Audio editing w/MBA? Also, Applecare?

[bigsciota]

So I've seen a lot of posts regarding gaming and photo/video editing on the MBA, but not much about audio editing. I'm planning on getting the 13" 128gb model with the 8gb RAM upgrade- I take it this will handle Logic and Hindenburg (Journalist) OK?

Second, I'm debating with myself about getting Applecare. My most recent computer was a MacBook Pro 15", which my dad bought for work in 2006 then gave to me when I went off to college in 2008. I had to replace the hard drive in 2010, and by the time it completely crapped out again this past May (the day after my final paper was due!), I had been to the Apple store a half dozen extra times with problems, usually hard drive or RAM related.

However, I was never charged for anything besides replacing the hard drive, and was even given an upgrade in OS when it crashed and they didn't have a 10.4 bootable drive to re-install the OS (so it ran 10.6 for the last six months of its life). This also happened long past Applecare would have covered it, anyway. On the other hand, I'm going overseas next year for grad school (Ireland), and plan on doing a good bit of traveling as well within the 3-year span of the warranty (which, as I understand, is international).

So, I'm going back and forth. Mainly, I'm wondering A) how flexible they are with the whole defect vs. wear and tear/accident question when it comes to coverage, and B) if I'm in a country that does not have an Apple store, could I still get it repaired through Applecare (say, through the mail or through a local approved vendor)?

Thanks,

Tyler

 

[miles01110]

Mainly, I'm wondering A) how flexible they are with the whole defect vs. wear and tear/accident question when it comes to coverage, and B) if I'm in a country that does not have an Apple store, could I still get it repaired through Applecare (say, through the mail or through a local approved vendor)?

A) Not really sure what you mean. If it's accidental damage it's not covered. If it's a hardware issue that can't reasonably be attributed to the user it probably will be covered.

B) Yes. Although it's more of a hassle.

 

[bigsciota]

If it's a hardware issue that can't reasonably be attributed to the user it probably will be covered.

I was wondering how lenient they are with this distinction. For example, my hard drive on my old MBP crashed. I treated it OK, but I definitely contributed to the demise of the hard drive by not treating it optimally. I know that if I drop it in a lake they aren't going to pay to fix it, and if something just doesn't work from the start they will fix it- I'm wondering about the in-between. What do they count as "normal wear and tear," that sort of thing. I'm careful, but I don't baby any of my stuff, so I don't want them to immediately discount something that fails just because my laptop has some scratches on it.

-Tyler

 

[soldierblue]

I'd say if the hard drive failed and there were no blatant signs of physical damage to the laptop, they'd probably replace it.

Technically speaking, having a hard drive in a mobile device at all isn't treating it optimally.

 

[Boyd01]

I am running Logic 9 on a 2011 13" i5 MBA with 256GB SSD. It works great. The program loads and opens very quickly and using the SSD for recording, Logic shows an estimated round trip latency of 6.9ms using a 64 sample I/O buffer.

I would get a bigger SSD than 128GB personally. For me, the big appeal of the MBA for audio as well as video editing is the performance boost you get from the SSD. If the 512GB option had been available when I got mine, I would have definitely gone with it.

I have no issues with running Logic along with several other programs with 4GB of RAM. I have a Logic project open now with 8 tracks and lots of plug-ins. Logic is only using about 250MB of RAM. However, if the 8GB option had been available on the 2011 MBA, I would have also gone for that.

 

[Cicatrix]

More than likely your going to be just fine with your audio recording projects. I don't know what kind of projects your doing though. If you're getting crazy with 60 vst tracks playing simultaneously with effects, and plugins out the wazoo running at 96k you might run into a problem. With a 2.0GHZ processor, and 8gb ram your gonna be real good if you keep it reasonable.
I'm really interested in seeing actual recording performance from an external usb 3.0 drive.