#335

I’ve been using a '17 15" MBP that I got refurbished from Apple and out of all the Macs I’ve owned its been my favorite. I’ve mainly used laptops over the years and still have a '15 Mac Mini that still can handle big sessions but something about the new MBP I really enjoy. I get why some people are discouraged by only having USB-C ports but it hasn’t bothered me. Its a powerful computer that allows me to travel as much as I do and not feel like I’m restrained from doing any sort of task I’d do with any other computer.

2 Likes
#336

I urgently need to buy a new computer. Mine died, catastrophic failure. I don’t want to spend a fortune, was thinking an Air over a Pro. For running Maschine, and lightweight Ableton/VST work.

Anyone got any experience? I need to order today.

#337

the new Macbook Air literally just came out, so I don’t have explicit experience with it, but it looks quite good. assuming your usage of VSTs is indeed light, it looks like a plenty good option.

I still might suggest upgrading the RAM and possibly the storage from the baseline, budget depending.

#338

Seems better than the older MBA, would really like to see a comparison with the 13" MBP. Though rumors of a upgraded 14" MBP with keyboard switches that work have been in circulation.

If you have to buy today, a MBA is probably a better deal than a current 13" MBP.

#339

New Air with upgrades ram will take 6 weeks to arrive.

Seems if I want a decent spec I have to go a with a Pro or a Windows based thing. Which… hmm.

My 2013 Air is the best laptop I ever had. My 2015 Pro wasnt much better. But I do need at least 16gig of RAM.

#340

From https://daringfireball.net/2020/03/the_2020_macbook_air:

SINGLE MULTI
MacBook Air 2020 (4-core Core i5) 1,127 2,854
MacBook Air 2018 (2-core Core i5) 639 1,379
16″ MacBook Pro 2019 (8-core Core i9) 1,263 7,277
13″ MacBook Pro 2014 (2-core Core i7) 733 1,791
11″ iPad Pro 2018 (8-core A12X) 1,118 4,477
iPhone 11 Pro (6-core A13) 1,321 3,387
3 Likes
#341

I’m building a PC. For £1k it’ll be more powerful than a £3k Mac. It’ll do for a while.

1 Like
#342

The Apple chips are faster than Intel! Wow.

#344

That’s what I did. I’d only go with macbook if I absolutely needed an apple laptop. I’ve been on mac for the last 15 years, and I’ve been working on my Win10 PC for about a week or so and I don’t miss my macbook much. It has all the software I need (Ableton, Sibelius, Max, VCV rack, Illustrator, Office) and even more audio plugins. I feel like macs aren’t in the lead anymore for music production.

#345

One key bit of software I use is Mac only (Sketch) but I may make the move to Figma.

#348

back on track…since my post last month, I’ve started a new job where they provided a brand-new 16". It is quite pleasant to have such a bigger screen for the first time ever, and the keyboard is great.

Because of our WFH reality, and my need to have certain hardware plugged into it, it’s spent its entire life so far as a glorified desktop. Since it’s attached to the same monitor, keyboard, and trackball I’ve been using for the last 5 years, the only major change for me is that it is radically faster and more stable.

Now my 2014 MBP 13" is only used for couch internet, and it is more than adequate for the job, thus greatly extending its life :slight_smile:

3 Likes
#349

I currently have a 2017 15” MBP with an i7, 16GB, and the dedicated GPU. It fíes on Premiere, Logic, Max, and VCV Rack. But here’s the rub: it’s technically my work computer and I’m growing increasingly uncomfortable using it for personal projects.

There’s just no way I can afford to buy the same thing at this point. Can anyone give me a rough idea of how miserable I would be with a new 2020 i3 or i5 MBA? I know it’s a downgrade, but how serious? The primary need is to at least run Max and VCV. A little Premiere for sure, but nothing too intense on that front.

#350

Ars has Geekbench comparisons up for the i5: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/03/macbook-air-2020-review-the-most-boring-mac-is-among-the-best/ (page 2, under Performance). It looks comparable but slightly less than the recent Dell XPS 13.

#351

It’s really hard to say. Depends on what your requirements are. I’m still running everything from a 2011 13" MBP (can’t remember which model) and it’s totally fine for me. Never really hit a wall with its performance.
There’s also another way to approach this. A downgrade might also be an opportunity to see if you can do more with less. You know, the more the computer can do, the more we do with it, but it’s not always because we really need to do more.

