I am Purchasing a Mac Book for ABLETON 8

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MUNCHED
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I am Purchasing a Mac Book for ABLETON 8

Post by MUNCHED » Sun Apr 19, 2009 9:57 am

hi there everyone...i would like to know if this laptop is worth purchasing for ableton as with the small spec comp i am runing it on now it seems i keep getting the (not responding) message all the time and i will be playing gigs soon an dont want it to happen to me live....the mac book i am lookin at is Apple White MacBook 13.3" 2.0Ghz 1.5Gb 320Gb harddrive....i dont know if its ok on 1.5 gig ram...usually there matching ramm like 2 gig or 1...will the 1.5 make a difference ....plus is it a common occurance that my live 8 keeps crashing and getting the NOT RESPONDING message..is it that my comp cant handle it...the spec of my laptop now is toshiba sattelite intel (r) celeron(r)M CPU 410 @ 1.46GHZ 1.47GHZ with 1gig ram!!! anyone
windows vista, intel core 2 duo 3.06 ghz, 4 gig ram,Ableton 8, Xone 4D, traktor scratch PRO!!

alien factory
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Re: I am Purchasing a Mac Book for ABLETON 8

Post by alien factory » Sun Apr 19, 2009 4:36 pm

The White Macbook is fine... I worked with it for 2 years and Ableton 7 even in Live situation...
Macbook Pro 2.5 Ghz, Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM, LIVE 8.1, Novation SL37, APC40, M-Audio Firewire410, ProTools 8 LE, Reason 4, Waves Native Power Pack, Music Production Toolkit 2, Stylus RMX, NI Komplete&Kore

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8O
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Re: I am Purchasing a Mac Book for ABLETON 8

Post by 8O » Sun Apr 19, 2009 5:42 pm

I'd guess it'll be fine, but you can also check this thread - http://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=111880 - and check for similar specced machines...
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lapieuvre
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Re: I am Purchasing a Mac Book for ABLETON 8

Post by lapieuvre » Mon Apr 20, 2009 3:17 am

The hard drive speed is important. Make sure it is at least 7200Rpm
MBP 2018, 16 GB Ram, OSX 10.15.7
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Sage
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Re: I am Purchasing a Mac Book for ABLETON 8

Post by Sage » Mon Apr 20, 2009 11:21 pm

Just make sure you max out the RAM, which doesn't cost too much to do. Hard drive ain't quite as important as people like to make out unless you are going nuts with your projects.

de wouzer
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Re: I am Purchasing a Mac Book for ABLETON 8

Post by de wouzer » Tue Apr 21, 2009 4:09 pm

i think 2 gig ram is oke (i use 2 gig ram with macbook white 2.4 ghz)
macbook 2.4 ghz 2 gig ram, akai MPK 25, uc33e, apc40, ableton 8 suite, krk vx6, NI audio 8

dysanfel
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Re: I am Purchasing a Mac Book for ABLETON 8

Post by dysanfel » Tue Apr 21, 2009 5:12 pm

lapieuvre wrote:The hard drive speed is important. Make sure it is at least 7200Rpm
Thats not true. I have tracked an entire album playing back 60+ tracks on a 5400RPM. I have never had a session max out my 3gb of RAM either, even with tons of soft-synths and samples.
Gig Rig - rMBP 2.3GHZ i7, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD, OSX 10.13.x, Presonus FS, Live 10.x
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de wouzer
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Re: I am Purchasing a Mac Book for ABLETON 8

Post by de wouzer » Tue Apr 21, 2009 9:30 pm

but less than 5400 is really not a good idea. I preferred my 7200... but when it broke down i went back to 5400
macbook 2.4 ghz 2 gig ram, akai MPK 25, uc33e, apc40, ableton 8 suite, krk vx6, NI audio 8

re.mark
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Re: I am Purchasing a Mac Book for ABLETON 8

Post by re.mark » Wed Apr 22, 2009 5:06 pm

Im on 5400rpm hard drive, 4 gb ram and anything more than 25 tracks and it struggles, audio breaks up and glitches. This is without any VSTs just drumracks and audio tracks.
*&%$ing annoying when your trying to mix down.
:(
Considering a HD upgrade, hope it helps!!!

