks through my door (and more DAWs on my MacBook - bad-dum tish!) than I care to remember, and that familiar ‘dong’ as I fire up a new model is as pleasing as it was when I bought my first iBook some time in the last century. And take it from me: that ‘brand-spanking laptop energy’ feels even more powerful when you’ve saved yourself a packet.

So what exactly is on offer? The new M4 MacBook Pro was released just a matter of weeks ago, complete with Apple’s latest generation of chips, but the incredible news that it’s already being discounted. Best Buy has the 14-inch model for just $1,499 in the US and, in the UK, the high-end M4 Pro model of the same size is discounted to £1,849 at Amazon.

Same goes for the MacBook Air: the new 13-inch and 15-inch models landed in March, just a few months ago, but there are bargains to be had on some of the slightly older models if you want them. You can bag a 2022 M2 model for as little as $799 from Best Buy if you’re in the US, which is a great buy.

In the UK, you can snaffle a 13-inch M3 Air for £949 and the 15-incher for £1,329, both courtesy of Amazon.

Check out all the current best deals below, and remember to keep checking back in case more come in.

Quick links

Best MacBook Pro deals

🇺🇸 US deals

🇬🇧 UK deals

Best MacBook Air deals

🇺🇸 US deals

🇬🇧 UK deals

It's Black Friday, which can only mean one thing. Well, it can mean a lot of things, obviously, but one of those things, undeniably, is MacBook deals.

We've picked out a selection of the best above, but if you're looking for a bonus deal, so to speak, how about this: a 13-inch MacBook Air for just $599! OK, it 'only' has an M1 chip in it and was released four years ago, but it's still a perfectly capable music-making machine that you won't max out in a hurry. US customers can grab it now at Walmart.

I've just found a killer deal on an M1 MacBook Air at Walmart. Sure, it's an old model, but I still stand by the performance, and it's one of the cheapest production-capable Macs you'll find online right now.

“I’ve had my M1 Mac since 2020 and I still use it to review the latest plugins and DAWs without any problems,” says MusicRadar’s hi-tech managing editor Si Truss. “I haven’t even considered upgrading and don’t plan on doing so any time soon.”

Apple MacBook Air 13-inch: Was $699, now $599 at Walmart
13" | M1 CPU | 8GB RAM | 256GB SSD
Yes, it was released in 2020, but this MacBook Air M1 is still a cracking laptop for music production, and at just $599, it's a total bargain. If this price is beaten this Cyber Weekend, we'd be very surprised.

Thinking of making the switch from PC to Mac for music production? Matt on the MusicRadar team has just done that. Here's why this die-hard PC user jumped ship.

"I used a PC to produce music for 15 years, here's 6 reasons I'm picking up a MacBook in the Black Friday sales"

So you've decided to buy a new MacBook - how about a nice set of AirPods to go with it. Again, now's the time to buy, as Apple's flagship AirPods Pro 2s are currently down pretty much to their lowest ever price.

In the US, these stellar earbuds regularly retail for $250, but Best Buy currently has them at just $160, saving you $90. And, in the UK, you can bag them for £179, down from £229 - again via Amazon.

I've mentioned a couple of times above that, if you buy a MacBook with just 256GB of storage, you might want to consider a portable SSD to bump up your capacity. In fact, even if go for a machine with 512GB or 1TB, you might still need more space.

If that's the case, consider this Black Friday deal on the 2TB version of SanDisk's popular Extreme portable external SSD. With up to 1050MB/s read speed and 1000MB/s write speed, it's a pacy little devil, and its rugged build means that it should be able to survive the inevitable bumps, scrapes and drops.

In the US, the SanDisk 2TB Extreme is down from $200 to $130 at Amazon, while in the UK, it's down to £110 to £156.88 from the same retailer. In both cases, it's a great saving on a high-quality bit of kit.

The bad news? The £849 deal on the M2 MacBook Air at Amazon looks like it's no longer available (we told you you needed to be quick). The good news? You can pick up the same machine, albeit with 8GB rather than 16GB of RAM, for £100 less! Yes, that's right: £749 is all you'll pay for this 2022 machine, which comes in a classy silver finish.

UPDATE: It looks like this deal is now done, too, which goes to show that you need to be quick if you want take advantage of these Cyber Weekend bargains!

Obviously, one of the great things about owning a MacBook is that it's portable, but if it's your main computer, the chances are that you're going to want to plug in an external display and use a separate mouse and keyboard. That's certainly my preferred setup, particularly if I know I'm going to sitting down to work or make music (which can also feel like work) for a long time.

While plenty of other decent options are also available, Apple sells its own 'Magic' mouse and keyboard, both of which will connect wirelessly to your MacBook. And, in the UK, Amazon is selling both of these at a decent discount: the Magic Mouse is down from £79 to £53, and the Magic Keyboard can be snaffled for £75, down from £99.

There are plenty of great MacBook deals around this Cyber Monday, as you now know, but you can also bag a bargain iPad if you're so inclined.

Possibly the most eye-catching deal is the one that's currently running on the entry-level 2022 10th gen model. It might be a couple of years old, but at just $279 in the US (Best Buy) and £289 in the UK (Amazon), it's definitely worth considering. The A14 processor still has plenty of poke, and while the 64GB of storage is a little limiting, that still leaves room for plenty of music-making apps.

We're getting towards the sharp end of Cyber Monday now, but some of the best deals are still there if you want them. Take this M3 MacBook Air at Best Buy that we've just found - very much a steal at just $899, which is $200 off the retail price.

It may have been announced in 1983, but it was in the mid-to-late ‘80s that MIDI really started to have an impact in bedroom music production circles. By then, we had the Atari ST, a computer with built-in MIDI ports, and software sequencers that were capable of taking advantage of them.

Plus, multitimbral synths were getting more affordable, so it was possible to buy just one keyboard and use it to create a complete arrangement.

Which brings us nicely to 1990, when MIDI music-making was established enough to warrant an appearance on BBC 2 - at the time, one of just four terrestrial TV channels in the UK.

In a segment presented by Kate Bellingham and recently posted to the BBC Archive YouTube channel, we see a digital musician, Clive Williamson, demonstrating how he uses just an Atari ST running C-Labs Notator - the forerunner to a little-known DAW called Logic - and a Roland D-10 (a cutdown version of the D-50) to create a new-agey piece that shows off the synth’s familiar ‘80s soundset. The show is called Techno, but the music definitely isn’t.

‘Electronic keyboards”’ like this, explains Bellingham, can be found in “any reasonable music shop,” while Williamson is billed as a man who “composes music and sells his own tapes”.

When asked by Bellingham if a great deal of musical expertise is required to make music using a setup like this, Williamson replies that precisely the opposite is true. “I love MIDI because you don’t have to have a great deal of knowledge - you just have ideas.”

Despite this being an explainer video, there’s some familiar confusion about where the sounds are being generated - at one point, Williamson mistakenly says that “the piano sound is coming from the computer”; he later gets it right when he says that “all these sounds we’re hearing are coming from one synthesizer” - but it’s towards the end that things really take a turn for the bizarre.

After explaining that MIDI enables you to use multiple digital instruments together, William pulls out his “digital horn” - something from the Casio DH range, we think - before inviting Bellingham to jam over his Notator tune on her oboe while he plays the flute, an instrument he was inspired to take up after getting into MIDI music making. Fellow Techno presenter Mat Irvine is also roped in to play MIDI guitar (used to trigger the strings, we think), and then the whole thing just ends as the camera pans out.

It’s all gold, and we can’t help but think that Williamson, Bellingham and Irvine’s trio was the inspiration for The xx, who formed some 15 years later.

If you’d told us a few years ago that iPad chip technology would end up ‘trickling down’ to the iMac - as opposed to the other way round - we wouldn’t have believed you, but that’s Apple in 2024 for you.

Which is a roundabout way of saying that the M4 chip that made its debut in the iPad Pro earlier this year - you know, the one that was going to render all your musical instruments irrelevant - has now been shunted across to the new iMac. This comes in 8-core and 10-core flavours (both CPU and GPU), and with a starting spec of 16GB RAM and 256GB of storage (you can go up to 32GB RAM and 2TB storage).

You can choose from seven colour options, and either two or four Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports. There’s a 24-inch, 4.5K Retina display with a nano-texture glass option for those that both want and can afford it.

Unsurprisingly, the new M4 iMac supports Apple Intelligence, the new suite of AI features that’s available from today. This includes writing tools, an enhanced Siri experience, smart image editing and more.

Where the iMac M4 differs from the latest iPad Pro, of course, is in its operating system: macOS rather than iPadOS. As we all know, the former remains far more flexible than the latter if you’re a musician, being capable of running full desktop DAWs and standard VST/AU plugins.

The M4 iMac is available for pre-order from today, with prices starting at $1,299/£1,299. Find out more on the Apple website.

When it comes to performing live electronic music, contemporary artists have more options available to them than ever before: with such a vast array of synths, samplers, sequencers and controllers available, it might seem a little uninspired, even lazy, to bring nothing but a laptop on stage.

Don't say that to Autechre, though. In a recent interview with Metal Magazine, the revered electronic duo offered a blunt response to those who would criticise their laptop-centric performances. When asked for their thoughts on "laptop music", Autechre's Sean Booth said: "I'm not going to be like, 'oh, I can't use a laptop because some fucking weird reason'. Are you mad? 

"Literally somebody's handed you this multi-tool that you can do fucking anything with and you're going to be like, 'no, I want to play a keyboard because I'm a musician,'" he continued. "I'm not checking my emails on stage [laughs]. It's just all about fucking appearances. It is just a fucking sick tool."

Autechre are known for immersive live performances that put themselves and the audience in complete darkness, in which they improvise a continuous, hours-long set of new material, experimenting in real-time in front of their fans.

Rather than ripping synth solos or triggering pre-recorded clips in Ableton, though, the duo makes use of the visual programming language Max/MSP, which they use to design synths, sequencers and effects from scratch in code, creating complex patches that can then be utilized as instruments in their live shows. 

Aside from two laptops running Max/MSP, Autechre's minimal live set-up features nothing more than an iPad, two basic MIDI controllers and an audio recorder for capturing the performance.

In 2016, Autechre told Resident Advisor they were so immersed in Max/MSP that they hadn’t bought any new equipment in five years. “I just use Max/MSP now, because in Max I can generally build the thing I need, and if I don't know how to do that it'll generally be worthwhile learning,” Booth said. “So rather than spend my money on equipment, I spend my money - as time - in learning how to build stuff.”

