MacBook Air (M1 chip)

The Lounge Other Gear
#1

People are going to have to talk to me like I am really stupid here but I’m looking for some advice….

Bit of background. I’ve played guitar for 25 years but got into electronic music about 5 years ago. Since then I have really enjoyed playing with hardware, experimenting and making average (but fun) techno, house, lofi, hiphop etc etc. I’ve owned a lot of gear, which has been in great fun-a brief (and not exhaustive) list of stuff I’ve had includes - MPC one/live, Akai force, Maschine plus, circuits, OP1 field, TR8S, microfreak, drumbrute, SP404mk2, DFAM, subH, digitakt, Digitone, minilogue, minibrute, hydrasynth desktop, Lyra 8, lots of loopers etc. the list goes on and on. I’ve bought and sold most of this to find other bits so never had more to an 3/4 of these items at a time.

There are two glaring omissions from this list for me-number 1 is the octatrack… but that’s a separate post! Number 2 is that I have never used any form of computer with any of this gear or any set up. I’ve never used a DAW. This isn’t really for any specific reason, just circumstance-I can’t use my work laptop as can’t download external things onto it, but don’t have another computer. Also I’ve just never really been into the idea of a laptop.

Recently though I’ve been wondering whether I am being silly and a laptop and a DAW is what I need to glue things together rather than continue the endless hardware hunt/merry go round (I’ve had many of the things on the above list more than once…).

I don’t think I need much from a DAW, I’d start with ableton lite I think. Probably just using it to record a few tracks from external devices into it and arrange them in the box, maybe adding the odd part. I already have an audio interface that will handle a pair or inputs, and a midi controller.

My issue is that on all my gear I set a pretty firm price limit - I won’t buy stuff that costs more than about a grand. I can get a MacBook Air (M1 chip) base model (8gb RAM) for £750, and am considering taking the leap. My question is, has anyone used this for music making? Am I being foolish. To me it’s a lot more powerful than my MPC one so
I figure I’ll be fine with it, but I don’t know enough (read anything) about computers really so don’t know what I am doing.

I saw a video from John makes beats recently where he used this exact laptop to make a beat and seemed to conclude that whilst there was limitations it was still perfectly capable of making music on. Just wondering what the more informed people (than me) make of this idea….

Sorry for the long post-help me out here!

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#2

Have you had a look at the MPC2 or even MPC Beats Software which are free (MPC2 software you need to enter/register the serial number on teh bottom of your machine at InMusic to activate the license).

This would let you use your MPC as an audio interface and control surface, would be a platform that you are already sort of familiar with and would cost you zero money to try out.

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#3

Yeah, I’d def try that along with the free ableton software to start with, like you say would allow for integration with my MPC so def would be something I would try. Thanks for the suggestion though, it’s a really good shout.

#4

Our beloved @fin25 (who is unfortunately not on the forum anymore :cry: ) eventually bought a Macbook Air M1 for music making purposes, see the whole thread here:

TLDR; A Macbook Air M1 is perfectly capable for music production. The M1 CPU is roughly 3 to 4 times faster as the ARM Quad Core processor of an MPC. You’ll have much more memory, better bus performance, faster storage, etc.

So depending on how heavily VST/AU you are planning to make music with I’d say you have to try really hard to find the limits of the M1.

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#5

The MacBook Air M1 will be absolutely fine for what you want it to do.

I had a MBA M1 2020 until this January (upgraded to a M3 Pro), had projects with dozens of tracks, running multiple VSTs and devices in each track, everything worked perfectly fine.

The computer is fast, surprisingly so, if you are not going to run huge projects for professional studio production you’ll be absolutely fine with it :slight_smile:

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#6

If you pick up a MacBook Air don’t overlook GarageBand as a DAW. I’ve stumped up for Logic Pro now but in all honesty I wasn’t limited by GarageBand and it runs so well on Apple silicon. I’m running something slightly beefier but probably not by much (M1 13” MBP with 16GB ram)…for most music production it just uses a fraction of a single CPU core. It doesn’t even get warm enough to fire up the fans.
The M1 Macs really are a great music making tool and affordable options are out there.

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#7

I use a m1 MacBook Air with 8gb and I produce, mix and master on it with no problems

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#8

M1 Macbook Air here, 8GB, never had any problems. Runs Everything I throw at it. Now Ableton 12.

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#9

If you’re gonna buy one now get a 16gb version. The price difference will be minimal and you’ll face less problems while using it in the future.

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#10

I also recommend the Air M1, but its best feature I love is the lack of fans. It is totally silent. This is invaluable for someone who is into music.

