Yeah GPU is what eats battery for breakfast also… for me I want both because I like to do 3d work and play some games but yeah my laptops are essentially desktop computers that take up less space.
Windows is fine. I think the complaints are very overblown and unrealistic. I literally use a Windows machine for professional work every day including audio work and I have no problems. I think combining software with a hardware sequencer is the way to go. You get the best of both worlds. I would look into getting a Surface Pro. I think that format would be really interesting in a live scenario as you could use the touch screen as a performance tool.
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Hope it works out for you and is relatively issue free.
Ableton on my laptop is my favorite groovebox right now, but it has as much to do with the laptop as the software.
It’s nice being able to go from start to finish on one device.
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For sure… mine is dedicated for music only. You have to get what suits all your needs. This cheap version suited mine.
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I forgot to post the best (cheap) Intel processor ($750 laptop) vs the Macbook Air M2 ($1300). Very interesting.
I love ableton and laptop for the reason you mentioned, no limitations and can do everything
Plus I’m constantly learning new things. Especially with max 4 live
Then hardware is just a nice bonus to play with and enjoy as all the needs to make tracks are met by ableton
Me too. Which is why I went laptop with two NI controllers as the core. 
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Don’t get a surface pro. Worst thing I’ve ever wasted money on
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Damn good idea, carry on.
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Oh, and with the $$ I save, I ordered a Syntakt 
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I have to go, Mac and cheese for supper.
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ASUS Gaming laptop does well and can also use to play fun new games too.
I’m still running a 7th gen i5 MSI gaming laptop with zero problems, it’s never given me moments grief in the 5yrs since I bought it, It runs Ableton 11 just fine and I’ve yet to find a synth that can bring it to it’s knees although I’m sure there is some, for the kind of music I make its plenty man enough, admittedly I did max the ram out to 32gb and stick a terabyte of SSD in in but that’s it… no frills just a decent low latency workhorse, not the prettiest bit of kit either but that’s reflected in the price I paid for it…
I say embrace the opportunity to wade back into the box, I’ve finished more music since going back than I ever did messing around with hardware boxes…
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Max is great. The Fors max devices are a serious delight. Very nice. I love ableton. The main thing is to config your default setup and go from there. I do use a mac but have used pc’s for years as well (I worked in IT for 25 years). If you go PC then just go through configuring it for music and delete or dial down all the crap you do not need. The Ableton effects are so nice as well. Very under rated. My favorite VST by far is Falcon. But I use it as preset device since its very complex to program but it sounds fantastic IMHO. By the way I used to travel by bus to work everyday which took about 2-3 hours out of my day. I used a MacBook Air (Intel i7) with 16GB ram and Ableton on the bus with quality Earbuds and used the qwerty keyboard as an input device and pretty much did 80-90% of one of my Album releases that way. If I was going to buy a PC laptop it would most likely be a Lenovo. If portability and apple then a MBA M1. I currently use a 2018 MacMini 6core intel i7 with 36GB ram. But then I am retired from IT now and compose at home. If you enjoy nostalgic synths then it hard to beat the Cherry Audio VST’s for the price. Some of them actually have a bit of Mojo for VSTs like the Mercury-4 and Memorymode.
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How loud the fan is & how hot the bottom gets would be what I’d want to know, as fan noise is a creativity killer for me.
I’ve moved from windows to a Mac mini m1 this year, it doesn’t have a fan or get hot & is as powerful as my i7 desktop. The air m1 is the same but in laptop form, so no fan & no heat and low wattage/excellent battery life. These new arm integrated low wattage boards really are the future.
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Everything about apple is horrible, but Macs just work - and last for years. Apple decides to make them obsolete but you can now run a patcher that allows you to keep upgrading them. I only just replaced my 2014 MacBook Pro.
Context - switched from a pc after 10 years of swearing off macs. Never looked back. I am lucky enough to be able to buy a good one through work though.
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Yeah we need Steve Jobs. I like Apple personally but, they have done some really stupid things over the last 5 years or so. They just work.
I finally worked out how to DAW a few months ago. While I was happier with the sequencing interface and infinite modulation it only introduced new glitches (USB midi can fuck off) it was pretty much impossible to use my AS~1’s which I really wanted to use all the time.
Nothing’s perfect. Not Squarp or 1010 blah blah blah… PC’s definitely not. So buy a Mac
I mainly dislike DAW because I use a computer all day for work already. If you dont, DAW is great.
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Yeah, I’ve used a computer about 4 times in the last 4 years, so I’m pretty far from burned out on them.
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