Those who level criticisms against laptop-centred performances do so for a number of reasons - chiefly, that it gives the impression that an artist is simply hitting play on a pre-recorded set, rather than crafting the music live and on-the-fly. This is a fundamental misunderstanding, though; as Booth says, laptops are incredibly powerful tools for live performance and improvisation.

The heart of the issue, as Booth says, is all about appearances. Many of us expect a performance to feature a visual element, and watching someone stare at a laptop screen doesn't exactly foster a meaningful connection between a performer and their audience. This has never been Autechre's vibe, though: performing in complete darkness, they instead choose to focus the audience's attention completely on the listening experience.

"I personally don’t like screens very much," Booth says. "If I'm playing on stage, I don't want a bunch of people who are just kind of looking at an object that's over there, where that becomes the object of their attention."

"[A screen] is flat, isn't it?," adds Rob Brown. "It doesn't surround you. Music's different because it's everywhere. So it's just kind of the space that you're in. So you become enveloped by it."

"I think honestly that the brain just gives it more processing over to the audio side when there isn't any visual information, that manifests as a kind of synaesthesia where I start to see this out," Booth says. "I'm hoping that some members of the audience get to experience something a bit like that when they're there.

"It's easy for people to become attached to the two things at once, seeing and hearing. And it literally can, like you said, borrow a load of resources emotionally and mentally, metaphysically. You're going to be transformed slightly. I'm sure everyone has, at some point, closed their eyes and simply listened to music, but maybe doing it with other people is the weird bit. 3,000 people all in the dark."

Read the full interview at Metal Magazine's website.

Debuting in 2012, the iPad mini used to hit a nice sweet spot in Apple’s tablet range, being slightly more portable and affordable than the standard model.

As both phone and iPad screens have got bigger, though, its purpose seems less obvious. As a musician, do you really need a device that’s slightly larger than the one you take everywhere with you but not big enough to be viewed as a laptop replacement?

Apple clearly thinks that some people do, as it’s just launched a new version of the iPad mini that it says is “built for Apple Intelligence”.

The big internal upgrade is the A17 Pro chip, which replaces the previous model’s A15 processor and promises a 30% boost in CPU performance. There’s support for the Apple Pencil Pro, too.

In other areas, though, the new iPad mini is very similar to its predecessor. The Liquid Retina screen still measures 8.3 inches; it still uses Touch rather than Face ID; there are still stereo speakers and two microphones; and the battery life still tops out at 10 hours.

As such, the main draw here is the Apple Intelligence compatibility. Debuting in the upcoming iPadOS 18.1, this is a set of new AI features (including writing tools, enhanced Siri and image editing/creation features).

If these aren’t important to you but you like the iPad mini’s form factor, it might be worth looking out for a discount on the outgoing model, which looks similar and offers a lot of the same functionality.

That said, if you’re happy with a slightly larger display - and why wouldn’t you be? - our advice would be to try and find another £100 and get yourself an 11-inch iPad Air. This is also Apple Intelligence-compatible and contains the considerably newer M2 chip, so should be relevant for plenty of years to come.

The new iPad mini is available in four colour options, and the entry-level 128GB model has a starting price of $499/£499. It’s available for pre-order now, with deliveries commencing from 23 October.

Find out more on the Apple website.

We’re sad to announce that Computer Music's most recent issue will be the final issue of the magazine.

First launched in 1998, Computer Music’s existence was spurred by the giddy excitement about the music production power of desktop computers, then becoming an increasingly popular presence in homes around the world.

The momentum built further by the snowballing of home computing, the speed-up of processors and the swelling interest in creating and producing music at home, Computer Music magazine soon became a must-buy for many.

Over its subsequent 25-year lifespan, Computer Music charted the development and evolution of software music-making from its humble beginnings to its omnipresent current state. It inspired many notable artists and producers to pursue their passions and armed its readers with a huge array of free software – most notably the Plugin Suite, an arsenal of tools that stands among the greatest free gifts a print magazine has ever given its audience.

Editor Andy Price said of the closure "Back when we first started, computer music-making was still something of a novel new approach for the aspiring producer. This magazine saw the echoes of today's software-dominated landscape in those pioneering early programs. We weren't wrong, were we?"

He said, "I can't help but wonder how much music Computer Music has had a hand in bringing to life over the years. What a magazine."

Sadly, the cost of print has increased substantially in recent years, and it became clear that the best strategy was to consolidate Computer Music's content and spirit into MusicRadar.com, alongside our sister title, Future Music. Meaning that Computer Music's expert opinion and knowledge will continue to live online.

If you are a subscriber to Computer Music, please don’t worry – our subscriptions team will be in touch with you directly to confirm that you will be refunded the remainder of your subscription term within 7-10 days of this final issue.

All that remains is to thank the many brilliant writers, photographers, interviewees, advertisers, former editors and staff who made Computer Music what it was.

For a long time, the MacBook Pro was the undisputed king of portable music production but with the introduction of the game-changing Apple silicon chips, its reign at the top is now under threat. The MacBook Air M3 is not only more than powerful enough to handle most production tasks, it’s also considerably cheaper with a tasty discount in the Amazon Big Deal Days event.

The new Apple silicon chips in the MacBook Air perform admirably at a multitude of production tasks, whether you’re working on the go or need a hub for your home studio. It’s slim, lightweight, ultra-quiet, and has more than enough power to run huge projects. With a MacBook Air M3, the only limitation will be the number of inputs on your audio interface. There are currently two models on sale at Amazon, but with the event ending soon, you’ll need to move quickly to snap one up.

I’ve been debating between a MacBook Air and a Pro for my next laptop for music production, and despite initially being set on a Pro, I’m starting to err toward the side of the Air. The gulf in performance really isn’t that huge and as someone who mainly does home production with a touch of studio work, I don’t necessarily need all the extra features and power the MacBook Pro offers.

In our recent Apple MacBook Air 15-inch M3 review we noted it was right on the heels of the MacBook Pro in terms of performance, and of course, it’s much cheaper too. It means you really need to consider it as a contender for your next machine, particularly if budget is an issue. Rather than getting an older MacBook Pro M2 or M1, you could get an Air M3 and get that top level of performance and a newer machine.

A MacBook Air is much better for traveling thanks to its super light weight and ultra-skinny design. That means it will fit into a backpack leaving plenty of room for your headphones and audio interface. You’ll hardly feel it when you’re carrying it around. As with all MacBooks, it’s nice and sturdy too, so you don’t have to treat it with kid gloves when you’re engineering a busy session.

Apple’s new iPhone announcements typically fall into the ‘meh’ category for a lot of musicians, but tucked away in last night’s keynote we got a glimpse of a forthcoming new feature in the company’s Voice Memos recording app that looks genuinely useful.

Seemingly exclusive to the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max - Apple’s new flagship handsets - this enables you to layer one track on top of another, and then isolate the overdubbed part for use elsewhere.

Say, for example, you’ve recorded a guitar part and then later think of a vocal to go over the top of it. The new Voice Memos feature means that you can record this while listening to the guitar through your iPhone’s speaker, then remove the guitar using “advanced processing”.

Although Apple hasn’t said as much, we’re guessing that this feature is based on similar tech to that used in Stem Splitter, which is found in the latest versions of Logic Pro for Mac and iPad.

The new iPhone 16 Pro Maxes are also said to contain four “studio-quality” mics with a low noise floor, and you can select Spatial Audio recording when you’re capturing video. The new Audio Mix feature, meanwhile, enables you to instantly balance your soundtrack. You can choose to focus on the voices within the video frame, generate a reverb-free ‘studio’ sound, or select the cinematic option, which pushes the environmental sounds into the background and the voices up front.

Prices for the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max start at $999/£999 and $1,199/£1,199 respectively. Apple has also launched the standard iPhone 16 and Plus, which start at $799/£799 and $899/£899.

AirPods 4 are incoming, too - now with the option of active noise cancellation, if you’re willing to pay extra for it - and the AirPods Max can now be had in five colour options. 

Find out more about all of these new products - plus new Apple Watches and the company’s new AI features - on the Apple website.

I’ll admit it, I used to be a PC guy through and through. But the deeper I got into music-making, the more I came across Apple machines and the more my perspective changed on just how adept they are as laptops for music production. Yes, they’re expensive, but ultimately most musicians come to a point where the usability and versatility far outweigh that initially steep price point.

If, like me, you’ve baulked at the price of a MacBook for your musical endeavors, then the Amazon Prime Day music deals are the place to shop for you. I’ve spotted an absolutely incredible deal on a 2023 MacBook Pro M2, with a massive $569 reduction for Prime Day.

This model is compact, powerful, and the 14-inch screen is plenty for music-making. If you do want to use it in a more permanent setup, there’s bags of connectivity too, with three Thunderbolt 4 connections and a dedicated HDMI out for connecting a second screen.

• In the UK? Don't miss out:
• Shop MacBook Pro deals at Amazon
• Shop MacBook Air deals at Amazon
• Shop Mac Mini deals at Amazon
• Shop iPad deals at Amazon

Check more great Apple deals

Of course, with Prime Day being a huge opportunity to grab a deal on a variety of Apple machines, it’s not just the MacBook Pro which is available with a discount. You may want something for a more permanent setup like the Mac Mini, or you’d prefer a more compact and portable option in the MacBook Air. Whichever it is, I’ve hunted down the very best deals available for Prime Day on a variety of Apple music-making machines that’ll suit any musician's needs. 

Shop more Prime Day deals

• 🇺🇸 The best deals on Amazon US
• 5 months Amazon Music Unlimited for free
• Shop all Prime Day deals
• Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 32% off
• Positive Grid Spark Go save $20
• Audio-Technica AT2035 save $20
• D'Addario Circuit Breaker Cable save $22

• Best non-Amazon sales
• Fender: 10% off American Ultras
• Fender Play: 50% off annual subscription
• Guitar Center: Major Strat deals
• GuitarTricks: Get 1 month for $1
• Reverb: Shop big price drops
• Sweetwater: Up to 65% flash sale
• Plugin Boutique: 66% off Amplitube

With more and more musicians leading busy lives and often writing and composing on the go, ASUS has come up with what could be the most robust laptop yet, one specifically designed for creators that work in the harshest of environments.

In the run up to Computex, the long running tech trade show which returns in early June, it's teased a new line of Pro Art laptops which it claims is “built to military grade standards" designed to handle “extreme conditions and outdoor environments.”

Perfect for if you’re halfway up a mountain in a snowstorm and fancy finishing off that tune that’s been nagging you for weeks. Or if inspiration suddenly strikes in the most unlikely of places.

The All Terrain laptop is built to military standards - we're talking MIL-STD 810 certified, which is official US Department of Defense grading - and is capable of withstanding all sorts of challenging environments, whether that be 15,000ft altitude, high temperatures, high humidity or your most brutal beats.

