So what you’re all saying is I should get a laptop with (non-upgradeable) 8gb RAM and 256gb SSD for about £200 more than a laptop with 16gb RAM and 512gb SSD and that this laptop will somehow still work in 10 years?
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Yes. Exactly.
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On this note, Apple has a pretty good trade in program which can help mitigate this. I traded in a four year old MacBook Pro and got my maxed ram M1 Mini for $200.
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Because over 10 years you will probably net >1 whole extra year of making music rather than wondering why the laptop isn’t making sound / is making the wrong sound etc. And that’s worth over £200.
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i second this.
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MacOS has gotten a lot better about not breaking stuff. only the 32 -> 64bit plug in thing broke a lot of stuff and catalina was a real shit show. big sur was pretty good and monterey has been great for me. i’ve not gone beyond that but will eventually. seems like Ventura breaks a few things but a lot of people reporting no problems at all.
so, i think MacOS has gotten a lot better about being pretty seamless to update… i don’t think it’s worth updating immediately to any OS ever though.
the last really great windows OS i used was Win2kPro. XP was OK on my old windows laptop but also was kinda annoying for a lot of stuff and generally i found windows less user friendly but i think i was always half in both worlds of mac and windows.
but whatever… i mean… use what makes sense… it doesn’t matter. there’s enough software that is amazing and works well on both operating systems that people should just do the thing already and quit worrying about it.
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Just do it. According to common sense macroeconomics in combination with historic charts any existing money (as in state-associated central bank issued fiat currency) will lose much of its value during the next months anyway - and so will debt (but make sure to have a fixed IR).
But beware - Ableton and overbridge pair very nicely. I guess you won’t sell any modern elektron gear. Ableton 11 is pretty great, from my POV it only lacks a proper “sequencer-off”-step-record-input-mode (with the ability to change note length values on the fly via keyboard shortcuts). Else - it is just great. One wouldn’t need the built in instruments (Aolto to me is the very best FM-Synth with Buchla-like capabilities and microtonality, the Korg Gadget plugins sound great and if you snatch a cheap NI Maschine mini mk2 you will also have the very great sounding NI FX (via Maschine VST).
Modern Intel-based MacBookAirs seem to sell with a steep discount (last time I looked) and will probably work still fine 9 to 10 years after year of manufacturing. The MacOS Interface has changed very little since introduction of X (although with Ventura they changed the traditional look of the settings panel after 40 years or so, which I don’t approve - but who cares). No problems with any music gear, not even Roland or Yamaha - and the Elektron stuff just works fine.
I guess it will be a good investment but I doubt the constant buying and selling will stop just because you bought some other hardware (laptop).
Sorry if I missed some talk in between.
Cheers!
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Yes, I have a 2013 MacBookAir with 4GB RAM and it runs the latest Ableton 11 and Overbridge. Haven’t updated to Big Sur and stayed on Mojave for 32bit Programs like the JoMoX sample transfer programs for the 888 and 999. Use it for music only. No problems, no CPU shortages. Whatever the magic may be. 256GB storage was enough for most interesting Ableton packs (those can be put on external drives, too) and NI machine packs - but I tended to use my own samples so I deleted it all and have lots of storage for audio recordings on the machine itself.
Windows is available on ARM, and it works very well with its own equivalent of Rosetta for transparently running intel binaries, but there’s still a performance hit to that - and 32 bit support is still there for older apps/plugs that people may still want to use.
I just read the rest of the thread - I think the OP just got himself a Mac.
I deliberately avoid using iCloud. And don’t have interest in similar services. Hence my use of hardware. But I appreciate the advice just the same as audioshare I’m sure has it’s perks.
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@Fin25 I have a 10 year-old MacBook Pro with 8GB/256GB and it still runs absolutely fine.
The new M1/M2 Macs are really something special. I have a base model M1 Mac Mini and it runs like lightening.
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From what I’ve seen it looks pretty versatile. Thanks for your input on your use and experience. For 10 dollars less it seems like if I could easily import audio it may be a nice convenience to use on the iPad over GarageBand.
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Don’t forget to sign up for Roland Cloud.
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I’m on a 2011 MBP that works like a charm, so yeah.
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Fuck the lot of you
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lol the masses have spoken
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are you using both computers as one unit with Ableton?
I wouldn’t go for a Mac. They are pricey.
PC delivers, so Ableton does, with a good soundcard, you shouldn’t have trouble.
I like Ableton, and its “limits”, as I don’t use any external VST, nor max, as I’m still using an older software version…
I’ve use it for years to make music with, and for live performance, but for the last four years or so I’m just using it to record and edit, and then processing and mixing, as I prefer making music on machines, main reason being I spent the whole day working in front of a computer already…
Maybe as somebody already suggested, you can use it for recording when you have time to jam or make stuff ready with your machines, and then use the other spare time to edit and make tracks from that raw material 
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I totally get this. I almost have a sense of guilt when I disappear into the studio.
I also struggle with the lack of time factor… I have infinite ideas and very few hours to work on them. Also, my internal perception of time is warped when I’m jamming on hardware… Hours feel like minutes.
For some reason sitting at a desk on the computer feels less like I’m disappearing into the music vortex…
Funny timing: I’ve been making music on the computer more than on hardware for the past couple of weeks myself. Although, I use Renoise and Bitwig, not Ableton, but for a lot of the same reasons you’ve mentioned.
I hate dealing with Windows. I’m a Linux geek professionally and also use a Mac for music. I would not get a Windows machine for music, but it seems plenty of people manage to make it work, so you should be fine. Might need to Google some shit when things don’t work, but I’m sure it’s not that painful.