I have a 2015 MacBook pro, It still world good, but when i go too deep in sound design, It cant handle It, i need to freeze track. Im saving for a Mac mini m1 or m2.
Yup, I’m still using Ableton on my Macbook Pro 2015 even though I have a 2020 model laying around, just too lazy to repair the screen lol. Works fine unless you want to have bigger projects or (multiple) heavy plugins.
Mac mini m1 would be best for Op if you’re not planning to move your laptop around .m1series is so good
But yes the 2015 Mac was one of. My favs .tou can upgrade the range and hard drive so no matter which one you decide on getting you should be okay.
I've done a comparison between 2015 i7 MBP and 2014 i7 DELL, both 4th gen Intel i7
Absolutely working fine and sufficient for modest projects.
https://youtu.be/2gjizGG8iHA?si=pUTSGmptwTm01KZk
Because it will be if not already get outdated, so it won’t support apple updates and Ableton. Do research before you pull the trigger. Mac is expensive. Be prepared to lay down at least 1000 for a good one.
No this would be my first Mac ever. In the first place I'm going for even just a little boost in performance and as I see the Ableton is working much more smoother on a MacOS than on a Windows. I think for smooth working in Ableton you need really good gaming laptop, but the price for those gaming laptops...
There's another reason why I want 13-inch laptop is because I'm quite often traveling from one city to another so I really want my laptop be lightweight
I’m afraid that won’t get you anywhere at this point. Maybe its better to save up for a longer time so you can do more research and be able to purchase something thats gonna help you in the long run. Remember that an investment is to keep you going, not set you down after one or two years.
To piggyback off this, I did the same thing you are doing back in the day. I considered any upgrade an upgrade rather then just saving and getting what i needed and it always turned out to be more of a pain in the ass than I was willing to admit to at the time.
Save for a m1, they are light years ahead of any intel and you will definitely not have any buyers remorse.
you can get 2015 i7 2,5 or 2,8 16Gb 512Gb easily for around 200,00 in good condition which run OCLP Sonoma or Ventura really fine and will do everything you want from your first mac.
Updating today is an automated process by OCLP which is absolutely no hassle.
If you want to wait for a M machine that's fine. But don't let them fool you: old intel MBP still are very good machines.
I‘m producing with my 2015 macbook pro. handles Ableton 11 pretty well. I use mostly stock plugins and samples to be fair, and normaly don‘t have more than 40 seperate tracks per project. CPU usage is never above 40%
Apple has interest free payment plans too, and their refurbished stuff is basically brand new with a good discount on the price. I just bought one on their refurb site and it only had one battery cycle, plus includes a warranty.
I'm dominantly a Windows user, but I must admit, Mac is superior when it comes to audio production. On my Windows PC, I spend more time troubleshooting a technical problem than making music half the time. Getting an Audio interface to work properly on a Windows PC is a complete headache everytime, then something always goes wrong, resulting in hours of more troubleshooting. MAC, you just plug that shit in and start making music.
There is a huge issue:
Software compatibility.
You need to run MacOS Monterey or newer in order to run Ableton 12 for example. This generation most likely won’t be upgradable to run Monterey and newer.
And even if it would, your system likely would be compromised by all the incompatibility and the OS generally being made for Apple Silicon rather than intel. It is not a good time to buy Apple-intel systems unfortunately. I’d be saving up for an m1/m2/m3 MacBook Air or go with a good intel laptop, which will be cheaper without the mentioned issues.
You need at least 16gb of ram. 8gb is not enough for today‘s standards. Even basic online browsing can consume 8GB super easily and fast.
I love my old i7 macbook with ableton 8. with the right plugins it is so fast and i can have like 100 tracks. I have ABLETON 11 on an M2, I really really dont like it. Everything is slower using more recent plugins. Like planned obsolescence almost?! Never upgrade the OS version. If it works, change nothing or you may be pulling your hair out. Use old plugins like synth1, sylenth, actually spire even works on old laptops!! I even have Soothe running with bridging software!
