Ableton MacBooks
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  1. #1
    Tech Convert
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    Default Ableton MacBooks

    Hi Dj techys
    My first post on the forum so hello all.
    Im about to buy a macbook for ableton live 7 and i need to know what kind of power i need to control it without there being any problems with slowness or audio disruption. I've had conflicting advice with someone telling me to go for a macbook pro and another person telling me i'll be fine with just the lowest end macbook, so what i really need is for someone who really knows what there talking about to give advice on which one im gunna need to control ableton without any problems
    Thankyou all and heres to hopefully many more happy posts

  2. #2
    Tech Wizard audiomontana's Avatar
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    if you have never struggled with an underpowered system than you have no idea how much power you need. I suggest going to the apple store and stepping up to one of the demo stations. Open up garage band and load up like ... an eight track project.. start piling on effects ... synths .. ... try to kill the thing. try playing back the project and recording.. try opening four or five other programs and playing a you tube video and running Itunes at the same time. ... and load a picture for the desktop background. Etc.. you will quickly get an idea of what the computer can do. If anyone asks you what you are doing. say im trying to lock this thing up .. Go for beach balls
    all these colors all this metal all this colored mental .. is just sun.

  3. #3
    Tech Mentor
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    I'm using Live 7 with 4 channels (DDM4000 as controller). EQ and 2 effects each channel and five effects and compressor on master. My Macbook is unibody 2GHz dual core with 2GB of RAM.

    No issues whatsoever, even when I throw mp3s in to the channels while I'm mixing and Live converts them to Wav. I've tried couple of VSTs and no issues there either. I haven't felt a need to add memory which I could do, except when I tried running Traktor and Live at the same time . My biggest gripe is that this Macbook model has no firewire and only two usb ports, which can feel limiting.

    I think it's a lot about how you're going to use live. As I said, I'm happy with Mb, but if you plan to use a lot of VSTs, add ten channels and such it could be safer to go with Mbp. I think Traktor uses more CPU than Live does.
    @Twumpy

  4. #4

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    Hi,

    It is OK.
    My have runing it in 36 hours working properly.

    If in need of DJ Equipment contact me. My Name is Vjack of HongKong. sale have
    cd-packages
    cdmp3-players
    mixers

  5. #5
    Dr. Bento BentoSan's Avatar
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    It depends what you plan to do with Ableton, if your just doing very very basic mixing then a cheap Macbook is fine. If you are really pushing things to their limit(using lots of synths, effects, mastering vst's) then your going to need a beefy CPU to suit.

  6. #6
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    Sooo... I fusked my set recording and in my anger, with my abovementioned setup, I put ALL the effects on at the same time +looping +4 tracks playing, played around and managed to get a 20% cpu peak, if that helps you.
    @Twumpy

  7. #7
    Tech Wizard Whatl's Avatar
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    When it comes it to Ableton you'll probably want to get as powerful a machine as you can afford, I use Ableton for production and found that I was loading more and more stress on the CPU the more kit I picked up and played with. Although I'm running a desktop PC running Windows, you get the idea.

    Like Bento said it's all down to what you intend to do to it, but be prepared to upgrade if you're going to expand!

  8. #8
    Tech Mentor chex's Avatar
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    With multiple samples, instruments, plugins I find more ram is more helpful than just a faster cpu. I was using a old 1.83 core duo (not the core 2 duo) macbook for years with ableton and had very few issues. Lately though, with new VST plugins and traktor scratch pro I find it's 2GB ram a little limited. SInce the macbook I've owned allowed a max of 2GB; i decided it was time for an upgrade. Now I'm using a 2.26ghz 13" mbp w/ 4GB ram and a 320GB 7200.3 Seagate momentus hard drive and it easily gets the job done with power to spare! If your heavily into multi-track recording, a faster hard drive or ssd would be more benificial than a faster cpu, and for multiple effects, plugins, track would see a bigger boost for more ram than just a faster cpu. The goal is to get the most balanced machine for your task. A slow hard drive and fast cpu is not gonna help out if your working with many tracks. And a fast cpu will not be bennificial if you have limited ram and everything needs to be in virtual memory. So balance things out. Above all else, look at getting as much ram as possible. Also avoid getting ram from Apple since they charge insane prices for something that can be installed in a matter of 5 minutes
    Don't get me wrong a faster cpu will help, but paying additional $100-$200 will only get you a few percent increase in performance. If the stupid macbooks didn't have a proc that was soldered in place; i would of gotten a core 2 quad q9000 so at least it would be worthy for multitasking and logic studio. BTW, i've been really inclined to throw one in my Asus G50vt just for ableton and make it a hackintosh logic node.
    Last edited by chex; 09-16-2009 at 07:10 AM.
    3x sl-1200s, Rane Empath, KP3, Ineko, Serato SL1, TS-Pro, RP10s sub, Event TR8 monitors, Xiosynth, Nano Pad & Kontrol, VCI-100 1.3 djtt, 3x M44g, DT-770, Rp-DJ1200, 13" MBP 4GB 2.26 128GB Corsair P128 Solid State Drive.

  9. #9

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    Look for a used, pre-unibody 2.2GHz MacBook Pro with 4GB of RAM already installed. If you find a nice one without a ton of RAM in it, go to www.macsales.com and max it out.

    The benefits of the MacBook Pro have very little to do with raw processor speed. The proc in the MacBook is great, but it's hamstrung somewhat by the rest of the system.

    The MBP will give you more screen real estate (nice for Live), and will drive an external display without stealing RAM from your apps (unlike the MacBook). It'll support FireWire (i.e. a higher class of audio interface). The vintage I recommended will also support FW800 and ExpressCard/34 (in case you want to use eSata). Laptop hard drives are much smaller, slower, and failure prone than SATA desktop disks at the same price point...and you want all of those variables on your side.
    reason, live7, traktor pro, m-audio x-session, m-audio O2, KRK RP5, Roland RD300sx

  10. #10
    Tech Mentor
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    If you got the money, buy the latest and greatest MacBookPro, full of RAM etc.

    I have a preUnibody, 2.4GHZ 4Gig RAM. I love it, and I push Ableton, Reaktor, Traktor, and Guitar Rig to the MAX, all at the same time.

    There is lots of good advice here, but if you can get a new one, DO IT! Even if your running a smaller set than some do, it will be super snappy, and rarely give you problems. GET the apple care! And if something does go haywire, which it can everynow and then, any Apple Store will fix you right up.

    I also use a PC desktop made by BOXX out of Austin, for intensive Graphic stuff, as well as Ableton mixing. It's a far more powerfull machine, and it gives me way more trouble than my MacBookPro.

    I hate to be a sucker for advertisement, but when I see a Mac comercial I usually think to myself "It's SO true though."

    If your a diehard hack and hate paying out the ass for software and want to run unstable cracks day in and out. PC's are cheap and good for this kind of thing. And blue screens!

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