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Macbook Air 11" + Logic Pro = Awesome
Old 11th February 2011
  #1
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Wink Macbook Air 11" + Logic Pro = Awesome

hi all

i wanted to report to you guys about my experience running logic on my macbook air 11"

i bought the machine to do on the go work on my tracks...i thought it useful for sketching ideas and doing some prep work, etc...

SO...after using it for a few weeks i can tell you that i am totally blown away by this machine and it's performance with my track

i got the
Macbook Air 11" | 1.6Ghz | 4GB Ram | 128GB SSD
i got a sleeve for it and it fits snug in my "man bag" and doesn't add too much weight

logic starts incredibly quick and songs load quickly too - playback from internal drive is obviously not at all a problem

so stacking on the plugins and building the track up on my 2006 Mac Pro 1,1, CPU shows just under half usage on 4 cores. opening the song on the Air, it plays!!! somtimes the cpu spikes into the red and it just hangs there for a while but carries on playing...it seems to be able to handle the spikes whereas on mac pro it would instantly pop up core audio overload message
i think this has something to do with the SSD cos disk read and write also affects cpu

as i continued to build the track up, i did have to start freezing a few tracks and then it had loads more juice again! i think you could do a hell of a lot on this machine and get very close to complete - but it's all relative!

btw, setting it up on train and packing away takes seconds - with SSD you open the lid and it's instant on, close the lid, put in sleeve and in bag and you're off...can't do that with my 2010 Macbook Pro i7

on a side note, for monitoring, i'm using my Etymotic ER6 and the sound is amazing. i'm using just the build in soundcard and i'm able to get so much mixing done i couldn't believe it. take it home and it sounds incredible on my big system. what i love is that it's so easy to tailor the entire freq range with these headphones.

battery life is actually very good. apple must have spent a lot of time on this because when CPU is lightly used, the battery can last maybe just over 4 hours. using logic though with CPU flying high it goes down to 2 hours on a full charge. working on logic, editing a bit, etc... i got 3 hours work off a single charge
it's very very sensitive to CPU usage - i don't have flash installed

you would also wonder if the screen was too small?? well it's actually not...
i had the 2006 white Macbook and that was 1280x800 this feels quite a bit bigger at 1366x768

there is one issue with the machine though and that is that when opening the lid it sometimes opens to a black screen and then i have to close it and reopen to get the login screen...i've done all updates of which one was supposed to resolve this...not a show stopper

other than that, i do miss a firewire port as all my devices are firewire but i'm debating the Apogee One for this baby! then i also miss the ethernet port but you can get a USB one - i didn't...i'm rather sorting out my home wireless to be 300Mbps wireless

as for graphics, they're awesome and definitely enough for me to work on my music video on the go in the summer. i trialled Maya and a complex model and it's not incredible but if you turn off some of the full quality display options performance is a lot better and this is for a reasonably complex model...

i think these airs are the future; i don't even touch my MBPro i7...it's just this baby and my mac pro.

if the next revision is more powerful than this and 4 threaded, it's going to be a beast and likely as powerful as my Mac Pro 2006

could this baby be a main machine only with an extended monitor?
for songwriting, editing and mixing of semi complex tracks to completion; i do think so! logic is very efficient in the CPU area!
for complex, loads of plugins and bussing all over the place (can't freeze busses), you will want a main machine to work on without having to freeze, unfreeze, etc...

hope this was useful to some
cheers, grant
Old 11th February 2011
  #2
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StratSvante's Avatar
 

Sounds great my friend! Can you do that benchmark test for logic pro, thinking of buying one and wanna know where these score?
Old 11th February 2011
  #3
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thedomus's Avatar
Great info, thanking you!
Can I hold out till the summer update ... 256GB SSD, 8GB Ram e.t.c.
Old 11th February 2011
  #4
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zebastian21's Avatar
 