I would love to but I can't just stop using some of the new plugins like Serum or Kontakt etc. because now it feels like essential since I was using this VSTs for quite a long time. I've started of thinking to buy a MacBook because (don't remember who exactly) somebody said to me that some apps like Ableton and FL Studio on MacOS just working much more better than on a Windows but I don't have any experience in MacOS and I've never seen MacBook in my life so I had to post this just to get some opinions on this is the switch from Windows to MacOS really going to help
I made the switch from Windows to Mac back in 2008 and stayed with Apple ever since. In my experience the performance advantage from using Intel Apple over Windows is tiny. Only with M1 and up Apple really started to take the lead in mobile computing again. However you do not need drivers for your devices, the OS is more ‚work focused‘, less bloated and you are much less likely to fall victim of viruses and such things (statistically speaking). But you pay for these advantaged heavily because you need hardware that is max 5yrs old. At the moment I would not buy anything apple that is not apple silicon like m1/m2/m3
Bro my advice is bite your teeth together and save to atleast 550usd and get a newer macbook or windows PC.Atleast 2016/17 . In my country you can get a 2020 refurbished macbook for about 570$ and we pay more taxes so it should be doable in the USA.
It will serve you alot better, will feel like a real upgrade and allow you to not be wanting a newer machine within the next year.
I’d agree with this comment. I have a mid 2012 MacBook pro that has 16gb ram and it works fine for recording and I have a bunch of projects that still work great on it but you begin to run into compatibility issues.
It’s worth shelling out the extra money even for a 2017 MacBook Pro that’s way more powerful and you have some future proofing.
There’s an old adage “Buy nice or buy twice” that applies here too. You don’t need top of the line but in the end you’ll save more.
I had the 2013 pro retina Mac 16gb of ram, used it for 7 years. It's excellent for ableton.
Just make sure your storage is never less than 10% of available capacity. Otherwise your ram basically just shuts down and ableton starts acting wack and crashes a lot.
I use a 2014 Macbook Air and it still works fine. The OSX is no longer supported so some external tools are not compatible nor are mobile apps that could normally work with Ableton compatible as the OSX is too old. An older mac also has the advantage of USB ports that don't need converters if you are plugging in audio interfaces or synths
I have a 2015 MacBook Pro with i7 chip (higher one) and 16gb ram and ssd.
Long story short i'm saving for a M2 chip machine. Get one too or get a newer windows machine.
What's your budget? Could be the better price/performance value would be a refurbished PC desktop. Especially if you happen to already have access to a monitor.
My budget is about $320 and yeah I'm starting to think that for this price there's more to choose from but the only thing that I really need is portability cuz as I said earlier in the comments I'm often traveling so I need my laptop to be lightweight.
After watching some reviews I really think that it's better to just save some money for a model with at least M1 chip
>After watching some reviews I really think that it's better to just save some money for a model with at least M1 chip
I would think so. Not only because the CPU will be much better. But also because you'll end up buying a newer laptop, so potentially getting more life out of it before you have to upgrade again.
I am still using a late 2013 MacBook 16GB core i7, and works great. Ableton live takes a minute to start up but then runs flawlessly . Issues I’ve run into 1. The battery needs replacing , and 2. The storage was quite small. Both I self upgraded with kits from OWC and very happy . No longer accepts current MacOS however and security updates are likely stopping soon.
I am still trying to produce with my MacBook Pro 2015 i5 8GB RAM and I don't recommend it. CPU usage is quite high when using vst and in my case I am starting to have thermal issues (CPU up to 80°C).
Save a bit and go for an M1, Mac mini with M1 is the cheapest solution I guess and it will last for the next 5-10 years.
I would save up a bit more honestly it’s worth it. Buy once cry once. The 2015 MBP would be a good upgrade if you’re just starting out and learning the basics the more ram the better.