It’s equipped with a powerful next-generation AI engine that’s “especially customised for outdoor and on-the-go creators.” The low battery life and its light weight sound useful too.

ASUS is launching the range in an array of different forms, including clamshell, convertible and tablet. More details will be revealed at their launch event that streams live from Computex on Monday 3rd June. 

Apple has just announced a slew of new accessibility features for several of its products, and one of them could change the way that deaf and hard of hearing people experience music on the iPhone.

Known as Music Haptics, this uses the iPhone’s Taptic Engine in the iPhone to play “taps, textures, and refined vibrations to the audio of the music,” giving people an opportunity to enjoy their favourite songs in a different way.

Naturally, this will work in Apple Music, but Apple is also releasing an API for developers so that can be implemented in their own apps. Presumably, this means that those who create music-making software to add it to their products, too.

Elsewhere, perhaps the most eye-catching - quite literally - of the new accessibility features is Eye Tracking for iPad and iPhone, which will enable those with physical disabilities to operate their device using their eyes. Powered by AI and on-device machine learning, this uses the camera to track eye movements across the screen and Dwell Control to activate each element. Eye control of physical buttons, swipes and other gestures is also in the offing.

Other accessibility additions include Vocal Shortcuts, Vehicle Motion cues to help reduce motion sickness and voice control for CarPlay. There are also specific features for Apple Vision Pro.

“We believe deeply in the transformative power of innovation to enrich lives,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “That’s why for nearly 40 years, Apple has championed inclusive design by embedding accessibility at the core of our hardware and software. We’re continuously pushing the boundaries of technology, and these new features reflect our long-standing commitment to delivering the best possible experience to all of our users.”

Find out more about the new accessibility features in the Apple Newsroom. They’ll be rolling out later this year.

Apple has issued a statement apologising for a controversial iPad Pro ad that caused a social media firestorm this week after being described as "tone-deaf" and "horrendous". 

The ad, titled Crush!, shows an array of objects used by artists, musicians and creatives, including a piano, drum kit and mixing desk, being crushed by a colossal hydraulic press and replaced by an iPad Pro. 

Critics of the commercial described it as "deeply offensive" and suggested that it showed disrespect for the creative tools that Apple's audience values highly. "This ad is tone-deaf and insulting to artists of every kind," said cartoonist James Kochalka. "We think of our tools with reverence and respect, and enjoy a healthy dialogue with them. Our tools are like trusted companions on the journey of art."

Apple's vice president of marketing Tor Myhren apologised for the ad in a statement shared with Ad Age. “Creativity is in our DNA at Apple, and it’s incredibly important to us to design products that empower creatives all over the world,” Myhren told the publication. “Our goal is to always celebrate the myriad of ways users express themselves and bring their ideas to life through iPad. We missed the mark with this video, and we’re sorry.”

Apple has cancelled plans to air the ad on television, but it remains visible on YouTube and on CEO Tim Cook's Twitter/X account.

Earlier this week, Apple unveiled the M4-powered iPad Pro, which it describes as the thinnest product its ever released. The tech giant also announced the latest version of its DAW Logic Pro, which features AI-powered stem separation.

A new Apple ad for the recently announced iPad Pro has provoked widespread criticism on social media, being variously described as "dark", "dystopian" and "deeply offensive". 

The ad (embedded above) which Apple has titled Crush!, depicts a collection of objects associated with creativity - including a number of musical instruments and a mixing desk - being crushed by a gigantic slab of metal. After the objects are slowly pulverized, the press lifts up to reveal the new iPad Pro in their place.  

The message of the ad isn't hard to discern: you no longer need any of your beloved creative tools because the iPad Pro can do it all. Musical instruments, analogue recording equipment, studio monitors - the device makes all of these redundant. "Everything beautiful, charming and analogue will be destroyed by a flat black screen," as one commenter put it.

Many have accused the ad of showing flagrant disrespect for tools that creatives value dearly. "I cannot get my head around how you or anyone thought this was wise - and not incredibly disrespectful and dismissive to every artist, designer, musician and creative person of any kind," responded Joe Natoli on Twitter/X.

"This is the most ghoulish, tone-deaf ad I've ever seen in my life. Fire all of your marketers. This is utterly catastrophic for your brand," added Geoffrey Miller. Others have pointed out that the ad features a number of scenes involving the destruction of objects with "human-like qualities".

Such is the backlash to the commercial that Hollywood actor Hugh Grant has even weighed in, accusing the advert of promoting "the destruction of the human experience".

"I’m definitely the target audience for the new iPad Pro but this ad is tone-deaf and insulting to artists of every kind," commented cartoonist James Kochalka. "We think of our tools with reverence and respect, and enjoy a healthy dialogue with them. Our tools are like trusted companions on the journey of art."

Arriving at a moment when many creatives are concerned about the looming threat of artificial intelligence, Apple's ad has clearly touched a nerve. Adam Singer described it as "the perfect metaphor for today's creative dark age: compress organic instruments, joyful/imperfect machines, tangible art, our entire physical reality into a soulless, postmodern, read-only device a multi-trillion-dollar corporation controls what you do with". 

Announced earlier this week, the new iPad Pro is described by Apple as the thinnest product it's ever manufactured and features an all-new M4 chip and OLED display. The company has also unveiled new versions of the music production software Logic Pro for both Mac and iPad. 

At the start of its presentation today, Apple billed this as the biggest moment for the iPad since it was first launched. And, in terms of the sheer number of announcements, it might have a point.

On the hardware side, we’re getting new versions of iPad Pro and iPad Air, plus spruce-ups for the Apple Pencil, Magic Keyboard and Smart Folio. Oh, and the 10th-gen version of the ‘standard’ iPad has been given a price cut.

As you might expect, the top of the range is where the most exciting action is; Apple seems to have gone all out to ensure that the new iPad Pro takes as big a jump up as possible. As before, it’s available in two sizes - 11-inch and 13-inch - and both models are strikingly thin, measuring 5.3mm and 5.1mm respectively. In fact, Apple claims that this is the thinnest product it’s ever made.

And then there’s the processor. The previous iPad Pro rocked an M2 chip, but rather than go to the M3 chip that’s already been used in the Mac, Apple has effectively skipped a generation and put the new M4 in the latest model. This sports four performance cores, six efficiency cores, “nex-gen” machine learning accelerators and more efficiency.

Apple says that part of the reason for the jump to M4 is the iPad Pro’s Ultra Retina XDR display. This combines two OLED panels in what the company calls its “tandem OLED” technology, and promises extreme full-screen brightness and dynamic range and better responsiveness.

Prices for the new iPad Pro start at $/£999 for the 11-inch Wi-Fi model and $/£1,299 for the 13-inch Wi-Fi model (both available in silver and black), with storage options running from 256GB all the way up to 2TB. You can also spec a nano-texture glass option, if you wish, though this will cost you significantly more. 

The new Apple Pencil Pro ($/£129), meanwhile, adds a sensor in the barrel that can detect a user’s squeeze, and doing so brings up a tool palette. There’s also a custom haptic engine that confirms when users squeeze, double-tap or tap to a Smart Shape, and a gyroscope that responds to rolls of the pencil. A hover feature enables you to visualise tool orientation before you actually make contact with the display.

Improvements have been made to the Magic Keyboard (starting at £299), too, which gets a function row, an aluminium palm rest and a larger, more responsive trackpad with haptic feedback. In the case of the Smart Folio, there are now multiple viewing angles.

While it doesn’t have the whizz-bang pop of the new iPad Pro, the updated iPad Air looks like it could be an excellent option for tablet musicians. This inherits a number of features from the previous-gen Pro, including availability in two sizes (11- and 13-inch) and an M2 chip. In fact, with starting prices of $/£599 and £749/$799, it looks like it could be a great option for the music maker who wants a powerful iPad but doesn’t want to break the bank. There are four colour options (blue, purple, starlight, and space grey) and storage can be spec'd from 128GB to 1TB.

The even more budget-conscious, meanwhile, can now get their hands on the 10th-gen iPad for as little as $/£349. It looks like the 9th-gen model - the last one not to have a home button and not benefit from an all-screen design - has now been dropped from the official Apple line-up.

You can find out more about the new iPad range on the Apple website. The new models can be ordered there from today and will be available in stores from next week.

MacBook Air M3 (2024): What is it?

In this Apple MacBook Air M3 2024 review, we not only line up Apple's newest laptop against the older (but still available) 13-inch Air M2, but also compare and contrast it with the latest MacBook Pros. And the all-new Air M3 might just be the best laptop in terms of sheer power bang per buck that you can buy for music production right now.

Apple has now updated all of its laptops to the latest M3 range of chips. Only the Air is also still available with the older M2 processor, and we’d be surprised if the company's desktop machines – the mini, Studio and Pro – don’t all get an M3 makeover soon, with only the latest iMac currently boasting an M3 chip.

The Air M3 on test here is available in two sizes: 13-inch (actually 13.6-inch) and 15-inch (15.3-inch). We couldn’t resist the temptation to get one in for an all-new test, even though we have been happily using a 13-inch Air M2 for music production for the last 18 months and – if we’re honest – haven’t properly maxed out that machine yet.

But as much as we love the design and grunt of our existing Air M2 – and yes, it is still available, and at a slightly discounted price – we did start to get frustrated after using it for a while, mostly by the screen size, which turned out to be, for us anyway, just that bit too small.

Using its 13-inch display with Logic, for example, just felt a little too confined in terms of what we can see on screen (although not so bad in Ableton Live, weirdly) so being able to get the larger 15-inch screen on the new M3 Air was the first tempter (a 15-inch M2 MacBook Air was launched in 2023, but wasn't available when the 13-inch M2 arrived in 2022, and now seems to have been discontinued). But an increase in promised power – Apple says the M3 chip is anything up to 60% faster than an M1 – sealed the deal.

MacBook Air M3 15" (2024): Performance & verdict

Setting up joy

As with the M2, setting up the Air M3 is a breeze; a two to three hour Time Machine backup soon had it set up identically to our old Air M2. The design feels as sleek as ever, but the biggest impact when we first set up was made by that larger screen real estate. We didn’t realise quite how restrictive the 13-inch M2 was until seeing Logic on the larger screen. Even though it’s less than a couple of inches bigger, it just feels more open, and you’re able to work without so much window closing and adjusting.

After an annoying hurdle, both Logic and Live transferred well to the M3. Logic just would not open at first – in fact we were constantly told to put it in the bin – but eventually, after much Googling, we made a quick security adjustment in System Preferences and it worked. Live then booted up, no problem.

