2011 Macbook Air for Ableton?

[Mixikyr]

Deleted post.

[Breaks Dude]

Other than the screen being kind of small, my guess is it would probably run Ableton pretty darned well.

[hacktheplanet]

Yup, runs great.

[Observer-A]

I am thinking that this will be my next laptop purchase.

The consensus that I have seen suggests that it is a very nice music production machine.

Supposed to be very rugged too.

[skatr2]

Simply put...not recommended. If you can get even a baseline 13" Macbook pro you would more than double the performance of the top line MBA. To put things in perspective, my base model MBP from 2009 has just a few more CPU usage on half the ram than the MBA. Yes it can run ableton. No its not worth buying except for excessive portability and minimal feature use.

[ollyb303]

Agreed, get an MBP instead. The Air is for turtleneck coffee shop wankers.

[Mixikyr]

Deleted post.

[infiniteB]

Macbook Pro, definitely. Macbook Air, not capable. The future? Apple, recently announcing a radically changed Macbook Pro coming (Deember I think), "rewriting" the PC. I'm guessing The Macbook Air/iPad Technology (`Thinner, longer battery, maybe touch screen, and I'm guessing even more boosted perofrmance) will be a major part of it. So, in that sense, you are probably right. In terms of branding, no. Base model Macbook Pro or above.

[skatr2]

Not trying to kill your hopes here. I personally would love a mba..but when I saw the top of the line model would be like getting the best 13" mbp from 2009, I was definitely dissuaded. You want to get some longevity outta a new mac. now if you used a different machine for major work and just used the air for the finalized samples I could see it. But not running vsts...effects...large samples...etc all within a live performance. Too risky. Oi just wait...the specs will get better. Get a new mbp in the meantime.

[drchoc]

Depends on how much CPU your average live set uses. If you follow a minimal approach and also have a desktop for fully fledged production it could be a great tool.

[icedsushi]

Oi just wait...the specs will get better. Get a new mbp in the meantime.

That doesn't make sense. If you wait, the specs of the MBP will get better too, the MBP will always be a step ahead of the MBA in the speed department unless they do a major design change of the whole lineup. The MBP will always be more tempting if speed is your main concern. Waiting most likely isn't going to make the MBA faster than a MBP at any point in time. Going by that logic there will never be a reason to buy the MBA.

If portability is your main concern, you are relatively conservative with the number of tracks & plugins you use, and you don't need to be on the bleeding edge of CPU speeds at all times I say go for it. Personally I think it's pretty incredible they can pack the performance of a 2009 MBP into a MBA only 2 years later (according to a previous poster). You should at least be able to get a modest number of tracks & plugins by using anything current. I'm sure there are loads of people out there making great music on 5 years or older laptops, which most all of them are already slower than the current MBA.

So far the only recommendations against it have been that you can get something else in the current lineup that is faster. There will always be something that is faster. Some people might advise against getting the MBP because the Mac Pro or a desktop PC is faster.

Who gives a crap what strangers think about stereotypes at the coffee shop. Use whatever meets your personal requirements for performance vs portability vs cost.

[skatr2]

Oi just wait...the specs will get better. Get a new mbp in the meantime.

That doesn't make sense. If you wait, the specs of the MBP will get better too, the MBP will always be a step ahead of the MBA in the speed department unless they do a major design change of the whole lineup. The MBP will always be more tempting if speed is your main concern. Waiting most likely isn't going to make the MBA faster than a MBP at any point in time. Going by that logic there will never be a reason to buy the MBA.

If portability is your main concern, you are relatively conservative with the number of tracks & plugins you use, and you don't need to be on the bleeding edge of CPU speeds at all times I say go for it. Personally I think it's pretty incredible they can pack the performance of a 2009 MBP into a MBA only 2 years later (according to a previous poster). You should at least be able to get a modest number of tracks & plugins by using anything current. I'm sure there are loads of people out there making great music on 5 years or older laptops, which most all of them are already slower than the current MBA.

So far the only recommendations against it have been that you can get something else in the current lineup that is faster. There will always be something that is faster. Some people might advise against getting the MBP because the Mac Pro or a desktop PC is faster.

Who gives a crap what strangers think about stereotypes at the coffee shop. Use whatever meets your personal requirements for performance vs portability vs cost.

WOW ease off there killer. Please let me refer to the original question:

How does it perform? Is it totally not recommended or does it do just fine?

He simply asked us how it performs and whether it was a viable option. We used other mac models to give him a comparison of this and to show COST does not merit limiting your production capabilities. You may think that its some great feat to put tech from two years ago in the small chassis, but frankly it isn't. Its apples swig at the more portable and less than capable netbook lineup. And quite honestly, it isn't any more portable than a 13" macbook pro.

The recommendation is that he can get something in the current lineup that is better for CHEAPER. And he doesn't have to "be conservative" and choosy in how he produces music. He has the flexability to expand as the market does, rather than bottlenecking himself.

Let me be more frank. Performance-wise, its weight is not worth the trade off for what you pay for (you would need the 13" top of the line to get the previous mentioned capabilities). So either way you will still be getting a 13" notebook. Is it CAPABLE of playing ableton? Yes. Have fun limiting yourself and apple will gladly take your cash next year when live 9 is out and your CPU is screaming at 75%. Let me reference a previous post I made:

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

Now that I relook at that thread...it actually runs WORSE than my macbook pro from 2 years ago. Keep on with that great advice there icedsushi

[ollyb303]

Who gives a crap what strangers think about stereotypes at the coffee shop. Use whatever meets your personal requirements for performance vs portability vs cost.

Yeah, that was just a joke.....

[jamief]

macbook pro

[Observer-A]

Good lookin' out guys!

I would be pissed if I got a MBA only to figure this out lol.

MBP is still the top dog then huh?

Are you guys terrified every time you take your MBP to a gig? That is my biggest reservation with spending so much on a notebook.