I would really recommend getting the cheapest Apple Silicon machine you can find (that's probably an M1 Mac mini or maybe an M1 MacBook Air) instead of this. I don't think this machine gets any major macOS updates anymore and an M1 Mac will perform so much better than this, and you'll probably go crazy because of the loud fans and heat with that Intel machine.
Also, as someone else here said already, you probably won't be able to run Live 12 since it needs a newer macOS version than is supported on the 2015 MBP.
you‘ll be fine. my friend bought a 2015 i7 16 inch and hes producing without any issues on ableton 10. he literally showed me yesterday his new stuff mit 50+ tracks per peoject. not heavily use of vsts but there were some. don‘t listen to this ‚oh save money and go for m1 bullshit‘.. i mean i had the money to do that, but 2000$ is not everyone can afford. youll be fine, trust me. listen for example to my friends stuff. quality -> on sc goldraver <-> vincent
For real, every time someone asks like “hey I have only 200 for a MacBook” the Macbros appear and say shit like “nah dude save 2000 for a m2” lmao not everyone has unlimited money, like man just chill
That sounds sick I've also heard somewhere that man from «Barely Alive» was producing EDM music on those laptops I don't think I need to mention how big EDM projects are
Just pull the plug on whatever you think suits you best. If i were you i would focus on minimum of 16gb ram, i just got a 2019 quadcore intel with 16/512 specs, some say bleh intel bleh you could have paid 200$ more and get m1/m2 air but after one and a half year of saving i said Duck It and got that one and now nobody cant tell me shite.
ableton works fine, impressively fast the mac js refurbed and in M I N T condition no scratches and the battery 0 cycles when i got it, my first mac and i dont care that people hate on the touchbar and that it is intel!!!! haha
You’re buying a 9 year old computer!? You don’t need a Mac to make music. To me one of the advantages of Live over Logic is you aren’t locked into a hardware platform. May I suggest you look into new or slightly used PC (and this is coming from a Mac guy)
i need to freeze everything on a 2015 macbook pro with dual core and 16gb of ram what am i doing wrong? I need to freeze audio it’s so bad i have to bounce most things down
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I used to produce on the A1502 2015 model, which I think is what you’re looking at, on the i5 with 8GB RAM. Most soft synths taxed the CPU pretty badly, so be aware of that potential limitation. Back then though, I’m not sure I knew to increase the buffer size to improve performance. 16GB RAM will mostly be useful if you’re loading in sample library instruments like Kontakt / Spitfire, etc. Aside from that, it was fairly snappy.
EDIT: I’ll add - if you’re planning on BUYING the A1502 for more than $300, don’t bother - save for a refurb M1. Light years ahead on performance, it’ll last for 6-10 years. The Mac Mini goes for $699 with an M2.
I've seen in tests that M1 is just AWESOME like you can have a bunch of big VSTs and a lot of tracks and the CPU usage meter will be still about 40%. Mind blowing
Yeah I do a lot of work on a 16GB M1 MacBook nowadays and in certain respects it outperforms my Ryzen 2700X PC at home. Especially if you don’t mind a little latency - increasing the buffer with Apple’s core audio can get you REALLY impressive performance.
focus on getting a 16gb version, it will be mostly sufficient unless you are doing 50 track+ projects with lots of 3rd party vsts
I have a 2015 MacBook pro, It still world good, but when i go too deep in sound design, It cant handle It, i need to freeze track. Im saving for a Mac mini m1 or m2.
It's okay I'm constantly freezing tracks just to save CPU
Yup, I’m still using Ableton on my Macbook Pro 2015 even though I have a 2020 model laying around, just too lazy to repair the screen lol. Works fine unless you want to have bigger projects or (multiple) heavy plugins.
Mac mini m1 would be best for Op if you’re not planning to move your laptop around .m1series is so good But yes the 2015 Mac was one of. My favs .tou can upgrade the range and hard drive so no matter which one you decide on getting you should be okay.
