Ableton Forum

I am looking into what laptop to purchase for both live and production uses. I am wondering about noise issues if a laptop is in a room with recording going on?

Care to comment on your own laptop and how noisy it is or isn't?

PC variations or Macbook Pros - I am interested in comments on both. And of course include what the model #/specs are.

mine is whisper quiet...

http://www.gateway.com/products/GConfig ... 0x&clv=Img

my ibook is also whisper quiet....

never had an issue

My MacBook Pro is very quiet. In fact, when getting it home, the first thggn I noticed was just how quiet it is when up and running every day stuff. You could easily record in the same room as one from 4 feet away or so.

Keys word above being 'every day'. They do get louder as the fans spin up when you push it hard. I hit about 40% in Live 6 before it's noticeable, so if you were only recording with a few tracks playing back, it'd be perfectly feasible to do it in the same room.

Said it before, I'll say it again, very impressed with how quiet this thing is (MacBook).

macbook or macbook pro and there is a little free preference panel app called fancontrol that allows you to adjust how the fan spins up so you can tailor it to suit
Not that you need to though I have more trouble with breathing too loud!! thats the honest truth they are that quiet now escially scince the first revisions.
I just got a 17" MBPro with 2 gig of ram and the 160 hd (firewire 800 and 400 and 3 usb it is a stunning machine and it is worth that and then some in my opinion. Now anyone want a powerbook but i may keep my Macmini intel not too sure it is very very quiet also

Tarekith wrote:My MacBook Pro is very quiet. In fact, when getting it home, the first thggn I noticed was just how quiet it is when up and running every day stuff. You could easily record in the same room as one from 4 feet away or so.

Keys word above being 'every day'. They do get louder as the fans spin up when you push it hard. I hit about 40% in Live 6 before it's noticeable, so if you were only recording with a few tracks playing back, it'd be perfectly feasible to do it in the same room.

So - what does it actually take for you to push it up to 40%??

muscleandhate wrote:Said it before, I'll say it again, very impressed with how quiet this thing is (MacBook).

dito here, a mcbook pro core2duo super silent.

SubFunk wrote:

muscleandhate wrote:Said it before, I'll say it again, very impressed with how quiet this thing is (MacBook).

dito here, a mcbook pro core2duo super silent.

cool,


I hope mine arrives before i get old.

The fan of my old PowerBook and iBook has almost never been running at all.

To tell the truth, I was really shocked when my PowerBook's fan kicked in for the first time about ten years ago, because I wasn't used to PC laptops noise level and at first thought that something was broken. But then it turned out that it was only the fan: I had placed the Powerbook on a very thick and fluffy carpet.

Meanwhile I managed to get the fan running about three or four times over the years.

How is it with the new MacBook? Is the fan running often?

I'm coming from a Dell Inspiron, a trusty machine but the thing sounded like hairdryer at 5 meters, even when idle.

I have a Sony viao 15.4"/1.6MHz core duo/1GB ram/160 GB. it's very quiet. The only time I ever notice it is for a second or so after first loading up live. normally it's quiet as a mouse.

the noisiest component in my system now is the Lacie external firewire drive - with my old fujitsu laptop i never even noticed this because the noise from the fan was so loud.

My Fujitsu only makes a sound when the cd drive starts up.

Its cooled using the menthol cooling system i think -

use of radiators and hot liquid movement instead of fans.



I am suprised that the mac books dont do this.

Yeah all the newer laptops these day seem very quiet, unlike my Sony viao p4 2.6 which sounds like a tractor!!

wilxon wrote:So - what does it actually take for you to push it up to 40%??

16+ tracks running a lot of effects usually. Kind of a moving target, as it depends on a lot of other factors.

Tarekith wrote:

wilxon wrote:So - what does it actually take for you to push it up to 40%??

16+ tracks running a lot of effects usually. Kind of a moving target, as it depends on a lot of other factors.

If you had said "Running approx 6 tracks with few effects" i would have cancelled my order.


Your answer was a good one.

I bet you can run more than 5 instances of Green Matrix (reaktor 5) before it hits 70% cant you?