We’ve been aware of some macOS Sonoma plugin issues – particularly with some iLok-based ones – since the operating system's release. Finger’s crossed, we haven’t had too many problems as we write this, but more on this later. The big question, though, is what will this latest M3 chip bring to the performance party?

Performance stats (and lots of them)

For this review, we were lucky that we had our old M2 Air still up and running with an identical setup and specs (24GB RAM, 1TB hard drive), with both Logic and Live running. We conducted the test just after time machining – if that is indeed a phrase – the M2 to the M3, so the two couldn’t be closer together, the only difference between them being the M processor, so a perfect time to test the performance gap between the two generations.

We started with our, shall we say, less scientific music production based tests - just loading up the same Logic projects on both the M2 and M2 Airs to see how quickly they booted up. Both were lightning fast - once, of course, we'd sorted out the inevitable plugins that the newer processor wouldn’t load. Not much in it, it to be honest, as both machines load a typical project in 4-6 seconds.

Slightly more scientific were our ‘bounce a project down to a stereo file’ tests, and it’s here that more noticeable differences started to appear. The M2 completed a typical track bounce in 27.54 seconds, while the M3 completed the same project in 23.82 seconds, so around 14% quicker.

Getting more scientific

Much more scientific were the performance tests we carried out when reviewing the M2 Air, where we used benchmark Logic and Ableton Live projects from music-prod.com. So for this test, we also downloaded the latest benchmark projects from the site to load into both M2 and M3 Airs.

Here, you make sure that you quit all other applications and set the audio preferences for each machine to be identical. Then you simply keep adding the same track within the benchmark project on both the Air M2 and M3 until (in Logic’s case) it states 'System Overload', and in Live’s case the audio starts breaking up. And here’s where things started to get really interesting.

In Ableton Live we were able to open 142 tracks on the Air M2 and 177 tracks on the Air M3, an uplift of around 25%. As impressive as this was, in Logic the results were even more dramatic. The track count for the M2 was 80 and for the M3 108, an uplift of 35%. That means that, based on our tests the M3 is even faster than the 30% that Apple claims.

Of course, there could be other factors at play here here – Logic has certainly been optimised for Apple machines so it should be the slickest of applications. But the test here is relative, remember, and with identical systems bar the CPU, that 35% really is just showing the difference between them.

But just for extra peace of mind, we have also included more standard benchmark test results in this review. Or, OK, more accurately, someone else’s. As well as our own tests, Geekbench is our standard for getting our Mac reference data, so we checked its findings - gathered by way of data from many computer users - to see if their latest Air M3 figures backed up our findings.

If the geeks say so…

Currently on Geekbench, the Air M2 has a single core rating of 2593, and a multicore rating of 9650. (These figures are based on the computer performing light tasks with a single processor core and heavier ones with multi cores, and the higher the numbers are, the faster the machine/processor.)

Unfortunately, at the time of writing the official M3 Air results were not in on the Geekbench list, but our sister site TechRadar has reported results from Notebookcheck that suggest the single core ratings of the M3 Air will be 3157 (nearly 22% up on the M2), while the multi-core score will be 12,020 (over 24% up). While not as high as our music based results, they certainly get close.

Either way, you are looking at around a 25% uplift of power between the M2 and M3 Air when you combine our tests with Geekbench’s stats. When we reviewed the original M2, we found that it was between 8 and 10% more powerful than an M1; add on the M3 power from this test and we’re not quite hitting the 60% uplift that Apple claims for the M3 over an M1, but it’s still impressive.

Other considerations

If we have thrown too many stats at you, then apologies, but what this all means is that the M3 Air is an impressive performer. TechRadar even suggests that its multicore stats are right up there with the standard M3 MacBook Pro (as you might expect, given the same processor in each machine) so we're starting to be able to draw some clear conclusions.

This equivalent M3 MacBook Pro costs £200 more but has a smaller 14-inch screen, albeit with a better quality display. To our mind the cheaper Air M3 is a better buy for music because it nearly matches the power and that bigger screen will make a difference. Similarly, we’d also recommend buying the Air M3 over the still available Air M2 – you can pay as little as £100 for the same spec’d M3 over the M2, but get the large uplift in power.

Perhaps the bigger question is whether you should consider upgrading either an M1 or M2 Mac to the M3, as we have. Whichever way you look at it, the M3 is a powerful Air, but you are paying a lot for the extra power (although of course, you can trade in your existing Mac).

We’re certainly noticing a difference in our music production with the M3 Air, but have to add that that is largely down to the extra screen real-estate; from now on, we’ll definitely use a larger screen laptop for music production, so the Air M3 15-inch wins out on that score.

Another happy side-effect that we got from testing the M3 directly alongside the 13-inch M2 with our Live and Logic projects, is that we found out that the M3 sounds way better through its own speakers. While we’d never recommend mixing using Apple speakers, if this kind of playback is important to you, perhaps just for general music listening, then the larger M3 model sounds distinctly better – with a lot more bass – than the 13-inch Air M2.

Negatives? Well, apparently Apple has given these new Airs a coat of something to stop them marking with fingerprints and so on. Unfortunately, after a week, our new machine is covered in the usual marks and as dirty as ever, so we have to report that whatever Apple is using, it doesn't seem to be helping that much.

Overall conclusions

But that is one of just a few negatives to report. Overall, we’re pretty stunned that Apple has managed to get so much oomph out of the M3 Air compared to the M2, and that these chips are accelerating so much and so fast. Combine the performance with the quiet Air operation, the sleek design and larger screen, and we think the 15-inch Air M3 is currently the laptop to beat for mobile music production. It's a match for (and cheaper than) the lower-end MacBook Pro, and certainly delivers bang for buck compared to even the more powerful models.

As we said earlier, the new M3 comes with Sonoma built in, and this latest macOS is still doing its typical ‘new operating system thing’ with some manufacturer's plugins (ie,they don’t work). Of course this isn't just an Air M3 issue, and many plugins do run fine under this latest OS. We haven’t checked every plugin on our system – and seem to be doing better than many users in terms of our compatibility issues – but Sweetwater has a decent guide, including details on many plugin manufacturers and their compatibility, so you should check the latest news on your favourite plugins there before upgrading.

As ever, plugin manufacturers have to play catch up with Apple, but once they do, the M3 Air will be a mighty music production platform to run them on.

MusicRadar verdict: The MacBook Air M3 might not look like much of an upgrade over the M2, but for music production it makes a surprisingly powerful leap, and the extra screen real estate provided by the 15-inch model is essential.

• Our pick of the best Macs for music production

MacBook Air M3 (2024): Hands-on demos

"Get the cheaper M2 if you don't need the power"

"Apple nailed it"

"The M3 MacBook Air is the BEST MAC for EVERYBODY!"

MacBook Air M3 (2024): Specifications

• CPU: Apple M3
• Graphics: Apple M3
• RAM: 8GB – 24GB
• Screen: 15.3-inch Liquid Retina display (2880 x1864)
• Storage: 256GB – 2TB SSD
• Dimensions: 34.04 x 23.76 x 1.15cm
• Weight: 1.51kg
• Contact: Apple

Looking for more great new gear? Get all our round-up, news, features, tutorials, tips and more at our Gear Expo hub page.

To be honest, we weren’t really expecting much in the way of Cyber Monday deals on the new M3 MacBook Pro models - let’s not forget that they were announced less than a month ago - but competition for your laptop dollar/pound has never been fiercer, which means that retailers are offering discounts left, right and centre.

And the good news is that not even the very latest MacBook Pro has escaped the price-trimming scythe, so if you want a powerful Apple music-making machine that should be good for several years into the future, read on.

Predictably enough, Apple claims that M3 chip can deliver “dramatically increased performance”, thanks in part to the fact that the chips are built using 3-nanometer process technology. For the uninitiated - which is probably most of us - this means that more transistors can be packed into a smaller space, improving speed and efficiency. So now you know.

There’s lots of talk about M3’s new GPU, which offers dynamic caching, mesh shading, and hardware-accelerated ray tracing, while faster performance cores should mean that you can use more tracks, effects and instruments in your DAW projects. The M3 Max offers support for up to 128GB of memory, too, if you’re prepared to pay for it.

The M3 chip comes in three configurations - standard, Pro and Max - and is available in both the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros. Here are the best deals around right now...

• Want a different model? Check out the best Cyber Monday MacBook deals

Apple MacBook Pro M3 US deals

Apple MacBook Pro M3 UK deals

In terms of new hardware, it’s been a pretty quiet year for the Apple iPad. In fact, not a single model has been updated. For musicians, though, 2023 has seen the iPad take a significant step forward, thanks to Apple’s decision to finally release a tablet version of Logic Pro.

As we said in our review: “This might not be a replacement for the Mac version, but Logic Pro for iPad is a killer application in its own right, and one that has the potential to re-energise both your creativity and the iOS music-making space in general.”

Or, to put it another way, if you want to make the iPad your primary music-making device, it now has a DAW that, for a lot of users, will do everything they need it to.

What’s more, the number of high-quality AUv3 instruments and effects available for iPad continues to increase, so if you’re looking to expand your roster of creative options - whether you’re using Logic Pro or another iPad DAW - you’re spoilt for choice.

Whether you’re looking to level-up your iPad game or buy an Apple tablet for the first time, Cyber Monday has delivered some decent savings. We’ve scoured the online stores to find the tastiest iPad deals on the web, and it turns out that the best discounts are on the most affordable models, so if you're looking to get into iPad music-making on a budget, your luck is very much in. 

Best Cyber Monday US iPad deals

Best Cyber Monday UK iPad deals

There weren’t any unexpected tricks at Apple’s Halloween-themed event, but it did offer some treats - particularly if you’re in the market for a new Mac. Not only did the company unveil its new M3 range of processors - M3, M3 Pro and M3 Max - but it also announced that it’s putting them in updated versions of the MacBook Pro and iMac.

Predictably enough, Apple claims that M3 can deliver “dramatically increased performance”, thanks in part to the fact that the chips are built using 3-nanometer process technology. For the uninitiated - which is probably most of us - this means that more transistors can be packed into a smaller space, improving speed and efficiency. So now you know.

• Best Mac for music production: the best Apple machines for your music-making needs

There’s lots of talk about M3’s new GPU, which offers dynamic caching, mesh shading, and hardware-accelerated ray tracing, while faster performance cores should mean that you can use more tracks, effects and instruments in your DAW projects. The M3 Max offers support for up to 128GB of memory, too, if you’re prepared to pay for it.

