By Stevejaz
Sat Mar 09, 2024 12:40 am
Seems kind of bazar but after buying an MPC Live2, followed by a Force, all with the view of moving from computer based to stand alone music production, I'm now contemplating buying a MacBook Air.
Price is the biggest consideration and there is an M1 model on special locally. Biggest concern would be only 8gb of ram. I have priced online, various upgrades of both the 'Air' and a new 'MBP' and nah that's just not going to happen.
I have a 32 channel digital mixer which needs Firewire800. Works fine with my 11 year old MBP and without it it's nothing but an expensive door stop. 5 years ago I replaced the 256gig ssd with a 2 tb one.
I can swap them back and use the 2tb in an enclosure with the "Air". Replace the MBP ssd with the original and keep it for home recording.
I would reformat both hard drives and redownload everything. Complete clean installation on both computers.
The old MBP will not update to operating software required to run NI updates, and now Ableton Live 12.( which I have not upgraded since 9)
Given compatibility between Force and 'Live' I would probably upgrade there.
My main use for the 'Air' would be to run 'Live' and/or MPC software to host various VST plugins.
Looking for some sort of confirmation that it would actually be good enough for this. I would not want to run a lot of VSTs at once for recording, but maybe more in mixing/mastering stages. But then I could run far higher sample rates as latency would not be an issue. I have tried a few 'Keygroups' from various plugins and they are quite usable in stand alone.
Any comments please? Would especially like to hear from anyone using a MacBook Air.
PS: I am as committed to the 'Apple' workflow as I am the the 'Akai' one so 'PC' is NOT an option.
Thanks in advance for any comments.
Price is the biggest consideration and there is an M1 model on special locally. Biggest concern would be only 8gb of ram. I have priced online, various upgrades of both the 'Air' and a new 'MBP' and nah that's just not going to happen.
I have a 32 channel digital mixer which needs Firewire800. Works fine with my 11 year old MBP and without it it's nothing but an expensive door stop. 5 years ago I replaced the 256gig ssd with a 2 tb one.
I can swap them back and use the 2tb in an enclosure with the "Air". Replace the MBP ssd with the original and keep it for home recording.
I would reformat both hard drives and redownload everything. Complete clean installation on both computers.
The old MBP will not update to operating software required to run NI updates, and now Ableton Live 12.( which I have not upgraded since 9)
Given compatibility between Force and 'Live' I would probably upgrade there.
My main use for the 'Air' would be to run 'Live' and/or MPC software to host various VST plugins.
Looking for some sort of confirmation that it would actually be good enough for this. I would not want to run a lot of VSTs at once for recording, but maybe more in mixing/mastering stages. But then I could run far higher sample rates as latency would not be an issue. I have tried a few 'Keygroups' from various plugins and they are quite usable in stand alone.
Any comments please? Would especially like to hear from anyone using a MacBook Air.
PS: I am as committed to the 'Apple' workflow as I am the the 'Akai' one so 'PC' is NOT an option.
Thanks in advance for any comments.