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#11

M1 is definitely capable for your use case.

If you work with primarily audio, it’ll be extremely efficient.

I know everyone will give some bit of input about software to use and try. I’ll add my 2 cents… consider how much time you want to invest in learning before choosing. Something like Live Lite should be the right amount of limitation/simplicity.

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#12

I have a M2 Air since a while and this was one of the first things that was SO RELIEVING (after having an Intel Macbook Pro where you always had the feeling you’re inside an aircraft). A very underestimated feature of these M(x) cpu’s. :sunglasses:

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#13

The Air M1 is so good in that price bracket, that to this day any competition struggles to make it different. But to answer your question; it’s capable of a lot more than what you need it for at the moment, so you are good for some time.

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#14

Yeah if anyone has any questions about MPC Beats or Software feel free to ask me. I have produced everything using the Software so far (feel free to check my SoundCloud or any other medium as well).

There is nothing the Software can’t do other than automating submixes and the in general difficulty in automating stuff. The Software is very light on CPU unless you want to use all the fancy VST plugins on every track of course. The builtin inserts are more than enough to get you professional sounding music. I don’t claim I produced highly professional sounding music but I doubt it’s a mess.

When I use my Minilogue XD, I usually record live so all the effects, filters etc. usually automated on the go.

I just installed Ableton Live Standard this weekend to change my workflow though. From now on I will do the final automation and mastering in Ableton. Just for fill disclosure :grinning:

I suggest start with MPC Beats since it’s free and see if you like it and whether it fits your purpose.

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#15

I did a lot of testing with GB last year and it has awesome strength being built in, things like simplified totally usable fx, ease of use, insta-sync of projects between other apple devices that support it…

BUT.
I wouldn’t consider it a DAW for couple of reasons

  • the main ones are the fixed sample rate (44.1kHz) and inability to set a buffer size, this is a MAJOR bummer.
  • the other one is limited amount of plugins/built-in fx you can use on a track.

if these don’t matter to you, then it’s a great recording app with vst instruments capabilities that can be real fun to use.

honestly I’d get Reaper instead of GarageBand any day, it’s like $60 and it’s pretty much unlimited DAW compared even to the big boys, and it outperforms almost every major DAW on the macs by utilizing the efficiency cores, which is a huge factor on M1 Air!

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#16

Since you mention frugality - which was a concern of mine when I started out using DAWs back around 2008 - Garageband is free with your mac and isn’t a bad starting place for working on the basic tracking and arranging you want to try. That’s how I started into the DAW(lite) scene. It probably isn’t great for full-on mixing/mastering level of production, but for arranging and laying down some tracks it works.

Then I went Live lite - because it was also free as I had licenses that came with my controllers.

After that, you can re-evaluate, maybe try some others before deciding where to invest.

(It didn’t take long before my conditions changed and budget priorities toward the DAW part of my life were rearranged as I realized I was really into it… and shortly I was a Live Suite user and have invested in some top-notch plugin suites (Fabfilter mastering bundle + Saturn, Serum, Pigments, some NI stuff, etc. ) … anyway, enjoy the journey!)

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#17

honestly I didn’t suggest Reaper from as a frugal choice, rather the opposite, if I’d be starting from zero then for small amount you get full feature rich and performant DAW, and while Live Lite is a perfect tool too I see it as a gateway to harder drug, the Suite :slight_smile:

Live is addictive and it’s hard to jump ship, but yeah Live Lite which comes free with almost any music related purchase is great 16 track DAW, with Reaper, if you start unopinionated you get a very mature tool that can do way more then Live Lite/Intro/Standard… and actually I suggested it because if your projects grow you don’t need to switch editions or whatever and because it’s very resource efficient on the macs…

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#18

You might also want to look into Renoise tracker. It’s complex, but infonetelly powerful. It also works on my raspberry pi 4b to a reasonable degree, almost without any bugs, which is an achievement.

#19

I’d be careful dipping too heavily into DAW suggestions

Everyone of them will get mentioned and each one can be its own discussion.

Might be good to wait for the OP to ask more about if they need the help.

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#20

don’t forget to budget for an audio interface. your life with a DAW will be much more fun if you can feed audio from your machines into it too. if you have an Elektron Overbridge device you can also use it as an interface, but I would still recommend picking one up before too long. the good news is that even the cheap ones are good these days, so don’t go too crazy with it. just make sure it has midi too.

don’t overthink the DAW stuff. try Garageband since you have it anyway. then download a handful of demo versions (they’re all free) of the others. see which one just makes sense to you, without having to consult the manual (much, if at all). that’s probably the one you should use.

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