Should I go for a Macbook Pro?

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
nicogrubert
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Re: Should I go for a Macbook Pro?

Post by nicogrubert » Wed Jul 08, 2009 2:27 pm

Alright. I am almost convinced. ;-)

My first hours with the mac of my girlfriend were pretty funny. I just thought much too complicated to get things working. I could not believe you install a program by just drag and drop to the "programs" folder. If you have worked on Windows for more than 15 years, you are a bit "damaged". ;-)

Any recommendations for a low-weight cooler setup for the macbook on stage?

Allan A.Live
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Re: Should I go for a Macbook Pro?

Post by Allan A.Live » Wed Jul 08, 2009 2:38 pm

nicogrubert wrote:Alright. I am almost convinced. ;-)

My first hours with the mac of my girlfriend were pretty funny. I just thought much too complicated to get things working. I could not believe you install a program by just drag and drop to the "programs" folder. If you have worked on Windows for more than 15 years, you are a bit "damaged". ;-)

Any recommendations for a low-weight cooler setup for the macbook on stage?
Take one you prefer from handling and design, but take one with 2 fan's...

I am also damaged, still must use windows (nt) in the office, I'm glad when I come home every day 8)

hereschenes
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Re: Should I go for a Macbook Pro?

Post by hereschenes » Thu Jul 09, 2009 1:22 am

Rave wrote:The beauty about osx is that it runs just as fast as it did two years before regardless of what you have installed since.
Patently false. I own a November 2008 Macbook Pro, and it is absolutely not as fast (especially at bootup time) as it was when I first used a clean install. Why would it be? Every time you install a new application it leaves stuff all over your HD, like in ~/Library/Preferences, /Library/Application Support, etc, and often when you uninstall an application (which is often less-than-straightforward with OS X applications, for some mysterious reason) it doesn't bother to remove it. Applications that you think you have removed continue to leave daemon processes running... the list goes on.

I will agree that the slow-down-with-time effect is nowhere near as bad as with Windows though. OS X is awesome for sure; no need to defend it with false fanboyisms.

nicogrubert
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Re: Should I go for a Macbook Pro?

Post by nicogrubert » Thu Jul 09, 2009 9:35 am

@ hereschenes
I have some Unix/Linux background and I am wondering what exactly happens if I install a programm by just drag & drop the .img file to the "applications" folder and what happens if I uninstall it by just deleting the installed folder from "applications".
Is there any detailed information about this?

alexjholland
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Re: Should I go for a Macbook Pro?

Post by alexjholland » Thu Jul 09, 2009 10:34 am

I made the jump from Windows to Mac this year, without spending more than a few minutes on one in a shop.

Can't go wrong - I don't know anyone who has made the jump and not decided they are much better. My hardcore gaming PC friend sold all his PCs and laptops, as did his dad, and all they own are Macs - and they don't even produce!

Producing on a Mac is such a nicer experience, you feel like you're using something properly intended for music production. There's nothing to fiddle with, I'm more productive when I use it and it is so much more reliable.

hereschenes
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Re: Should I go for a Macbook Pro?

Post by hereschenes » Thu Jul 09, 2009 12:54 pm

@nicogrubert:

I'm reasonably new on the Mac scene, but as far as I can tell there's no "magic" that happens if you install an app bundle by plonking it in Applications and then drag it to the trash to uninstall. If the app is totally self-contained in the bundle then you're right (apart from a preference file most likely, which is typically very small and nothing to worry about), but there's no guarantee that components placed in arbitrary other spots on your system will be removed. It seems like it's pretty much app-dependent as to whether there's a "nice" way to uninstall things. As Rave said, the Macrumors guides are not a bad place to start for digging deeper on this. (And someone please correct me if I'm totally off-base here).

Steve Wade
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Re: Should I go for a Macbook Pro?

Post by Steve Wade » Thu Jul 09, 2009 12:57 pm

Easy, yes!!

Hidden Driveways
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Re: Should I go for a Macbook Pro?

Post by Hidden Driveways » Thu Jul 09, 2009 1:24 pm

nicogrubert wrote:
Tweaking Knobs wrote:totaly go for a mac book pro , and a 72rpm disc.
any reasons?
Why 72rpm and not SSD?
On this forum I recall a post from an official Ableton Tech suggesting that users install Live's content such as Session Drums, the EIC, Drum Machines, etc. on your computer's internal drive, as opposed to an external. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I swear to you, I read it here - direct from an Abe.

It's really done my head in. Now that Apple is more of a phone manufacturer than a computer company and most of our choices for laptops have only one FireWire port and no way to get a 2nd or 3rd (I do not want a 17" - no thank you) - it really makes me wonder how the hell you're supposed to use Live with a laptop.

So yeah, according to Ableton tech support, that 256GB SSD drive wouldn't be usable.

Please, Abes, correct me if I'm wrong.

But of course, get an Apple. It's the only way to live.

stallos
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Re: Should I go for a Macbook Pro?

Post by stallos » Thu Jul 09, 2009 2:50 pm

i made the jump to my first mac about a month ago - a shiny mbp 17incher

use it only for djing and travelling and really like it so far was worried about never having used one before but had no issues with swapping sets etc between studio pc and it.
cant say its really revolutionised anything for me and i really hate itunes but as i say havent had it long or done that much with it but certainly dont regret buying it

nicogrubert
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Re: Should I go for a Macbook Pro?

Post by nicogrubert » Tue Jul 14, 2009 6:34 am

short update: my DELL notebook was repaired yesterday so there is no need to buy a macbook pro at the moment.
However, I will definitively swith to macosx and buy a macbook pro - as soon as they have quadcores inside. 8)
In the meanwhile I use my girlfriends macbook in order to learn more about OSX. :wink:

Thank you guys for all your feedback.

naburo
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Re: Should I go for a Macbook Pro?

Post by naburo » Tue Jul 14, 2009 2:52 pm

Go for it!

i had the same doubts,
and was wondering for about 2 years, if i should get one or not.
But finally i bought a MBP and it is awesome.
i love it

cheers
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