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2013 Air Performance

M

meatloafsalad

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 28, 2013
2
0
Hi all, I'm about to purchase my first Macbook Air. I'm thinking 13" base i5 model with 8GB ram upgrade. I'm running FL Studio daily, producing music, on my desktop PC right now (which I'm planning on selling once I get the air). However I'm starting to wonder if it will be able to handle FL Studio that well, I run pretty large projects with about 20 VSTi's, 6-7 which are running at the same time. Do you guys know if it will be enough or will it have a hard time keeping up?

Thanks in advance,
 
osofast240sx

osofast240sx

macrumors 68030
Mar 25, 2011
2,539
16
meatloafsalad said:
Hi all, I'm about to purchase my first Macbook Air. I'm thinking 13" base i5 model with 8GB ram upgrade. I'm running FL Studio daily, producing music, on my desktop PC right now (which I'm planning on selling once I get the air). However I'm starting to wonder if it will be able to handle FL Studio that well, I run pretty large projects with about 20 VSTi's, 6-7 which are running at the same time. Do you guys know if it will be enough or will it have a hard time keeping up?

Thanks in advance,
Click to expand...
If your serious about music production, your going to want a MacBook Pro.
 
D

deadwalrus

macrumors regular
Feb 16, 2011
149
11
An Air shoudl handle that no problem. Check out the geekbench scores -- the pros are not that much more performant than the air unless you are going for the 15" rMBP with quad core.
 
W

wermy

macrumors regular
Apr 15, 2013
205
1
A MBA should handle FL Studio no problem. I'd upgrade the CPU to the i7 if it were me, though. Always better to have more horsepower and not need it than to not have it and need it. :)
 
M

mqguitar

macrumors member
Jun 16, 2010
47
0
It should handle it alright. But I do suggest going for a pro instead of the air. I do music production as well. I could run a few waves plugins and a couple of software instruments. But do not expect smooth performance once it starts to get intense. I do all that on a Mac Pro.
 
osofast240sx

osofast240sx

macrumors 68030
Mar 25, 2011
2,539
16
meatloafsalad said:
Hi all, I'm about to purchase my first Macbook Air. I'm thinking 13" base i5 model with 8GB ram upgrade. I'm running FL Studio daily, producing music, on my desktop PC right now (which I'm planning on selling once I get the air). However I'm starting to wonder if it will be able to handle FL Studio that well, I run pretty large projects with about 20 VSTi's, 6-7 which are running at the same time. Do you guys know if it will be enough or will it have a hard time keeping up?

Thanks in advance,
Click to expand...
If you ever move to pro tools or logic your screwed. I could be wrong mabey the new air can handle it. I'm curious to find out.
 
Z

zephonic

macrumors 65816
Feb 7, 2011
1,310
709
greater L.A. area
Well, for perspective: my base 13" MBA (1.3GHz) with 4GB RAM and 256GB SSD geekbenches at 6082, which is pretty close to the current base 13" (r)MBP (geekbench 6614) and way better than the 2010 15" i7 MBP's, or even the first-gen MacPros. People still make music on those.

Add to that faster PCIe SSD, and you'll see why I think the MBA is a very good alternative.
 
S

Serban

Suspended
Jan 8, 2013
5,159
928
if until now you use a desktop pc...you make consider the iMac...probably need the screen estate and quad core cpu
 
M

meatloafsalad

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 28, 2013
2
0
osofast240sx said:
If your serious about music production, your going to want a MacBook Pro.
Click to expand...
I will be using the air for studying/school aswell, hence the reason choosing the air for it's portability.

zephonic said:
Well, for perspective: my base 13" MBA (1.3GHz) with 4GB RAM and 256GB SSD geekbenches at 6082, which is pretty close to the current base 13" (r)MBP (geekbench 6614) and way better than the 2010 15" i7 MBP's, or even the first-gen MacPros. People still make music on those.

Add to that faster PCIe SSD, and you'll see why I think the MBA is a very good alternative.
Click to expand...
That's actually really interesting, thanks :)

Serban said:
if until now you use a desktop pc...you make consider the iMac...probably need the screen estate and quad core cpu
Click to expand...
I need to have a laptop, that's why I'm going for the macbook.


I think that I will just have to wait and see how it performs, if it can't handle it, I will just have to keep my desktop and keep producing there. Thanks for the answers guys :)
 
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