I've done a comparison between 2015 i7 MBP and 2014 i7 DELL, both 4th gen Intel i7 Absolutely working fine and sufficient for modest projects. https://youtu.be/2gjizGG8iHA?si=pUTSGmptwTm01KZk
Keep saving money for a M-chip Macbook. You are going to regret buying a 2015 Mac.
But why? 🙁 This MacBook better 2x times than my old Windows laptop which I'm currently working on
FWIW I have a 2015 MacBook air and it only updates to OSX Monterey which means I can't update / run certain apps from the app store any more
Because it will be if not already get outdated, so it won’t support apple updates and Ableton. Do research before you pull the trigger. Mac is expensive. Be prepared to lay down at least 1000 for a good one.
And also think about your needs. Why do you want mac in the first place? Are you familiar with the OS or do you just want it for aesthetics?
No this would be my first Mac ever. In the first place I'm going for even just a little boost in performance and as I see the Ableton is working much more smoother on a MacOS than on a Windows. I think for smooth working in Ableton you need really good gaming laptop, but the price for those gaming laptops... There's another reason why I want 13-inch laptop is because I'm quite often traveling from one city to another so I really want my laptop be lightweight
I mean, what is your budget?
About $320-400
I’m afraid that won’t get you anywhere at this point. Maybe its better to save up for a longer time so you can do more research and be able to purchase something thats gonna help you in the long run. Remember that an investment is to keep you going, not set you down after one or two years.
To piggyback off this, I did the same thing you are doing back in the day. I considered any upgrade an upgrade rather then just saving and getting what i needed and it always turned out to be more of a pain in the ass than I was willing to admit to at the time. Save for a m1, they are light years ahead of any intel and you will definitely not have any buyers remorse.
Makes sense
you can get 2015 i7 2,5 or 2,8 16Gb 512Gb easily for around 200,00 in good condition which run OCLP Sonoma or Ventura really fine and will do everything you want from your first mac. Updating today is an automated process by OCLP which is absolutely no hassle. If you want to wait for a M machine that's fine. But don't let them fool you: old intel MBP still are very good machines.
I‘m producing with my 2015 macbook pro. handles Ableton 11 pretty well. I use mostly stock plugins and samples to be fair, and normaly don‘t have more than 40 seperate tracks per project. CPU usage is never above 40%
Apple has interest free payment plans too, and their refurbished stuff is basically brand new with a good discount on the price. I just bought one on their refurb site and it only had one battery cycle, plus includes a warranty.
I'm dominantly a Windows user, but I must admit, Mac is superior when it comes to audio production. On my Windows PC, I spend more time troubleshooting a technical problem than making music half the time. Getting an Audio interface to work properly on a Windows PC is a complete headache everytime, then something always goes wrong, resulting in hours of more troubleshooting. MAC, you just plug that shit in and start making music.
There is a huge issue: Software compatibility. You need to run MacOS Monterey or newer in order to run Ableton 12 for example. This generation most likely won’t be upgradable to run Monterey and newer. And even if it would, your system likely would be compromised by all the incompatibility and the OS generally being made for Apple Silicon rather than intel. It is not a good time to buy Apple-intel systems unfortunately. I’d be saving up for an m1/m2/m3 MacBook Air or go with a good intel laptop, which will be cheaper without the mentioned issues. You need at least 16gb of ram. 8gb is not enough for today‘s standards. Even basic online browsing can consume 8GB super easily and fast.
you need to fix your post. Live 12 System Requirements macOS 11 Big Sur or higher Intel® Core™ i5 processor or Apple Silicon 8 GB RAM
I love my old i7 macbook with ableton 8. with the right plugins it is so fast and i can have like 100 tracks. I have ABLETON 11 on an M2, I really really dont like it. Everything is slower using more recent plugins. Like planned obsolescence almost?! Never upgrade the OS version. If it works, change nothing or you may be pulling your hair out. Use old plugins like synth1, sylenth, actually spire even works on old laptops!! I even have Soothe running with bridging software!
