Ableton Forum

This will get a a little winded so there is a TL;DR at the bottom.

I need advice as to what macbook to purchase. I'll start off with my history and usage of ableton, then go into gear setup, and finally computer needs and a conclusions. Thanks for hanging on with me and I appreciate your help in making the best decision I can make.


Part 1: Ableton

I use Live 11 suite to play backing tracks in a 3-peice live band situation that is centered around synth heavy dance and electropop. I've been using Ableton for about 6 months now and it works flawlessly for what I need it for. We run a redundant "2 laptop" fail-over rig and recently had one of my refurbished 2015 macbooks bite the dust and I need to replace it. We track all parts in Logic and bounce and import the WAVs into an ableton session which is currently 14 songs but more are nearing closer to completion. I have start/stop/loop MIDI cues built into the set and I also have MIDI out setup to trigger a vocoder on stage. In addition to this, I have MIDI lighting cues built to run with Lightkey Pro and a DMX converter, which work amazing 99% of the time.


Part 2: Gear Setup

I'll ignore the PA system and live instruments because my question doesn't pertain to that but instead I will focus on the entire chain leading up to the inputs on the mixing board.

Hardware:
-Computer A: 2015 Macbook Pro, 3.1 GHz Intel i7 processor, 512GB SSD, 16GB RAM.
-Computer B: 2015 Macbook Pro, 3.1 GHz Intel i7 processor, 512GB SSD, 16GB RAM. (This is the one that died and needs replacing)
-iConnectivity Playaudio12 USB interface
-iConnectivity mioXM Midi Interface
-Entec DMXpro USB/MIDI to DMX converter
-Oaktone oakboard mini (MIDI cuelist controller)

Software:
-Ableton live 11 suite
-Auracle X-series (for iC Playaudio12 and mioXM)
-Lightkey Pro
-TAZlite which works with MAX for live for the Oaktone controller

The audio interface uses 2 USB B ports hardwired in tandem to act as a fail-over in the event of a computer failure during the set so I don't loose audio in the middle of a song/set. The other end of the USB B is your standard USB A which I plug into both laptops. The system creates a very solid and safely redundant setup offering 10 channels of mono (or 5 stereo pairs) which is plenty and perfect for the style of playback system I need.


Part 3: Conclusions and Questions

So my main question is regarding what macbook to purchase to replace the dead one. I would like to have USB ports hardwired into the machine and I need at lease 2 of them to run the audio interface and the DMX interface separately. I want to be able to somewhat futureproof this machine in that while I don't run VSTs live at this tme, I want to have the option to do so in the future and my understanding is that while ableton works with M1 processors, most VST plugins will not. Please correct me if I am wrong in this. So that makes me lean toward the 2018-ish era of macbook that still has the USB (A or C) ports and the Intel processor.

I don't intend on recording as I have another machine dedicated to that, so high RAM isn't necessary and the typical 512GB SSD (or even 256GB) should be more than enough. The current session I run is just over 6GB in size including the WAVs. I am not looking to break the bank but don't want to go ultra-budget tier either. what I am hoping to spend is not more than $1500 (USD) as long as it lasts for at least a few years. So, what are your recommendations? Searching all these specs is turning into a nightmare and I just don't know enough to narrow my scope.

Thanks for your input, I truly appreciate it and this community.

TL;DR - I need to replace a 2015 macbook to run ableton live for backing tracks. What should I get that's worth the investment and under $1500?

Personally for under $1500 you could get an M1 Air, it would be faster than your other options.
The only issue with that setup is one of the two Thunderbolt ports on the Air must supply power to the Air. So you might need a hub for that.

At this point about half of the AU/VSTs out there are running natively. Kontakt and Massive X got updates to run in Rosetta in AU on a native setup. Alternatively you can run Live in Rosetta and most AU/VSTs will work. NI besides the ones I mentioned, Sound Toys and a few others aren't working.

There's a guy at KVR that's doing a good job of keeping up on what's running natively on Apple Silicon.
https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopi ... 6&t=556728

This list doesn't track which plug ins will work in Rosetta, but IMO native is a better choice for live.