new 13" MacBook Pro performance?

[Earwax69]

@skatr2: it have nothing to do with your screen size and everything to do with resolution. I would recommand a 24inch screen with 1920x1200 res for OK results. The 27 and 30 inches screens are the best for serious production.

Screen estate is one of the essential thing that highly boost up your workflow. Even more than the CPU I would say. I would prefer get a 2.4ghz on a 30inch screen than a 3.4ghz on a 20inch screen.

[DuncanCox]

Ableton on the new i7 13" Macbook is working very fine. i used it the speed and processing all are good. It rocks.

[grooverb]

IMO 28 would be to the point where its too cumbersome to look at, without sitting a fair distance away from the screen. Even on a 22" screen I have to crank the view up to 110% to make 16 tracks and 4 sends fit well and be easily readable. Just some food for thought on monitor size. You want to still have all of it in your gaze and limit too many unnecessary head movements.

No its fine, well I find it ok. Lots of space on the screen and it doubles up for watching films on verynicely

[icedsushi]

Yes, but I agree with a previous post that it all depends on the resolution and the overall size combination. Maybe your 28" is a lower resolution so it's OK. HD resolution could be troublesome as it makes the objects smaller on the screen.

I tried the new Apple 27" and found the combination of the large size with the smaller objects on the screen was not good ergonomically for me. I had to sit slightly closer to the screen and then move my head back & forth often (instead of just moving my eyes) to see the opposite ends of the screen. And it was slightly higher too, so I'd have to kink my neck or constantly be looking way up to the menu bar. It seemed fantastic in the store but the actual everyday use on my desk was tiring. Turning down the resolution was not an answer because it just made everything look poorer quality to make it slightly bigger.

I also like to run Ableton with it stretched across the whole screen and when running a set with only a 12 tracks or so, all the tracks would be way over on the left hand size with a big blank space in the middle. I had to return it. I found out the hard way that an old Apple Cinema 23" with normal resolution is the perfect size for me. With a normal (non-HD) resolution I can swivel my chair back to play a keyboard almost 5 feet away from the screen & still see what's going on, yet when I get back in right front of the screen, it's not too big to be close to it & the images are still nice & sharp.

[starving student]

what about the air mann the Airrrr?

[grooverb]

HD resolution could be troublesome as it makes the objects smaller on the screen.

Its an HD monitor-Hanns G jobby. I got it at max resolution and I just sit back and relax now. It was a bit overwhelming when I first got it, but I've turned down the brightness and stuff, changed my display settings like theme in xp and ableton so its easier on the eyes.

I use Ableton on full screen and I even have a 2nd monitor, old 21" that does sideways orientation, flipped 90 degrees so I can put a freq analyser on it, and the volume controls for the E-MU 1616m

This is all set up in my living room though, so there's plenty of space. If it was in my bedroom, I don't think it would work so well. I've even got bass traps in the corners, mattress behind the settee on the back wall and am gonna be treating the room with egg box foam in a few weeks.

[grooverb]

what about the air mann the Airrrr?

I was told by an ableton certified trainer not to use the mac air and stick to the MBP, and the guy at the apple store agreed

[icedsushi]

So the reason not to use the air is just because "they said so"?! And no other reason. I don't buy it. I'm sure it runs fine, not quite as fast but fine.

So if you run your 28" at full resolution how do you cope with seeing the smaller items on the screen without sitting closer? Maybe the highest resolution, the objects as bigger than my experience on the Apple Cinema 27".

[runningonbravado]

So the reason not to use the air is just because "they said so"?! And no other reason. I don't buy it. I'm sure it runs fine, not quite as fast but fine.

So if you run your 28" at full resolution how do you cope with seeing the smaller items on the screen without sitting closer? Maybe the highest resolution, the objects as bigger than my experience on the Apple Cinema 27".

Personally I don't think it would be a very good idea to run on an Air due to the SSD being soldered into the board on that model. If it was replaceable, then I'd totally go for it.