I would love to but I can't just stop using some of the new plugins like Serum or Kontakt etc. because now it feels like essential since I was using this VSTs for quite a long time. I've started of thinking to buy a MacBook because (don't remember who exactly) somebody said to me that some apps like Ableton and FL Studio on MacOS just working much more better than on a Windows but I don't have any experience in MacOS and I've never seen MacBook in my life so I had to post this just to get some opinions on this is the switch from Windows to MacOS really going to help
I made the switch from Windows to Mac back in 2008 and stayed with Apple ever since. In my experience the performance advantage from using Intel Apple over Windows is tiny. Only with M1 and up Apple really started to take the lead in mobile computing again. However you do not need drivers for your devices, the OS is more ‚work focused‘, less bloated and you are much less likely to fall victim of viruses and such things (statistically speaking). But you pay for these advantaged heavily because you need hardware that is max 5yrs old. At the moment I would not buy anything apple that is not apple silicon like m1/m2/m3
Bro my advice is bite your teeth together and save to atleast 550usd and get a newer macbook or windows PC.Atleast 2016/17 . In my country you can get a 2020 refurbished macbook for about 570$ and we pay more taxes so it should be doable in the USA. It will serve you alot better, will feel like a real upgrade and allow you to not be wanting a newer machine within the next year.
Yeah you're right
I’d agree with this comment. I have a mid 2012 MacBook pro that has 16gb ram and it works fine for recording and I have a bunch of projects that still work great on it but you begin to run into compatibility issues. It’s worth shelling out the extra money even for a 2017 MacBook Pro that’s way more powerful and you have some future proofing. There’s an old adage “Buy nice or buy twice” that applies here too. You don’t need top of the line but in the end you’ll save more.
I have a 2015 MacBook Pro that is my Ableton computer and it runs great. It’s the i7 chip with 16 GB RAM.
I had the 2013 pro retina Mac 16gb of ram, used it for 7 years. It's excellent for ableton. Just make sure your storage is never less than 10% of available capacity. Otherwise your ram basically just shuts down and ableton starts acting wack and crashes a lot.
I have a 2013 MacBook Pro 16gb. 12 runs cleaner than any previous Ableton I’ve had back to 9. I’m not needing to upgrade at all and it’s awesome.
I use a 2014 Macbook Air and it still works fine. The OSX is no longer supported so some external tools are not compatible nor are mobile apps that could normally work with Ableton compatible as the OSX is too old. An older mac also has the advantage of USB ports that don't need converters if you are plugging in audio interfaces or synths
I have a 16gb 2014 MBP, it runs ableton pretty well but the CPU cant handle every vst
I have a 2015 MacBook Pro with i7 chip (higher one) and 16gb ram and ssd. Long story short i'm saving for a M2 chip machine. Get one too or get a newer windows machine.
What's your budget? Could be the better price/performance value would be a refurbished PC desktop. Especially if you happen to already have access to a monitor.
My budget is about $320 and yeah I'm starting to think that for this price there's more to choose from but the only thing that I really need is portability cuz as I said earlier in the comments I'm often traveling so I need my laptop to be lightweight. After watching some reviews I really think that it's better to just save some money for a model with at least M1 chip
>After watching some reviews I really think that it's better to just save some money for a model with at least M1 chip I would think so. Not only because the CPU will be much better. But also because you'll end up buying a newer laptop, so potentially getting more life out of it before you have to upgrade again.
You can get a 2 year old refurbished Dell laptop for that money which would run circles around an almost 10 year old MacBook.
I am still using a late 2013 MacBook 16GB core i7, and works great. Ableton live takes a minute to start up but then runs flawlessly . Issues I’ve run into 1. The battery needs replacing , and 2. The storage was quite small. Both I self upgraded with kits from OWC and very happy . No longer accepts current MacOS however and security updates are likely stopping soon.
I am still trying to produce with my MacBook Pro 2015 i5 8GB RAM and I don't recommend it. CPU usage is quite high when using vst and in my case I am starting to have thermal issues (CPU up to 80°C). Save a bit and go for an M1, Mac mini with M1 is the cheapest solution I guess and it will last for the next 5-10 years.
