2011 Macbook Air for Ableton?

[icedsushi]

And quite honestly, it isn't any more portable than a 13" macbook pro.

Beg to differ with you on that. I just got the 11" MBA and it is quite a bit more portable than the 13" MBP. For me it makes the difference in just thinking nothing to grab it to carry it with me when I'm out & about for the whole day, or making that conscious decision, "should I bring this with me or not because I might not want to have it on me the rest of the day when I'm done using it & not near home". It makes more of a difference for someone who spends most of their day on foot, using public transportation, as opposed to someone who drives from point A to point B once in a blue moon, plonks it down on the desk & stays put after that.

I hear you on what you said above and I'm not saying you are wrong. But I'll stick to my opinion that not everyone has the same requirements that you do. And my requirements are different than yours so I just wanted to provide that contrast here for others to consider. Having the fastest machine currently available isn't the important requirement for all people. For most people it will be, but not everyone.

Regarding the OP comment, "do just fine" is purely subjective and the level of "acceptable" performance to make music can mean something different to everyone. Nobody needs to come read this thread to find out that it's not going to perform as well as a current MBP, that's obvious.

Anyway, perhaps I'll report back with some actual performance stats once I get the rest of everything installed. That's what I would think someone would want to hear if they were on the fence about springing for one of these. Not necessarily advice, but some concrete info to use as a comparison so someone can make their own decision.

[beats me]

I’d wait for a 15” model which I’m sure will be coming soon.

But the remaining problems will be relatively small and expensive drives if you have a lot of third party plug-ins with large sample libraries and also everything is hardwired to the motherboard so there aren’t any cheap or simple upgrades.

I expect the price of SSDs to go way down as they become the standard but I think that’s still several years away.

[Mixikyr]

Deleted post.

[skatr2]

Youll spend just as much on a mba. Lol if your that worried I'll sell ya my pro for a cheap 800 :p

[hacktheplanet]

1. Install Live 8 Demo on an external hard drive.
2. Copy your set to the hard drive.
3. Take the hard drive to an Apple store.
4. Ask an Apple salesperson to help you test Live on a computer on their sales floor.
5. ??
6. Buy the computer if it is fast enough to run your Live set.

[skatr2]

Nobody needs to come read this thread to find out that it's not going to perform as well as a current MBP, that's obvious.

Its not the concern on whether it matches the specs of the current MBP line...its that the top (13" model) fairs worse than a MBP from 2 years ago. That is doing the performance test posted in these forums. Its not about having the best or the top of the line. Its about having something that is actually worth the price you pay. Now that IS subjective. But the weight difference between the two is 1.5 lbs. And to get the results I posted above (61% cpu with 8 tracks and moderate effects running), you need the 13" $1599 MBA. Comparatively speaking, you are still paying twice as much as a 2 year old MBP (roughly the cost of a used one being 800) and roughly $400 more for something that uses under half the CPU usage on the same tests.

I do concede that everyone's uses of live differ and live sets are always range from small to complex. But to limit yourself and pay that much more over a pound is crazy.

[icedsushi]

I do concede that everyone's uses of live differ and live sets are always range from small to complex. But to limit yourself and pay that much more over a pound is crazy.

Well, we all get a little crazy sometimes don't we. That's me sometimes.

The 11" is actually more than 2 pounds lighter, so that makes it weigh half of what the 13" MBP does, and that doesn't even take the smaller footprint & thickness into consideration. The 11" isn't much bigger than an iPad. I mean forget about what the dimensions & weight say on the website, have you actually picked one of these up, held it carried it all day or used it side by side with a MBP? The top model (built to order) 11" & 13" MBA are nearly identical in performance specs, so I'm not sure why you focus only on the 13" model.

Cost is important but if you want the cutting edge of technology when it's still new, you're never going to get the best value. How about the people who bought the plasma TV's when they first came out. They were not the majority of everyone. They didn't get the best value, they knew that going in and accepted it, but that didn't necessarily mean they didn't think it through or they were insane. Perhaps they weighed the value of being able to enjoy using them right now instead of continuing to use something else that was outdated (or nothing) for a few years until they became dirt cheap. There is also a non-monetary cost of not being able to use something else until the it's price comes down. Perhaps they considered the price of a TV not a large percentage compared to what they just spent on furniture, mortgage, whatever and they didn't feel they needed to justify it to anyone else based only on price.

I've found over the years that the best (portable) computer is the one that you will tend to actually want to carry with you. It's kind of like the 35mm cameras with the professional lenses. They take quality shots but you're probably not going to have it with you at all times and missed a bunch of shots that you could have captured with something that you actually happened to have with you. So sometimes the best camera is a point & shoot where you were able to actually take the shot. I had a 15" MBP before the MBA, justifying it because of the bigger screen, perhaps it would be more productive when I used it by itself I thought. But now I find that it just spends most of it's time on my desk attached to an external display so I might as well have a desktop. Even 15" of screen space still feels small compared to a nice external display, yet it isn't small enough to get the urge to just grab it & go.

Now the disclaimer, LOL, I haven't loaded my Live sets on it yet, so I'm going to withhold my own opinion about if the performance level is good for me. It should be a couple weeks until all the plugins I use is Lion compatible so I will know by then. I know personally that if it outperforms the 1.5GHz 12" Powerbook G4 that I used to have and has around the same performance of the 2.4 GHz black macbook that I had after that, I will be pleased. (I think i7 might be faster than Core 2 Duo, even though the GHz are a little less, correct me if I'm wrong.)

[jamief]

macbook pro i7 quad. don't bother with all the talk on this post just buy it

[lasers and their beams]

ahh love my new 11" Air...sure beats my 667
It is all relative.