MacBook Air for Audio

[mcp6453[_2_]]

Has anyone here tried the new MacBook Air (4GB RAM, i5 CPU) for audio recording?
I just bought my wife one, so I'm wondering how robust it is for audio. I'm not
a Mac person or a Mac fan yet, so my knowledge of what this machine can do is
minimal. I'm assuming it ought to be quite decent.

[Mike Rivers]

On 7/27/2011 11:21 PM, mcp6453 wrote:
> Has anyone here tried the new MacBook Air (4GB RAM, i5 CPU) for audio recording?
> I just bought my wife one, so I'm wondering how robust it is for audio.

Why not try it? Set up a test, let it record for an hour or
two (as many channels as you need and have the I/O hardware
for) and listen to the playback. Record something you like
listening to because you'll have to do it (unless it simply
crashes, which I doubt).


--
"Today's production equipment is IT based and cannot be
operated without a passing knowledge of computing, although
it seems that it can be operated without a passing knowledge
of audio." - John Watkinson

http://mikeriversaudio.wordpress.com - useful and
interesting audio stuff

[mcp6453[_2_]]

On 7/28/2011 8:52 AM, Mike Rivers wrote:
> On 7/27/2011 11:21 PM, mcp6453 wrote:
>> Has anyone here tried the new MacBook Air (4GB RAM, i5 CPU) for audio recording?
>> I just bought my wife one, so I'm wondering how robust it is for audio.
>
> Why not try it? Set up a test, let it record for an hour or two (as many
> channels as you need and have the I/O hardware for) and listen to the playback.
> Record something you like listening to because you'll have to do it (unless it
> simply crashes, which I doubt).

I will try it, of course, but it seems silly not to attempt to draw upon the
virtually infinite collective wisdom and experience of this group.

It's really helpful to avoid any of the problematic unknowns. For example,
Quicken does not run on Lion. Many people have spent many hours trying to get it
to work without success. Thankfully I don't use it.

[Steve King]

"mcp6453" > wrote in message
...
> On 7/28/2011 8:52 AM, Mike Rivers wrote:
>> On 7/27/2011 11:21 PM, mcp6453 wrote:
>>> Has anyone here tried the new MacBook Air (4GB RAM, i5 CPU) for audio
>>> recording?
>>> I just bought my wife one, so I'm wondering how robust it is for audio.
>>
>> Why not try it? Set up a test, let it record for an hour or two (as many
>> channels as you need and have the I/O hardware for) and listen to the
>> playback.
>> Record something you like listening to because you'll have to do it
>> (unless it
>> simply crashes, which I doubt).
>
> I will try it, of course, but it seems silly not to attempt to draw upon
> the
> virtually infinite collective wisdom and experience of this group.
>
> It's really helpful to avoid any of the problematic unknowns. For example,
> Quicken does not run on Lion. Many people have spent many hours trying to
> get it
> to work without success. Thankfully I don't use it.
>

So, Lion is a bit of a pussy cat? No? The more software that can be made
obsolete the better seems to be Apple's approach to new operating systems.

Steve King

[Mike Rivers]

On 7/28/2011 10:25 AM, mcp6453 wrote:

> I will try it, of course, but it seems silly not to attempt to draw upon the
> virtually infinite collective wisdom and experience of this group.

It's a good start, but every setup is different.

> It's really helpful to avoid any of the problematic unknowns. For example,
> Quicken does not run on Lion. Many people have spent many hours trying to get it
> to work without success. Thankfully I don't use it.

You will find a lot of things that don't run under Lion yet.
Some will eventually, some won't, eventually. There's no
point in "regular" people trying to get these things to work.

I think your question should be, not will the MacBook Air
work for you, but your hardware and software will work
under Lion, or how soon (nobody knows) or never (not an
unreasonable assumption). I assume you'll get Lion with any
new Mac, and Apple doesn't know nor care whether your audio
hardware's drivers or software of choice works under it.
That's someone else's problem, and ultimately yours.


