Is a Macbook (not pro) good enough for Live performance?

Amberience · Post by **Amberience** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 11:02 am

Is a Macbook (not the pro one) good enough for live performance?

Thinking of buying one. I have a Mackie Satellite, which works great. Not sure how many tracks I'm going to use, but there will be only Ableton effects, and probably not many of those. There wont be any instruments, I don't trust software enough to do that! So I'll render that all down to audio clips that I can trigger.

We'll have two vocal mics going into the Mackie and being processed by effects, as well as a small crappy little keyboard.

So do you reckon it'll take all that??

Going MBP is out of the question financially, so please, don't tell me to just go and buy the MBP because I'll be happier at the end of the day. If I could afford it, I wouldn't be asking

I was also thinking about a Mac Mini and a smallish LCD monitor. Can anyone give me another solution? Our gig is in Germany, so we need to be very portable. We're not taking much equipment, most of the sounds are going to be coming from our mouths I expect.

bland_handl · Post by **bland_handl** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 11:23 am

MB (non-pro) is totally fine. Just max out the RAM.

VST's and Abe instruments are fine - just avoid cracks and dongles.

furrybum · Post by **furrybum** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 1:06 pm

It depends on how much you're using the macbook for. I use an older macbook with 2gb ram. However, when I first started using live for performances I just had 512megs without it struggling. I'm only using it to trigger pre-recorded parts to tracks to accompany the rest of my band though so there's not much processing going on.

Amberience · Post by **Amberience** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 2:43 pm

Aye, I doubt we'll be using too much processing. It's more the hard disk that worries me, I might have to fork out for an external one. My soundcard is firewire though, so It'll have to be USB2 hdd.

furrybum · Post by **furrybum** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 3:08 pm

Again, I've never had any trouble with the hard drive. Just depends on how much space you need. I'd steer clear from going down the USB route anyway. Faster the better!!

synnack · Post by **synnack** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 3:42 pm

As we've recently learned from the Robert video threads, a founder and core developer for Ableton uses a macbook (not pro) for all his live sets.

I think the general rule though is to get as much of a machine as you can afford and learn to manage any limitation.

condra · Post by **condra** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 4:52 pm

Is a Macbook (not pro) good enough for Live performance?

Yep. The improvement in performance with a MBP is not relative to the price difference.

For sheer performance, the macbook offers better value for audio work.

nowtime · Post by **nowtime** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 6:49 pm

The only thing stopping me from getting one is the less-than-15" screen. Wish they made 'em bigger.

shlomo · Post by **shlomo** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 8:31 pm

nowtime wrote:The only thing stopping me from getting one is the less-than-15" screen. Wish they made 'em bigger.

I used to have 17 PBG4.
I was worried about Macbooks screensize.....not anymore.
The only thing that left form 17 is occasional pain in the back.

noisetonepause · Post by **noisetonepause** » Fri Feb 29, 2008 12:02 am

I use Live 7 an iBook G4 with a 12.1" screen.

It's perfectly possible to make music on this, even without bouncing or working around limitations.

You're fine.

condra · Post by **condra** » Fri Feb 29, 2008 5:20 am

As Robert Henke might say, We are living in an age of Zuper Computerz!

Mesmer · Post by **Mesmer** » Fri Feb 29, 2008 6:07 am

dude,
we need a FAQ thread.
should later be made into a sticky.

this comes up every other day.
the search button cries.

dodgyedgy · Post by **dodgyedgy** » Fri Feb 29, 2008 12:22 pm

My MB is perfectly fine. I never had a problem with it at all.

Live 6 btw.

i also run logic in it and the amount of plugins i can get is obscene, it doesnt twitch either.

no point in having an MBP for the money.

2gb of RAM btw, leopard 10.5.2

pulsoc · Post by **pulsoc** » Fri Feb 29, 2008 1:57 pm

nowtime wrote:The only thing stopping me from getting one is the less-than-15" screen. Wish they made 'em bigger.

I've got a 20 inch monitor for home use - only $200! Plus I really like the ultraportability of the macbook. And it is very powerful - just make sure you stick a bunch of ram in there (I have 2.5 gigs right now and it smokes)

Heiko · Post by **Heiko** » Fri Feb 29, 2008 2:51 pm

@ Pulsoc

Sounds sweet........what brand/type monitor have you got there?

And of course, yes, working very happily steady on my MacBook, home with lots of plugs, and live, 1 thing though: definitly take 2 gig Ram!!!!

Thanx

Heiko