• Explore this year's best Black Friday MacBook deals

As of now, you can spec any one of the three new M3 chips in your new 14- or 16-inch MacBook Pro, though the iMac only gets the ‘standard’ M3. Prices start at $1,599/£1,699 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, $2,499/£2,599 for the 16-inch MacBook Pro and $1,299/£1,399 for the 24-inch iMac. 

All the new Macs can be ordered now and will be available from 7 November. Find out more on the Apple website. 

Whether you're considering buying or already enjoying this great iPad DAW, we have some top tips to improve your workflow and get the most from the best touch music-making experience out there.

• Find a bargain with our pick of the best Black Friday iPad deals

1. Taking your first steps?

If you’re totally new to Logic Pro on the iPad, we’ll get started with a few quick tips in one go to help get you going. 

The first advice would be to make sure you take advantage of the supplied Lessons; they’re really good, so use them! If you’re a Logic desktop user, in particular, you’ll find several of these invaluable, as LPiP does these things ever so slightly differently to the way it’s done on your desktop DAW. 

If you’re making the leap over from GarageBand, the good news is that there’s a dedicated Lesson for that, plus you can download a set of sounds dedicated to GB and load in its projects directly. For this, press the + icon, go to the GarageBand for iOS folder – which may be on your iCloud or iPad – and then tap a project. It should subsequently load up with all of the available third party AUv3s plugins.

2. Play Surfaces are great

The Play Surfaces are an innovative inclusion, especially if you’re not using an external MIDI controller. Click the keyboard button on the right and then the left keyboard button for a drop-down menu to access the five Play Surfaces (Keyboard, Drum Pads, Fretboard, Chord Strips and Guitar Strips). 

The Keyboard is great as you can use a scale option to lock it to your song scale so only the ‘correct’ notes are shown. The Chord Strips surface lets you perform complex chord progressions with one finger, and set the key of all the chords you play. You get higher inversions the higher up you play and when recorded, all of the MIDI notes played in that one finger chord will be there to edit. 

3. Speedy display tips

One of the best features in LPiP is the ability to simply touch and drag each window to resize it, for a high degree of customisation. You can also have multiple windows open – plugins, browser, and so on – but here’s an easy tip for when you want to get back to focussing on your song arrangement. 

You could manually close all other windows, but double-clicking the top bar of the Play Surface window closes everything bar the arrangement window. To get everything back, double-click the bottom bar and they will reappear! 

4. Customise!

One of the best features to get into when starting a project is display customisation. Starting with editing track header info, click the three dot icons next to Panel Show box to reveal options to show/hide solo, mute, input monitoring, record enable, track freezing, track colours and volume. 

In Settings (top right), you can also customise transport options (show/hide fast forward, rewind, cycle and capture recording); display options (show/hide song position, time signature, CPU and MIDI); and finally modes (for tuner, count in click and more).

5. Just browsin'

The browser in LPiP is one of its best features. For instruments, the All Filters option shows every filter so you can home in on a sound by specific instrument, synth type, genre, effects, sound pack and more, although it’s almost easier just to type what you’re after using the search function. 

Similarly with effects, Audio Patches are great for setting up instant effect group setups: an amp combo for guitars or an effects chain for vocals, for example. Select the audio track you want effects on, hit the browser icon and select Audio Patch presets by instrument or effect type.

• Read more: The beginner's guide to Logic Pro for iPad

6. Importing plugins

As you might expect, all AUv3 plugins should work with Logic – we say ‘should’, as there are issues with some which are expected to be resolved with point updates for LPiP. Third party plugins are selected in the plugin panel in the lower UI (press the ‘+’ on the right). 

As with the desktop version of Logic, all available plugins are listed by those you have recently used first, then those native to LPiP, and then third-party ones listed by developer name. As with the browser, we find using the Search option to find a plugin is often quicker than going through the various menus ordered by developer. 

7. Importing samples

Importing samples from the LPiP’s own downloaded content is easy, obviously, but getting your own samples in is not. You’ll need to go to the Files app and use the Slide Over option so the files stored on your iPad are shown over to the right of the UI at the same time as Logic. Then it’s a matter of dragging your audio files over from the Files app into Logic. 

If you drag them into the main arrangement window, a suitable track will be automatically created, or drag them into Live Loops for an instant Live-style grid playback.

8. Use Markers

One of the most useful aspects of Logic Pro for the iPad is the Marker section which lets you create song parts (intro, chorus, etc) to home in and work on. It’s accessed by tapping the Global Track Panel Show button (box with down arrow above the tracks). 

Then press down the + button and your first Marker will appear wherever the playhead is. Adjust the length by grabbing the handle (right) and dragging to your desired length. Then change the name by tapping on the Inspector button (bottom left ‘i’) and edit the text in the Marker Name box. Drag your playhead to a new position and repeat the process for more song markers. 

9. You can't beat Beat Breaker

Beat Breaker is also a highlight of LPiP. It allows you to slice up audio, add effects, reorder them and more. It’s particularly happy supplying glitchy and scratchy effects – the cartoon characters of the effects world – and is surprisingly ‘out there’ for what could be seen as quite a straight DAW from a big corporation. 

Our tip would be that it’s tempting to go all out and go wild with Beat Breaker, but reining it in and going down the more subtle stutter route might reap overall better rhythmic rewards. 

10. Sample Alchemy magic

Sample Alchemy is brand new for LPiP and allows you to effectively create instruments from samples and then go into some pretty deep editing with each. It permits you to control four playheads with a variety of playback options within the sample waveform – the Bow vibrato effect is particularly great, and well worth digging deep with. Add on top of that granular, filter and spatial engines for each source and it’s one of the most creative plugins in the DAW. 

Our top tip here is to experiment with the Spectral engine for instant ambience, whatever your sample might be. 

• Read more: Apple Logic Pro for iPad review

Apple’s MacBook Pro is undoubtedly one of the best music-making laptops you can buy right now, but if you were thinking of waiting for the Black Friday music deals to land before making a purchase, we have news that might make you pull the trigger sooner - way sooner, in fact!

Today is the second day of Amazon's two-day Prime event, which sees the prices of everything from electric guitars to air fryers getting slashed left, right and centre - and of course, that includes the legendary MacBook Pro. 

Right now you can bag the MacBook Pro 14" (M2 Pro/512GB) for only $1,899, saving yourself a healthy $100. This model is one of our favourites for music production, and you can read more about why we love it so much in our 4.5-star MacBook Pro M2 review. There's also a sizable discount to be had on the MacBook Pro 16" (M2 Pro/512GB), which is down to a respectable $2,299 - saving you a cool $200! 

If you're in the UK, you can still get in on the Prime Day action, as the MacBook Pro 13 (M2) is down to only £1,199 from £1,349 and you can save a mega £169.03 off the 14-inch version of the MacBook Pro at Very.

So, if you’re looking for a snazzy new laptop that’ll comfortably run the latest DAWs and plugins (or be powerful enough to edit your latest guitar vlog or tour diary), check these latest offers below and be sure to visit our Prime Day music deals page for more amazing offers.

• Explore this year's best Black Friday MacBook deals

US MacBook deals

UK MacBook deals

More great sales from around the internet 

• Guitar Center: Big money off touring essentials
• GuitarTricks: Get 1 month for $1
• Musician's Friend: 40% off select acoustics
• Plugin Boutique: Save on SSL, iZotope, more
• Positive Grid: 25% off Spark amp bundles
• Sweetwater: Big savings on demo gear
• Thomann: Hot deals on Harley Benton
• Waves: All plugins just $29.99

Well, that was a lot. Apple’s WWDC23 keynote delivered a whole raft of new products, with the Apple Vision Pro ‘spatial computer’ inevitably garnering most of the headlines.

Take off the reality augmenting/distorting goggles, though, and there was plenty for Mac-based music makers to ponder, notably the arrival of the 15-inch MacBook Air and an upgraded Mac Studio.

There’s also the new Mac Pro, a computer so powerful that some kind of ‘do you really need this?’ licence should be required if you want to buy it.

The 15-inch MacBook Air is - you guessed it - a larger version of Apple’s entry-level laptop. Its Liquid Retina display actually measures 15.3 inches, and there’s an M2 processor inside. As with the smaller model, there’s no fan, which ensures silent operation, and we’re promised up to 18 hours of battery life. Prices start at $1,299/£1,399, and you can pre-order now for delivery on 13 June.

It’s also worth noting that prices for the 13-inch MacBook Air with M2 now start at $1,099/£1,149, which is $100/£100 less than before. The M1 model is still available, too, starting at $999/£999.

• Our pick of this year's best Black Friday MacBook deals, updated live

The upgraded Mac Studio, meanwhile, is now available with the new M2 Ultra chip, which Apple says is the largest and most capable it has ever created. This supports up to 192GB of RAM - 50 percent more than the M1 Ultra. You’ll also find this chip in the new Mac Pro, which becomes the final Mac to make the move to Apple Silicon.

Prices for the Mac Studio with M2 Ultra start at $3,999/£4,199, while the base price for the Mac Pro is $6,999/£7,199 (both available 13 June). In all honesty, though, this is far more computer than the vast majority of home studio owners will need; if you’re in the market for a Mac Studio, a better and more affordable bet would be the M2 Max model, which starts at $1,099/£2,099.

Apple also previewed new versions of all its operating systems, starting with macOS Sonoma. This promises more ways to personalise with widgets and new screen savers, updates to Safari and video conferencing, and an optimised gaming experience. It’ll be available later this year alongside iOS 17, iPadOS 17, watchOS 10 and tvOS 17.

You can find out more about all the new releases on the Apple website.

Logic Pro for iPad: What is it?

In the case of Logic Pro for iPad, perhaps a bigger question than ‘what is it?’ is ‘who is it actually for?’ Is this this a genuine touch-enabled alternative to the desktop version of Logic Pro - and one that could convince huge swathes of musicians to shift wholesale from the Mac to the iPad - or simply a souped-up version of GarageBand for iPad; fine for beginners, singer-songwriters and as a scratchpad for recording ideas, but not a ‘serious’ DAW for professional producers?

Without giving too much away before we’ve even got started, we can say that it’s none of these things. Logic Pro for iPad is better thought of as a completely new music production playground - albeit one that will be very familiar to both GarageBand for iPad and Logic Pro Mac users - but could easily serve as an upgrade for users of the former and a very interesting sister app for users of the latter.

• Find a bargain with our pick of the best Black Friday iPad deals

We’re getting ahead of ourselves, though, so let's dial it back. In terms of specs, the good news is that, unlike Final Cut Pro for iPad, which requires an M1 processor, the tablet version of Logic Pro can run on any iPad that has an A12 Bionic chip or later and is running iPadOS 16.4 or later.

