Any of you track and mix using a macbook air?

[calimoose]

I have a 2011 macbook pro that I'm thinking of completely restoring and dedicating for my music, but long story short it just might be too old. I also have a newer macbook air 1.8ghz intel core i5 and 4gb of RAM.

Just curious to see if any of you successfully dedicate a macbook air for music production or if it's too weak? Aside from fewer USB ports and a currently insufficient hard drive, I've had a project running on my DAW with just a couple of tracks and very few plugins, with no other programs running on my computer, and something as simple as using the tap2find function on Ezdrummer (as a plugin, not standalone) sent my computer to hell...

Any success out there with the Air? Or should I just bite the bullet and try and find a way to use the older pro?

 

[Armistice]

Hit up Audiofanzine for a payrise....

What are the specs for the Mac pro? I'd be surprised if a 3 year old Mac wouldn't be entirely sufficient with a bit of tweaking. Unless you're recording 85 tracks of Pink, that is...

 

[DM60]

I use a laptop Win8.1 based, dual core with Reaper for 16 tracks (dual core, 4Gb RAM and 500 Gb disk), for tracking only, USB (Tascam 1800) and I don't have any trouble. I would think the Mac Air could handle that easy.

I say Reaper as it has the lowest overhead of any DAW I know. Plus, if you are just tracking, the only thing you would have to learn is, Interface setup, arming, project setting getting your levels and exporting. Since you won't really mix in it. That should be a snap.

 

[Steenamaroo]

Hit up Audiofanzine for a payrise....

What are the specs for the Mac pro? I'd be surprised if a 3 year old Mac wouldn't be entirely sufficient with a bit of tweaking. Unless you're recording 85 tracks of Pink, that is...

+1. Which model do you have?
The chances are a macbook air won't be a step up. 2011 isn't even that old in terms of MacBooks.
It's still going to be an i5 minimum, right? I have the 2011 i5 2.3 ghz model (with 16gb ram) and it still handles everything I throw at it.
I do some fairly big sessions too!

No matter which you get, invest £100 in an SSD and watch it fly!

 

[calimoose]

Hit up Audiofanzine for a payrise....

What are the specs for the Mac pro? I'd be surprised if a 3 year old Mac wouldn't be entirely sufficient with a bit of tweaking. Unless you're recording 85 tracks of Pink, that is...

Lol if only you guys knew how small our team is and how much each of us do. Not exactly a job you take to get paid millions, but certainly one that makes me happy as I get to speak with you guys and people on other sites from all around the world about one of my passions. But you're right, I should ask for a 300% pay hike anyway, maybe I'll get lucky!!

+1. Which model do you have?
The chances are a macbook air won't be a step up. 2011 isn't even that old in terms of MacBooks.
It's still going to be an i5 minimum, right? I have the 2011 i5 2.3 ghz model (with 16gb ram) and it still handles everything I throw at it.
I do some fairly big sessions too!

No matter which you get, invest £100 in an SSD and watch it fly!

The problem with the macbook pro is, I think it might've been a lemon. My 2006 macbook did wayyyyy more for me and was far more dependable. The pro runs extremely slow and probably has too much pirated things on it, so I'm not entirely sure that restoring it will make it perform as well as it should have from the beginning. Also, I don't have the money now to get PT for 500 bucks or something like that, and my colleagues at audiofanzine were able to give me studio one 2. So, as long as I can successfully get my DAW, plugins and projects onto the pro, I think I'll try it out.

Steeno, speaking of SSD, obviously that would be helpful and I should try and invest in one (in any case, I believe a few years ago I upgraded my hard drive to 500gigs), but do you think I should invest in more RAM? I'm just worried, given the embarrassing latency issues with ezdrummer...

Either way, gentlemen, I'm committing myself to this mixing thing and I'm gonna do it right. I didn't even realize that for years, I'd already been performing some of the basics of mixing (volume automation, panning, gain staging), all with shitty equipment. Now I've invested in better gear and one of my many goals for this year is to impress you motherfuckers with a good mix or 2

 

[Steenamaroo]

Lol if only you guys knew how small our team is and how much each of us do. Not exactly a job you take to get paid millions, but certainly one that makes me happy as I get to speak with you guys and people on other sites from all around the world about one of my passions. But you're right, I should ask for a 300% pay hike anyway, maybe I'll get lucky!!



