13" screen sufficient for on the road production?

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
TomViolenz
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Re: 13" screen sufficient for on the road production?

Post by TomViolenz » Thu Jul 03, 2014 10:07 pm

Citizen wrote:
TomViolenz wrote:
Sorry if I got your hopes up :oops:
Ha....no problems. At least I didn't begin a fruitless quest for the non-existent quad core mac book pro!

$1750 Canadian dollars? Hmmm...some of those models I found on Ebay are pretty beefed up (1TB HD, 16GB RAM, i7, 7200rpm HD) - I might just roll with that.

Can be had for about $1300 Aussie dollars. (I assuming the exchange rate for Aussie and Canada dollars is approximately 1:1)

Now you wrote pro too!
The Mac Book Pro exists as a dual and a quad core, the MacBook (no-pro) only in dual core.

And that's a Euro sign ;-)
(Exchange rate is 1:1,20 I think, so multiply by 1.2 to get the price in US Dollars, but then the price includes VAT of 20%, so substract as applicable for your location)

Citizen
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Re: 13" screen sufficient for on the road production?

Post by Citizen » Fri Jul 04, 2014 3:02 am

Aaaahhhhh..... I did not realise that there was a plain old 'Mac Book' AND a 'Mac Book Pro'

Doesn't look like the quad-core 13" MBP appear on Ebay too often.

How much difference does the Quad Core make?

Would something like this unit struggle with Live 9:

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Apple-Macboo ... a89&_uhb=1

:?: :?: :?:
Last edited by Citizen on Fri Jul 04, 2014 4:15 am, edited 1 time in total.

Citizen
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Re: 13" screen sufficient for on the road production?

Post by Citizen » Fri Jul 04, 2014 4:10 am

Ahhhh.....I see - your unit was 15".

You can't actually get quad core in 13". D'oh! :oops:

Will something like the unit I posted above be OK? :?:

Mainly using it to start projects - ie. will be trying to minimise usages of cpu-heavy VSTs + usually keeping my track counts to about 20 or less. (and then transferring these projects to my desktop machine for final high-processor tasks)

Thoughts?

re:dream
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Re: 13" screen sufficient for on the road production?

Post by re:dream » Fri Jul 04, 2014 7:11 am

My 13 inch dual core can handle 30 or more tracks as long as I keep it in the box and don't use heavy plugins.

If it starts glitching and popping, just freeze tracks.

TomViolenz
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Re: 13" screen sufficient for on the road production?

Post by TomViolenz » Fri Jul 04, 2014 10:28 am

re:dream wrote:My 13 inch dual core can handle 30 or more tracks as long as I keep it in the box and don't use heavy plugins.

If it starts glitching and popping, just freeze tracks.
^This

My MBPro is my main production machine, if you plan to use yours for on the road only it should be plenty.
As I wrote above I made my whole album on a dual core MacBook from 2009.

If you are looking into maximum mobility you should also look into an iPad as a controller (I don't mean for the DAW itself-even though that has been done too).

It's the most flexibiltity in the lightest package, if you don't mind sliding fingers on a screen as a substitute for faders, pads and knobs.
Its advantage is obviously also that it has a screen, so while it doesn't provide tactile feedback, it provides visual feedback, which the other controllers mentioned above barely do.

LogicalHD
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Re: 13" screen sufficient for on the road production?

Post by LogicalHD » Sat Jul 05, 2014 3:25 am

So much good info in this thread. I too am deciding on either a brand new 13" MBP or grabbing a 15" from eBay. Thanks OP 8) :D

doghouse
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Re: 13" screen sufficient for on the road production?

Post by doghouse » Sat Jul 05, 2014 12:10 pm

I used a 13" MacBook for three years before upgrading to a 27" iMac.

The MB felt a little cramped but the iMac is actually too big for the sort of work I do...I don't do dozens of tracks with dozens of scenes. Unlike other DAWs (hello, Cubase) Live's single window approach is well suited for working on smaller screens.

Anyway, for traveling 13" should be OK.

doghouse
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Re: 13" screen sufficient for on the road production?

Post by doghouse » Sat Jul 05, 2014 12:12 pm

Citizen wrote:Aaaahhhhh..... I did not realise that there was a plain old 'Mac Book' AND a 'Mac Book Pro'
Today it's MacBook Air and MacBook Pro...vanilla MacBooks have been discontinued for close to 5 years now.

Citizen
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Re: 13" screen sufficient for on the road production?

Post by Citizen » Sat Jul 05, 2014 10:41 pm

TomViolenz wrote:
re:dream wrote:If you are looking into maximum mobility you should also look into an iPad as a controller (I don't mean for the DAW itself-even though that has been done too).

Well I do already have an ipad - but are there any program's that integrate well with Live?

Yes, the portability (and durability) of the iPad is supreme, but I've not yet been able to find the right app to actually kick off projects. To be fair I've only really played with iMaschine and Beatmaker, and not really spent much time with the latter.

I wish there was a stripped back version of Live for the iPad!

unix23
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Re: 13" screen sufficient for on the road production?

Post by unix23 » Sun Jul 06, 2014 3:07 am

The Keith McMillen Quneo is very portable and quite bulletproof. Also very flexible and has a launchpad emulation mode.

TomViolenz
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Re: 13" screen sufficient for on the road production?

Post by TomViolenz » Sun Jul 06, 2014 7:51 am

Citizen wrote:
TomViolenz wrote:
re:dream wrote:If you are looking into maximum mobility you should also look into an iPad as a controller (I don't mean for the DAW itself-even though that has been done too).

Well I do already have an ipad - but are there any program's that integrate well with Live?

Yes, the portability (and durability) of the iPad is supreme, but I've not yet been able to find the right app to actually kick off projects. To be fair I've only really played with iMaschine and Beatmaker, and not really spent much time with the latter.

I wish there was a stripped back version of Live for the iPad!

Several, there are many threads on those here, but since I don't have an iPad, I'm not an expert on those.
But an App called touchAble is well regarded I think.

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