Ableton Forum

Anyone else exited about the new Macbook Pro and it's Touchbar's potential uses and customizations in Live?
After 5 years on a Macbook Air it's going to be an amazing upgrade!

Yes!

It's taking will-power not to pull the trigger! My wife will kill me.

Soarer wrote:Anyone else exited about the new Macbook Pro and it's Touchbar's potential uses and customizations in Live?
After 5 years on a Macbook Air it's going to be an amazing upgrade!

Interesting, yes. The new Microsoft Surface Pro i7 is possibly a close contender for Music Producers as well, so looking forward to comparisons between these.

To me Windows 10 is a big, big detriment at the moment. With the new hardware maybe MS get their privacy policies together to not be suitable for abuse as it is now.

At the very least this is a welcome development with MS going heavy into hardware, either Apple shape up also with desktops or MS will scope up a significant amount of disconcerted Apple desktop users. In the short term that may not matter much to the bottom line, in the long term everything fits together.

To me, this is really an unexciting update. The computers are very expensive, and Sierra has brought nothing to the table (Siri? why should I care? HD Clean Up? Useless too...). Apple somehow has lost its momentum. For the first time in years, I am finding Microsoft's devices really appealing.

moscom_musik wrote:To me, this is really an unexciting update. The computers are very expensive, and Sierra has brought nothing to the table (Siri? why should I care? HD Clean Up? Useless too...). Apple somehow has lost its momentum. For the first time in years, I am finding Microsoft's devices really appealing.

The high-end Surface Pro is a duo-core i7. If you make music that's a biggie.

The 15" MacBook Pro with 2.7GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor, — unclear the exact processor but Skylake — 1TB SSD drive is priced at $3,199.00 and with the 2.9GHz option at $3,399.00. The Surface Pro as a duo-core machine is priced around this area.

It's more a question what these platforms can mean for actual music production. If the hands-on (finger-on?) approach of Microsoft can be explored also as a music production tool there could be a shift.

As for actual performance of these machines that remains to be seen.

I have no idea what you have against macOS Sierra. I see nothing that would be detrimental to a music producer in this release. On the contrary, they allegedly fixed some glaring mistakes and increased security with kexts. This is very necessary and is also why Microsoft are adapting signed drivers. I can't wait for that to hit the fan.

Yes they are insanely expensive... I'm rather disappointed about that. Here in Denmark I have to pay 3.884,43 Euro/4.236,02 USD if I want the 15" model with 2,7 GHz processor, 1 TB SSD, and the best graphics card. Oh my... Hope I can get financing!

I actually have nothing against Sierra. When I saw its introduction, I just wondered why I would update. El Capitan sort of fixed some issues, even though it brought some with audio, as far as I understand. But it has been very stable for me. And I do not care at all about any of the new features Sierra offers. I guess it is just that now MacOS feels like iOS. Yearly updates, make this with your photos, that with iTunes, oh look you have emojis. It is only me, but this does not excite me at all.

And as for machines. the macbook pros are really expensive. You are comparing the surface that is actually a tablet, with a touchscreen and a real OS that is identical to the one running on laptops and desktops. No iOS-macOS stuff. And you can find configurations similar to the macbook pros outside the Surface range for cheaper than the Macbook. The entry level macbook pro has a weak processor, not event the touch bar, and costs already 1699$... and the touch bar is a gadget to me, it means that right now the user experience is split between three different interfaces: trackpad, keyboard and a touchbar.

I do not know, I think that I am disappointed with Apple. I am writing this message from my beloved 2011 macbook pro, and I am starting to think that its successor may be either a hackintosh (if I switch to a desktop) or a PC. Apple just do not seem to be forward-thinking anymore.

YMMV, and I won't bother you anymore with my rants. For those who are excited, enjoy these new machines

Soarer wrote:Yes they are insanely expensive... I'm rather disappointed about that. Here in Denmark I have to pay 3.884,43 Euro/4.236,02 USD if I want the 15" model with 2,7 GHz processor, 1 TB SSD, and the best graphics card. Oh my... Hope I can get financing!

Hardly something new. The great second hand value of your current Mac should also be a factor. At least if it's within 3 years since you got it.

moscom_musik wrote:I actually have nothing against Sierra. When I saw its introduction, I just wondered why I would update. El Capitan sort of fixed some issues, even though it brought some with audio, as far as I understand. But it has been very stable for me. And I do not care at all about any of the new features Sierra offers. I guess it is just that now MacOS feels like iOS. Yearly updates, make this with your photos, that with iTunes, oh look you have emojis. It is only me, but this does not excite me at all.

I understand. But those latter things are just stuff you ignore. They are not central to the macOS experience. I totally disagree macOS is like iOS. We knowledgeable users still have the freedom to control our machines to a large extent compared to iOS.

I also find El Capitan stable, but for those with audio interfaces and software that have been involved in instability since OS X 10.9, mac OS 10.12 could be the solution Apple should have delivered years ago (it would seem. Who knows who's to blame). I don't know if that applies to Live users, but I'm pretty sure I will be upgrading.

Both Microsoft and Apple are very overpriced.

I can build a really decent desktop for less than half the top end laptops. That will do me for music.

Really last post, this article: http://cdm.link/2016/10/apples-computer ... k-forward/

moscom_musik wrote:Really last post, this article: http://cdm.link/2016/10/apples-computer ... k-forward/

Maaan I really dislike such negative reviewers! Didn't read it in detail but felt instantly how none of it made sense and was just overly judgemental and pessimistic.
I'm sure this Macbook will serve me extremely well in my music production.

Soarer wrote:

moscom_musik wrote:Really last post, this article: http://cdm.link/2016/10/apples-computer ... k-forward/

Maaan I really dislike such negative reviewers! Didn't read it in detail but felt instantly how none of it made sense and was just overly judgemental and pessimistic.
I'm sure this Macbook will serve me extremely well in my music production.

as someone who has used Apple gear for a long time, i agree wholeheartedly with the sentiments in the article.

i think the touch bar thing—a tiny little touch interface where the functionality changes all the time—is a gimmick that is not well thought out.

another large negative is the ditching of all the old ports, thus requiring another load of dongles (and making useless my current bag full of dongles).

and the prices for someone who cares not for the extra gimmicks are very steep.

to me the new MacBook Pro is Apple's ultimate example so far of lots of change with very little actual innovation. it continues down the road of churning out shiny new things for the shiny consumer market.

Yeah I don't know if it's going to be a permanent thing for me or not, but I picked up a pioneer Toriaz a couple weeks ago, to fully separate myself from the computer. I'm just gonna use the Toriaz for the next couple years and see where it takes me....half my decision was based on these type of crazy prices.