5 Likes
#352

Literally a few days before lockdown in the UK I got a spanking good deal on a 16" i7 refurb, 1tb, 32gb ram and 8gb graphics. I had gone down the refurb route once before with at 2018 15" and had to return it 3 times for repairs (keyboard, logic board and speakers) and then an eventual full refund. It was a painful experience and I’m so glad I held out another couple years for the 16". Considering my last MBP was from 2008 I am astonished and capability of this new machine.
(*Sorry, the post not particularly directed at you @P1505)

1 Like
#353

I personally think the new i5 MBA is a fantastic looking machine and wouldn’t hesitate to buy one. Considering it’s roughly 50% faster than my current workhorse 2014 dual-i7 depending on which benchmark you look at (Geekbench 5 is pretty good, in my opinion, as @mdtz has already noted as well), it should easily handle modestly advanced Live sessions (~20-30 tracks with Valhalla and basic Ableton plugins) and should also do a solid job at development, VMs, Max/MSP (so long as you don’t need serious GPU power, which most of them don’t), etc.

I’m eyeing it closely for a replacement for this pro when the day comes, honestly. I don’t need insane computing power - there’s an “enough” for me for the purposes of these machines, and I’m not asking it to be a full production powerhouse - just a personal sketchpad and toolbox. And for that, it should excel.

3 Likes
#354

iMac and not MacBook question but it seems more in line with this thread than the others.

It seems that the refurbished base model iMac pro is getting more “affordable” (3.5k at owc…closer to a specced up 16” MacBook, or the newer regular iMac). Conceptually, I like the idea of the quieter fan system a lot (my MacBook Pro retina 15 2014 is sooooo loud when the fan comes on, which is annoying when doing mixing and mastering). And I’ve started to get past what that computer is capable of with streaming software and some of my more complex ableton usage (which necessitates lower buffer sizes for stable midi than it can do). I would love faster exports too.

I’ve read a few articles comparing, but there’s not a lot that’s up to date that I can find. Does anyone have any opinions about these things know if it’s a good idea? I understand the model is a few years old at this point, but it seems like it might be the sweet spot and a big upgrade from what I have now and last me a while.

EDIT: been reading more, and I think I need to do a bit more research into where my bottlenecks are. Single core performances is not that great on the iMac Pro, and based on the way I tend to use ableton, it might be that I’m overloading one core.

2 Likes
#355

So, after doing more research I don’t think there’s really anything out there that’s ideal right now for me. Just wanted to give an update in case it is helpful to anyone else.

  • iMac Pro entry-level single core performance is fine but bested by other i7/i9 processors in the consumer macs. The way I tend to use ableton when I’m hitting the bottleneck (which is sort of weird…lots of processing/chained tracks) gets treated by ableton as 1 thread.
  • new mac mini has solid processor for single core performance at top-end, and I could figure out some solution to putting it some where the noise is less of a problem, maybe some mount under the desk surface or something). unfortunately you have to go eGPU for solid graphics, and it doesn’t seem like OBS supports eGPU on mac, so that’s probably going to be even worse than what I have going on now.
  • lots of reports of loud 16" MBP fan.

I’m gonna keep a check on the mac mini/obs/egpu support. If I do end up getting something new, that seems like the best path forward.

3 Likes
#356

I ended up ordering the 2020 MacBook Air to replace my base model 2017 MacBook (not Air or Pro). I play games on a console, don’t edit video, etc. and the music production I do is mainly basic multi-tracking and light effects.

Everything has run smoothly on the MacBook so I decided anything more powerful is kind of a waste of money for me. Plus I really hate the butterfly keyboard and really want to return to scissor switches. I just upgraded to the i5 processor, but otherwise rolled with the lowest specs.

Not sure when I will receive it and haven’t received any updates. Thankfully my old computer is still functional, but I kind of wanted to get a backup in case supply chains really break down.

2 Likes
#357

I’ve been looking at the new MacBook Air to replace my ailing 2015 MacBook Pro. It looks like it might be the only decently spec’ed MacBook model I can afford for the foreseeable future (as I doubt the rumored 14-inch MacBook Pro will be in my budget). Would anybody be able to explain what difference in performance, if any, would I experience between the 1.1GHz quad-core i5 processor and the 1.2GHz quad-core i7 processor on the new MacBook Air?

It’s a $150 difference between those two options, which is significant enough.