diff between samples, recording bits, number of tracks

Hello everybody,

I'm really excited to join the MacForums and start my mac journey in audio production. As you can tell from my post I am very new to all this. I have read up and found out about how the number of samples used, the number of tracks played and bits chosen are possible factors that may cause latency/recording delays. I am just wondering what usually causes latency during music production and what is often the bottleneck in a MBP?

I have a 13" duo core i7 at the moment and am wondering if this model might have any issues with any sort of latency/bottleneck issues that I may come across during recording/producing. I have looked up most of the softwares that I may use and only one software (Cubase mentions about making use of multiple cores) The rest like Pro Tools and Logic does not say specifically.

Any input on this will be much appreciated. Thanks mac-experts and I look forward to hearing from ya all.

As long as you aren not overloading your CPU or using massive amounts of DSP plug ins, such as reverb, delay and so on, you shouldnt see a noticeable delay with your machine.

every plug in you use creates a delay of a few samples - usually not noticeable, but when you start to stack up the plugs it increases, effectively shifting your audio to the right slightly. most good DAWs now come with ADC (Automatic Delay Compensation) which pretty much shifts it back into perfect sync.

Cubase uses multi cores - by this it will mean it is optimised for quad core and above. All DAWs such as PT and Logic are perfectly fine on dual core systems, such as the one you are running.

your i7 processor has a lot of power, and you shouldnt be seeing any delay, or overloads.

I use both Logic and PT (simultaneously) on my 13" white MacBook (stock)... I've only noticed SOME latency issues when running A LOT of effects/filters as the prior member stated.

Granted I tend not to "overproduce" my songs if you will, but I have NO problems with latency to this day using the effects I use (a lot from iZotope). Using a M-Audio KeyStudio 49i for a MIDI controller if that matters to you.