Has anyone tried logic on one of the new MBAs yet? Can’t find anything online anywhere, and I’m really interested to see how it performs - ideally with the first i5 step and 8/16gb ram. I know it will perform better depending on how it’s being used, but just after a general idea.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Logic Pro X on MBA 20 (or any other recent one)
- Thread starter Fidgit
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I don't have a 2020 MBA, I'll probably get one at some time. I run Logic on a 2015 i7 MBA. I've been running Logic on low end Macs since I started. I used a White Polycarb MacBook, a Mac mini (quad core... this was really powerful for the time), and now a MacBook Air. I'm in the Apple ecosystem because of Logic, but I'm always looking to get the best performance from Macs for the least amount of money.
From benchmarks , it seems like the 2020 i5 is twice as fast as my MBA. Using Logic is a bit in between bursty and sustained performance. During editing, tweaking and actually using the program it needs more bursty performance. (it's not a rush to complete the job, it just needs to perform the calculations fast enough for playback.) But when exporting/freezing then the CPU needs to be good at sustained performance to export it quickly. These situations I did feel the limitations of the MBA, and had to wait for it to render down. Nothing terrible, but it'll depend on if waiting a little longer for bouncing is worth it. I really pushed my MBA up to what was possible, and at times I needed to freeze all my tracks to continue working... that took a long time and would have been better served by a MBP. Are those times worth the extra cost of a MBP? ... a bit of a philosophical question.
The core of Logic Pro X is easy to run. It's a program that goes back a long time and doesn't need a beefy system to do even moderate tasks. All the built in plugins were designed back in before 2010 even. A plugin that was heavy to use back then is now no problem for even the slowest Macs.
I actually ran some benchmarks to see what the hardest to use plugins are. The easy ones I could run 100+ of, the harder ones I could run about 10. There is no plugin I couldn't run though.
For example, Logic's fancy new reverb, Chromaverb, I was able to run 58 instances of. Most plugins I could run in that range: instruments between 25-50, effects were more in the 50-100+ range.
There are some plugins out there that will crush a MBA if you use too many of them... but these plugins will be notorious for how hard to run they are. But you can still use them, just not an unlimited amount of them.
So TLDR, Logic runs great on the MBA. It'll do projects of 20 tracks, and probably closer to 50 tracks. It'll take longer to export things. You can't run an unlimited amount of the most demanding plugins. Freeze/Exporting tracks is always available if you run out of power.
From benchmarks , it seems like the 2020 i5 is twice as fast as my MBA. Using Logic is a bit in between bursty and sustained performance. During editing, tweaking and actually using the program it needs more bursty performance. (it's not a rush to complete the job, it just needs to perform the calculations fast enough for playback.) But when exporting/freezing then the CPU needs to be good at sustained performance to export it quickly. These situations I did feel the limitations of the MBA, and had to wait for it to render down. Nothing terrible, but it'll depend on if waiting a little longer for bouncing is worth it. I really pushed my MBA up to what was possible, and at times I needed to freeze all my tracks to continue working... that took a long time and would have been better served by a MBP. Are those times worth the extra cost of a MBP? ... a bit of a philosophical question.
The core of Logic Pro X is easy to run. It's a program that goes back a long time and doesn't need a beefy system to do even moderate tasks. All the built in plugins were designed back in before 2010 even. A plugin that was heavy to use back then is now no problem for even the slowest Macs.
I actually ran some benchmarks to see what the hardest to use plugins are. The easy ones I could run 100+ of, the harder ones I could run about 10. There is no plugin I couldn't run though.
For example, Logic's fancy new reverb, Chromaverb, I was able to run 58 instances of. Most plugins I could run in that range: instruments between 25-50, effects were more in the 50-100+ range.
There are some plugins out there that will crush a MBA if you use too many of them... but these plugins will be notorious for how hard to run they are. But you can still use them, just not an unlimited amount of them.
So TLDR, Logic runs great on the MBA. It'll do projects of 20 tracks, and probably closer to 50 tracks. It'll take longer to export things. You can't run an unlimited amount of the most demanding plugins. Freeze/Exporting tracks is always available if you run out of power.
