Ableton Forum

I want to get a macbook but im only 15 with a very small income, so i was considering simply getting a 13 " mac book pro, but idk if a software such as Native instruments Massive would even fit on a screen that size? And how well does ableton run on a macbook compared to a windows PC?

My latest bootleg - http://soundcloud.com/theofficialstratos/hywwip

Massive and Live both run great on the latest 13" MBPs. You won't be disappointed.

i had an hp pavillion that ran ableton like a champ, then got a macbook pro 15" 2 ghz quad core. it runs ableton pretty well for the most part, but has some cpu overload issues. i used ableton on the pc for 2 or 3 years and it only crashed a total of 3 times... on the mac ableton crashed 3 times in the first week. other than that i love this machine.

i would recommend saving your money with a 13" over the 15 or 17. unless you already own a desktop or you are ALWAYS traveling, you're going to want to get an external monitor to hook it up to no matter what size notebook you get. a couple of weeks after i bought it and got my own place i bought a 42" flatscreen for my studio on cl for $150... i kno its crazy.

if you do get a mac i would advise 2.5ghz or higher, quadcore.(im not sure if there's a noticable difference between i5 and i7... but thats something to look into). and i would NEVER buy a computer 2nd hand.

RabidC wrote:i had an hp pavillion that ran ableton like a champ, then got a macbook pro 15" 2 ghz quad core. it runs ableton pretty well for the most part, but has some cpu overload issues. i used ableton on the pc for 2 or 3 years and it only crashed a total of 3 times... on the mac ableton crashed 3 times in the first week. other than that i love this machine.

i would recommend saving your money with a 13" over the 15 or 17. unless you already own a desktop or you are ALWAYS traveling, you're going to want to get an external monitor to hook it up to no matter what size notebook you get. a couple of weeks after i bought it and got my own place i bought a 42" flatscreen for my studio on cl for $150... i kno its crazy.

if you do get a mac i would advise 2.5ghz or higher, quadcore.(im not sure if there's a noticable difference between i5 and i7... but thats something to look into). and i would NEVER buy a computer 2nd hand.

Im definitely gonna get the 13", i7 core, 8gb of RAM (to be safe) and a terrabyte HDD if i do get the 13", specs will go down dramatically if i get the 15 or 17 so i think im gonna stick with the 13". I do have a desktop, 4 GB Ram, Dual Core Pentium, not the best of specs but ableton runs beautifully, along with several instances of Massive. i really appreciate the response! Thanks guys

If you don't have the money for a high end Mac, going all the way, get the Samsung Gamer. 1 trilobyte hard drive and 16 gig RAM goes a long way and a superbrite large screen.

13" macs are a nice size and weight to carry around if you're on the move. I do most stuff on the train during my enormous commute (well writing, not mixing).

15" seem a lot more inconvenient for a bit more screen space. Either way, plugins fit nicely on the screen as long as you don't want to see anything else at the same time. Grr

andydes wrote:13" macs are a nice size and weight to carry around if you're on the move. I do most stuff on the train during my enormous commute (well writing, not mixing).

15" seem a lot more inconvenient for a bit more screen space. Either way, plugins fit nicely on the screen as long as you don't want to see anything else at the same time. Grr

oh but you see so much more with the extra space on the 15"! it's like a billion more tracks are visible... i love it

I've been running on a 13" MBP since 2009. The GUIs for all my third party VSTs fit fine on the screen.

Spend your money on a faster CPU and more RAM (do NOT buy it from Apple) rather than a larger screen.

Good luck!

First off, Geekbench is your friend:
http://browser.primatelabs.com/mac-benchmarks

The dual 2ghz i7 11" Macbook Air is faster than the dual i5 2.5ghz and $50 more in price.
Though you would want to get a USB CD/DVD drive for it I would guess if you're using Massive.

Both of the machines are faster than my 2007 macbook pro and I run Massive with little issues, other than that I can't run many instances.

Anyway take a look around Geekbench if you're worried about CPU bottlenecks it's the best indicator. To failure tests on my Macs are very accurate compared to Geekbench's charts.

Stratos wrote:I want to get a macbook but im only 15 with a very small income, so i was considering simply getting a 13 " mac book pro, but idk if a software such as Native instruments Massive would even fit on a screen that size? And how well does ableton run on a macbook compared to a windows PC?

My latest bootleg - http://soundcloud.com/theofficialstratos/hywwip

Hey I was 15 also when I bought my first mac. I got the cheapest one (MBA 11" 4GB RAM) and it works fine. I got a 21" monitor with it also just because I wanted a bigger screen for my home environment. BTW all macs should work fine with Ableton. I have Massive and there seems to be no problems with it as well. It really depends on what system you compare it to for the Windows thing, but I dualbooted my Dad's MBP running Windows 7 and the CPU would jump a little higher on it. Its not really a big difference though. I just prefer Mac OS X. It all eventually comes down to what you want.