--
"Today's production equipment is IT based and cannot be
operated without a passing knowledge of computing, although
it seems that it can be operated without a passing knowledge
of audio." - John Watkinson

http://mikeriversaudio.wordpress.com - useful and
interesting audio stuff

[mcp6453[_2_]]

On 7/28/2011 3:59 PM, Mike Rivers wrote:
> On 7/28/2011 10:25 AM, mcp6453 wrote:
>
>> I will try it, of course, but it seems silly not to attempt to draw upon the
>> virtually infinite collective wisdom and experience of this group.
>
> It's a good start, but every setup is different.
>
>> It's really helpful to avoid any of the problematic unknowns. For example,
>> Quicken does not run on Lion. Many people have spent many hours trying to get it
>> to work without success. Thankfully I don't use it.
>
> You will find a lot of things that don't run under Lion yet. Some will
> eventually, some won't, eventually. There's no point in "regular" people trying
> to get these things to work.
>
> I think your question should be, not will the MacBook Air work for you, but
> your hardware and software will work under Lion, or how soon (nobody knows) or
> never (not an unreasonable assumption). I assume you'll get Lion with any new
> Mac, and Apple doesn't know nor care whether your audio hardware's drivers or
> software of choice works under it. That's someone else's problem, and ultimately
> yours.

Lion doesn't have to work with any of my preexisting software or hardware. It's
a fresh start. Macs are supposed to be so wonderful, I thought I'd buy one to
play with.

[hank alrich]

mcp6453 > wrote:

> On 7/28/2011 8:52 AM, Mike Rivers wrote:
> > On 7/27/2011 11:21 PM, mcp6453 wrote:
> >> Has anyone here tried the new MacBook Air (4GB RAM, i5 CPU) for audio
> >> recording? I just bought my wife one, so I'm wondering how robust it is
> >> for audio.
> >
> > Why not try it? Set up a test, let it record for an hour or two (as
> > many channels as you need and have the I/O hardware for) and listen to
> > the playback. Record something you like listening to because you'll have
> > to do it (unless it simply crashes, which I doubt).
>
> I will try it, of course, but it seems silly not to attempt to draw upon the
> virtually infinite collective wisdom and experience of this group.
>
> It's really helpful to avoid any of the problematic unknowns. For example,
> Quicken does not run on Lion. Many people have spent many hours trying to
> get it to work without success. Thankfully I don't use it.

The DAW-Mac list is a very good place for such a question.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/daw-mac/

--
shut up and play your guitar * http://hankalrich.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpqXcV9DYAc
http://www.sonicbids.com/HankandShaidri

[hank alrich]

Steve King > wrote:

> "mcp6453" > wrote in message
> ...
> > On 7/28/2011 8:52 AM, Mike Rivers wrote:
> >> On 7/27/2011 11:21 PM, mcp6453 wrote:
> >>> Has anyone here tried the new MacBook Air (4GB RAM, i5 CPU) for audio
> >>> recording?
> >>> I just bought my wife one, so I'm wondering how robust it is for audio.
> >>
> >> Why not try it? Set up a test, let it record for an hour or two (as many
> >> channels as you need and have the I/O hardware for) and listen to the
> >> playback.
> >> Record something you like listening to because you'll have to do it
> >> (unless it
> >> simply crashes, which I doubt).
> >
> > I will try it, of course, but it seems silly not to attempt to draw upon
> > the
> > virtually infinite collective wisdom and experience of this group.
> >
> > It's really helpful to avoid any of the problematic unknowns. For example,
> > Quicken does not run on Lion. Many people have spent many hours trying to
> > get it
> > to work without success. Thankfully I don't use it.
> >
>
> So, Lion is a bit of a pussy cat? No? The more software that can be made
> obsolete the better seems to be Apple's approach to new operating systems.
>
> Steve King

Quicken is almost always late to the party. Macsters are not their first
priority, and for a good while they got so far behind as to become
irrelevant. That engendered successful competition, so they bought the
competition. <g>

Lots of people don't pay much attention to what will run when. The news
reader I'm running right now has remained OSX compatible since v. 1,
without any "upgrades" to the app, for example. There are many others.

Lion is sufficiently altered to provide extensively new capabilities
that I figue developers who haven't yet gotten to par are going to be
putting in some serious work.

I always, if I can, wait quite a while to change my Mac OS, because when
my setup works I don't need to brag about blood loss. I am now two major
v's behind. Of course, that approach fails when one purchases a new
machine.