I had the exact same question, super helpful response Pugly! If not for these reported thermal issues I'd also be purchasing one. Will wait for some more logic/audio specific reviews to come out.
I’m also planning to buy MBA with i5/16gb. will be using it for logic and Xcode. Youtube reviews only focus on the 4k video editing part. I would love to see a coding or sound specific review.
I run logic on MBA 11'' 2012 i7 8gig RAM. It works. I don't do heavy lifting. More tracking and then sharing with a cowriter who does most of the mixing/plug-in heavy activities.
I'm really interested in upgrading to '20 MBA (i7/16/512) or wait for new MBP 13/14'' that might come out in the coming weeks/months.
I'm really interested in upgrading to '20 MBA (i7/16/512) or wait for new MBP 13/14'' that might come out in the coming weeks/months.
Well I seem to have the i5 512gb version arriving on Saturday, so will report back...
Not a new experience but an extended one. I’ve mainly just been using stock plug-ins (aside from the free spitfire labs instruments) and recording instruments but it’s been flawless for me so far. Most I’ve put in so far is about 14 tracks (2 drummers, 4 electric guitar DIs, 2 mic’d acoustic guitars and the rest VSTs) all with individual compression, eq and reverb treatment (individual rather than bussed to try and push it a bit) and it’s not skipped a beat. I would imagine if you are doing 40+ track with complex software instruments and tonnes of plug-ins all over the place you start having the odd issue with fans coming on and/or ram issues (though maybe not, will try it some time) but for what I’m using it for it’s perfect. A more powerful computer would give me nothing I don’t already have.
As an aside, logic seems so well designed that it actually feels snappier than ableton live (10) on my PC (which is massively more powerful than my mba), and because it’s a laptop I can be bothered to just fire it up and record stuff with it when I never would have with the PC.
As an aside, logic seems so well designed that it actually feels snappier than ableton live (10) on my PC (which is massively more powerful than my mba), and because it’s a laptop I can be bothered to just fire it up and record stuff with it when I never would have with the PC.
Hello, I'm getting started for orchestral music and I will be using some cpu heavy plugins such as EastWest or Kontakt. I was using fl studio but I will probably get logic when I get my air. Do you think I can manage these plugins with freeze function and other optimizations? I would love to know how it performs on your 40+ track scenario. Thanks, it's nice to know user experiences rather than benchmarks.
Bit of an update. Highest track count I’ve got to so far is around 48, which has included lots of audio (with several instances of either neutron 3 or nectar inserts across the piece), 3rd party VSTs (bunch of spitfire labs and bbcSO mainly), and a couple of drummer tracks. I tend to use quite a lot of sound toys (mainly devil loc and echo boy) and Valhalla plug-ins (supermassive and vintage reverb usually), either as inserts or on busses. My workflow used to be generally doing ’surgical’ eq cuts on audio tracks before bouncing them, but I tend to just use neutron to do that now. In terms of overall performance it handles all of that fine - once things build up above 30 tracks or so I often need to do low latency recording if I record new audio and have lots of plug-ins on the go, but I usually do those first anyway. Fans come on often if tweaking complex plug-ins live - particularly dynamic eq or izotope apps. I haven’t used a lot of NI stuff yet (I have a lot installed, I just don’t use it much) but it works fine too.
unless you are Jacob Collier then this machine will almost certainly be fine to handle what you need it to handle. You definitely need 512gb plus ssd space though - I’ve already used half of mine and I only really use logic on it!
unless you are Jacob Collier then this machine will almost certainly be fine to handle what you need it to handle. You definitely need 512gb plus ssd space though - I’ve already used half of mine and I only really use logic on it!
If I had to choose for Logic, I'd far prefer the 256gb drive with 16gb of RAM as opposed to 512gb drive with 8gb of RAM.
I run Xcode with mine. Editing is fine. Compilation isn't blistering fast but its an ultra-light notebook so not sure what people expect. It's fine for hobbyist level stuff.
If XCODE is your job and time is money, then you're probably wanting something more powerful to compile and test on when at a desk, but if you're not in that situation and its just one of the things you do on it - its fine.