Think I'm going Mac, is (Feb 2011) 13" MacBook Pro i7 good?

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
matthews
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Re: Think I'm going Mac, is (Feb 2011) 13" MacBook Pro i7 good?

Post by matthews » Thu Aug 04, 2011 8:12 pm

I just went from a 1680x1050 laptop, to a new one thats 1366x768. Honestly, I hate it.

I'm actually trying to find a higher res screen that I can replace it with. I never thought it would make a big difference, but when your working in arrangement mode, or playing live with a ton of channels going (especially when you write little notes on each clip), the amount of real estate you can fit on your screen is kind of a big deal. imo, of course.

beats me
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Re: Think I'm going Mac, is (Feb 2011) 13" MacBook Pro i7 good?

Post by beats me » Thu Aug 04, 2011 9:42 pm

matthews wrote:I just went from a 1680x1050 laptop, to a new one thats 1366x768. Honestly, I hate it.

I'm actually trying to find a higher res screen that I can replace it with. I never thought it would make a big difference, but when your working in arrangement mode, or playing live with a ton of channels going (especially when you write little notes on each clip), the amount of real estate you can fit on your screen is kind of a big deal. imo, of course.


This is why you get a large high res second monitor. Use that for your main usage and laptop screen for plug-ins or whatever. Once you do that you won't want to go back to using a laptop screen of any size for your main work.

matthews
Posts: 388
Joined: Mon Jan 10, 2011 11:18 pm

Re: Think I'm going Mac, is (Feb 2011) 13" MacBook Pro i7 good?

Post by matthews » Thu Aug 04, 2011 9:48 pm

Haha yeah that's what I'm doing now, have it hooked up to my TV. Not amazing, but definitely better. Maybe i'll look into a new monitor with max res :P

trevox
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Re: Think I'm going Mac, is (Feb 2011) 13" MacBook Pro i7 good?

Post by trevox » Fri Aug 05, 2011 3:46 am

beats me wrote:FFS. A little future proofing is good if you can afford it, but people always talk like if you don't get the absolute top of the line computer then making music won't at all be possible. Great music has been made before the release of the latest 15" MBP. :x

I'd say get the 13" and a second large monitor when you get a chance. Until recently I mainly used a 15" MBP that mostly sat on my desk attached to a 23" monitor. I almost always used the second monitor as my main monitor and it wouldn't have made a difference if I had a 13" or 15". For intensive music or video production even a 15" isn't enough. I use a 13" Air for performance with no issue.
Not talking about the size of the screen - it is the power of it (Dual core vs Quad core). Just saying that as technology develops, one may rue not spending the extra money in a couple of years when you find yourself having to buy a more powerful machine to do what you want it to do - in the long run it may end up costing more. I might point out as well that great music was made before DAW's / Soft synth's / plugin's etc were developed into what they are now too and you still find people complaining that they don't do exactly what they want them to (myself included). These all require a lot more power than they used to. It's just the way things are going - technology is advancing - hardware needs to keep up with the demands of evolving software and software developers need to take advantage of more processing power to keep people like us happy.

But I totally agree with your point, I made some of my best music with a crappy PIII Gateway desktop and outboard gear 10/15 years ago - recording live takes directly to DAT! And if forced to, I would do it again and probably enjoy the process more to be honest - it just wouldn't sound as good.

BTW, a mate of mine has the 13" and it is still a great machine - just playing devil's advocate here!! I am sure it'll work out great for you.

One thing you may consider is a SSD. Seriously, it is the one biggest upgrade you can make in terms of performance. I got an 80Gb intel drive for OS and apps only and read/write audio to a second drive I installed (an external firewire drive would do the job fine too). Absolutely everything about your machine will be quicker - for example, from hitting the power button, I can have live open and ready to go in less that 20 seconds!

andy c
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Re: Think I'm going Mac, is (Feb 2011) 13" MacBook Pro i7 good?

Post by andy c » Fri Aug 05, 2011 5:57 am

I went from a 17 inch screen to a 13 and while it took a bit of getting used to it does not bother me to much these days. The portability makes up for it big time though and as much as I would like a big monitor I cant justify the expense at the moment. Enjoy your new Laptop :)

Rave
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Re: Think I'm going Mac, is (Feb 2011) 13" MacBook Pro i7 good?

Post by Rave » Fri Aug 05, 2011 7:04 am

Get an air they are faster.

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