The problem with the macbook pro is, I think it might've been a lemon. My 2006 macbook did wayyyyy more for me and was far more dependable. The pro runs extremely slow and probably has too much pirated things on it, so I'm not entirely sure that restoring it will make it perform as well as it should have from the beginning. Also, I don't have the money now to get PT for 500 bucks or something like that, and my colleagues at audiofanzine were able to give me studio one 2. So, as long as I can successfully get my DAW, plugins and projects onto the pro, I think I'll try it out.

Steeno, speaking of SSD, obviously that would be helpful and I should try and invest in one (in any case, I believe a few years ago I upgraded my hard drive to 500gigs), but do you think I should invest in more RAM? I'm just worried, given the embarrassing latency issues with ezdrummer...

Either way, gentlemen, I'm committing myself to this mixing thing and I'm gonna do it right. I didn't even realize that for years, I'd already been performing some of the basics of mixing (volume automation, panning, gain staging), all with shitty equipment. Now I've invested in better gear and one of my many goals for this year is to impress you motherfuckers with a good mix or 2

Damn, you're a noob man! All the signs are there. Who knew!

Here's the check list.

• Tell us more about the mbp spec.
• Get that mbp formatted and do a fresh install. (piece of piss - i can talk you through it)
• Get rid of the pirated stuff so I don't have to ban you. (covered by step 2)
• Forget about PT. Use studio 1 if you have it, or reaper if you're not sure.
• Don't take advice from anyone unless they have a mac. There's a lot of mythology out there.
  Your mac doesn't need streamlined or 'optimised' for audio. Trust me.
• Restoring a fresh OS should definitely return it to factory speed. If it doesn't I'll talk you through testing the HDD and memory.
  Macs generally don't slow down over time, so I'm already suspecting a hardware issue.

I wouldn't upgrade anything just yet if you've had problems with it since the start. Do the above first.

When it comes to moving sessions around google, or ask me about, target disk mode. Very very handy!

If this is stuff is above your head, fire me a PM.

 

[calimoose]

Damn, you're a noob man! All the signs are there. Who knew!

Here's the check list.

• Tell us more about the mbp spec.
• Get that mbp formatted and do a fresh install. (piece of piss - i can talk you through it)
• Get rid of the pirated stuff so I don't have to ban you. (covered by step 2)
• Forget about PT. Use studio 1 if you have it, or reaper if you're not sure.
• Don't take advice from anyone unless they have a mac. There's a lot of mythology out there.
  Your mac doesn't need streamlined or 'optimised' for audio. Trust me.
• Restoring a fresh OS should definitely return it to factory speed. If it doesn't I'll talk you through testing the HDD and memory.
  Macs generally don't slow down over time, so I'm already suspecting a hardware issue.

I wouldn't upgrade anything just yet if you've had problems with it since the start. Do the above first.

When it comes to moving sessions around google, or ask me about, target disk mode. Very very handy!

If this is stuff is above your head, fire me a PM.

Whoa whoa whoa, I'm at least 1 step above a newb. And I'm certainly no newb when it comes to restores, target disk mode and macs in general

Regardless, I very much appreciate the advice steeno. Sorry for the delayed response, it was my birthday yesterday so I was in outer space, just got back this morning. I'll try and get more specs later when I get the chance, but regardless I won't be able to do much till my mom comes and visits my girl and I in Paris on Saturday. She's pretty much bringing a home studio with her (along with my snowboard and boots....god bless her). Then it's time to get serious

I'll keep ya posted

 

[Steenamaroo]

Whoa whoa whoa, I'm at least 1 step above a newb. And I'm certainly no newb when it comes to restores, target disk mode and macs in general

Regardless, I very much appreciate the advice steeno. Sorry for the delayed response, it was my birthday yesterday so I was in outer space, just got back this morning. I'll try and get more specs later when I get the chance, but regardless I won't be able to do much till my mom comes and visits my girl and I in Paris on Saturday. She's pretty much bringing a home studio with her (along with my snowboard and boots....god bless her). Then it's time to get serious

I'll keep ya posted

Haha! Rule one of HR - Assume the OP knows nothing..even if he's admin.
Really though, sorry about that. Didn't mean to patronise.

Belated Happy Birthday man. Enjoy your time and the family visit.

When you get the time to have a hoke I'd do full format+restore having backed up your stuff, then run drivedx (free download HDD diagnostic -VERY good! Shows early signs of failure), then run apple hardware test to make sure the Ram's good.