What MacBook should I buy for Ableton?

[romariozen]

If you have been using MacBook to work in Ableton, please share your experience, esp. if you have switched from a stationary computer.

I want to purchase the latest MacBook Air because I want something quiet and easy to care anywhere, but I have never used a notebook before and do not know if Air series are powerful enough for Ableton and can handle its tasks easily.
I would also like to hear from MacBook PRO users.

Thanks a lot in advance

[[jur]]

Even the cheapest mac laptop will work flawlessly. Those machines are so powerful now, the days of struggling with music making on computers are gone.
Grab what your budget allows for. Imo the most important thing is to make sure you have enough internal storage. Take 16gb of ram also if possible.

[Machinesworking]

If you have been using MacBook to work in Ableton, please share your experience, esp. if you have switched from a stationary computer.

I want to purchase the latest MacBook Air because I want something quiet and easy to care anywhere, but I have never used a notebook before and do not know if Air series are powerful enough for Ableton and can handle its tasks easily.
I would also like to hear from MacBook PRO users.

Thanks a lot in advance

Here's the big one for all Apple Silicon and ARM computers, plus x86 that uses two new CPU core styles Performance and Efficiency cores. Live and a few other DAWs does not really use the Efficiency cores for audio performance. So when looking at any Apple Silicon Mac look at the amount of Performance Cores, Efficiency cores hardly matter with Live (Logic and Bitwig as well).

You always should look at the "compare" part of Apples website on this, you can see some things that give you a clue., buying an M3 Air with 8 cores (4p and 4e) is almost going to be as efficient in Live as buying a 10 core M4 macbook pro (4p and 6e) since Apple isn't upping the amount of performance cores, just the efficiency ones.

Live runs great on Apple silicon, just keep in mind that the main thing you're looking at is Perrformance cores.

[Angstrom]

While what Machinesworking said is totally right, and though some still recommend the M1 the M2 Air onwards got magsafe back, so you gain a USBC port (compared to the M1) - so for me an M2 reconditioned was perfect.

Some stats, comparisons, etc.
I have two main computers , I always have a desktop for production heavy lifting, and a cheaper laptop for live performance (because I use hardware / modular Live)
1 Is currently a desktop PC which I built from the finest components I could afford in Feb 2022 it cost me about £3500 - £4,000 including screen. On that machine my live performance set is about 17% on Live 12s CPU meter

2 I needed to replace my old wintel laptop (which cost me £600 in 2015), so went for a reconditioned macbook air m2 (the one with the 1 tb onboard drive) which I got in January 2024 it cost me about £1000 (just a hair over)
on that machine my live performance set is about 17% on Live 12s CPU meter, but with a smaller latency

So, the "cheap" M2 actually runs better than my desktop.

[cids]

Any M CPU based Mac will run fine, best to have 16GB RAM

[Machinesworking]

To back up what Angstrom is getting at. I found an M1 Air 16gb 1Tb model over three years ago for a good price used, and last year I had some decent money together. I had been convinced that I was going to use the Air until I could afford a Macbook Pro but the Air performs so well with no fan that I just don't see the point in the top end of the laptops anymore. I can bear the thought of losing an 800-1,800$ Air but anything above that price and I'm not going to be using it as a laptop, forget using it for shows etc. When I do replace it, it's going to be with another Air. I went with a Mac Studio Ultra and it's overkill completely, the whole idea is my home computer is done for ten years and I see no reason why that shouldn't be the case.

[romariozen]

I also heard that Apple machines run Ableton better than Windows.
Very much appreciate your responses, read all of them. Thanks a lot