Will a 2015 iMac still run Garageband OK?

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Will a 2015 iMac still run Garageband OK?

Post by Ceylon » Fri Aug 09, 2024 3:36 am

I'm looking for a cheapo home recording computer just to do some home demos, projects and whatever not. I've grown up on GarageBand and essentially love what that offers, despite not being a Mac person otherwise, so basically what I want is a dedicated studio computer.

I am somewhat financially unstable at the moment, so money matters, and I can get a good deal on a refurbished 2015 iMac, 16GB RAM, Intel QuadCore i5 at 2,8GHz, 1,5GB Iris Pro GPU and (sadly) a 5400 RPM HDD. It's set up to run Monterey 12.0, which according to Apple forumites can slow the computer down quite a lot, in combination with the HDD.

I probably won't use a whole lot of plugins, at least for now, just plugging in my Focusrite Scarlett for guitar, bass and vocals, and a MIDI keyboard for everything else. Basically, once I get to the point where getting Logic and getting into plugins would start making sense for me, I'd hope to be able to upgrade to something newer.

But for those of you running such machines, do you figure this would work without irritating hangups, latency, freezes etc?
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Re: Will a 2015 iMac still run Garageband OK?

Post by øøøøøøø » Fri Aug 09, 2024 4:53 am

I wonder if you could roll back to an earlier OS?

If so, I wouldn’t really have any worry

The Monterey thing is the only wildcard; I’d have a hard time projecting the impact of that

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Re: Will a 2015 iMac still run Garageband OK?

Post by Larry Mal » Fri Aug 09, 2024 5:50 am

You can probably find a version of Garage Band that will run on that Mac.

The thing that is alarming me is that 5400 RPM drive, that's going to be a burden on you every single time you try and do anything.

I want you to take a look here, seems to be a similar computer to what you have:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzhjGV-ULMk

If you feel you can do that work, send me a PM and I can send you an SSD for your computer.
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Re: Will a 2015 iMac still run Garageband OK?

Post by distressed » Fri Aug 09, 2024 5:51 am

I'd go with the Mojave and SSD instead of HDD.
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Re: Will a 2015 iMac still run Garageband OK?

Post by Ceylon » Fri Aug 09, 2024 6:34 am

All right, thanks. Sounds as if it might not be worth it in that case. For another 200€ I can get a 2017 with a somewhat better i5 QuadCore, better graphics card, running 13.0 Ventura and with a 256GB SSD instead, which sounds like it might be overall a better tool for what I want to do, and I guess 350€ is still cheap if it can be the core of my home studio for a while.
Larry Mal wrote:
Fri Aug 09, 2024 5:50 am


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzhjGV-ULMk

If you feel you can do that work, send me a PM and I can send you an SSD for your computer.
That is much appreciated, Larry, and thanks for offering, but given previous experiences with working on computers I'd say it's 50/50 at best if I could manage that without messing something up.
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Re: Will a 2015 iMac still run Garageband OK?

Post by Larry Mal » Fri Aug 09, 2024 7:17 am

Ceylon wrote:
Fri Aug 09, 2024 6:34 am



That is much appreciated, Larry, and thanks for offering, but given previous experiences with working on computers I'd say it's 50/50 at best if I could manage that without messing something up.
Got it. Well, get the computer with the 256 SSD in there and run your projects from an external SSD. That'll give you good performance. Best of luck with your upcoming projects! Can't wait to hear them.
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Re: Will a 2015 iMac still run Garageband OK?

Post by GreenKnee » Fri Aug 09, 2024 8:06 am

Yeah, with the SSD you won't have any problem.
I still use my 2013 MBP for Logic without issue, and that came stock with a SSD

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Re: Will a 2015 iMac still run Garageband OK?

Post by MayTheFuzzBeWithYou » Fri Aug 09, 2024 9:56 am

I‘m in about the same situation - but my goal is to get an iMac because they‘re really cheap these days on the used market.
My current (old) MBP (mid 2012) is having a hard time recording/editing a song that has more than three tracks.

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Re: Will a 2015 iMac still run Garageband OK?

Post by Dok » Fri Aug 09, 2024 1:20 pm

just for the love of god do NOT get an iMac with a Fusion Drive.
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Re: Will a 2015 iMac still run Garageband OK?

Post by MayTheFuzzBeWithYou » Fri Aug 09, 2024 1:44 pm

Dok wrote:
Fri Aug 09, 2024 1:20 pm
just for the love of god do NOT get an iMac with a Fusion Drive.
Noted. Thank you!

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Re: Will a 2015 iMac still run Garageband OK?

Post by øøøøøøø » Fri Aug 09, 2024 7:55 pm

I’ve been burned twice with failed fusion drives

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Re: Will a 2015 iMac still run Garageband OK?

Post by OffYourFace » Fri Aug 09, 2024 9:08 pm

i'm still running a 2013 Macbook Pro. I replaced the hard drive with an SSD in 2018 and it still runs like new. I can only run Catalina on it tho, I can't update past that. Getting a new computer is no.2 on my list. In other words, you should be totally fine.

Save sessions on an external drive if you can, that'll lighten the load.

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Re: Will a 2015 iMac still run Garageband OK?

Post by TagoMago » Sat Aug 10, 2024 1:18 am

A couple of years ago I bought a refurbished 2017 MacBook Air with upgraded memory and I use it solely for Garageband, I've never used it for internet stuff, it's purely a recording device. For a few hundred euros it's been hassle free and it paid itself off with the first recordings I did on it.

Prior to that, my set up was a big blue iMac (is that what they were called? The coloured ones that looked like late '90s kids portable tv's?) that I ran with an early Avid Pro Tools rig, which I hated. Went to Logic when I got my first MacBook, then discovered that I preferred Garageband. With a little Focusrite Scarlet, some headphones and a couple of mics, my MacBook could go in a backpack with me across town and do decent mobile recordings with pals. Hauling the Pro Tools setup around was never going to happen. I gave the whole Pro Tools setup away to a music teacher when I emigrated, and just stayed with a mobile MacBook & Garageband setup ever since. No regrets at all.

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Re: Will a 2015 iMac still run Garageband OK?

Post by Ceylon » Sat Aug 10, 2024 7:13 am

All right, I might look into MacBooks as well then. They seem to be overall a bit cheaper on the local second hand market. Thanks!

Just because Apple confuses the shit out of me I should also ask just to make sure. I used to have a MacBook years ago that was too old to upgrade to the latest OS and where I was only able to install an older version of Garageband in the end because I had downloaded it to my account previously. All that stuff still works, right? I wouldn't wanna buy something just to realise it's completely unsupported and a non-starter.

EDIT: You can, and I scored a 2015 Macbook PRO with a flash drive for 125€ that should tide me over for the next year or two.
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Re: Will a 2015 iMac still run Garageband OK?

Post by TagoMago » Mon Aug 12, 2024 11:02 am

Woah, $125 is a decent score!

I'm not big on using plugins, just compresssion and reverb, and Garageband has versions of those that work for me. The version of Garageband I'm using now on a 2017 MacBook Air came from an old white MacBook, I just used an external hard drive to transfer it, and it worked straight away. I never ever touch the updates! I just make sure my 2017 model doesn't connect to the internet, and everything runs sweet.

Good luck, man!

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