Ableton Forum

Hi Guys,

Im thinking of going for a Mac on my next system. However it really has to be everything people say it is and im not convinced. I have some things and whilst they may seem trivial the PC platform really is stable and works well but there are a couple of tiny little things, so....


1) does a mac allow you to pull out the extarnal USB audio interface while ableton is running and or rendering to disk and not crash?

2) if I plug in a midi controller when ableton is already started will it work with ableton, because on a PC I have to restart ableton for it to pick up the midi controller.

3) if I buy the apple keyboard and mouse to go with a mcbook pro will I still have 4 USB ports remaining? I.e. they dont use usb they just connect seamlessly to bluetooth?

- does the speaker pop when you turn the mac off and your using an external audio interface? When I turn off a pc connected to an external usb audio interface I get a speaker pop.

If anyone who actually uses a mac with ableton and can answer these questions can I would be eternally grateful!

Thanks,
Pete

UPDATE : I realised that some of these questions were not worded correctly so I have ammended them....

and you should just go for it.
if you're like most people, you'll like it.
really the only downside is the expense, which is significant.



.lm.

You know, I've never tried to plug anything in while Live is running. I'll open Live and try to plug in my Quneo in a few hours (lunch break) and see what happens.

Speaker pop? I never turn my MBP off >.> I just close the lid to put it to sleep, and open it when I'm ready to use it. Always ready to go. The few times I've restarted it there's no noise, but I don't think this is some 'special mac sauce' or anything. Never had a PC laptop do that, either.

I really don't understand what you mean by "pull out audio." Pull it out of where?

Bluetooth has already been answered.

I plug and unplug controllers all the time no problem.

.lm.

It’s always best to turn speakers off before turning off or disconnecting anything else in the chain and making sure they are turned off before you plug them into anything.

Peter, all of those things will meet your expectations, except I'm not sure about the speaker pop -- I always lower my volume on the mixer before I unplug my laptop or any cables.

The first few points you made though were the first few things that amazed me when I switched to mac.

Getting used to the system was a pain in the ass though -- it took about a month until I was happy with my purchase. Now, I prefer working in my mac for lots of stuff.

beats me wrote:It’s always best to turn speakers off before turning off or disconnecting anything else in the chain and making sure they are turned off before you plug them into anything.

the only exception for that may be when the speakers are connected via XLR - not sure of that, but from the technical POV should work.

Anyways - when turning on, the speakers are to be the last, when turning off, speakers to be the first in a row.

I'm using MacBook Pro / MacOSX 8.2, both: internal soundcard and external: M-Audio Fi-Wi 410, external apple keyboard (w 2 USB 2.0), and controllers: Ozone (connected to M-Audio via MIDI), UC33e (working through USB) as well.

I wouldn't suggest buying USB sound card at all, if You're considering a Mac - it comes with FireWire which according to some smart guys is better for music production (as it is natively supported by hardware as they say).
I'm not experiencing any troubles with working on both soundcards at the same time - it usually comes like: Live works with M-A, and other software (iTunes, Quick Time, Internet browsers and so on) use the internal laptop h/w, which is then set as default OS soundcard. Works fine, and there's no any problem with swithing both OS and Live from one to another (at least in L8).

I'm also used to turn both midi controllers when Live is already running, or restarting them. As the UC33e comes with additional dedicated Midi manager called Enigma, I'm able to instantly reload inner preset bank without any objection from Live. However in order to use the best of the controller I've set control surface mode off.

I would rather suggest buying a 3rd party usb hub w/ its own power supply - I've experienced some strange behaviour from Mac when tried heavy using all the USB slots - some interesting issues with power management.

Hope to be helpful w/ explanations above

1) does a mac allow you to pull out the extarnal USB audio interface while ableton is running and or rendering to disk and not crash?
This is a really bad idea, but on the occasional times that the NI Kore audio USB device I have has pulled out of the plug it's not crashed the OS, it has stopped Live from running though. Also a bad USB cord hasn't led to system crashes that I'm aware of.

2) if I plug in a midi controller when ableton is already started will it work with ableton, because on a PC I have to restart ableton for it to pick up the midi controller.
90% of the time this works, probably less than 1% of the time I've had to restart to get Live to recognize.

3) if I buy the apple keyboard and mouse to go with a mcbook pro will I still have 4 USB ports remaining? I.e. they dont use usb they just connect seamlessly to bluetooth?
Yes, personally I searched for an older style Apple keyboard with the numeric pad on the right. The newer ones are smaller without the extra number keys. Plus I prefer Logictech mice.

- does the speaker pop when you turn the mac off and your using an external audio interface? When I turn off a pc connected to an external usb audio interface I get a speaker pop.
I had a M-Audio card a long time ago that would pop, but like everyone else has mentioned it's always a good idea to turn off your speakers first the the computer. Your speakers will last a lot longer; if there's some reason why you need to do this, IE your home entertainment center is plugged in to the speakers etc. the only hope is to make sure that your Mac isn't sending sytem alerts or using it for sound output in Audio MIDI Setup.

it was already answered, but since I said I'd do it (and then got in a rush during lunch and forgot) I just tested it. I opened Live with nothing plugged in, plugged in my Quneo, and it remembered all my IO settings for it even, and I started tapping at the pads.

And here I always made sure things were plugged in before opening things. Of course some DAWs get fussy if you do that, apparently Live is like the Honey Badger in this case >.>