I'm genuinely thinking about buying a laptop and Ableton. Talk me out of it

And you’ll enjoy it! Migration assistant is the lord’s work. Even the clutter on your desktop will be the same. (same with iPhones, but you’d need to have had at least one before to enjoy the 'I’ll just put my new one next the old one and it’ll just get cloned" magic :stuck_out_tongue: )

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Every time I’ve tried to use someone’s iPhone I’ve ended up kicking off about how shit it is.

To be fair, the rare occasions that I’ve had to interact with the OS on my MacBook usually end in me threatening violence against it.

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I’m thinking of a Mac mini soon.

I have a MacBook Air for work. And don’t want loads of MacBooks, really first world problem.

£500ish for an M4 is a great deal. Thinking it might keep things quite focused, use it only for music/programming

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Yeah, my setup will be simple enough.

Mac mini for sound design and track arrangements, MacBook for performing and a bit of alfresco noodling.

delicious.

I do like the idea of devices having certain roles.

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I’m far from a power user and don’t really keep up with all the new things OS upgrades bring (or take away), so I have my frustrations as well at times where the hell things have gone… However, generally everything just works. :sweat_smile:

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I’ve been planning my move to Apple Silicon for some time. The stumbling block was my old FireWire interface that isn’t supported any longer. I’ve moved to RME and I had hoped for a big reduction in latency, but on my i7 Mac mini the Digiface that I’ve bought is roughly on par with the interface on my Push 3, which surprised me.
Anyway, with that bit of the puzzle sorted I was going to buy the base model m4 Mac mini. But when I looked into it, as an Ableton user, I realised that performance cores are key which means looking at the m4 pro. Which is then twice the price. Meaning it’s not an impulse purchase any longer.
Any other Ableton users out there who regretted not going down the Apple m pro route?

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Nice deal!
I’m still on an M1 Max, but it’s still going pretty strong even when I start to add taxing VSTs (looking at you Arturia Culture Vulture!)
Haven’t followed the whole thing but did you have any kind of hardware still? No Perkons or anything like that?

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It depends what you want it for really.

If you’re one of these Ableton users that likes to use 128 tracks full of third party VSTs on your bangers, go for the Pro.

If you’re mostly using stock plugins and aren’t going mad with the track count I think the base model will be enough.

My little M1 MacBook with 8gb RAM does OK. Most of my stuff uses about 20-30 tracks, but I use a lot of effects processing on every track and I’m struggling to get the CPU up over 50%, and that’s on a laptop without a fan and a penchant for throttling. From what I understand the M4 is a lot quicker than the M1, and with double the RAM available too and better cooling, I’m not seeing me hitting that limit too soon.

Sold everything, now I’ve just got Ableton and a Push 2.

I do have a knackered old Soviet Synth in the corner, but that’s a long term repair project.

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Ahh I see. Ableton + Push is a nice combo. Minimalistic but infinitely flexible. Perhaps I’ll see the light one day too hehe

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From:

don’t tell me to get a Mac, I’ll kill you

to getting a 2nd Mac in under 3 years. Your restraint is admirable.

I can recommend an iPad to go along with the inevitable iPhone - all those affordable iPad music apps are just too much fun! :wink:

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Well what choice do I have?

Can’t use fucking Windows can I? Fucking audio drivers from 1996 and a UI designed by Thomas De Torquemada.

Can’t use Linux because I’m not a fucking nerd.

Apple is about the only game in town that provides enough power, keeps their fucking OS largely out of the way and plays their part in really fucking low recording latency without spending two years fucking about with buffer sizes.

I don’t like it any more than the rest of you, but what can I do?

I almost justified getting an iPad instead of a new smartphone earlier in the year, but I resisted. Problem with the phones and tablet is that there’s no way round their fucking godawful UI.

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As I’m reading this I’m disabling OneDrive notifications on a new PC for the fourth time! No shit! Oh and every other reboot, opt in for OneDrive backup! Fuck off! Leave me alone!

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I love my MacBook pro m4, I hate a lot of the shit with macOS. Finder, I detest.

It shouldn’t be necessary, but I found forking out the dough for ForkLift one of the most sanity keeping purchases I’ve made in a while. BetterTouchTool is also very nice for setting up some productivity shortcuts.

Yep.

I still just save everything on the desktop so I don’t have to use fucking finder to find anything, because that’s the last fucking thing it’s useful for…

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I got back into using Ableton Live in a big way over the last couple of months. Decided to grab a Push 3 and sell off some hardware. And I couldn’t be happier!

Music is flowing to the point where I have a few tracks sketched out every week and I have the spare cash in the bank for utilities such as a second-hand Caldigit thunderbolt hub and the odd GAS-related distraction. The Push is used about 10% of the time but when it is, the experience is super fun and bridges the gap between software and tactile interfaces.

I’ve a few hardware pieces I’m loathe to part with but I also haven’t used in months or even years. It’s fine to keep one or two ‘emotional attachment’ pieces but if I’m not using them at all, what’s the point? Better to be rid of emotional baggage and let them go to good homes. Instruments are to be played.

I’m not saying this is forever - I may end up with more hardware than sense once more - but I’m feeling happy with the setup right now.

I’m really looking forward to the next Live update, stem separation is something I’m interested in now that StemRoller seems to be out of commission and bouncing groups will be a joy.

So yeah, software kicks ass.

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I’m not going in to bat for Windows or Microsoft here since I’d love to get away from them and Apple/Google/whoever but FYI, this is definitely a solvable problem. I haven’t had any trace of OneDrive on any system in years, throughout many OS updates etc.

BCUninstaller should do the trick. It can’t get rid of Edge but pretty much everything else is fair game.

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