Hello there, just looking for some advice from other Mac users who perform with Live. I use Live on my dual processor desktop G4. Now I want to buy a laptop for when I perform live. Wanted to know the cheapest laptop I could get and still not max out my CPU and be able to play for hours.
I guess my question is, does it need to be a G4 Laptop? Thanks for any help at all.
The Ideal Cheap Mac Laptop
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dirtystudios
- Posts: 1196
- Joined: Wed Jul 10, 2002 1:28 am
check out these threads:
http://www.ableton.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3686
http://www.ableton.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3661
k
http://www.ableton.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3686
http://www.ableton.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3661
k
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muthafunka
- Posts: 2251
- Joined: Fri Jan 10, 2003 5:28 pm
- Location: Tokyo
'Cheapest latop to play for hours and not max out my cpu'...all depends what you're doing, doesn't it....
I'm also thinking of a Mac laptop and I'd advise you to wait, as all Mac/PC debate aside, there are 'big' things just around the corner for Mac. For us this will mean powerful new toys and discounted slightly older toys....take your pick. It always hurts when you drop some big $$ only to find that 2 weeks later you could have got something MUCH nicer for only $150 more, so google around a little and wait would be my advice.
nik
I'm also thinking of a Mac laptop and I'd advise you to wait, as all Mac/PC debate aside, there are 'big' things just around the corner for Mac. For us this will mean powerful new toys and discounted slightly older toys....take your pick. It always hurts when you drop some big $$ only to find that 2 weeks later you could have got something MUCH nicer for only $150 more, so google around a little and wait would be my advice.
nik
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tjwett not logged
so i'd suggest the 900mhz iBook, 12". a g4 won't do you any good with Live. save your money for a nice FireWire HD and iPod to go with it! RAM too.-
dirtystudios
- Posts: 1196
- Joined: Wed Jul 10, 2002 1:28 am
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Guest
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jazze
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guestolio
enough?
limited, but as much as i originally sought out to. my track count is being scrificed for FX on the CPU side of things. I'm playing live with live band memebers, so i don't require running the whole show. I think with the right software running MIDI (logic) to a sampler though, I could really expand for my solo stuff.
Ragardless, I'm loving OSX.2 and I know it will be supported for a long while to come.
Ragardless, I'm loving OSX.2 and I know it will be supported for a long while to come.
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Private Eye
I know my post have gotten under the skin of some of you mac users, it wasn't my intention at all I've used macs for a long time. I know that outside of the few assholes (you know who you are) that the other mac users who don't go to the apple store on sunday mornings know what my frustration was all about, it's to those users and even to the assholes who can control themselves that I pose this question.
I know osx is not the best thing since slice bread because of its aqua blue color, what is it outside of that that you find so special, there is very little
that osx has featurewise that windows has not had for years, either you didn't know that like I didn't until recently or there is some other unfathomable reason.
I will use cakewalks sonar for another analogy since
they fall along the same lines of reasoning and ill reasoning. the only thing
that logic has that Sonar doesn't have is surround, which I might add is in the works right now as well as straight vst compatibility, but outside of surround everything that the latest version of logic has and aspires to Sonar has had since day one, do all of these people acting like logic is so great because it can do this and that finally actualy not know that Sonar which they talk alot of crap about has been able to from the get go?
I don't believe computers have spirits I believe people have spirits and I just don't get what these people are blinded by. Windows for years has had straight midi, no oms type bull, for years has had automatic ram allocation, so on and so on but these people just keep throwing dirt on windows and acting like osx is god because now...just now.... and not even reliably it can finally do these things. now I know about unix and audio units and I can understand the programing/ audio units angle, but most people aren't claiming that osx and even os9 are heads and tales above windows for those reasons because most people aren't programmers or using audio units. so will some other long time mac user
like myself tell me what's going on? I see a disturbing pattern.
1. they say macs are better for music but----they're don't even come close
to pc's for power
2.they say osx is better and even os9 than windows but--- windows had the features that they think makes osx so great along time ago and where
maybe osx is stable, windows 2000 and xp are stable, and dare I say it some folks won't even stop using win98 cause they've gotten it stable though most agree it's not reccomended.
