Macbook / Macbook Pro SUCCESS stories

[pk_hat]

Digi, if you read this, can you shed some light on CoreAudio and recording in Ableton Live 5.2.1 please? Thanks!

Just got the 7.1.1 cs update, which fixed the issue with Core Audio recording in Live, thank you Digi...

[EDurney]

any more Macbook success stories? on Xp? or OSX?

we want to know about your Pro Tools-Macbook experience!!!

[lazymits]

Black MacBook 2.0 Core Duo
OS 10.4.7
768 Mb
PTLE 7.1.1
002R & Mbox

1. I use PTLE on OSX. I tried installing PTLE on the Windoze partition and all I had was problems. That was on the first macbook, wich was stolen) . This time I only run LE on OsX until I hear it´s safe from users ¿anybody?.

2. Yep, with 002R recently took it to a live gig from our band LIVIKA and recorded 16 ins (from direct outs and subgroups of A&H GL4000) 128 hw buffer for 90 min. Sweet...and hot, could fry an egg for breakfast.

3. Haven't put it to real 'torture mode' yet; but on a 24 track session ,all tracks had eqIII and comp stock Digis , 2 or 3 dverbs , armed tracks an recorded ( 128 or 256 cant remember) with no hicups.
Had breakfast after just kiddin

I guess I will put 2 Gigs soon , and i'm also waiting for some plugs to be UB ( tritone, psp,...)
Overall i'm happy but the heat does get scary at times (good thing for northern countries thou)

Salud,
Mito

[EDurney]

thanks for your reply!

Que bueno que te esté funcionando la macbook! did you bought it in madrid? maybe your macbook is some of the first that went out,i have heard that the latest macbooks are running cooler....

Si puedes, haz el davec test! para saber el rendimiento que tiene! se comparará a un athlon64 4000?

[whetherkings]

So what's the general consenus among you guys re: Macbook versus Macbook Pro?

I'm about to upgrade my old G4 Power Mac (Dual 1Ghz CPUs and 4GB RAM) and am just wondering which one to go for. I'll be using an Mbox1 and an external 20" Apple Cinema Display. I travel a lot so would rather have something small and compact like a 13" Macbook but am worried about sessions created on my old Power Mac running dog slow or crashing.

Given that you can get pretty much the same specs in terms of CPU and Memory, are there any major advantages to having a Pro? Apart from some extra FW/USB ports and a larger display?

I was wondering if anyone had seen any major differences with the display - ie. is scrolling faster and smoother on a Pro because of the dedicated graphics?

Really interested to hear your views before I spend my cash!

[Chris Shaeffer]

I don't know that there is a consensus, yet, but I think the general word on the street is that the macbook is a screaming deal. It almost as good as the Pro machines. The major differeneces are pretty much the screen size, the CPU options and the graphics card. From what I understand the performace isn't *too* taxed by the shared gpahics memory on the Macbook, so other than losing the ram its not that big a deal for PT.

I ended up with a Pro becuase I found a college student selling one for the same price as a Macbook. I was 2 days away from nabbing a new macbook but couldn't pass up a deal on the pro model. I'm glad I did as I'm very used to the 15" screen. I also do a lot of video work so the graphics card was a performance issue.

In general... the machine totally kicks. I'm in geek heaven- very FAST geek heaven. I also haven't torture tested it with PT but I did with video- Final Cut Pro renders *almost* in real time with a modest load of color correction. Now I can render a project over lunch instead of having to do it over night.

PT screams as well. I've used the lowest latency settings with a 002 and 002r and it works with no problems. I think I have yet to get the "Increase your buffer size" message- but I'm not doing large sessions at the moment.

My biggest problem is the plugs- there just aren't many out there except the digi ones. I'm getting really familiar with the Digi plugs- which isn't a bad thing, I suppose. Its for that reason, though, that I concidered switching to Windows for a while for serious production. That's a hassle, but I'm glad I have it set up- at least I have access to a bunch of free stuff for the PC (via VST wrapping). Never hurts to have a large tool collection.

I have used it with an MBox 1, as well. You have to use the left USB port but it works great.

My G4 PB is now the secondary machine and my business partner and I trade machines back and forth depending on who needs what. We're probably going to replace the G4 with a macbook when we have the money- even though we do video. I'm not that concerned about the slight performance hit on the macbook, at least not as much as the price hit on the Pro models!

Take care,
Chris

[DJ Insomaniac]

I'm glad i got the Pro, as Final Cut Studio won't work on the MacBook.

From Apple:

-AGP Quartz Extreme or PCI Express graphics card (Final Cut Studio is not supported on systems using the Intel Extreme Graphics 950 GMA)

[lazymits]

Bueno Edurney, puse al macbookito en el potro de tortura de Dave C (que cabrón ) y este es el resultado.

PT Rig: PTLEv 7.1.1 + Mbox1
OS: OSX 10.4.7 + Mbox1
CPU: IntelCoreDuo 2.0
Laptop: Macbook
MOBO:
Front Side Bus: 667 MHz
Hyper Threading:
Memory: 768 mb
Drives: stock macbook 5.400
Graphics Card: none
Tracks Davec II Test-5 Trx: 32+24+0

Level 1: Recorded OK
Level 2: Had to delete 2 bottom tracks. The message was: CPU holding off USB audio (or similar) -9136
Level3: Bounced OK


What a tortura man !! Thats a heavy test now.
I suppose its good enough uh? There are faster machines out there ...and thats fine for me.


I updated the firmware for the fan on the macbook and now it's noisier but not scorching hot.

Sucks not to be able to use FinalCut on it but there are other video editors too

Me voy a tomar unas cervezas , si pasáis por madrid da un toque.

Saludos
Mito

[EDurney]

Hola Lazymits!

nice score, i thought it would be a higher track count though, a que HW buffer lo hiciste? a 1024 o 128?

puedes trabajar a 128 samples sin problemas?

y si! voy a trabajar en un disco en España en Enero! creo que solo es la escala del vuelo en Madrid si...de hecho estoy planeando viajar con un Macbook, ahora tengo que ir a los estodos unidos por 2 proyectos en Septiembre y pensé en comprarlo allá....entonces, me lo recomiendas??

Gracias por la Info!

[EDurney]

Come on guys!!

Share you experience with your macbooks and macbook pros with Pro tools!!!!