New Macbook Air - A good gigging machine?

[ze2be]

Meh...
My 2 and a half year old 12" X61 Thinkpad is better then both of those, and I payed about the same then. I would never go with less then 3 powered usb slots now days. It can easily change the drive to an SSD if I wish. The X61 got a 2.4 core 2 duo that still holds up to date. 3 gigs ram, firewire, 3 usb slots, 5 hour battery, pcmcia slot, keyboard light, and spill-proof keyboard. Best and sturdiest laptop I have ever had. And its really small and thin! I use it with 3 different sound cards: Ecco Inigo (pcmcia) Motu ultralite (firewire) and NI Audio 8 DJ (usb) Everything with it is still rock solid, and its been touring a lot of countries. In comparison, my baby the Power Book G4 (which was a super fine build at its time) fell apart after 3 years: The screen, the track pad, all the ports, and even the CD drive, all broke. In between I had an Acer, which was a super let down after the mac-top of course. If you gonna gig a lot, something really sturdy is going to pay of in the end.

Remember the Sony Sport Walkman from the 80ties? Apple are in many ways where Sony where then. But im still waiting for Apple to present a Sport type laptop for outdoor use! In the mean time, I stick with Thinkpads.

[beats me]

What's wrong with the Macbook?


The Macbook Air has always been pointless.

I have to agree. IMO you should go with the maxed out 13" Air which offers a 256G drive. The 11" maxes out at a 128G drive. Both the hard drive and ram are soldered to the motherboard so you aren't going to be able to upgrade those yourself on the cheap. That's going to come to $1,800. By comparison the base model 13" Macbook only costs $1,200 with a faster processor and you will be able to upgrade both the drive and ram on your own on the cheap.

[delicioso]

IMO you should go with the maxed out 13" Air which offers a 256G drive. The 11" maxes out at a 128G drive.

Well, obviously it won't be an all-purpose machine for EVERYONE but it will be for a lot of people I reckon. For those who need to add gigantic sample libraries for production purposes, they could just install them on one of these bus-powered portable drives which are super cheap nowdays:

[Sage]

IMO you should go with the maxed out 13" Air which offers a 256G drive. The 11" maxes out at a 128G drive.

Well, obviously it won't be an all-purpose machine for EVERYONE but it will be for a lot of people I reckon. For those who need to add gigantic sample libraries for production purposes, they could just install them on one of these bus-powered portable drives which are super cheap nowdays:

I don't get who it is actually for, apart from blind Apple fanboys who must have everything Apple or who who value style over substance (Which to be honest, the whole Apple range is heading towards).

The Macbook offers a better spec for the same/less money, if you need something smaller and don't require lots of power, what's wrong with paying significantly less for a netbook? I've comfortably run Live 7 on one with instances of Arturia Jupiter 8V.

[outershpongolia]

The 2 USB ports AND mini display port would make it the IDEAL video machine for us.. MacBook AIR + iPad + Projector - rollin that light would be nice.

[beats me]

I went to the Apple store this past weekend and I admit they are a beautiful machine, but I just think $600 is a steep price difference to pay for what essentially is a sleeker base model MBP.

And yeah the lower end models would work for a lot of people, certainly people who aren't doing audio or video production. Agreed you could also use an external drive but I think it's kind of a shame you have to have one of those dangling off such a sleek machine. Not to mention I've heard of situations, albeit rare, when some asshole goes and steals the external drive off a computer at a performance because it's just that easy.


On that note, anybody using security cables on these things when out and about...any model of Apple laptop?

[Hidden Driveways]

What's wrong with the Macbook?


The Macbook Air has always been pointless.

There's nothing wrong with the MacBook.

The Air has always been for the ultra-portable crowd. If you had a tightly packed briefcase, the Air was the best choice for you. The thinness allowed it to fit inside. The thing that was lame about the old Air was that it just appealed to people that had tightly packed briefcases. For everyone else it was like ~ WHO CARES ~

But now it seems like the new Air is going after the MacBook crowd. People who have $1000 and want their first Mac will be tempted by it. And the overall feeling I'm getting from Apple is that they believe this is the way forward for notebook design. It's not difficult for me to imagine a new plastic MacBook with flash memory coming in at $899.

Back to OT - MacBook Air a good gigging machine? Yes. All-purpose computer? No. I wouldn't want to render/edit a large high definition movie project on a MacBook Air.

[Simbosan]

If I ever learned anything from computing it's that you WILL need more power/disk. Buying a solution where you are already accepting less than the best bang possible, is just gonna bite your ass a year from now. Betcha.

Admit it, you just want an Air cos it will look shiney in your manbag!

[humnumb]

I think what the naysayers especially the envious Winblowz users are failing to grasp is that many have longed for an OS X machine in a netbook form factor (without the shitty netbook specs of course) suitable for things like live setups where there are space constraints and/or portability is desired. That is now an option and it comes with Core 2 Duo and NVIDIA graphics meaning it has plenty of power.

[robin]

The question is really can these handle 3 or 4 tracks with a few effects in a DJing environment in which space is very limited? An environment in which my 12" Powerbook excelled.

Early benchmarks: http://www.primatelabs.ca/blog/2010/10/ ... late-2010/

[beats me]

As far as size constraints for a performance there would be absolutely no difference between a 13" MBP and a 13" Air, and I'd really like to see a space where a 13" wouldn't work but an 11" would.

People just need to admit they're attracted to the Air for how slick it is and that's the only justification that needs to be made.

I'm a huge documented Apple fanboy, and God knows I might get an Air at some point, but I still fail to see some of the justifications on here.

[robin]

As far as size constraints for a performance there would be absolutely no difference between a 13" MBP and a 13" Air, and I'd really like to see a space where a 13" wouldn't work but an 11" would.

In the UK DJ booths are perhaps not as big as US booths. I mean look at the size of your DJs

People just need to admit they're attracted to the Air for how slick it is and that's the only justification that needs to be made.
I'm a huge documented Apple fanboy, and God knows I might get an Air at some point, but I still fail to see some of the justifications on here.

My heart agrees with your first statement, my head with your second. I'm sure we're not alone.

I think we're a full year before these devices get upgraded to a spec where the form factor gets interesting.

[humnumb]

I'd really like to see a space where a 13" wouldn't work but an 11" would.

Those are diagonal screen size measurements so the difference between the two is way more than 2". I can easily imagine someone with enough gear in their live setup where the 11" would be an ideal addition without taking up too much of their precious space. There is a big difference between ideal and "making it work because you have to".

[beats me]

I'd really like to see a space where a 13" wouldn't work but an 11" would.

Those are diagonal screen size measurements so the difference between the two is way more than 2". I can easily imagine someone with enough gear in their live setup where the 11" would be an ideal addition without taking up too much of their precious space. There is a big difference between ideal and "making it work because you have to".

That's horse shit.

http://www.apple.com/macbookair/specs.html

Exactly 1 inch difference across even with a 2 inch screen size difference. And I don't buy the theory that, that 1 inch is going to make it or break it in a setup.

[humnumb]

Exactly 1 inch difference across even with a 2 inch screen size difference. And I don't buy the theory that, that 1 inch is going to make it or break it in a setup.

It's more than 2 inches difference taking into account width and depth.