Comments on: Is The Macbook Neo The Ultimate Budget Music Computer?

By: Leon

Leon — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 12:02:11 +0000

In reply to AnalOG. Yes. Also If you prefer hardware over plugins and have external samplers etc this is more than enough.

By: frodo

frodo — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 23:00:18 +0000

In reply to jds. I'm not a student and there's nothing portable about my synth studio. I need a solid machine that can run a DAW and plugins, my Mini is absolutely perfect for the role.

By: natefrogg

natefrogg — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 17:30:18 +0000

In reply to UKifi. the hard drive space doesn't matter at all to me different workflows exist

By: synthhead

synthhead — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 19:42:03 +0000

In reply to Sabazios. Admin: Personal attack/hate speech deleted. Keep comments on topic and constructive in the future, and they will not be deleted.

By: A_Synth_Fan_In_BC

A_Synth_Fan_In_BC — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 19:24:47 +0000

It’s too bad we never got a laptop with an inexpensive (and otherwise less-capable) CPU paired with a modern variant of the Motorola 56K in it. *That* would have been “the ultimate budget music computer”. Even better, combine the ColdFire processor and a couple 56300 processors in a single chip manufactured with a 60 nm or 30 nm processor node (for reference, the NXP 56300 was produced using a 500 nm process node and the NXP ColdFire was produced using a 90 nm process node) and you’d have an incredibly powerful “music computer”.

By: Comrade Planck

Comrade Planck — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 17:08:54 +0000

I’ve got a mac mini m4 and MacBook air M1, which is fairly comparable to the Neo. I rarely need the extra power of the M4, but it’s nice to have. They are a pretty good combo, and both together are cheaper than my PC( my main recording computer but is nearing retirement age). The only problem with apple stuff is that they are really unfriendly to user repairs. It seems the neo is better on this issue which is great.

By: manny

manny — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 15:17:01 +0000

nope

By: Leslie

Leslie — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 14:45:30 +0000

Excellent Video and it demonstrates how capable AS CPU’s are, even the older ones that MacBook Neo is based on…
It also makes me wish that I could run macOS on my 13″ M4 iPad Pro…

By: Kassandra of Ellaphae

Kassandra of Ellaphae — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 02:29:39 +0000

In reply to Borion. i am mostly dawless so its been great for me so far

By: Borion

Borion — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 23:17:13 +0000

In reply to AnalOG. Word!

By: jds

jds — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 16:04:07 +0000

In reply to frodo. Not portable => not great for students. This excellent video repeatedly makes the point of how great this computer is for students learning music-making, sound engineering, composition, video-making etc.

By: frodo

frodo — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 15:19:59 +0000

No. The base M4 Mac Mini is the ultimate budget music machine.

By: AnalOG

AnalOG — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 13:23:51 +0000

People can debate whether a machine like this is powerful enough to make music with, but literally all the music we grew up with was sequenced with Ataris and limited computers like that, or chopped and arranged on an MPC with 32mb of RAM.

Some people think they are Hans Zimmer and need a terabyte of RAM for their sound libraries.

By: UKifi

UKifi — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 11:51:25 +0000

In reply to S-Trigger Dave. Good point , storage is definitely limited, and even the 500GB version can fill up quickly. But it might not be much of an issue if you're mostly creating with plugines. It's also better for anyone who already has an external SSD since like you said prices have gone up considerably now due to AI demand. I guess even USB 2 would be sufficient to expend storage, even external magnetic drive might be sufficient for audio work.

By: Sabazios

Sabazios — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 11:20:44 +0000

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