Ableton Forum

Tried searching but couldn't find a relevant topic, so apologies if there was one and I missed it.

I'm about to make the switch from PC to Mac. Specifically, I'm going to get a Mac Mini (Intel Duo Core 1.6) with 2Gb of RAM.

Q1: I have a boxed Live 5 purchased at the end of May 06 direct from Ableton. Is the UB version already on there or just an OSX version? If the latter, do I need to install from the CDs first or do I need to download a whole new install?

Q2: I've chosen to go with the Mac Mini simply because it's all I can afford. Is anybody running Live (or Reason) on one, and if so, what's the performance like? I'm used to running on a P4/2.4 so I'm curious as to whether to expect more or less performance.

Q3: With specific thought to recording audio into Live from my hardware synths - is the internal audio of a decent standard, or is an external audio interface an essential purchase?

Thanks,
Gwydi

gwydi wrote:Q3: With specific thought to recording audio into Live from my hardware synths - is the internal audio of a decent standard, or is an external audio interface an essential purchase?

While I don't use a Mac Mini (PowerBook G4 and within the last week, new MacBook Pro), I've only ever used the built-in line in, and it's been just fine. I can foresee applications where I'll need more than two channels in, and when I have to do that I'll have to buy a new interface, but if you're doing two channels maximum at a time, the built-in audio should do the job well. (If you're getting weird results, check the Audio MIDI Setup in /Applications/Utilities--for example, my oscilloscope program always takes the left input channel down 15 or so dB, and I have to reset the audio input after using it.)

I think the built-in audio will be fine. You should be good to go with the new mini, it's similar as a mackbook under the hood, only without the screen. very powerful.

gwydi wrote:
Q2: I've chosen to go with the Mac Mini simply because it's all I can afford. Is anybody running Live (or Reason) on one, and if so, what's the performance like? I'm used to running on a P4/2.4 so I'm curious as to whether to expect more or less performance.

It will be a bit faster, but not massively so. Check out the Live 5 performance test thread to see how much.

But unless your current PC has blown up or your really want "OSX now!", I can't really see the point of switching to a MacMini. Why not wait for Live 6 with dual core support and perhaps save some more money and buy a Macbook?

Michael-SW wrote:

gwydi wrote:
Q2: I've chosen to go with the Mac Mini simply because it's all I can afford. Is anybody running Live (or Reason) on one, and if so, what's the performance like? I'm used to running on a P4/2.4 so I'm curious as to whether to expect more or less performance.

It will be a bit faster, but not massively so. Check out the Live 5 performance test thread to see how much.

I kind of disagree... esp when upgrading to Live 6 you should be about twice as fast, or even faster...

Of course it will be much faster when Live 6 is out! But Live 6 isn't even in beta yet. And once it is out, there might even be a few bugs left to iron out...

So, once Live 6 is ready to rock, who knows what Apple and/or Intel has been up to? Or if gwydi has saved enough money for a Macbook. Or...

But intil then there isn't really any compelling reason to switch from a 2.4 GHz Pentium to a low end MacMini, unless you want to run OSX right now this instant.

yeah Michael, I definitely hear you, but a 1.66 intel duo isn't low-end... it's pretty amazing, actually. And it will continue to be amazing later in the summer. that's all i'm saying.

Michael-SW wrote:But intil then there isn't really any compelling reason to switch from a 2.4 GHz Pentium to a low end MacMini

In and of itself, no. The reason for the timing is, I've got a number of computers here and one of them is on its last legs and really does need replacing straight away, so rather than buying another PC I'm switching to the Mac and my old PC will replace the dying one.

Thanks everyone. I ran some benchmarks of both Reason and Live last night and I'll run the same ones on the Mac Mini. It will be interesting to compare!

i wouldn't expect too much out of reason before the universal binary comes out. i just got a 2.16 ghz duo core macbook pro with 2 gigs ram and reason SUCKS on it. like, the demo song that reason first plays starts stuttering and skipping almost immediately.

snowtires wrote:i wouldn't expect too much out of reason before the universal binary comes out. i just got a 2.16 ghz duo core macbook pro with 2 gigs ram and reason SUCKS on it. like, the demo song that reason first plays starts stuttering and skipping almost immediately.

Which version? Apparently Reason 3.0.5 is UB...

Machinate wrote:

snowtires wrote:i wouldn't expect too much out of reason before the universal binary comes out. i just got a 2.16 ghz duo core macbook pro with 2 gigs ram and reason SUCKS on it. like, the demo song that reason first plays starts stuttering and skipping almost immediately.

Which version? Apparently Reason 3.0.5 is UB...

really? i went on the propellerhead website and there's a huge disclaimer on the faqs page saying that they haven't announced an intel mac version yet. it's apparently in the beta testing stages, but we all know how that goes.

Reason 3.05 is indeed UB, and so is Ableton Live 5.2.

I received my Mac Mini yesterday (1.6G Duo, 2Gb ram) and having run the benchmarks on these two apps, I can report that the performance is about 40% faster than my PC (P4/2.4Ghz, 1Gb ram, WinXP). So I am very happy with that!

Thanks,
G.

sweeeeeeeeeeeet......

welcome to macintel

Of course, pc users are awsome as well