New Macbook Air or other Hardware to start

[DIjaKeR]

Hello @ All,

this is my first topic in this forum and I need some help in order to start into the world of Ableton.
I have used the Search-Engine but couldn't found enough information.

So thank you, especially those who tries to help me ^^

So my first question is:

What do I really need to start up?

Im going to buy Ableton Intro at start and I need also a new Computer.

At the moment I am really interested in the new Macbook Air, but I have no idea if it fits Abletons performance requirements. But it should be a Macbook, because I want do be mobile and fell in love with the quality of Apple (And i've got a talent in destroying things involuntairely ^^)

If i'm getting happy with this, the next step i think is some kind of MIDI controller, isn't it?


GreetZ @ all and thanks for spending some time with my problems^^


PS: Pls excuse me if my English is fail ^^

[LeifonMars]

What comes to MacBook Air, I would find it a bit odd choice for music production: why would you deliberately choose a weaker machine for the tasks that will surely choke your computer? MacBooks cost the same, but have more power and the 13 inch MacBook Pros are slightly more expensive and offer even more power.

[beats me]

What comes to MacBook Air, I would find it a bit odd choice for music production: why would you deliberately choose a weaker machine for the tasks that will surely choke your computer? MacBooks cost the same, but have more power and the 13 inch MacBook Pros are slightly more expensive and offer even more power.

Agreed. You wouldn't want to use an Air for your do everything production machine. It's more something you would get for basic work or performances working within it's limitations.

[DIjaKeR]

Thanks for your answers.

Could you give me some numbers? Is the recommended performance of ableton ok or is it still not enough?

[LeifonMars]

Thanks for your answers.

Could you give me some numbers? Is the recommended performance of ableton ok or is it still not enough?

Forget the recommended numbers. Always get the best specs you can get= max the speed, max the amount of RAM (although to my understanding Live utilizes only 4 Gs but in case you have more, all that 4 Gs is there for Live to utilize), have rather faster HD than slower (although some say that you can do just fine with 5400rpm).

If your budget is unlimited go for the fastest and the strongest, if you have to count your pennies then there is an amount of things to be considered.

What is your thing?
- are you going to produce, and if you are, what kind of music, how large projects (cpu intensive, RAM intensive, HD storage and speed intensive, but isn't that crucial since your doing it most likely home alone)
- are you going to dj, and if you are, are you going to just play tunes or do some real time smashing (RAM intensive, HD speed intensive, can also get very easily cpu intensive)
- are you going to use Live for some sort of integration of computer and live band, possibly fx'ing live band (cpu intensive in case there are loads of signal routing going back and forth, RAM intensive).

In general, Live gets very easily very demanding on your computer.

But then again, I did just fine with 1st generation MacBook for years. It's also a matter of economic planning of sets especially playing live.

[DIjaKeR]

Thanks, thats very helpfull! Now I am considering a Sony Vaio with 8 gb 1333 Ram, 500Gb 7200 HDD (cuz ssd is to expensive). and an intel i5 560m or i7 740qm. is the difference of 250 euros between this two intels worth it? My Moneybag says that 250 less would be nice ^^ and something else to consider is, that i have read in another forum, that the i7 one is very loud because it gets hot fastly and the coolers goes crazy.

What would you say? 1250or 1500 euros ? 1500 is the really upper upper limit.. and i also need to get ableton intro too^^


My first aims are producing some tracks, not mixing or live playing. mixing would be the next but first I will spend much time on getting familiar with ableton and the sounds one can produce with it.
Greetz

[LeifonMars]

I don't know about vaio or any other PCs, I've been on Mac since 2004 (Power Book G4) and never tried to run Live on a PC. But it seems like they both have a lot of power, which is good.

If I was in your position I might try this:

1. computer with a little bit lesser specs
2. a controller like novation launchpad or Akai APC40 which include free LE version of Live
3. upgrading from that LE to full version (not the suite)

So roughly like this:

1. Computer - 1000€
2. Launchpad - less than 200€
3. upgrade from Lite version - more than 300€

All together etwa 1500€


Launchpad and APC40 bring so much more joy.

[DIjaKeR]

Sounds interesting. What is the difference between ableton Intro and Ableton LE ?
do i need to upgrade it immeadiately or is LE just enough to start up?

Isnt the Akai apc sth like a launchpad? sry if my question is stupid, lack of knowledge and experience ^^

Which performance has ur Powerbook? Was it Enough all the time ?

