Am I alone in thinking that buying a new mac is inevitably a disappointing experience? It’s one I’m happy to a postpone for as long as possible. New Macs are pretty, alluring and briefly rewarding, but expensive and while no-one can avoid upgrading their computer indefinitely, when I do, I do so with mixed feelings.

If you are a working professional your computer will make you money, it will pay for itself and you can write it off against your business. If we are being hard-nosed grownups about it it isn’t in any sense a waste of money to buy a new computer. However, if we’re being grownups about it then putting the money into your pension is possibility an even better use of that money. But shouldn’t a purchase like a shiny new Mac be joyful? Inspirational even? That’s what I find is lacking from the experience.

Mac vs PC - No Thanks

It’s impossible to talk about something like this without risking starting a Mac vs PC debate. If anyone wants to tell me my choice of computer is wrong, all I can say is that everyone is free to use whichever computer they like - including me!

Back to the new Mac experience. Here are 5 reasons why I’m more than happy to postpone that new Mac as long as I can.

• Disruption

• Depreciation

• Migration

• Connection

• Function

Disruption

The first of these returns to the proposition for a working professional. I’m busy. Moving to a new Mac is actually a pretty smooth transition if you use migration tools to bring all your information over from your old mac. If you’re as organised as I wish I was then this might be a great idea but transferring the contents of my Mac to a pristine new one without a serious spring clean is, in file management terms, kicking the can down the road. We’ll return to migration but there is also the issue of compatibility.

A new Mac will have the latest version of macOS and depending on whether you have already transitioned to an Apple Silicon machine you might face the inevitable checks and potential dead ends of software or plugins which aren’t yet native on Apple Silicon. The situation is far better than it was but some software will never be available on Apple Silicon. A recent example was mentioned on out podcast about workflow where Reid Cauldfield shared the example of a very valuable client of his who insists on Dolby Stereo versions as a deliverable for all of their various higher order channel TV mixes. This necessitates the use of Surcode for Dolby ProLogic 2 which was made by a company called Minnetonka. to cut a long story short this plugin will never have native Apple Silicon compatibility and Reid is left having to drop out of his current version of Pro Tools back top 2022.6 to create his Dolby Stereo versions! This is an extreme example but if you are comfortably removed from compatibility issues, nursing the last days out of your Intel Mac you may well not yet know the issues facing you when you finally do upgrade.

Depreciation

Macs hold their value compared to other computers but compared to almost any other piece of gear they shed value fast. You can write off the value if you are running a business and even if you aren’t, depreciation is a fact of life for many products. However, looking at the rest of my gear I can’t help noticing that it’s just not like that for old-school hardware. It should be noted that I’m not particularly acquisitive, particularly of hardware. I prefer space on my studio over stuff I don’t really need. By old-school I mean hardware which doesn’t rely on a computer to function. Mics, outboard, monitors and stands but not control surfaces or interfaces. I have a purchase policy which I’ve tried to follow for years: Only buy stuff you’ll use, and if you can’t afford something you won’t outgrow, wait.

As a result most of the gear I own I could sell for something relatively close to what I paid for it. Some things I’d lose on, a few I’d make money on. But not computers. The best of my gear is like wine, improving with age. The computers are like milk…

Migration

Returning to Migration. Ultimately the point of a new computer is speed. However I’m of the opinion that, in the same way as expenditure rises to meet income, as we gain processing power, we just find new ways of using more of it. The question really is one of do you have sufficient computer resources to do the work you do? I remember seeing a review of a Rolls Royce and where other cars would have a rev counter, the Rolls had a ‘power reserve’ dial. Not showing how hard the engine was working but how much more you had yet to use. I liked that because it illustrates the point that, much like money, computer power is only a problem when you run out!

What does this have to do with migration?  Well if the principal difference between your new and your old computers is the speed, then unless there was something you couldn’t do on your old computer because of a lack of power then the benefits can feel temporary. A faster computer feels snappier in operation. The experience is impressive when the computer is fresh out of the box but you get used to it very quickly. And if you’ve migrated your old machine over on to your new one then unless your old computer couldn’t do the work you needed to do then it’s hard to see what you’ve gained. And you might even have lost something - connections

Connection

Depending on exactly what Apple have chosen to do with the physical format of their machines at any particular iteration you might find that while you have gained performance you might have lost utility. I wrote some time ago about how I found that my Pro Tools Carbon has given a 10 year old MacBook Pro a second lease of life as a gig computer. Recording practices and even gigs with my band I’m happy enough to take a flightcased Carbon to such places but I’d be less relaxed about a current MacBook Pro. This ancient computer, as well a being virtually worthless, also has a full sized ethernet port and USB ports. I can even burn and CD for our luddite guitarist who wouldn’t know what to do with a Google Drive link if he had an email address to send it to!

Dealing with bandmates who gave up on technology in the mid-nineties aside, it does feel like for every gain from a new Mac, something is being taken away (apart from the money it cost to buy it!).

Function

If I was working on Atmos mixes I’d have been forced into upgrading a long time ago but working on modestly sized music mixes I am finding I can still get by on my 2018 Mac Mini. It looks ancient now but at the time I bought it it was praised as something of a ‘pocket rocket’ and the work I do and the software I use hasn’t changed all that much. Mixing with large buffers and judicious use of Pro Tools’ Commit and Freeze when I feel it is helpful I can do all the work I need to. A new computer will happen soon but the longer I can delay that decision the better. As long as I can work well enough, without cutting my nose off to spite my face then I’m deferring the financial hit, depreciation and tantalisingly short-lived pleasure of a new machine with the knowledge that every new iteration of Mac and every speed bump means a slightly better Mac for me when I finally push the button

The extreme example of this is my previously mentioned mobile tracking setup. I have a Pro Tools Carbon and my truly ancient 2012 macbook pro has received a second life. With an internal SSD it handles full band tracking easily, because it isn’t doing the work. A Carbon is expensive but it will hold its value far better than a computer and Carbon specifically addresses my priority concern - latency. And it does it better than any fast computer running a 32 sample buffer. In the studio and on my 2018 Mini the only time I really notice the lack of power is during the small amount of video work I do and during bounces and renders. I remember painfully long render times. An early experiment with a raytracing program in the 90’s once saw me leave my computer rendering over a weekend. If an Export takes longer than it takes to make and drink a cup of tea then I’ll reconsider but a slow export of a short video doesn't really inconvenience me.

A new machine is coming this year, I know it’s already overdue. I’m actually rather looking forward to it but I’m equally glad that I’ve got every last drop of work out of my old machine before pushing the button on a new one as I know that I’ll be taking it for granted within a week of that first, heady unboxing!

What About You?

Are you an early adopter? Do you need more power for your audio work or are you happy to manage your resources where possible? If you work in Atmos has that changed your attitude to what is ‘enough’ computer performance? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Photos by Daniel Putzer, Jaime Marrero