Been kind of ignoring Surface but learned a bit more about it from some videos and forums yesterday after hearing about the new versions, pretty interested to see how it all develops.
I use Sonar x3 & Ableton. Would love to be able to do some serious mixing work etc on a tablet while I’m on the sofa with the kids… Wondering if the highest spec new surface book would be able to replace my current laptop Daw (2yr old Scan audio machine i7) Guessing unlikely due to the small size of surface book, and I’d miss my firewire port, but looks good for future in terms of advances in convenience with Daw work. Any Surface users out there hyped for the new hardware?
Sold my surface pro 3 and got the OT instead XD. I really liked the idea and even thought to Switch to fl studio 12, but using it as a core pc isnt so simple because of terrible overheating, lack of bigger screen and perhaps thunderbolt instead of minidisplay port would be way much better. Still thinking buying a simple 3 surface because i dont have any tablet, but I guess MD and OT manuals are my “tablets” for at least next half a year. I am new to hardware approach but as an orchestra musician i feel more comfortable with that then mouse and iPad or whatever, but its a subjective view again. Still need to decide what to do with sweet Ableton… Long live Elektron!
Yeah also interested in bitwig on surface. And would also share those concerns about overheating/size/ports etc if using surface as main daw running a lot of tracks and plugins. Would be pretty cool if the new models were up to the task tho…
As much as I’m trying to move away from daw and be more hands-on/hardware, for me personally it’s something I’ll probably never be able to ditch for where I do my main structuring/tracking work, if I was doing more 4 to the floor kind of stuff then it would be much less daunting, but trying to organise average of 30+ tracks per song (vocals, guitars, live drums + all the nice stuff from hardware) as well as sending stems to tape and external effect etc is too much for my brain/current setup to deal with without a computer
Anyone else vibing on this in light of the new MacBook Pro’s? Or anyone have any real world experience to share? Seriously considering one of these over a new Mac…
It was on my shortlist. I had saved and waited for the new MBP but they are obscenely expensive. The top spec Surface Book isn’t available in the UK (wasn’t last I checked anyway) but my concerns were around future proofing - I want TB3 on a device as I want to use external GPU’s down the line. They are superbly put together though.
Ultimately I ended up going with a Dell XPS15. Bagged one off their outlet and it will arrive Mon/Tues. Pretty much got their top spec for £1100 and that gives me a quad core (vs SB’s dual core), higher resolution, comparable battery life and still good build quality. Not to mention saving over a grand.
If keen for a small/slim option then consider Razer’s Stealth. I actually had this on order (with their Core GPU case) but I had my doubts over shelling out for a dual core so ditched it for the Dell saving me pennies in teh process!
I have Bitwig because I found a brand new boxed version for $99. Haven’t even used it yet because I haven’t used a DAW for making music in years. I was most productive when I was just using Reason though I think. I’m interested in checking out the touch screen capabilities of Bitwig too because they look really cool.
Something that really interests me is the idea of using Ableton Live on a tablet. I’ve actually been kinda keen for a dedicated screen that would just prop up behind Ableton Push, I actually found the iMac to work ergonomically well with Push, just sitting flush behind it, because really Push is quite big, it takes up a lot of desk realestate. And in the moment when you’re performing, that whole other half of a laptop with the keyboard and trackpad becomes less important, but it really does take up a lot of room. So I like the idea that you can detach that and just roll with the screen, maybe Surface could be a more portable version of this layout.
That said @J0n35y I agree with the call about future proofing and TB3, maybe I’ll wait for the next version. To be fair to Apple, the Surface Book is just as expensive, so I guess this is what something like this costs? However I tried out the new MBP sans Touch Bar and it was kindve unimpressive, particularly the keyboard which did not feel good at all. I’m also not fully across the performance difference between tablet mode and laptop with the Surface, my guess is the standalone tablet would be significantly less powered than when docked, will have to read up on it. Either way these current developments heat up the competition a bit, hopefully it puts pressure on all sides to up the stakes for the next revision. Apple might have to pull their heads out of the sand and actually do something significant rather than incremental, but maybe Microsoft will see an opportunity to pounce and drop something rad.
A tablet or one of these ultrabooks would be amazing for use with ableton live but these are all still just dual core and only up to 8gb ram. Fine if you have a lot of outboard gear but if you are wanting to run a lot of VST’s or internal effects or even modular in Reaktor Blocks then you’ll run into problems.
For one of the most capable laptops about today, check out the Dell XPS15. You can grab one with a 1TB SSD and 32GB Ram with i7 Processor. Total beast! Plus it is a 15" with the footprint of a 14". Also with touchscreen.
Surface book isn’t a tablet or ultrabook though - it’s a 28" tabletop
My comment was more aimed at the Surface Pro and other tablet solutions.
Anyone thinking about the SurfaceBook4 for music production should check out some of this guys videos - he is documenting the trials and tribulations of using this hardware for ableton live and has also compared various other DAWs
I don’t say that if your like me graphic designer for instance :
New macbook pro is 3 199,00 + Wacom Cintiq is 2199,90 = 5398,90
New Windows Surface Studio : 3,300.00 ! So … and Mac specifications is Burned by Windows there ! 4GB GPU - 32GB RAM smoked apple
Yeah, that’s the thing. If a graphic designer or something similar then the Studio is likely going to be one hell of a device. Once you Dell’s and co start making something similar and prices begin to drop I can see myself jumping on board too. Maybe 4 or 5 years time or something.
