Ableton Forum

Khazul wrote: Also OSX has some built in features that make running multiple audio apps with midi sync easy to setup and similar with connecting in MIDI from iPads etc over WiFi. - these are all extra plusses for me. I happen to like the multi-touch track pads etc well along with the gestures in OSX and the way full screen apps work and the ease of sliding between them (Live + Traktor synced via midi for eg). Similar is achievable on windows with a bunch of 3rd party downloads of course assuming they down all bring the machine to its knees.

This is a good point. Having multiple "desktops" available with a quick 3 finger trackpad flip is huge. No minimizing/maximizing. I run my mixer app for my interface on the far left desktop, and next Ableton, and you can run as many desktops as you want, so you could run Itunes on a third, a web browser, any other apps you want. Flick between them in a quarter second.
The battery life is great, and pretty much anything you can think of in my opinion is better. The trackpad blows a windows trackpad out of the water. Yesterday I was recording with a drummer, and I ran my MBP on battery only, running my audio interface and a Novation Launchkey, both powered off the MBP for two hours, and I had 20% battery left.
This is from a lifelong Windows user, not a "fanboy", although I might have become one now lol. I was thinking, "Bah, these fanboys keep going on about macs, I know Windows, I am getting a Windows laptop. It will be fine." Sold a couple months later. I feel foolish for being a semi computer geek and not knowing this until recently.

PantsDown wrote:Maybe they are built with PC bits by manufacturers who make PCs but the fact of the matter is the build quality is second to none. Ive never owned a non apple laptop that hasnt felt plasticky or battered or worn within a relatively short period.

Macbook Pros IN GENERAL are solid machines... the new retina pros have NO MOVING PARTS (cept the fans) they are more able to put up with being slung into a bag and set up in a club etc... they are expensive... maybe too expensive but you get what you pay for!

An no they arent perfect and do crash sometimes.... but thats the key word.. Sometime! no where near as often as PCs..

Buy Cheap buy twice!

Just my opinion tho...

Because Intel, Gigabyte and Samsung make extra special stuff for Apple...

Whizzercone wrote:

PantsDown wrote:Maybe they are built with PC bits by manufacturers who make PCs but the fact of the matter is the build quality is second to none. Ive never owned a non apple laptop that hasnt felt plasticky or battered or worn within a relatively short period.

Macbook Pros IN GENERAL are solid machines... the new retina pros have NO MOVING PARTS (cept the fans) they are more able to put up with being slung into a bag and set up in a club etc... they are expensive... maybe too expensive but you get what you pay for!

An no they arent perfect and do crash sometimes.... but thats the key word.. Sometime! no where near as often as PCs..

Buy Cheap buy twice!

Just my opinion tho...

Because Intel, Gigabyte and Samsung make extra special stuff for Apple...

Nope I never implied they did... I said the build quality is second to none, and that they don't crash as often... because of the OS, not the parts

LKB3rd wrote:

Khazul wrote: Also OSX has some built in features that make running multiple audio apps with midi sync easy to setup and similar with connecting in MIDI from iPads etc over WiFi. - these are all extra plusses for me. I happen to like the multi-touch track pads etc well along with the gestures in OSX and the way full screen apps work and the ease of sliding between them (Live + Traktor synced via midi for eg). Similar is achievable on windows with a bunch of 3rd party downloads of course assuming they down all bring the machine to its knees.

This is a good point. Having multiple "desktops" available with a quick 3 finger trackpad flip is huge. No minimizing/maximizing. I run my mixer app for my interface on the far left desktop, and next Ableton, and you can run as many desktops as you want, so you could run Itunes on a third, a web browser, any other apps you want. Flick between them in a quarter second.
The battery life is great, and pretty much anything you can think of in my opinion is better. The trackpad blows a windows trackpad out of the water. Yesterday I was recording with a drummer, and I ran my MBP on battery only, running my audio interface and a Novation Launchkey, both powered off the MBP for two hours, and I had 20% battery left.
This is from a lifelong Windows user, not a "fanboy", although I might have become one now lol. I was thinking, "Bah, these fanboys keep going on about macs, I know Windows, I am getting a Windows laptop. It will be fine." Sold a couple months later. I feel foolish for being a semi computer geek and not knowing this until recently.

Completely agree with this.. Ive been in IT for 14 years and know windows inside out, after having / using a mac for a few months I am now realising why people go on about them... they are great!

same here. i know Windows inside and out (network admin by day), but my iMac has been a treat and i don't regret spending the money... especially when it comes time to make music.

who knows how i'll feel when a piece of the hardware fails... besides poor and/or raped.

still, there are plenty of great PCs out there that will perform or outperform Macs... but i think the general consensus in this thread is that if you do get a Mac... you know for sure that it will run Live and run it well.

and to back up part of what Khazul said... iTunes doesn't suck anywhere near as bad when you run it in OSX.

The non-retina MBP is the safest bet for a laptop for live use. Regardless of people's preferences for operating systems, if you're gigging with other electronic acts, the chances of someone else having a MBP is pretty high, so in the event of anything going wrong, pretty easy to get the show going again.

Only problem with Macs is the ever decreasing connectivity.