macbook or macbook pro?

I need to get a new laptop and I am planning on running Reaktor in Ableton Live. This is basically gonna be a sound design machine for NIN style music. I have other machines that are running the actual recording and production, but I would like to have a machine that I can push pretty hard dedicated to numerous ensembles and effects such as Trash to get really nasty sounds....

I am not sure whether I should get a Macbook or Macbook Pro....

Does Reaktor depend more heavily on cpu speed or RAM? If it depends heavily on RAM, then I will need to look at a Macbook Pro because of the 4 gb, but the Macbook is so much ceaper that I am tempted to get it.

I appreciate anyone's thoughts...

 

Reaktor does depend heavely on cpu and RAM if you use a lot of sample based sound.
If you have the money go the macbook pro way with the faster HardDrive option (In case you want to play multitrack audio from the internal HD).

If you don't need OSX and the iLife app's why don't look in the PC world?
Furthermore I think Reaktor is a bit more optimized to run on a PC.

Just my 2c.

cheers

 

As _nico said, if you're using sample instruments in Reaktor, you'll want the RAM. 2 GB minimum is a must with any Macbook in my opinion, just because the OSX kernel uses a lot of RAM on its own.

Stay away from the integrated graphics as well, and as _nico also mentioned, the faster hard drive will help immensely with Live.

ew

 

I seem to recall there are still a few "Mac only" bugs floating around, although I don't recall what they are(not being a Mac enthusiast, I can't be arsed to keep up with it). Use the search engine, make sure that one of those won't be a show-stopper for you before you decide to go that route.

 

maybe a Mac owner needs to reply

the Macbook Pro has a separate video card, that means the graphics run better on this machine. NI even recommend a Macbook Pro.

having said that, i am very happy with my Macbook. if you can afford a Pro, then buy it. if you are on a budget (like i was) then the Macbook is fine.

btw, if you are really into playing computer games with loads of graphics or you want to do video editing, then you should go for the Macbook Pro.

sowari

 

exactly the same for me, i think macbook is very very good with reaktor.

For a little extra (£70-£100) you can go for the Macbook with more ram and faster processor as i did.

 

so does reaktor really run better on a pc? If so, wouldn't that be a much cheaper solution than a macbook pro?

 

macbooks and pcs are basically the same hardware wise, but reaktor does run alot better under windows xp than os x 10.4 in my experience (see my thread about it)

 

Well if youre lucky!

If ya buy a PC Laptop for audio and ya wanna use a FireWire or CardBus Audio interface, ya gotta make shore that the Chips used are the right ones. So for FireWire you absolutly need a Texas Instruments (IEEE 1394) Chip. For Cardbus it should be Intel although sometimes this is listed as Generic Cardbus Adapters.

Now lately verry mutch Laptop companys ship there laptops with so called all in one chip solutions. This means one chip does CardBus, Firewire, SmartCard, SD cards etc. Brands of these chips well known for complete unusability are Ricoh and o2micro.

Not only Audio people have trouble with these chips, also video people complain about dropped frames etc. google up some forems youll see...

Laptop manufaturers dont say whats in there product because usualy its whatever is the cheapest at the moment. So i went to several shops and this is what i found. Remeber it can change overnight. Youre friend might have the same model but his one works and youres doesnt... Especialy Dell support seem realy total monkys, There recomandation for crackled audio was that i maybe should try turning down the base...

Some Laptops with crappy firewire chips i saw:

my Dell, Lenovo, HP, Compac...

Laptops that had consistantly good stuff:

Sony, Toshiba, Acer, Clevo..

Actualy Clevo is used quite often under diffrent names by companys that make Custom Audio Laptops...

Anyway, if ya buy a PC laptop make shore it has not only the Intel blabla but also a Texas Instruments Firewire Chip. and absolutly no o2micro or Ricoh...

If ya already have a laptop with bad chips, disable them in the BIOS and get a USB audio interface...

CheerZ

-M-

 

i would be a little wary about new PC laptops with Vista. i have heard Vista is still causing problems with audio applications.

sowari

 

world of warcraft

does world of warcraft work on macbook?

 

i don't know, but battles with Reaktor certainly does.

sowari

 

battles is a bad game

they should port a version of Reaktor to the iPhone

 

:lol:

sowari

 

Yaya helo, lets focus on MacBook versus MacBook Pro, running Reaktor for a sec.

Q: Does Reaktor perform equaly fantastic on both, or does it work way better on the Pro?

Q2: Does it realy is so bad that the macbook has integrated shared memory Video, or is this something from the past that doesnt matter anymore?

On PC laptops this seems to not matter anymore! there are diffrent problems there. Vista is one of them. Also Cardbus and firewire chips like i mentioned...

 

that's a tough one. most people probably have either a macbook pro or a macbook, but not both. i have been happily using reaktor on a macbook. at times i notice some video lagging, but for the most part it performs quite well. the two reasons i would want to trade up are:

higher max memory
dedicated video card