I have a 3 years old 17" macbook pro 2.33 ghz core2duo ... I need something smaller since I use it to go from studio to studio, so how would this macbook air compare to what I have or even compare to the macbook pro 13" ?
Old 11th February 2011
  #5
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what's also great about the MBA 11" is the amount of disk tracks you can run in Logic. I can run 96 STEREO tracks at 96K NO PROBLEM!
Old 28th February 2011
  #6
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Thanks for sharing this information. Great stuff. That's awesome it's working for you so good. I am thinking about holding of until the new MBA refresh to pick one up. If the Air is working for you like that, I can only imagine how nice the upgrade will be. Hopefully SB processor, and more than likely a Thunderbolt port. I am seriously thinking about using it as my main DAW machine for my meager audio needs when the new ones come out. I am really close to buying a new MBP 15" though.
Old 3rd March 2011
  #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Cicatrix View Post
Thanks for sharing this information. Great stuff. That's awesome it's working for you so good. I am thinking about holding of until the new MBA refresh to pick one up. If the Air is working for you like that, I can only imagine how nice the upgrade will be. Hopefully SB processor, and more than likely a Thunderbolt port. I am seriously thinking about using it as my main DAW machine for my meager audio needs when the new ones come out. I am really close to buying a new MBP 15" though.
i think you're right - i use this machine everyday to work and back and it's a workhorse - so much so that i will probably actually sell it and get a new one at each release cycle
next ones will defo have ThB, 4 threads but still crappy graphics but for audio it's ok
Old 3rd March 2011
  #8
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SOS just did a similar review on the air + logic here:
Product Review - Apple MacBook Air

It's Esub now, but I thought it would be worth leaving for posterity. Needless to say they were equally impressed.
Old 3rd March 2011
  #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by macleodgrant View Post
i think you're right - i use this machine everyday to work and back and it's a workhorse - so much so that i will probably actually sell it and get a new one at each release cycle
next ones will defo have ThB, 4 threads but still crappy graphics but for audio it's ok
I ended up purchasing a 2011 MBP after all. However, what you said about getting a new one with each release cycle is exactly what I plan on doing to. My plan is to sell the 15" around the time the new MBA's come out, and pick one of those up. I know it will be more than enough power for my needs, plus it will be ultra portable. Since Macs retain their value quite well, I sort of looked at this as an investment purchase. Money burns holes in my pocket at a horrendous rate, lol. I also want to get tuned up to the Mac OS since I've never used one before.
Old 4th March 2011
  #10
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dr_Jezz; yea, can't read the esub article - anyways, they didn't rate the 11inch for audio...i disagree - it blows me away everyday

Cicatrix; those new MBP's are amazing. i have 2010 MBP i7 which is awesome. 11inch was really just for on the go but i happened to do most of my work on my recent track on the air - freeze a few tracks if i needed extra power and was good to go

i agree completely that the next 11inch MBA could be amazing. lets hope apple gives it 4 thread processing in some shape or form but hope for something better than integrated graphics as i do music vids too though it's unlikely!
Old 10th April 2011
  #11
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11 for tracking?

How does the 11 inch do for track inputs? Decent count?

I like the small footprint. Apple stored steered me to the MB Pro, but I'm still liking the Air.

4 gigs RAM sounds cool. You like the solid state drive better, less heat than a spinning drive?
Old 12th April 2011
  #12
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i've not done any recording on this laptop but there's no reason to think it won't perform extremely well
4GB of RAM is great however i must say that even with ram peaking out, performance is still excellent obviously down to the SSD

SSD better, well there's no turning back. i've already upgraded my MacPro 2006 1,1 and it's given it a new lease of life. next is my 2010 MacBook Pro i7 - this MBP is incredible slow to respond compared to the AIR and with SSD will be incredible!
Old 20th April 2011
  #13
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Cool

I'll have to dig on more tech specs, I think 11 Air would do well too, downloading a PS3 game now though, good times.
Old 21st April 2011
  #14
Gear interested
 

Thanks for such an awesome overview with the new MBA 11.6". I am also loving this little machine so much and have been wondering if this could take over as my main DAW.

I haven't installed Logic on it yet though and I wanted to ask you a question about that. How did you go about installing Logic's audio content (Jam Packs, sample libraries, etc.) Did you just install everything on the Air or are you using an external drive setup?

I ask this because I know that having a separate drive for samples is always beneficial to I/O, but now at the expense of USB vs. the Air's internal flash drive, I question that now. If you do have your audio content installed on the Air, do you notice any speed differences? Did you also install any 3rd party libraries?