3.they say logic is better but--- again the features they're all screaming about have been in cakewalk sonar which they claim is crap and not even professional, now that's crap
4.they claim that microsoft is evil and trying to monopolize everything which is unhealthy for music, makes since on the surface, except when the same people don't say a damn thing about apple basicly making computers that only run well enough to actualy use if you are using logic as your sequencer, instead of power books they should just call them logic
books because thats what they are, now if you like logic then fine, but if you're just a person who wants to use a computer to make music, and wants to use an apple computer at that, few things work as well as logic, to me that sucks, and now apple bought logic and is obviously optimizing logic and the powerbooks for each other but so many people are still sucking on those acorns I just don't get it. On pc's all the programs work the same, Sonar is known to be very stable but that's do to cakewalks expertise, not because microsoft wants you to only use one fuckin program.
I know osx is not the best thing since slice bread because of its aqua blue color, what is it outside of that that you find so special, there is very little
that osx has featurewise that windows has not had for years, either you didn't know that like I didn't until recently or there is some other unfathomable reason.
I will use cakewalks sonar for another analogy since
they fall along the same lines of reasoning and ill reasoning. the only thing
that logic has that Sonar doesn't have is surround, which I might add is in the works right now as well as straight vst compatibility, but outside of surround everything that the latest version of logic has and aspires to Sonar has had since day one, do all of these people acting like logic is so great because it can do this and that finally actualy not know that Sonar which they talk alot of crap about has been able to from the get go?
I don't believe computers have spirits I believe people have spirits and I just don't get what these people are blinded by. Windows for years has had straight midi, no oms type bull, for years has had automatic ram allocation, so on and so on but these people just keep throwing dirt on windows and acting like osx is god because now...just now.... and not even reliably it can finally do these things. now I know about unix and audio units and I can understand the programing/ audio units angle, but most people aren't claiming that osx and even os9 are heads and tales above windows for those reasons because most people aren't programmers or using audio units. so will some other long time mac user
like myself tell me what's going on? I see a disturbing pattern.
1. they say macs are better for music but----they're don't even come close
to pc's for power
2.they say osx is better and even os9 than windows but--- windows had the features that they think makes osx so great along time ago and where
maybe osx is stable, windows 2000 and xp are stable, and dare I say it some folks won't even stop using win98 cause they've gotten it stable though most agree it's not reccomended.
3.they say logic is better but--- again the features they're all screaming about have been in cakewalk sonar which they claim is crap and not even professional, now that's crap
4.they claim that microsoft is evil and trying to monopolize everything which is unhealthy for music, makes since on the surface, except when the same people don't say a damn thing about apple basicly making computers that only run well enough to actualy use if you are using logic as your sequencer, instead of power books they should just call them logic
books because thats what they are, now if you like logic then fine, but if you're just a person who wants to use a computer to make music, and wants to use an apple computer at that, few things work as well as logic, to me that sucks, and now apple bought logic and is obviously optimizing logic and the powerbooks for each other but so many people are still sucking on those acorns I just don't get it. On pc's all the programs work the same, Sonar is known to be very stable but that's do to cakewalks expertise, not because microsoft wants you to only use one fuckin program.
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Alex Reynolds
- Posts: 989
- Joined: Sat Jul 13, 2002 5:48 am
- Location: Philadelphia, PA, USA
- Contact:
Igonirng moronic Guest posts, my share of wisdom is this:
Pick one that can still run OS 9 (which means, no Aluminium PowerBook). In my experience, Live runs a lot better in OS 9. Using OS X, it is not only much slower on my iBook but I also have occasional dropouts. That happens in 1.5.3 and the 2.0.3 Demo.
Pick one that can still run OS 9 (which means, no Aluminium PowerBook). In my experience, Live runs a lot better in OS 9. Using OS X, it is not only much slower on my iBook but I also have occasional dropouts. That happens in 1.5.3 and the 2.0.3 Demo.
i run LIVE 2 on an iBook 800 G3 in OSX and have no problems really. ive played a few shows with it already and im loving the stability of the entire set up. there is more CPU usage than with my PC but the ease of OSX coupled with the stability of it is why i went with the iBook over my other Windows laptops.
YMMV, but I found that Live 1.5.3 in OS X takes up 40% of my CPU (according to top and CPU Monitor - don't trust Live's CPU meter) when not even playing a single clip. That does not leave much headroom for effects, I can't even use two instances of reverb. In OS 9, this is much better and stability is not an issue - OS 9 itself hardly ever crashes, it's the apps that crash it. Live running on a clean OS 9 is rock solid, haven't had any problesm with it so far.