[LeifonMars]

Sounds interesting. What is the difference between ableton Intro and Ableton LE ?
do i need to upgrade it immeadiately or is LE just enough to start up?

Isnt the Akai apc sth like a launchpad? sry if my question is stupid, lack of knowledge and experience ^^

Which performance has ur Powerbook? Was it Enough all the time ?

Lite version has more restrictions I think. There is free upgrade thingy from Lite version to Intro. Don't know what's that all about and don't know about differences between two, you have to find out yourself (I'm not interested in).

The differences of APC40 and Launchpad you will find by googling them. Launchpad is cheaper and it has more interesting mods I think, for example here http://www.aurexmusic.com/launchpad.

My Powerbook, it was 1,5 ghz, 1,5 gigs of RAM. I didn't run Live on that, except for the trial but performance sucked big time. I got Live first for my MacBook, 2,0 gHz dual core with 2 gigs of RAM, and I could do everything I wanted to do with it. Only reason I upgraded to MBP was the lack of express slot, since I needed really low latency audio interface for performing.

Now go and do your homework, google everything and look at the tutorial videos.

[DIjaKeR]

What about this one for 1040 euro?

Intel® CoreTM i5-460M, 2,53GHz
Legales Windows® 7 Home Premium
Deutsch (QWERTZU)
Weiß
320 GB Serial ATA (7200 U/Min)
6 GB 1066MHz DDR3-SDRAM
Blu-ray Disc(TM) Player
39,4 cm LCD, 1920x1080, Kamera
ATI MobilityRadeon HD5650 1GB

[LeifonMars]

What about this one for 1040 euro?

Intel® CoreTM i5-460M, 2,53GHz
Legales Windows® 7 Home Premium
Deutsch (QWERTZU)
Weiß
320 GB Serial ATA (7200 U/Min)
6 GB 1066MHz DDR3-SDRAM
Blu-ray Disc(TM) Player
39,4 cm LCD, 1920x1080, Kamera
ATI MobilityRadeon HD5650 1GB

Spec wise it seems more than capable, but it's a home-entertainment machine, isn't it? How good is the internal soundcard of it since you won't be buying dedicated interface for now? I would sacrifice some of the specs and stick to MacBook or 13 inch MacBook Pro because I could trust the quality, but then again, that's just me and my antipathy towards PCs may cloud my objectivity in this matter. There are PC enthusiasts on this board, so wait for their opinion.

Here's a thread for you: http://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=153168

[DIjaKeR]

Spec wise it seems more than capable, but it's a home-entertainment machine, isn't it? How good is the internal soundcard of it since you won't be buying dedicated interface for now? I would sacrifice some of the specs and stick to MacBook or 13 inch MacBook Pro because I could trust the quality, but then again, that's just me and my antipathy towards PCs may cloud my objectivity in this matter. There are PC enthusiasts on this board, so wait for their opinion.

Here's a thread for you: http://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=153168

i also would like to try a mac but i think i can get more performance for less money for now. Maybee later a mac when i can effort it. I cant find information about the soundcard, but its a multimedia machine so it cant be that bad... and i could get an external one if necessary. is the macbook so much better considering ableton performance and stability?

[LeifonMars]

is the macbook so much better considering ableton performance and stability?

I don't know.

I think it is.

So basically my advices sum to this: get the best performance Mac you can and spare some for LP and upgrade.

I hear people saying making music on PC is a half time IT-job.

And then I hear people saying that those people just don't know what they're doing.

I prefer making music and I'm not interested in OS-wankery.

[DIjaKeR]

Okay, my Descision is made.

I bought a Macbook Pro on Ebay with the following specs:

- MacBook Aluminium Unibody 13"
- 2,4 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo
- 4GB Ram
- 250GB Festplatte
- DVD Combo-Laufwerk (DVD schauen, CD brennen)
- Grafikchip NVIDIA GeForce 9400M
- Apple Care bis 25.03.2012
- Snow Leopard Original auf CD
- Office Home und Student Original
- Adapter Mini Display Port auf DVI
- Adapter DVI auf HDMI

for 800... i think this was a great offer.


Now im Heading either for the apc 40 or for only Ableton intro.

Great thanks for your help ^^

Greetz

[delicioso]

MacBooks cost the same, but have more power and the 13 inch MacBook Pros are slightly more expensive and offer even more power.

Actually the new Macbook Air is faster and powerful enough to outperform its Macbook Pro counterpart.

http://www.macworld.com/article/155186/ ... lsrc=top_1