Ableton Forum

Wondering who's using what when performing live with Live. Currently having some odd USB issues with XP and will take this all into consideration when buying a laptop for live performance.

Any comments about audio interface and system reliability would be a great - much thanks in advance to all those respond!


Pablo

I've found the combination of Live, my PowerBook, OS X, and my Oxygen/8 to be almost unbeatable. Once Reason 2.0 comes out, I can be on MacOS X full time for production/performance. The USB MIDI implementation under X is good, and should get better when the next rev of the OS is released.

Dave

hey puthupa,

if you're interested, read
"Metronome, Audio Path, VSTi" in the feature wishlist thread.
might help....

Ischo,

Thanks - I'll check it out!

I installed the live demo on several machines at the local electronics giant Saturn..... with mixed results:
Toshiba laps performed VERY well (with desktop P4, model name 1900 something), the Titanium was a disaster (I used the OS 9 version under OSX, but that starts the Classic environment doesn't it so it should wórk..... But only crackles no real playback at all...
I checked it on a 14" iBook.... booted into OS9.2 proper.... worked like a charm even over the internal sound hardware.... about 19 tracks and 15 plugins before it would tip over, but then it really did get offended (no reponse for minutes at a time etc) but thats only fair.....
HOpe this helps, take the demo to your dealer and install it... most will allow you to do so....

Regards,
FORMAT

>the Titanium was a disaster (I used the OS 9 >version under OSX, but that starts the >Classic environment doesn't it so it should >wórk..... But only crackles no real playback at >all...

You can't (shouldn't) use the OS 9 version in Classic mode. Classic is an Emulation, not the real OS 9....
Better only use the OS X version on OS X.

Best

Ray

Well that must be true... after all, for 3,000 Euro you'd expect more.... although I doubt it runs better than on a 1.6 Ghz Win laptop.....
Do you agree?

Anonymous wrote: Well that must be true... after all, for 3,000 Euro you'd expect more.... although I doubt it runs better than on a 1.6 Ghz Win laptop.....
Do you agree?

Don't count me in for any PC/Mac discussion. It does not make sense. Anyone should use the platform he/she likes. Both platforms have their advantages. Live or Studio.

I personally decided to go for Apple.

Best

Ray

As a PC user open to buying a Mac, I\'m interested in finding out about reliability. While I don\'t want to start a pointless PC/Mac flame war, I would like to get feedback from users of both. Is there a really good reason why the Herbie Hancocks of the world would use a Mac besides the fact that they have been in studios longer than PCs?

Having done digital audio tech support, I know that when something\'s really wrong with a Mac that one\'s generally screwed, but it was hard to tell as most our customers had PCs, and they had plenty of problems. Since I don\'t have that much experience with Macs, I\'d like to get feedback from people who, hopefully, have used both. The last thing I want is to have a laptop crash whilst performing, so I\'d like to explore the available options before voting with my wallet.

Much thanks to all who have posted so far - I hope we get some more responses as I think this topic will interest a fair number of Live users.


Puthupa

This is not meant to be a platform fight of any kind, I'm just deciding which machine to get... as a laptop it's even harder as the prices aren't radically different and PBs have been known to be very stable... and just one look at the RME site reveals (although out of date by now...) reveals the shortcomings of other machines..

FORMAT

Mac vs PC.
The main advantage a PC laptop has over a Mac laptop right now is the speed. A 1.2ghz p3, or 1.6ghz p4 should run Live 2-3 times faster than on a 500mhz g4/500.

I loaded the demo session on Live and it took like 26% cpu on my g4/500 and 13% on my p3-933 and p4-1.6.

Althought I would love another matching g4/500 laptop for live gigs I will probably go with a PC so I could run more effects and/or reason/rebirth along side Live.

bioroid

bioroid wrote: 13% on my p3-933 and p4-1.6.

Interesting post---- what brand of PC laptop do you use?

FORMAT

FORMAT wrote:

bioroid wrote: 13% on my p3-933 and p4-1.6.

Interesting post---- what brand of PC laptop do you use?

FORMAT

I'm not using a pc laptop yet. Those are desktops. But I am looking at the 5000 series Toshiba Satellites. They have a 1.7ghz p4 and a 1+ghz p3. But I'm not going to get one until I'm gigging regularly.

bioroid

Anonymous wrote:

I'm not using a pc laptop yet. Those are desktops. But I am looking at the 5000 series Toshiba Satellites. They have a 1.7ghz p4 and a 1+ghz p3. But I'm not going to get one until I'm gigging regularly.

bioroid

....but youve got to rehearse right? This is why I reckon I have to get one way before I do even one gig....
I want to combine the machine with real musicians playing (including me, i am a guitarist)

regards....
FORMAT

Mac!!!!!!


it is still the best computer for music production....

I have used pc´s in the past but the Windows OS doesn´t come any closer to how stable the Mac OS is....


I have used Macs in live performance and haven´t had any crash, sync lost, drop out.
My live performances usually last 2 to 3 hours.

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