To give you some context, that means that it can be installed on not only every current-generation iPad, but also every iPad back to the 5th generation Mini, 3rd generation Air and 8th generation ‘standard’ model.

Given that many had suspected that any version of Logic Pro for iPad would be exclusive to the Pro range - a tangible point of difference between these models and all the others in Apple’s tablet line-up - this is a very pleasant surprise.

What of storage requirements, though? Entry-level iPads over the past few years have typically come with either 32GB or 64GB of space, so is that enough? That really depends on how much of that space you have left and how much of the Logic Pro content you want to install. The basic install is a relatively svelte 660MB, but download all the available sounds, loops, patches, etc, and you’re looking at more like 15GB.

We’ve seen and heard plenty of this content on the iPad before in GarageBand (the genre and artist packs, for example), but where Logic for iPad really starts to carve out its own niche is in its selection of plugins. There are more than 100 in total, many of which have come straight out of Logic for Mac (hello Retro Synth, ES2, Space Designer, etc) but some of which are completely new. There’s Sample Alchemy, which offers a touchy-feely way to manipulate samples, and the intuitive, hands-on fun factory that is Beat Breaker, a time- and pitch-morphing tool. As with all the other instruments, these can be played with a choice of touch interfaces.

Other things we haven’t seen before in an Apple-made iPad DAW include a proper mixer and comprehensive automation features. Track Stacks and Track Groups are here, too, and there’s an all-new tag-based browser, which puts all of your content in one place where it can be searched and auditioned.

The Ableton Live-esque Plug-in Tiles, meanwhile, give you fast access to all the effect and instrument controls in a track’s chain at the bottom of the display. Just double-tap one to open the full interface.

As you’d expect, there are plenty more Logic/GarageBand staples here, too: guitar amps and stompboxes; the automatic, configurable virtual Drummer; Drum Machine Designer; Live Loops; the Step Sequencer; and multi-take recording. Inevitably, there’s AUv3 support, and Ableton Link is on the guest list, too.

Apple Logic Pro for iPad: Performance and verdict

When designing Logic Pro for iPad, Apple has clearly decided that, rather than give (some) people what they think they want - a straight port of the desktop version - it’s going to give them what it thinks they actually need.

It all comes down to the interface and workflow, which have been beautifully optimised for the touchscreen experience. Logic veterans might wonder where all the menus have gone, but for a lot of people - particularly those who’ve been scared off the Mac version because they fear it will be ‘too complicated’ for them - it will feel like a breath of fresh air. 

Obviously, a lot of the plugins are familiar, but the additions of Beat Breaker and Sample Alchemy alone mean that everyone who can should check out the one-month Logic Pro for iPad trial. Both are superb, accessible sound design tools, the former enabling you to reorder, slice and manipulate incoming audio - quite literally by grabbing and twisting it with your hands - and the latter letting you apply its granular, additive and spectral synthesis engines to any sample you like.

It’s surely a case of when not if we’ll see these in Logic Pro for Mac as well, but whether they’ll feel as intuitive once you take the multitouch experience out of the equation remains to be seen.

GarageBand for iOS users, meanwhile, will likely be thrilled to finally be able to get their fingers on a proper mixer and full automation features, which become particularly enjoyable once you get the Apple Pencil involved. In fact, we found ourselves using the Pencil more and more during the course of our testing (in the piano roll and step sequencer, for example) and having a keyboard gives you immediate access to a lot of common Logic Pro shortcuts.

But this also makes things a little complicated. In the interests of full disclosure, we should say we reviewed Logic Pro for iPad on a 12.9-inch, M2-powered iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil and a Magic Keyboard. This makes for a very nice combination indeed, but it’s hard to escape the feeling that what you’ve essentially created here is an expensive touchscreen laptop.

The truth is that you could pick up a MacBook Air and a copy of Logic Pro for Mac for considerably less. You might lose the touchscreen, but you’ll gain the all important third-party AU plugin support, the lack of which is currently Logic Pro for iPad’s achilles heel.

That said, we suspect that the launch of Logic Pro for iPad will kickstart a real resurgence in the cross-platform AUv3 market, which is already showing strong signs of life. As things stand, if you load up a Logic project that contains Mac-only third-party plugins you’ll get a message saying that they’re not available, but Apple would surely love there to come a time when industry-wide adoption of AUv3 means that this becomes a non-issue.

Which brings us back to that original question: who is Logic Pro for iPad actually for? If you’re a GarageBand for iPad user who’s become frustrated with that software’s limitations then it’s a no-brainer. Your existing projects will load right in and you'll have loads more functionality - this is the touch DAW you’ve been waiting for, basically.

Singer-songwriters, too, will love it, particularly if they want to go beyond simple demo recording and have the tools they need to create material that’s approaching release quality.

Bizarrely, it’s perhaps existing Logic users for whom the question is the most difficult to answer. Yes, Logic Pro for iPad offers a pretty good facsimile of Apple’s desktop DAW in a touch-friendly mobile format, and has some excellent additions, but if you’re a power user or value third-party plugin support, it definitely won’t be a replacement for it. Which isn’t to say that it’s not worth having - simply that it will be something that you use alongside your existing DAW rather than at the expense of it.

Which is probably a roundabout way of saying that Logic Pro for iPad is actually very much its own thing, and one that every existing or aspiring musician who owns an iPad that can run it should try (it's free for your first month so there's really no reason not to). And if you do try it, make sure you check out the built-in interactive lessons, which are excellent. Spend an hour or two following these through and you’ll get a pretty good idea of how the software works and what it’s capable of, and you’ll probably be itching to get on and find out what kind of music you can make with it.

Eyebrows will be raised and complaints made about the subscription-only pricing model - as things stand, the desktop version of Logic Pro remains a one-time-only purchase, in case you were wondering - but at $5 a month or $49 a year, it’s by no means outrageous. Still, it would be nice to have the option to purchase the software outright.

Ultimately, though, Logic Pro for iPad is great not only for tablet-based musicians, but the iOS music-making scene in general. In some ways, the software feels like the culmination of everything Apple has been trying to achieve in the creative part of its multitouch universe, and offers fresh impetus to both musicians and third-party developers who are willing to explore it.

MusicRadar verdict: It might not be a replacement for the Mac version, but Logic Pro for iPad is a killer application in its own right, and one that has the potential to re-energise both your creativity and the iOS music-making space in general.

Logic Pro for iPad: Hands-on demos

Mary Spender

The GarageBand Guide

Logic Pro for iPad: Specifications

• Requires an iPad with Apple A12 Bionic chip or later and iPadOS 16.4 or later
• Requires 663MB available storage space for minimum install or up to 15GB storage space for full Sound Library installation
• AUv3 support
• Supported sample rates: 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz, 88.2 kHz, and 96 kHz
• Audio export options: AIFF, WAV, AAC, Apple Lossless
• Class-compliant MIDI controller support
• Ableton Link support
• Apple Pencil and Bluetooth keyboard support
• GarageBand for iOS project import and Logic Pro for Mac roundtrip project support
• Contact: Apple

At last, Apple has released the long-rumoured Logic Pro for iPad, bringing its flagship DAW to a multitouch device for the first time.

First impressions are that, as you’d expect, this takes some design cues from the iOS version of GarageBand, but goes further by offering a range of ‘pro’ features.

Diving into the detail, an all-new sound browser puts all available instrument patches, audio patches, plugin presets, samples and loops in a single location, and you can tap any sound to audition it before you add it to a project.

And there’s certainly plenty of content to play with: Logic Pro for iPad ships with more than 100 instruments and effects, with the multitouch-capable interfaces enabling you to bring them to life. 

• Find a bargain with our pick of the best Black Friday iPad deals

One of the instruments - Sample Alchemy (below) - is brand new; an evolution of the existing Alchemy synth, we suspect, this enables you to “transform any audio sample with the tap of a finger”.

Plugin Tiles, meanwhile, put the most useful controls for any instrument or effect at your fingertips.

Other potential highlights include Beat Breaker, a new time and pitch-morphing plugin, and iPad-friendly variants of Logic Pro’s Quick Sampler, Step Sequencer and Drum Machine Designer. The Live Loops feature is here too, for those who want an alternative to the standard, timeline-based arrangement view.

Unlike GarageBand for iOS, Logic for iPad includes what Apple describes as a Pro Mixer. This offers channel strips, volume faders, pan controls, plugins, sends and automation features, and enables you to move multiple faders at once.

Crucially, Apple says that the Logic Pro for iPad is compatible with the Mac version via its “roundtrip capabilities” - we’re keen to dig in and find out how these work. A number of audio export options are available, too, including compressed, lossless and individual track stem. GarageBand for iOS projects can be opened in Logic Pro for iPad, too.

Logic Pro for iPad will be available from 23 May priced at £5 a month or £49 and run on any iPad with an A12 Bionic chip or later and iPadOS 16.4 or later, so it’s not just iPad Pro owners who will be able to get involved. 

The pricing won’t please those who are opposed to subscription models, obviously, but for people who want to make this their primary music production software, at least it’s not a huge amount to pay. 

And that, of course, brings us to the big questions: is there a demand among Apple fans for a pro-grade, end-to-end iPad DAW, and if there is, does Logic Pro fit the bill?

Time will tell, but for now, you can find out more on the Apple website.

Back in 2017, AudioKit Pro’s Matthew Fecher released FM Player, an iOS app packed with samples of a Yamaha DX7 from a famous studio. This ended up in the hands of some pretty serious players, including Herbie Hancock and producers for the likes of Drake, Jay-Z and Kendrick Lamar.

Now we have a new and improved sequel - King Of FM - and the very pleasing news is that it’s being given away for free. It now runs on the iPhone and Silicon Macs, too, so it’s not just iPad owners who can have all the ‘80s-inspired fun.

King Of FM lives up to its name by including presets from not only the DX7, but also the DX7II, TX81z, and SY77. More than 300 presets, in fact, which are derived from more than 10,000 samples. That equates to in excess of 2GB of sounds, but AudioKit Pro has managed to compress them down to less than 400MB.

There are effects, too - Phaser, Chorus, Reverb, Ping-pong delay, Crush and Stereo Fatten to name just some of them - while an audio recorder enables you to capture your performances and export them as WAV files.

As we mentioned, King Of FM is completely free - there are no in-app purchases and you get a lifetime licence for iPad, iPhone and Mac. You can grab it now from the Apple App Store.

Apple Mac mini M2: What is it?

Apple’s Mac mini has really come of age in recent years, and like much of the Mac product line, the arrival of Apple Silicon has dramatically enhanced its performance. It makes it potentially one of the best value options if you're looking for a PC for music production in a more permanent set up.