Thanks again man. Your thread is still by far the best review of the Air + Logic on the interweb. Great write up!
Old 7th May 2011
  #15
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thanks icaras
sorry for the delay in answering
i didn't install any sample libraries so it was just the logic app that i installed over network

with the SSD, you definitely don't have to worry about drive speed no matter how many samples and libraries you need to use as this SSD is equivalent to 2x current 1TB drives in RAID 0 in speed

i do quite a bit of video on it and that's fine too....these SSD's are killer
sure you can install the libraries and jam packs if you need but for me i look at this machine as a temp work machine and not one to store lots of things on so work a project and then wipe and do the next without keeping too much on it. if i need an instrument, i'll load the library on. i have MacPro for storage and so sync stuff i want to work on from there

enjoy you Air - i'm definitely upgrading on next release an my girl friend gets this one - next ones will defo be 4 threaded which will mean huge performance increases.

i do think though that these Core2Duo's are excellent processors and in some ways perform better than CoreI's. i have found maya and logic to perform very well on them. compared to i7 and Zeon, i have noticed that A) logic does utilise ALL CPU available though the logic CPU meter is in the red. and B) in Maya when rendering a fluid, the Core2Duo completed the render quicker on a Core2Duo than a Quad Core or Quad Thread. in both instances, the Core2Duo processor was utilised 100%

there is still benefit though to the Core I's and Zeon in these cases and that is that since logic nor maya (and probably other apps and functions) utilise all CPU, you can quite easily use other applications simultaneously without affecting performance of the other app...
Old 7th May 2011
  #16
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actually, right now my mac pro is p*ssing me off
total computer CPU usage is 30% but still the logic application CPU is overloading...it stupid and that's why logic needs a complete rewrite of at least some components in the audio engine - it's really frustrating to have a powerful machine but not be able to use it...

and freezing a track, using just 10% of 1 core... why??? this is on a Mac Pro Zeon - core2duo utilises as much as is available
Old 8th May 2011
  #17
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I assume the Air is "quiet" as well. One of things that always, always killed is any kind of computer noise (fans, other whirling noises from workstation).

People launch into long winded, puffy threads about which box is super quiet to the 10th order against the next one - and then - voila, that great mic which is oh so sensitive and the aforementioned box lose their sheen because of some hideous background noise. Of course, you never notice it until you when you play it all back and you get to that quiet passage of that near perfect take. Please tell me this is solved as well. I assume these machines do not run so hot and the fan is a non-issue, or am I wrong ?
Cdlt
Old 17th May 2011
  #18
Gear interested
 

Hey, no problem. Sorry for the late reply as well. Yea the Sandy Bridge models will be awesome. Assuming Apple does upgrade the Air this year, it should give the Air's processor power a substantial bump. The only downfall will be Apple being forced to use lame Intel 3000 HD graphics, which will actually be a step down from the current Nvidia 320M. Bad for gamers and maybe video editors, but of course we're mainly talking about Logic usage here, so it will be a big upgrade

I also use an iMac too as my primary DAW at the moment and I have it connected to an external drive with all Logic samples and third party samples. You say that you have your Mac Pro with all the storage and that you sync your Air to it if you want a particular library. How exactly do you go about doing this?

Anyway, I'm actually not in any hurry, so I'll be waiting for Lion first before installing Logic (just to play with). I'd like to start out the Air fresh again before putting in Logic. Hopefully by then, Logic X will be out as well. I just realized today that we're just a couple of months until Logic 9's release anniversary. With FCP X en route, Logic X can't be far off.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Melgueil
I assume the Air is "quiet" as well. One of things that always, always killed is any kind of computer noise (fans, other whirling noises from workstation).

People launch into long winded, puffy threads about which box is super quiet to the 10th order against the next one - and then - voila, that great mic which is oh so sensitive and the aforementioned box lose their sheen because of some hideous background noise. Of course, you never notice it until you when you play it all back and you get to that quiet passage of that near perfect take. Please tell me this is solved as well. I assume these machines do not run so hot and the fan is a non-issue, or am I wrong ?
Cdlt
You should take a look at Apple's official tech specs here: MacBook Air (11-inch, Late 2010) - Technical Specifications