de wouzer
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Re: I am Purchasing a Mac Book for ABLETON 8

Post by de wouzer » Wed Apr 22, 2009 5:17 pm

re.mark wrote:Im on 5400rpm hard drive, 4 gb ram and anything more than 25 tracks and it struggles, audio breaks up and glitches. This is without any VSTs just drumracks and audio tracks.
*&%$ing annoying when your trying to mix down.
:(
Considering a HD upgrade, hope it helps!!!
oke, that's possible. I never use more than 13 tracks (and 4 return tracks and of course the master track)
macbook 2.4 ghz 2 gig ram, akai MPK 25, uc33e, apc40, ableton 8 suite, krk vx6, NI audio 8

Yeeeehaaaa7
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Re: I am Purchasing a Mac Book for ABLETON 8

Post by Yeeeehaaaa7 » Wed Apr 22, 2009 10:25 pm

I'm using 2 of the white macbooks when playing live now and have never had any issues with them, and they look well smart under a clubs lights (pretty irrelevant I know but... ;))

rosti
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Re: I am Purchasing a Mac Book for ABLETON 8

Post by rosti » Mon Aug 24, 2009 8:23 am

I am allso thinking of getting a macbook as a DAW computer (i hav got really annoyed with windows XP's ability to get jammed just before important recording session or in the middle of creative flow). Performance seems to be enough for Live 8, but how about the screen? How do people manage with only 13" display? I dont have much room for my gear so i cant really have an external display. Or should i just go with used 15" macbook pro.

(ps. sorry for the engrish ;D)
EDIT:

Let's form the question again shall we :D :

Do somebody here use ableton live on a 13" macbook?

How do you think about the screen size?
Do you find it to be pain in the "lower back section of your body" or is it enough for your opinion?

Would you recommend using 13" macbook as your _primary DAW-machine_ (using live 8 ) or do you think it is worth (/must) investing on a 15" laptop?

Cant find any answer to this. Except some "it sux compared to my 24" screen" ones. So i have no idea how it would be working on so small screen. It would be disapointing to buy a new laptop then find out that it's hell to work with it. I would really love the

poli
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Re: I am Purchasing a Mac Book for ABLETON 8

Post by poli » Sun Aug 30, 2009 10:29 am

well, I've got some experiences - from my POV 1280x800 is not enough to feel truly comfortable - too much scrolling, unfolding etc. (I usually end up with 12-15 tracks). This regards mostly working in arrangement, as I don't use session view much with most of our projects.

Used 13'' macbook white for a few months, and just switched to 17'' pro monster - believe me, the comfort+real estate you get is worth every penny. Answering finally -15'' will do the trick, it's worth the investment.

rosti
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Re: I am Purchasing a Mac Book for ABLETON 8

Post by rosti » Mon Oct 12, 2009 8:43 am

I got used 15" MPB mid 2007 model with some extra stuff for 900€. I could not be happier. Screen resolution and size is enough for me and everything works fine.
It's far more stable than my HP win XP PC and no need for heavy virus scanners etc. I can actually check my emails while making music without everything crashing all the time :D

hyena
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Re: I am Purchasing a Mac Book for ABLETON 8

Post by hyena » Mon Oct 12, 2009 11:06 am

im on a white 13" macbook, 2.0 ghz , 4 gb ram and bundled 5400 80gb hd, motu ultralite.
with ableton 7 it was all fine, i performed live a lot with it, droppin clips, audio effects and vsts in realtime without a hassle.
when switched to 8 i started havin problems, couldn't run so much stuff with narrow audio buffer, and even with a 1000 plus samples buffer size i have to freeze tracks often.
now i moved the ableton library and projects on an ext. 7200 rpm hd , got more space in the internal hd (15 gb empty) and everything works better. i was plannin to buy a mbpro but until it becomes absolutely necessary ill stick with the mb. i just ordered an internal 250gb 7200 rpm hard drive to swap and see if things get better.

i often send all clips to RAM , also all samples in samplers, so i can exploit the 4gb ram and not have the app access so often the harddrive.
it helps lowering the cpu charge but u must pay attention to the ram swap mode...if the load exceeds the ram it wll start writin it to hd and that's worse than accessin it directly from disk
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