With Apple now going full tilt with its latest M2 processor rollout, the Mac mini, much like the MacBook Pro, is having a full-on refresh. 

The result is not only more choice (with two main types of Mac mini now available), but also specs that in many cases are indistinguishable from the new MacBook Pros. 

The two different designs are built around the M2 and M2 Pro processors (note there’s no M2 Max option), and both include two USB-A ports, Ethernet, HDMI, headphone output, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. 

Where they differ is the number of Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C USB 4) ports – two for the M2 and four for the M2 Pro. The M2 model is an 8-core CPU/10-core GPU design with a choice of memory (8, 16, 24GB) and storage (256, 512GB, 1T, 2T). The M2 Pro model is either a 10-core CPU, 16-core GPU or 12-core CPU, 19-core GPU design with a choice of memory (16, 32GB) and storage (512GB, 1, 2, 4, 8TB). 

All versions have a 16-core Neural Engine and all versions can have a 10 Gigabit Ethernet configuration (£100 extra). There are some other differences between the M2 and M2 Pro models, including multiple screen capability (2 vs 3), HDMI type (2 vs 2.1) and weight (1.18kg vs 1.28kg). 

As we’ve come to expect from Apple Silicon devices, the system-on-chip (SoC) design and hard-wired SSD means none of the Mac mini is upgradeable. What’s more, this means you have many available spec options to choose from and a wide range of prices. 

To put this into context the absolute minimum base model (M2 8-core/10-core, 8GB memory, 256GB storage) is £649. Whereas the fully-maxed M2 Pro model (M2 Pro, 12-core/19-core, 32GB memory, 8TB storage, 10 Gigabit Ethernet) is a whopping £4,599, although the 8TB storage option makes up an astonishing £2,400 of this price. 

For review, we have the faster M2 Pro (12-core CPU, 19-core GPU) with 32GB memory, 1TB storage and the faster 10Gb/s Ethernet. This costs £2,399 – wow.

All the connectivity mentioned above along with the power button and fan vent is hidden around the back. The only thing on the front is a tiny power indicator. This looks incredibly slick, although from a functional perspective fumbling around the back to plug up a regular USB stick is a bit of a pain. 

You can of course use those seriously dated USB-A ports for keyboard and mouse, but Apple’s Bluetooth options deliver a less cluttered desktop. For screen connection you can use one of the USB-C ports or the HDMI port, and much like the MacBook Pro, the DisplayPort-capable ports allow additional screen connectivity as mentioned above. 

The Mac mini comes preinstalled with Mac OS 13 Ventura and this is the minimum supported OS. For music production, it’s very important to check that any plugins or apps you want to use support this OS and Apple Silicon.

Apple extras

With the Mac mini, unlike a MacBook, you need to budget for a few extras, as the box literally includes the Mac mini and its power lead. The most obvious is the screen, and there are plenty of very respectable non-Apple options out there.

However, Apple sent us the Studio Display, its glorious 27” 5K Retina unit with pixel doubling, regular and nano-texture glass options and integrated 12MP camera. One of its coolest additional features is the 6-speaker Atmos capable sound with force-cancelling woofers. 

Nevertheless, at £1,499 upwards this is a luxury few will opt for. You may also have to factor in a mouse and keyboard, and the going rate for the cheapest Magic Mouse and Magic Keyboard is currently £79 and £99, respectively.

Apple Mac mini M2: Performance and verdict

To see how the Mac mini performed and to compare it to both the new MacBook Pro and last year’s Mac Studio, both of which we have tried, we ran very similar tests. 

These use Logic Pro X and its stock plugins, thus avoiding any OS support issues. On this occasion within Logic, the processing option is switched to ‘12 threads’ rather than ‘automatic’ and the buffer size set to 256 samples. 

The first test uses multiple tracks loaded with the Alchemy synth playing a series of 5-note chords. The review Mac mini managed 68 tracks consistently. The second test uses multiple audio tracks each playing the same snippet of audio and each with Logic Pro’s ChromaVerb inserted. 

The Mac mini managed 385 tracks consistently. These results are slightly lower than the M2 MacBook Pro we tried, which had the same processor. We don’t know the exact reason for this, but it could possibly be the additional hit of running an external screen. 

Interestingly, the difference affects the synth performance most, and the reverb performance is almost the same. To confuse matters slightly, the Geekbench 5 score (single-core 1964, multi-core 14995) was virtually identical to the MacBook Pro M2 we tested.

Either way, this is amazing performance, particularly for the single core, and much like the MacBook Pro, the cooling fan didn’t budge during our tests. What’s more, although we didn’t have them side by side to compare, when reasonably idle we would say the Mac mini fan is noticeably quieter than the Mac Studio, which makes it ideal for music users.

Once upon a time, the Mac mini was the slimmed down, and dare we say it, affordable Mac option, and if the spec of the latest M2 base model fulfils your needs, then at £649 that’s still the case. 

However, you can now supersize the spec of your Mac mini into something altogether different. Mac mini XL or Mac maxi might be a better description. 

Inevitably, this all comes at a price and much like the M2 MacBook Pro, that price rises sharply as you bump up the spec of the memory and storage. 

Even so, and despite the non-upgradable design, there can be no denying that the new Mac mini offers excellent performance

MusicRadar verdict: With a wealth of configuration options and prices to tempt everyone from entry-level dabblers to power users, the Mac mini has come of age.

• Our pick of the best Macs for music production

Apple Mac mini M2: The web says

"The entry-level Mac Mini is both impressively powerful and shockingly affordable making it arguably the best value computer on the market right now, but the price of spec upgrades makes more powerful models less appealing."
Tech Advisor

Apple Mac mini M2: Hands-on demos

Apple

GregsGadgets

Marques Brownlee

ZONEofTECH

Apple Mac mini M2: Specifications

• Review unit: Apple M2 Pro chip
• 12-core CPU – 8 performance cores
• 4 efficiency cores
• 19-core GPU
• 16-core Neural Engine
• 32GB Unified Memory, 200GB/s memory bandwidth
• 1TB SSD storage
• I/O: Headphone output
• 4 USB-C Thunderbolt 4 ports
• 2 USB-A ports
• 1 HDMI port
• 1 Gigabit Ethernet port
• Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.3
• Wi-Fi 6E
• Size: 197 x 197 x 36mm
• Weight: 1.28kg
• PRICING: M2 from £649, M2 Pro from £1,399, As reviewed – £2,399.
• CONTACT: Apple

Microsoft has long played second fiddle to the popular music production tools of the Apple ecosystem. The Microsoft Surface Pro 9 is a crossover of laptop and tablet with some serious firepower under the hood, offering something uniquely different from a MacBook Pro, but can it compete with the king of music production? Let’s find out!

It’s often said that the Mac ecosystem is where it’s at when it comes to the best laptops for music production, and it’s a given when you go into a pro studio that you’ll find one of Apple’s machines somewhere, such is their adaptability when it comes to hardware integration. Yet there are still loads of Windows users out there who get by just fine. 

Whether it’s cost-savvy producers who want to spend less or just those who are tired of not being able to use their plugins after an update, there’s certainly an argument to be made that nowadays you don’t have to be loyal to a particular operating system to make great music.

Microsoft Surface Pro 9 review: Features

The Microsoft Surface Pro 9 is a powerful beast with a 12th Gen Intel Core i7-1265U processor offering some serious heft for running CPU-intensive projects. It’s packing 16GB of RAM, more than enough for music production, and it also has a removable, 256GB SSD drive for lightning-fast loading with plenty of room for all of those VSTs and plugins. It’s a comforting spec, and certainly enough to deal with anything your average producer is likely to throw at it.

The screen is 13” with a healthy 120hz refresh rate for crystal clear and smooth performance. It’s also removable from the keyboard, which means it can act as a tablet when you need it to. A kickstand at the back allows it to stand freely without the keyboard as well as hiding the removable panel for changing out the absolutely tiny solid-state drive. Two USB-C slots on the left side allow you to connect external devices, with your charger going on the right. On the top are your power/lock button and volume controls, much like those you’d find on the side of your smartphone.

Both keyboard and the unit itself are available in a variety of different colors if you want to personalize your Surface, and we should note that whilst we’ve received the full package for the purposes of our review, the Surface Pro keyboard and Surface Pen 2 are both optional extras that will take the total price of the unit above $/£1,500.

Microsoft Surface Pro 9 review: Looks & feel

It’s a little bulkier than our MacBook Pro, but not by much. The kickstand works nicely when you’re at a desk, allowing you to easily change the angle of the screen. It feels slightly strange at first having the keyboard weighing much less than the screen and also makes it slightly awkward to open as the keyboard is magnetized to the screen. 

Microsoft included an accessibility kit in the box for us, and the additional tab to lift up the screen makes it a lot easier to open up. Although it’s a rarity nowadays when actually using it on your lap, the top-heaviness of the unit makes it feel pretty unstable, and we certainly wouldn’t be comfortable using it that way on public transport.

The keyboard is super lightweight and is magnetized to stay shut against the screen when you're carrying it. Our ‘Sapphire’ keyboard is constructed using a ‘partially bio-based Alcantara material’, containing 12% renewable content derived from sugarcane waste. It makes the whole unit look and feel like a fancy notebook when closed up, soft and fibrous to the touch. Our version also includes the Surface Pen, which utilizes haptic feedback to deliver a tactile experience and certainly piques our interest as to whether or not it could serve as a useful tool for automation lanes.

Microsoft Surface Pro 9 review: Performance

Having never used Windows 11 before, we were curious to see the differences between it and the omnipresent Windows 10 we’re so used to. It’s not that much of a change, to be honest. The start menu has become more centralized, and extra options have been hidden from your right click, but the changes feel very minimal and aesthetic rather than anything completely radical. As a lifelong Windows user, you won’t find anything too surprising here.

Moving our version of Pro Tools over and installing our audio drivers is a seamless process, sped up no doubt by the fat spec of the Surface Pro 9. One thing we take an instant dislike to is the abrasive notification system, but these are easily switched off in the side menu. 

There’s a greater integration with One Drive than we’re used to as well, which leads to some initial confusion as we try to work out where exactly all of our files are being saved. It makes finding our multi-tracks a bit of a pain, but we eventually work it out and get our project up and running.

The first thing we have to do is find the DPI scaling option because our Pro Tools windows end up being microscopic thanks to the high-resolution screen. With that check box ticked, our audio drivers installed, and our audio interface hooked up via the USB-C to USB-A converter that came with our smartphone, we load our project files and commence with some quick mixing.

