Ableton Forum

SO, recently got a nice new macbook, which I do like... however, was bought in a hurry when my PC laptop died and had a gig in 5 days; did not research the firewire thing enough!! could only afford the basic one and did not want a big screen anyway.
but now... feeling like I will need firewire soon for multi-out analog mixing when I play live.

So my choices are: sell and get an older white macbook, OR get a refurbed 15" pro.

Any opinions on this???
THink I'm leaning toward the pro here for the backlit keys aswell... but white (or even black) ones can be had fairly cheap now.

Apple made a really stupid move there didnt they.

You're absolutely right about the FW dismissal!
For the price I would go for the White one.
Apple has a white one in the list at a very interesting price. Remember you can always freeze tracks if you need more CPU. Before selling your Aluminum Macbook take a look at USB interfaces like Audio Kontrol (NI) and Line 6 UX2. They're both great (I own UX1 a lesser UX2) even if Line 6 is supposedly aimed at guitarists. There are also good multi interfaces with USB 2.0 but they are expensive (Motu)http://www.motu.com/products/motuaudio/828mkII

- Best
- Pasha

Counterpoint:

I just had to replace the whole key and trackpad assembly on my 5 month old white macbook. These things crack like there's no tomorrow. Now, what happens in 5-6 more months when its out of warranty? don't go white, get a pro if you can swing it. However, I'd trade with you if you weren't in London!

exper wrote:Counterpoint:

I just had to replace the whole key and trackpad assembly on my 5 month old white macbook. These things crack like there's no tomorrow. Now, what happens in 5-6 more months when its out of warranty? don't go white, get a pro if you can swing it. However, I'd trade with you if you weren't in London!

Thats one reason I do like the aluminium enclosure... feels real solid like it can take a lot of gigging!

I got a previous gen BlackBook. Agreed, it doesn't seem to be the sturdiest machine in the world but as I got AppleCare I don't really worry too much about it cracking 'cos they'll replace it. My MB was as powerful as the MBPs of its time, performance is great.

One thing that would put me off the new alu MBs/MBPs it the fact that the screen and trackpad are made of glass. Am I right about this? And if I'm right, do they really mean glass as in, you know, glass?

dazzer wrote:I got a previous gen BlackBook. Agreed, it doesn't seem to be the sturdiest machine in the world but as I got AppleCare I don't really worry too much about it cracking 'cos they'll replace it. My MB was as powerful as the MBPs of its time, performance is great.

One thing that would put me off the new alu MBs/MBPs it the fact that the screen and trackpad are made of glass. Am I right about this? And if I'm right, do they really mean glass as in, you know, glass?

both are almost def plastic - no glass on my MB AFAIK.

To be fair, the regular aluminum macbook with a multi-out USB interface can hold its own. I'm currently running one with a NI Audio Kontrol 1 with the 8.27ms output latency at 48000khz with ZERO problems and no dropouts. I've run an Audio 8 DJ at 12ms too, so unless you need more than 4 stereo outs, there really isn't anything wrong with the firewireless macbook.

SolutionG wrote:To be fair, the regular aluminum macbook with a multi-out USB interface can hold its own. I'm currently running one with a NI Audio Kontrol 1 with the 8.27ms output latency at 48000khz with ZERO problems and no dropouts. I've run an Audio 8 DJ at 12ms too, so unless you need more than 4 stereo outs, there really isn't anything wrong with the firewireless macbook.

I was hoping this would be the case, its just that the number of decent multi-out interfaces (like 8 outs min) using USB is very minimal. And I've heard some unreliability issues with multi-channel USB in general.
My Edirol UA-25 is rock solid though, but it is just 1 stereo out.

elemental wrote:

dazzer wrote:I got a previous gen BlackBook. Agreed, it doesn't seem to be the sturdiest machine in the world but as I got AppleCare I don't really worry too much about it cracking 'cos they'll replace it. My MB was as powerful as the MBPs of its time, performance is great.

One thing that would put me off the new alu MBs/MBPs it the fact that the screen and trackpad are made of glass. Am I right about this? And if I'm right, do they really mean glass as in, you know, glass?

both are almost def plastic - no glass on my MB AFAIK.

Just FYI and FMI, just checked apple.com.

Re. the new MBP "The display is made of recyclable glass. " Says that it's really strong, I guess they're not gonna say that it's really weak. Never imagined that lappies would have glass screens before I heard about this, maybe it's common in the PC world. Is it really strong enough I wonder...

dazzer wrote:

elemental wrote:

dazzer wrote:I got a previous gen BlackBook. Agreed, it doesn't seem to be the sturdiest machine in the world but as I got AppleCare I don't really worry too much about it cracking 'cos they'll replace it. My MB was as powerful as the MBPs of its time, performance is great.

One thing that would put me off the new alu MBs/MBPs it the fact that the screen and trackpad are made of glass. Am I right about this? And if I'm right, do they really mean glass as in, you know, glass?

both are almost def plastic - no glass on my MB AFAIK.

Just FYI and FMI, just checked apple.com.

Re. the new MBP "The display is made of recyclable glass. " Says that it's really strong, I guess they're not gonna say that it's really weak. Never imagined that lappies would have glass screens before I heard about this, maybe it's common in the PC world. Is it really strong enough I wonder...

ah, fair enough, so it does... I didnt realise! I think with the metal enclosure though its not something to worry about.

i thought it was an aknowledged problem with the first white macbooks, that they crack and break and apple replaced the entire case / keyboard if you brought it in... and it has been fixed in the following series of white macbooks... or not...?

anyone chime in with a late purchased one??

but to the original poster... i got the MBP alloy and my girlfriend a black MB, even hers is really sturdy and she does not take care as much as i do about her computer, i would go for a Pro, the bigger screen, the card slot!!! and backlit keyboard alone is worth it, i think... mine is now a bit over 2 years and used daily, travel, studio, etc. fell once badly onto the floor and suffered from spilled drinks, broken glasses spread all over it (from drunk punters at gigs)... and it's still working like a charm... and except changing the HD soon into a bigger one, i think i will still run the baby a long time...

SubFunk wrote:i thought it was an aknowledged problem with the first white macbooks, that they crack and break and apple replaced the entire case / keyboard if you brought it in... and it has been fixed in the following series of white macbooks... or not...?

I tried to follow this issue somewhat closely at macrumors, and my impression was that they never addressed the issue. I think the culprit ended up being the magnetically closing lid.

I would recommend going with the aluminum macbook pro, either this generation or last generation (both have firewire ports).

- Nick

from what i've heard - newer whites weren't only refreshed inside... the chassis also changed.

Zygi wrote:from what i've heard - newer whites weren't only refreshed inside... the chassis also changed.

Nice, I hope you're right. They dropped the ball way too hard on that last design and left a lot of people very pissed off.

Nick the Zombie wrote:

SubFunk wrote:i thought it was an aknowledged problem with the first white macbooks, that they crack and break and apple replaced the entire case / keyboard if you brought it in... and it has been fixed in the following series of white macbooks... or not...?

I tried to follow this issue somewhat closely at macrumors, and my impression was that they never addressed the issue. I think the culprit ended up being the magnetically closing lid.

I would recommend going with the aluminum macbook pro, either this generation or last generation (both have firewire ports).

- Nick

i know from owners that they replaced the first generation white enclosures... without disscussion... so i thought they changed the plastic mixture / material in the next generations that came up???

but it seems not, any more knowledge around???

the alloy ones rock, though, i would not want to miss the cardslot.