get a m1 mac mini
/thread
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Take your pick, Fin. Who are you?
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Maschine (although I do now see a native apple silicon version), the Audient audio interface manager, Renoise (I often got unexpected pops and clicks in macOS, not had any of that since the switch). And Reason isn’t as much of a resource hog now it isn’t being rosetta’d any more.
The other nice benefit, is I have loads of older plugins that either got discontinued (so didn’t get updated for the later macOS versions), or ones that I just don’t want to pay to update (looking at you Waves), that are now usable again as Windows has far better backwards compatibility for older software.
Internet Explorer
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Honestly I have both old school hardware and a new macbook pro with Ableton and they go together so well.
If you use your hardware and ableton as sample generation for your hadrware, you will be super happy.
What you will hate is distortion sounds like crap in software compared to the sounds you like to generate with your gear.
Also I doubt you will really go much faster in abelton since you are already familiar with hardware workflow. First off you will need to learn it all, and that will take some time. I’d suggest going in chunks - learn how to sequence sounds in it and make samples and then learn how to use session mode to arrange your tunes. Then learn how to use arrange mode to mix, add transitions and sweeps…etc.
Honestly combining both is really the way to speed and efficiency, not just doing it all on a laptop.
I love my laptop…its not annoying at all. But I spent $$ and got an M1 macbook pro. Coming from a windows machine, its plug and play for the most part.
Yeah get over it and get a MBP M2
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I used the free 90 day Ableton trial this year. I also haven’t bought any hardware this year (some type of miracle). I followed the NGNY22 thread.
I’d previously been adamant I don’t want to use a laptop for music. I use one all day for work, plus hardware is ‘cooler’ (hello GAS).
But Ableton is absolutely the lowest bar for making some music. I can start on something in 30 seconds flat from deciding on it, and the entire studio is at my fingertips. I got a Beatstep (so not quite NGNY!) and used a M4L script for control. I can type over the top of the BS even, it’s so compact.
I finished 2 tracks in the 90 days. Modest compared to some, but more than in the last 5 years for me (coincidentally when the hardware odyssey started for me). So I think the future is a hybrid setup for me.
But yeah, get a Mac. I have a 2013 MacBook Pro, it’s been on holiday round the world, dropped down stairs, stuff spilt on it, shoved into all kinds of bags, sat on, used daily for work for about 5 years now. Literally not a peep out of it, just works every time. Never had to look for a driver or dick about with anti-virus. The wife and kids have been through 2-3 windows laptops each in that time that are now junked.
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I’m a Mac fan but had nightmares updating firmware recently on my modular and hardware synths and ended up using my Windows PC for that task so a Windows PC is essential before a Mac in my book. That said, I wanted to use Logic as my DAW instead of Ableton so I had to buy a new Mac.
On The Gear Page forums, I see a lot of references for a DAW PC builder out of Ohio named Jim Roseberry. His company is Purrrfect Audio and specializes in DAW based PC’s and laptops. I have not contacted them, but if I decide to go PC in the future, I will reach out.
Problem with most Windows is that there is lots of bloatware that eventually will frustrate and slow your PC down. I’m about three years into my DAW-less musical journey, but I’m ready to dig into Ableton at this stage.
I’m still on the fence of Mac or PC. The main reason I have not gone Mac yet is because of how much the price goes up when adding basic memory and components on Apple’s site …
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If you have the motivation ableton is all you need. Probably stating the obvious but we probably all spend way too much time figuring out the perfect setup rather than focusing on ways to actually come up with musical/creative ideas. I’m definitely guilty of this. Analysis paralysis. This thread has motivated me to take a moderate dose of mushrooms (for the motivation of course) and fire up the ol ableton.
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used lenovo t-490 - ssd + mmc - minimal linux distro - bitwig - faster than windows 1/3 the price of a mac
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some of these looks real nice like Morph / Spectral / Polyrandom, thanks for posting, btw is there a Max Devices thread? if not there should be one, lots of Live users here and there’s so much cool devices that could be shared!
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Ah, the qwerty keyboard. One of my main gas drivers every time I go “dawlessless”
my personal 2 cents about mac/pc coming from a guy with at least 2 decades of Thinkpads/Dells with windows / linux (mostly linux for the last 15 years until switching to mac) is simple, macs do the stuff you need most of the time with less headache, sure they are not perfect, but not as frustrating as pc’s can be.
also the new silicone machines are insanely efficient, the os works much better with the hardware and you don’t need to look for drivers for every component, did not have single issue updating os from Catalina and for me that means a lot, I remember trying to fix broken stuff after updating os versions both on linux and windows for days, getting very angry and ready to throw that machine out of the window.
also, the new macs are much much more energy efficient then pc counterparts, sure maybe on some graph someone can show you that intel stuff gets higher score, but that almost always comes with much higher power consumption, everything getting hot and fans spinning making lots of noise.
imo the new Mac Air is insane value for portable workstation, great battery life, great screen, no fans, very powerful machine that costs less then equally good laptop.
as for Ableton, once you’ll have couple of templates that are ready to record it’s super easy to record with, you can setup for example a template to record from your audio interface or from Overbridge, and when you want to record you know what template to open.
you can save links to the templates on your desktop and just double click to open Live with the template and hit F9 or REC button and that’s it, very easy and literally couple of clicks to get where you need to go.
btw the templates are accessible from Spotlight / Alfred as well, just give them easy names to remember and you can just launch them from Spotlight / Alfred, less mouse clicks!
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tALk mE OuT oF It:
Get an Octatrack xD
If you choose Windows as your OS, it hasn’t got any better. Windows is and will always be the same piece of shit. If I were you’ I’d get myself one of these new MacBook Air with an M2 processor, install Ableton and enjoy using a computer…
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I currently have a 2011 MacBook Pro. It still works fine but the fan noise is irritating so I do need to update soon, probably to one of the new MacBook airs. I haven’t made any music on ableton for a long time, but that’s because I don’t have time anymore due to my growing family and I find hardware more fun and approachable for those 1h jams. I’ve never recorded a jam or made a ‘finished’ track using my hardware.
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Fin, which laptop did you buy?
I wasnt aware that Bitwig allows to deactivate tracks, and hide these from the project , that is allowing clean projects, where you can come back and unhide these tracks to further generate sounds from it. It really made me wish Abelton has it too.
I.e have a look into Bitwig aswell. Not sure if its worth switching later on, Abelton is still fine
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Do it and buy a laptop with Ableton Live (or any other DAW). It’s a modern day’s tape machine.