Ableton Forum

Jippie! I finally got my new 12" Ibook and have spent the afternoon setting it up and exploring the features of OSX (former PC-user). It's great but I have two short questions for you experienced Mac-users around here...

Where is the best place to look for tips and tricks for configurating OS and hardware? Any good Internet-resources? Is there anything I have to do for music-making-performance, like all the settings you have to do in Win XP?

How much does your Ibooks sound. I had hoped it would be absolutely quiet but it makes a constant fan-sort-of-noice. Should i demand absolute silence or is the relatively low noice something I have to live with.


Now back to some music-making - and never back to the Win-domain.

By the way... I was very surprised to find a "test"-version of Microsoft Office pre-installed on the Ibook. The last thing I want in it is anything from Microsoft. Rather a cute virus

osxaudio.com
macosxhints.com

both pages have forums which contain lots of useful info.

Also, make sure that your 'Processor Performance' is set to 'Highest' under the System Preferences -> Energy Saver -> Options (might have to click on the "show details" button to get at the options).

I've been using Live 4.0.4 on my TiBook 15" 1.25 GHz + Echo Indigo-DJ audio interface, very satisfied with the results / performance so far.

that's funny, i have 2 macs and i just bought my first PC strictly b/c of Live.

the good news is that your ibook really won't need much configuring at all. you don't need to tweak the shit out of it in order to make it most audio-friendly. make sure the processor is at it's highest setting as Tinhead said.

you have to live with the fan noise. just be glad you don't have a rev. a 12" powerbook.

There really isn't much that you have to do to make OSX behave. Airport being on hits my cpu, but all the other stuff I've tried doesn't do much if anything at all.
people might chime in about an article in Electronic Musician where the author makes claims that removing languages and fonts speeds up your system dramatically. I bothered to do the steps he outlined, and got ZERO improvement. It makes no sense anyway.

The best thing you can do to optimize your iBook is get more RAM.

and then avoid the 'live 4 optimization test' thread

Then turn off your internet access and all the petty pc vs. mac squabbling and get busy making music.


Best thing I ever did on my iBook was remove the Airport card.

It improved my productivity 1000%.

Not because of CPU cycles or that kind of crap.

It prevented me from "oh, I'll just check my email real quick" and ending up online for hours at a time instead of working on music.

Henrik - Congratulations! Definitely check out osxaudio.com as you will find it to be one of the friendliest and most helpful sites for any musician on the Mac platform. Just jump in and introduce yourself and it will become your second home.

One suggestion that evenutally you will hear from everyone to go to the Applications -> Utilities -> Disk Utility and run "Repair Permissions" every so often. This is just OSX's way of keeping things nice, tidy, and clean. I typically do this after installing software or after any of the OS X Updates. A question that often comes up is "Are there any free utilities to convert mp3 to AIFF on Mac?" and the simple answer is iTunes. Many people do not know it has the capability.

Enjoy!

very true. most ppl don't realize that you can use itunes to convert just about any audio file to just about any other kind of audio file.

drush wrote:and then avoid the 'live 4 optimization test' thread

There's nothing wrong with living in denial! =)

[quote="sqook"][/quote]
nice sig, speedy.

ekko wrote:Then turn off your internet access and all the petty pc vs. mac squabbling and get busy making music.


Best thing I ever did on my iBook was remove the Airport card.

It improved my productivity 1000%.

Not because of CPU cycles or that kind of crap.

It prevented me from "oh, I'll just check my email real quick" and ending up online for hours at a time instead of working on music.

I'd love to be competely off the net to help me focus, but i need my airport for OSC.

Machinesworking wrote: people might chime in about an article in Electronic Musician where the author makes claims that removing languages and fonts speeds up your system dramatically. I bothered to do the steps he outlined, and got ZERO improvement. It makes no sense anyway.

This was true for OS9 but isn't for X which loads almost everything dynamically. You'll also find a million and three weird drivers in /System, but they're only loaded when needed.

-Paws

If you are regularly referencing many [gigabytes of] samples when using Live, note that it can taken a tole on your hard drive and system, writing and rewriting constantly, putting things out of order.

If Live ever acts wierd, I go through my normal procedure for fixing my system: repairing the disk and it's permissions w/ the OSX disk utility, trashing preferences, etc.

Though I recently tried a program called DiskWarrior for OSX that does a much more in depth repair on the drive, and it helped me vastly. Remember to use it things ever go awry or if you just want regularly keep your drive running well.

-mike