It shows sound levels at least. But with my experience of the Air so far, the fans can actually get pretty noisy. I've played a few games of L4D on it and watched some 1080p video content and the fans an issue definitely....Flash also gets the fans going pretty intensely as well...but not sure with Logic. Macleodrgant can probably answer this one with experience.
Old 25th July 2011
  #19
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i don't really have problems with the fans or heat on the 11inch 1.6 Ghz C2D

the new machines look great but Apple are actually immensely stupid sometimes. how can they release new machines and not allow people to roll back to snow.
i'm so frustrated with apple, really considering jumping ship cos i'm sick of these stupid tactics and tightly restricting policies and the way they treat their pro customers
i mean look at what happened with FCP, Shake, Color...
not so much the way they evolve, that's fine but to drop products completely in favour of the new...they don't care about professionals

when around 75% of their revenue comes from iOS, it's not surprising

i heard windows 7 is excellent
Old 25th July 2011
  #20
cant decide btween 13 and 11 inch air. any pointers?
Old 25th July 2011
  #21
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simple, you want an 11inch or 13inch screen?

i love the 11inch, nice and small and fits in my bag so i can take it anywhere and it doesn't event look or feel like i'm carrying a laptop
Old 25th July 2011
  #22
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matt thomas's Avatar
Quote:
Originally Posted by soundseeker View Post
cant decide btween 13 and 11 inch air. any pointers?
The new ones?

13 inch has double (4 gb) RAM
13 inch can have double hard drive space
13 inch has SD card slot
13 inch has up to 2 hour longer battery life
13 inch has bigger screen

Soooo get the 11 inch heh (not) (unless the small size is really important to you)

Also remember that it'll come with Lion, and not everything is compatible..

Matt
Old 25th July 2011
  #23
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How much performance difference do you guys think the i7 would have over the i5 version
Old 25th July 2011
  #24
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jbrown1music View Post
How much performance difference do you guys think the i7 would have over the i5 version
engadget says the benchmarks have doubled on the new macbook airs over the previous ones.
Old 26th July 2011
  #25
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Quote:
Originally Posted by matt thomas View Post
The new ones?

13 inch has double (4 gb) RAM
13 inch can have double hard drive space
13 inch has SD card slot
13 inch has up to 2 hour longer battery life
13 inch has bigger screen

Soooo get the 11 inch heh (not) (unless the small size is really important to you)

Also remember that it'll come with Lion, and not everything is compatible..

Matt
11.6" comes with 4 Gigs too
11.6" comes with 128GB SSD (who needs a bigger system drive?) ThB raid
11.6" doesnt come with SD slot - true - but external if needed (they run what 20 bucks?)
11.6" battery life is alil low ( nothing alil HyperJuice cant fix)
HyperJuice External Battery for Apple MacBook, iPad, iPhone, iPod, USB Devices
11.6" isnt all that much smaller than 13.3" (external on ThB would make a bigger difference)

Soooo get the 13" (Not)

heh

Old 26th July 2011
  #26
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matt thomas's Avatar
Quote:
Originally Posted by tuRnitUpsuM View Post
11.6" comes with 4 Gigs too
Ah! I missed that. That was my biggest point against the 11 and it wasn't even correct! Although I do have a 1 TB HDD in my macbook pro, so I think I need a larger system drive than the 11 inch has, also my 13" MBP screen seems a bit small, I'm not sure I could work on an 11, but perhaps that's just me. And with thunderbolt you can run a second monitor, so that's worthy of consideration too.

If you get the 11 inch, definitely get the 4gb RAM model..

matt
Old 26th July 2011
  #27
LdC
Gear Maniac
 

You can also configure the 11-incher with a 256GB SSD
Old 26th July 2011
  #28
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matt thomas's Avatar
Quote:
Originally Posted by LdC View Post
You can also configure the 11-incher with a 256GB SSD
Doh! I think I should just stay out of this thread heh

matt
Old 27th July 2011
  #29
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tuRnitUpsuM's Avatar
 

Quote:
Originally Posted by matt thomas View Post
Doh! I think I should just stay out of this thread heh

matt
me too, its getting expensive! lol
Old 28th July 2011
  #30
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tuRnitUpsuM View Post
me too, its getting expensive! lol
Just noticed Apple is charging $300 for the 256GB SSD up from the 128... although still higher than retail. Isnt as bad as they use to be... Apple you are scaring me now!

heh
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