[icedsushi]

What does SSD being soldered to the board have to do with what applications you should or shouldn't run on an air? So you're saying if you were using the computer just for Safari, email, photos, iTunes, spreadsheets, photoshop, and the SSD goes bad, you could deal with that. But if you were running Ableton on it and it goes bad, now you're in a sticky situation?

I guess I could understand your rationale if it were to justify not using an air at all (because of the cost of repair). But using that as the reason that you would not run Ableton on an air, just doesn't make sense logically.

[skatr2]

I wouldn't use ableton on the air simply because the only performance test shown so far on the newest i7 model is worse than my 13" mbp that has half the ram and is a 2009 model. I could be wrong but I don't think the new air even has dual core capability. The inability to remove the hd is a negative because anyone who knows macs knows its cheaper to buy the base model n upgrade the ram n hd yourself. I would love to use the lighter air...but it would likely do some hella bottlenecking.

[starving student]

is it only the i7 macbook airs with the hard drive soldered to the board or all of the Airs and also what's this about it being slower than the older core 2 duo macbooks I thought it was supposed to be faster?

[skatr2]

Not exactly ground shattering

1) 61%
2) 13.3 inch Macbook Air
3) OS X Lion
4) 825B1
5) DualCore 1.8GHz i7
6) 4GB 1333mz DDR3
7) Built in
256GB flash hard drive
9) 8 tracks

1) Ableton Live CPU Meter %? 53%
2) Laptop/Desktop? Make/Model? Apple MBP 13"
3) Operating System? Snow Leopard
4) Ableton Live version? 8.2.2
5) CPU Make, Model, and Speed? Intel 2.26g Core 2 duo
6) Amount of Ram? 2g
7) Soundcard (and driver version if you know it)? Internal
Hard Disk Drive Speed (if you know)? 7200rpm
9) Number of playback tracks? 8

[runningonbravado]

Wow, that sucks.

FWIW I get 23% on a 2011 Mac Book Pro 13" i7 w/ 8gb RAM.

is it only the i7 macbook airs with the hard drive soldered to the board or all of the Airs and also what's this about it being slower than the older core 2 duo macbooks I thought it was supposed to be faster?

All the new airs have the SSD soldered in.

What does SSD being soldered to the board have to do with what applications you should or shouldn't run on an air? So you're saying if you were using the computer just for Safari, email, photos, iTunes, spreadsheets, photoshop, and the SSD goes bad, you could deal with that. But if you were running Ableton on it and it goes bad, now you're in a sticky situation?

I guess I could understand your rationale if it were to justify not using an air at all (because of the cost of repair). But using that as the reason that you would not run Ableton on an air, just doesn't make sense logically.

Safari, email, photos, iTunes and the like have no where near the same level of writes as a DAW and writes are what kills an SSD over time. I wouldn't like being stuck with a paperweight vs. $1k+ repair after 3 years apple care is over with.

[grooverb]

So the reason not to use the air is just because "they said so"?! And no other reason. I don't buy it. I'm sure it runs fine, not quite as fast but fine.

So if you run your 28" at full resolution how do you cope with seeing the smaller items on the screen without sitting closer? Maybe the highest resolution, the objects as bigger than my experience on the Apple Cinema 27".

It was things like the lack of Cd Drive and other stuff that features in the MBP that makes it better for music duties that are not on the air. The guy I spoke to at the shop agreed, but was adamant the i5 mbp would be more than adequate for wat I want, but I reckon the extra bit from i7 must be worth it, nad then just "pump up the RAM"

As for my monitor, I'm sat about 70 cm away from it, and I have 20/20 vision. The smaller stuff is still big enough for me to see with no effort, and I just run Ableton at 100% zoom in the preferences no problem. I can read the smallest line on an eye test chart straight off so I guess that might help. There are some things I have to sit closer to the screen for, like stupidly minute photos on Facebook