In the larger world of consumer "computer" behavior, some pretty radical
shifts are afoot. Here's a link to a Roger McNamee NAMM address offered
at Bob Lefsetz's site. Some of the figures mentioned surprised me, but
then I don't pay much attention to the larger picture in that field.

http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/2011/07/26/roger-mcnamee
-responds/
--
shut up and play your guitar * http://hankalrich.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpqXcV9DYAc
http://www.sonicbids.com/HankandShaidri

[Les Cargill[_4_]]

mcp6453 wrote:
> On 7/28/2011 3:59 PM, Mike Rivers wrote:
>> On 7/28/2011 10:25 AM, mcp6453 wrote:
>>
>>> I will try it, of course, but it seems silly not to attempt to draw upon the
>>> virtually infinite collective wisdom and experience of this group.
>>
>> It's a good start, but every setup is different.
>>
>>> It's really helpful to avoid any of the problematic unknowns. For example,
>>> Quicken does not run on Lion. Many people have spent many hours trying to get it
>>> to work without success. Thankfully I don't use it.
>>
>> You will find a lot of things that don't run under Lion yet. Some will
>> eventually, some won't, eventually. There's no point in "regular" people trying
>> to get these things to work.
>>
>> I think your question should be, not will the MacBook Air work for you, but
>> your hardware and software will work under Lion, or how soon (nobody knows) or
>> never (not an unreasonable assumption). I assume you'll get Lion with any new
>> Mac, and Apple doesn't know nor care whether your audio hardware's drivers or
>> software of choice works under it. That's someone else's problem, and ultimately
>> yours.
>
> Lion doesn't have to work with any of my preexisting software or hardware. It's
> a fresh start.


Yeah, that's kinda what I thought when I saw my first Mac Classic. But
hey, it had MacPaint, so...

> Macs are supposed to be so wonderful, I thought I'd buy one to
> play with.

--
Les Cargill

[david correia]

In article >,
Les Cargill > wrote:

> Yeah, that's kinda what I thought when I saw my first Mac Classic. But
> hey, it had MacPaint, so...
>


It was pretty amazing to use MacPaint in the mid 80's!

(You may have meant a Mac Plus or an SE. The Mac Classic came later, in
1990. By then MacPaint had been discontinued by Claris and Photoshop was
shipping.)

Which reminds me of a quote I read on Doonesbury.com today:

"I have always wished for my computer to be as easy to use as my
telephone; my wish has come true because I can no longer figure out how
to use my telephone."
‹
Danish computer scientist Bjarne Stroustrup



David Correia
www.Celebrationsound.com

[Les Cargill[_4_]]

david correia wrote:
> In >,
> Les > wrote:
>
>> Yeah, that's kinda what I thought when I saw my first Mac Classic. But
>> hey, it had MacPaint, so...
>>
>
>
> It was pretty amazing to use MacPaint in the mid 80's!
>
> (You may have meant a Mac Plus or an SE.

Of course - I mean the original Mac, not what was
reissued as the Mac Classic.

> The Mac Classic came later, in
> 1990. By then MacPaint had been discontinued by Claris and Photoshop was
> shipping.)
>
> Which reminds me of a quote I read on Doonesbury.com today:
>
> "I have always wished for my computer to be as easy to use as my
> telephone; my wish has come true because I can no longer figure out how
> to use my telephone."
> ‹
> Danish computer scientist Bjarne Stroustrup
>

And he had something to do with that...

>
>
> David Correia
> www.Celebrationsound.com

--
Les Cargill

[geoff]

"mcp6453" > wrote in message
...
>
> Lion doesn't have to work with any of my preexisting software or hardware.
> It's
> a fresh start. Macs are supposed to be so wonderful, I thought I'd buy one
> to
> play with.

Well if it's anything like my daughter's, then you won't be able to play a
CD for starters. Unless you buy an external one to plug in...

geoff

[Phil W[_3_]]

"geoff":
> "mcp6453":

>> Lion doesn't have to work with any of my preexisting software or
>> hardware. It's a fresh start.
>> Macs are supposed to be so wonderful, I thought I'd buy one to play with.
>
> Well if it's anything like my daughter's, then you won't be able to play
> a CD for starters. Unless you buy an external one to plug in...

Well, the MacBook *Air* models are meant to be as flat as possible... thus,
there´s no height space for a CD/DVD drive. ;-)
If you want a model with a CD/DVD drive, you have to get a regular MacBook
or MacBook Pro. I don´t really know the current regular MacBooks, but the
Pro ones are pretty flat, as well - compared to other (older) notebooks.

I´d personally prefer having a CD/DVD drive, since I regularly burn CDs. On
the other hand, a lot of people are happy with not using such a drive, so
those folks can get along with a MacBook Air and have an even flatter mobile
computer... One should decide that before buying and everything´s fine.
Besides that, external CD/DVD drives are not that expensive and if you only
need it occasionally, just put in the drawer when not needed, so it doesn´t
take up deskspace...