The laptop pad feels nice, and although it’s not as smooth as the one on our MacBook, you get a lot of fine control over it which makes small adjustments like adding 0.5dB of gain to a track really easy. There’s none of that sausage-finger feeling you get from some other trackpads here.

Going for a stress test on the system, we start duplicating our 39-track project with plugins to see how much it can take. Of course with these kinds of tests, it’s important to note that your audio driver and interface also play a part here, but it’s still a good metric to see the overall performance of the machine. With our buffer set at 64, we hit the 200+ track mark before a little fan in the machine fires up to warn us that things are getting heated. 

Upping that to 260 we start to get some clicks and pops warning us that the system is getting overloaded. Considering it’s at the minimum ASIO buffer size we’re pretty impressed with it. There’s clearly plenty of power here for some vast projects and whilst you could certainly get away with more on a high-powered desktop, these are liable to cost significantly more.

Microsoft Surface Pro 9 review: Touch functionality

A few things that we were excited to try and implement into our workflow were the Surface Pen and the touchscreen functionality. Drawing your automation lanes feels like it would be a lot easier than using the mouse, but alas we found the overall experience to be more clunky than ground-breaking. With the laptop upright, it’s hard to get the precision you need without accidentally hitting the screen and inadvertently moving the pointer. 

With the bright idea to lie it flat like a piece of paper, we tried the same thing, but as a messy writer who regularly smudges their ink, it was a similarly clunky feeling. Perhaps someone with more dexterity or experience using a digital pen might fare better, but we just couldn’t get to grips with it.

It was the same experience with the touchscreen. With its ten-point multi-touch, it seemed like those old-school analog desk fadeouts were finally a possibility in the box without drawing loads of different automation lanes - but it was a case of ideas above our station. Not because the Surface Pro 9 isn’t capable of it, but just because Pro Tools itself doesn’t support such multi-touch functionality. 

The Surface excels for regular touchscreen operations and is great for just hitting something quickly without reaching for the mouse or trackpad, but the screen just doesn’t have the fine, incremental dexterity required to perform such operations as live fade-outs. As it’s not running on a traditional tablet OS we couldn’t use it with Avid Control either, so no way to integrate it with our existing setup and use it as a second screen for our mix window.

Microsoft Surface Pro 9 review: Battery life & other functions

Moving onto things more laptop specific, the battery life is rated for around 15 hours, and we hit around the 12-hour mark before we had to charge, which included some mixing of audio, live streaming of video, and a few other tasks you'd typically undertake on a day-to-day basis like document editing and web browsing. 

The built-in speakers sound decent and carry some volume. You certainly won’t be mixing on them, but they’ll do the job if you need a break to watch some Netflix, or test how your mix translates on consumer-grade speakers. They claim to be 'Dolby Atmos', but to our ears, they sounded a little tinny in the high end and lacked the body delivered by larger speakers. Fine for regular listening, but not impressive enough to make you ditch your studio monitors.

If you’re a remote worker you’ll appreciate the high-quality camera. It’s really clear and tracks your head movement well, great for impressing potential clients with your hi-res safari background or just making your bandmates giggle with your strawberry head filter whilst you discuss your latest single-release campaign. 

Microsoft Surface Pro 9 review: Verdict

So how does it stack up against others in this field? Well when you add in all the additional extras, it actually costs around the same money as a similarly specced MacBook Pro. Considering that many users go to Windows machines to spend less, it’s a tad disappointing that Microsoft isn’t able to keep the cost down. There’s a caveat here though, because let's face it if you’re looking for something with this kind of spec, then you’re obviously willing to spend some serious money for a serious machine.

Looking at it from a pure performance perspective, the Surface Pro 9 is a high-powered laptop/tablet that will easily handle any task a music producer throws at it. We came across zero issues in terms of compatibility or errors in our tests, and it’s got a hefty CPU and a healthy complement of RAM to manage huge projects with ease, delivering reliable performance consistently. 

Considering that the vast majority of plugins appear to have zero compatibility issues with the latest edition of Windows 11, it may be tempting for some users to migrate in order to get the best performance right now. Surface Pro 9 users certainly won't have to live in fear of bricking their workflow whilst waiting for software developers to play catch up with the latest update.

Microsoft Surface Pro 9 review: Specs

Key features: 12th Gen Intel Core i7-1255U processor, Intel Iris Xe Graphics, 16GB LPDDR5 RAM, 256GB removable SSD, 13” PixelSense Flow Display (120Hz) with 10-point multi-touch, Surface Pro Signature Keyboard – Sapphire, Surface Slim Pen 2, 2x USB-C ports
Contact: Microsoft

Apple MacBook Pro M2: What is it?

Apple’s M series processors have revitalised its Mac range. The performance leap has been more than impressive and although the non-upgradeable system on chip (SoC) design, which includes CPU, GPU and RAM, raised a few eyebrows, in Apple’s universe smaller and slicker are big drivers. 

Here we have the new 14” MacBook Pro in silver (space grey is also an option), which along with the new 16” model joins the existing 13” M2 MacBook Pro to create a trio of pro-targeted M2-equipped devices. 

While the 13” is limited to the original M2 processor, the 14” and 16” both offer the latest M2 Pro or M2 Max SoC designs and this means more CPU and GPU cores. The M2 Pro CPU/GPU options are 10-core/16-core and 12-core/19-core, with the M2 Max offering 12-core/30-core and 12-core/38-core. 

All feature a 16-core Neural Engine. Oddly, you can spec all four in the 14” model but only the three fastest in the 16” model. Further options include memory (16, 32, 64, 96GB) and storage (512GB, 1, 2, 4, 8TB), although not all selections are available for all CPUs. 

That’s clearly a bewildering array of options and prices. As a guide the base 14” (M2 Pro 10/16, 16GB, 512GB) is £2,149 and the fully maxed 16” (M2 Max 12/38, 96GB, 8TB) is an eye-watering £6,749, although to be fair £2,200 of that is the 8TB storage. Our middle-of-the-range review unit (14” M2 Pro, 12-core/19-core processor, 32GB RAM and 2TB storage) is a not inconsiderable £3,499.

• Explore this year's best Black Friday MacBook deals

Apple’s laptops are well engineered, beautiful devices that perform very well. The review model is reasonably light (1.6kg) and has a beautiful 14.2” Liquid Retina XDR display. This has a native resolution of 3024x1964, which is a real life equivalent of 1512x982 when you factor in pixel doubling. For added screen real estate you can activate a higher resolution option (1800x1169), which we found surprisingly workable given the tiny text sizing. 

This model includes three Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C) ports (two on the left, one on the right). The right side also includes an HDMI output and SDXC card slot. The left side includes a 3.5mm headphone output and the latest MagSafe 3 port. The included PSU can use the included MagSafe lead or a regular USB-C lead to power any of the USB-C ports. Battery life is quoted as up to 12 hours for wireless web use and up to 18 hours if watching Apple TV.

In addition to Thunderbolt 4, the USB-C ports support USB 4 (up to 40GB/s) and also DisplayPort, An M2 Pro-equipped machine can support up to two additional monitors and the M2 Max up to four additional monitors. Further onboard features include a backlit Magic keyboard, Force Touch trackpad, Touch ID button, a 1080p FaceTime HD camera and an integrated three-mic array. 

You also get the six-speaker sound with force-cancelling woofers. These sound pretty good for a laptop and also support Spatial Audio for Dolby Atmos content, although you’ll need to position your chin over the trackpad to really get the full effect of the spatial audio.

Apple MacBook Pro M2: Performance and verdict

Having been very impressed by the Mac Studio when we tested it last year, we were interested to see how this MacBook Pro would compare. 

We ran the same tests using Logic Pro X and its stock plugins. We also set Logic’s processing option to ‘12 threads’ rather than ‘automatic’.

The first test uses multiple instances of the Alchemy synth playing a series of five-note chords. The MacBook Pro managed 78 tracks consistently, so playing constantly on a looped basis without any overloading. This is only a few less than the 85 tracks the Mac Studio (M1 Max, 10-core CPU/24-core GPU, 32GB memory) achieved. 

The second test uses Logic Pro’s ChromaVerb inserted on multiple audio tracks processing a snippet of audio. Once again this needs to be stable over continuous looping. The MacBook Pro managed 389 tracks, not far from the Mac Studio (418 tracks). 

We also ran Geekbench. The scores (1,961 single core, 14,907 multi-core) are faster than the M1 Max Mac Studio we tried. The MacBook Pro had at the time we tested it the fastest single core performance in the Mac Geekbench Chart, just above the latest M2 Pro Mac mini. What’s more, although the metal case was warm the fans did not start up during any of our tests – great news for music users.

M1 vs M2

What is the actual difference between the various versions of Apple’s M series processors? Although the underlying 5nm architecture is similar, the M2 chips have way more transistors than their M1 predecessors and this delivers a significant performance boost. 

Apple claims this gives the M2 Pro 20% faster CPU, 30% faster GPU and 40% faster Neural Engine performance than the M1 Pro. Nevertheless, the current top-end M2 Max still only has 12 CPU cores and 38 GPU cores, with a maximum memory option of 96GB. Compare that to the M1 Ultra’s 20-core CPU and 48-core GPU with 128GB memory and at the time of writing the M1 Ultra is still top of the tree for multi-core performance.

Verdict

Apple’s failure to incorporate Face ID into these flagship laptops is baffling. Equally confusing is that their Touch Bar is only available on the 13” MacBook Pro. You might also wonder why Apple has yet to pursue full touchscreen functionality. But these wider points aside, our review 14” MacBook Pro is likely the most powerful laptop we’ve ever used, and it’s not even close to being a maximum spec machine. Impressive stuff. 

MusicRadar verdict: Beyond the base model the price quickly creeps up, but there’s no denying the latest MacBook Pro delivers incredible performance.

• Our pick of the best Macs for music production

Apple MacBook Pro M2: The web says

"The new MacBook Pro is hands-down the world's fastest 14-inch laptop with Apple's M2 Pro and M2 Max chips. Epic battery life makes it nearly perfect for creative pros."
Tom's Guide

Apple MacBook Pro M2: Hands-on demos

Apple

The Everyday Dad

Max Tech

Apple MacBook Pro M2: Specifications

• Key features (as tested) 
• Apple M2 Pro chip
• 12-core CPU – 8 performance cores, 4 efficiency cores
• 19-core GPU
• 16-core Neural Engine
• 32GB Unified Memory, 200GB/s memory bandwidth
• 2TB SSD storage
• 14.2” Liquid Retina XDR display
• Dimensions: 312.6 x 221.2 x 15.5mm. 
• Weight: 1.60kg. 
• Price: £3,499.
• CONTACT: Apple