Phil

[geoff]

Phil W wrote:
> "geoff":
>> "mcp6453":
>
>>> Lion doesn't have to work with any of my preexisting software or
>>> hardware. It's a fresh start.
>>> Macs are supposed to be so wonderful, I thought I'd buy one to play
>>> with.
>>
>> Well if it's anything like my daughter's, then you won't be able to
>> play a CD for starters. Unless you buy an external one to plug in...
>
> Well, the MacBook *Air* models are meant to be as flat as possible...
> thus, there´s no height space for a CD/DVD drive. ;-)
> If you want a model with a CD/DVD drive, you have to get a regular
> MacBook or MacBook Pro. I don´t really know the current regular
> MacBooks, but the Pro ones are pretty flat, as well - compared to
> other (older) notebooks.
> I´d personally prefer having a CD/DVD drive, since I regularly burn
> CDs. On the other hand, a lot of people are happy with not using such
> a drive, so those folks can get along with a MacBook Air and have an
> even flatter mobile computer... One should decide that before buying
> and everything´s fine. Besides that, external CD/DVD drives are not
> that expensive and if you only need it occasionally, just put in the
> drawer when not needed, so it doesn´t take up deskspace...

Some people may never need a CD/DVD drive. And for some people the fashion
or religous aspects outway the inconvenience.

geoff

[hank alrich]

geoff > wrote:

> Phil W wrote:
> > "geoff":
> >> "mcp6453":
> >
> >>> Lion doesn't have to work with any of my preexisting software or
> >>> hardware. It's a fresh start.
> >>> Macs are supposed to be so wonderful, I thought I'd buy one to play
> >>> with.
> >>
> >> Well if it's anything like my daughter's, then you won't be able to
> >> play a CD for starters. Unless you buy an external one to plug in...
> >
> > Well, the MacBook *Air* models are meant to be as flat as possible...
> > thus, there´s no height space for a CD/DVD drive. ;-)
> > If you want a model with a CD/DVD drive, you have to get a regular
> > MacBook or MacBook Pro. I don´t really know the current regular
> > MacBooks, but the Pro ones are pretty flat, as well - compared to
> > other (older) notebooks.
> > I´d personally prefer having a CD/DVD drive, since I regularly burn
> > CDs. On the other hand, a lot of people are happy with not using such
> > a drive, so those folks can get along with a MacBook Air and have an
> > even flatter mobile computer... One should decide that before buying
> > and everything´s fine. Besides that, external CD/DVD drives are not
> > that expensive and if you only need it occasionally, just put in the
> > drawer when not needed, so it doesn´t take up deskspace...
>
> Some people may never need a CD/DVD drive. And for some people the fashion
> or religous aspects outway the inconvenience.
>
> geoff

A MacBook Air is one skinny little sucker. Pre-iPad a friend of mine who
generally runs Linux on homeb-built machines bought one for traveling
useage.

--
shut up and play your guitar * http://hankalrich.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpqXcV9DYAc
http://www.sonicbids.com/HankandShaidri

[mcp6453[_2_]]

On 8/2/2011 1:25 AM, hank alrich wrote:

> A MacBook Air is one skinny little sucker. Pre-iPad a friend of mine who
> generally runs Linux on homeb-built machines bought one for traveling
> useage.

Having played with the MacBook Air for a few days now, I admit to liking a lot
about it. However, my enthusiasm is not as much about the computer being an
Apple as it is about the small size of the computer and the high speed of its i5
processor. If there were a Windows 7 equivalently sized notebook, I'd probably
be just as pleased.

My mind is still open. Maybe there are things that Apple will do better than
Windows and notebook manufacturers.

[alex]

Il 28/07/2011 5.21, mcp6453 ha scritto:
> Has anyone here tried the new MacBook Air (4GB RAM, i5 CPU) for audio recording?
> I just bought my wife one, so I'm wondering how robust it is for audio. I'm not
> a Mac person or a Mac fan yet, so my knowledge of what this machine can do is
> minimal. I'm assuming it ought to be quite decent.

yes, the macbooc air is good for audio like almost every laptop produced
in the last 10 years.
and is good for browsing the internet anf for wordprocessing too. With
the appropriate sw you can even manipulate digital images.