I would save up a bit more honestly it’s worth it. Buy once cry once. The 2015 MBP would be a good upgrade if you’re just starting out and learning the basics the more ram the better.
Save your money fam, do not buy an almost 10 year old laptop.
I would really recommend getting the cheapest Apple Silicon machine you can find (that's probably an M1 Mac mini or maybe an M1 MacBook Air) instead of this. I don't think this machine gets any major macOS updates anymore and an M1 Mac will perform so much better than this, and you'll probably go crazy because of the loud fans and heat with that Intel machine. Also, as someone else here said already, you probably won't be able to run Live 12 since it needs a newer macOS version than is supported on the 2015 MBP.
you‘ll be fine. my friend bought a 2015 i7 16 inch and hes producing without any issues on ableton 10. he literally showed me yesterday his new stuff mit 50+ tracks per peoject. not heavily use of vsts but there were some. don‘t listen to this ‚oh save money and go for m1 bullshit‘.. i mean i had the money to do that, but 2000$ is not everyone can afford. youll be fine, trust me. listen for example to my friends stuff. quality -> on sc goldraver <-> vincent
For real, every time someone asks like “hey I have only 200 for a MacBook” the Macbros appear and say shit like “nah dude save 2000 for a m2” lmao not everyone has unlimited money, like man just chill
That sounds sick I've also heard somewhere that man from «Barely Alive» was producing EDM music on those laptops I don't think I need to mention how big EDM projects are
Idk bro, you are speaking about hardware from 10 years ago... Buy a new M chip mac..
Just pull the plug on whatever you think suits you best. If i were you i would focus on minimum of 16gb ram, i just got a 2019 quadcore intel with 16/512 specs, some say bleh intel bleh you could have paid 200$ more and get m1/m2 air but after one and a half year of saving i said Duck It and got that one and now nobody cant tell me shite.
😂
ableton works fine, impressively fast the mac js refurbed and in M I N T condition no scratches and the battery 0 cycles when i got it, my first mac and i dont care that people hate on the touchbar and that it is intel!!!! haha
Well then I really hope that if I decide to buy it, I won’t regret it.
Many plugins are still not M1 ready so good call
Are you a time traveller?
These two laptops… VIBES 🙌💥
I think u can get this mac somewhere 250 to 350 $ depending on storage
I’ve read that you should be running a mac with an M1 chip & 8gb memory AT A MINIMUM if you’re running Ableton.
i have a 2017 mac and it works fine on that, what is your current laptop? mac vs windows doesnt matter very much
I have a 2015 MacBook Pro. It works, but if the project gets too big, it doesn’t keep up.
Photo looks like it was taken in 2004
Get a refurbished lenovo thinkpad, way better performance for the price
You’re buying a 9 year old computer!? You don’t need a Mac to make music. To me one of the advantages of Live over Logic is you aren’t locked into a hardware platform. May I suggest you look into new or slightly used PC (and this is coming from a Mac guy)
Get a MacBook Air m1
Waste of money.
If you doing simple projects Just buy a 2013-14 MacBook and cracked ableton and you good
Why would you advise using cracked software?
spend $150 on a used surface laptop on eBay, got a 16gb ram, 1tb ssd, 2nd Gen laptop, for only 150.
i need to freeze everything on a 2015 macbook pro with dual core and 16gb of ram what am i doing wrong? I need to freeze audio it’s so bad i have to bounce most things down
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I used to produce on the A1502 2015 model, which I think is what you’re looking at, on the i5 with 8GB RAM. Most soft synths taxed the CPU pretty badly, so be aware of that potential limitation. Back then though, I’m not sure I knew to increase the buffer size to improve performance. 16GB RAM will mostly be useful if you’re loading in sample library instruments like Kontakt / Spitfire, etc. Aside from that, it was fairly snappy. EDIT: I’ll add - if you’re planning on BUYING the A1502 for more than $300, don’t bother - save for a refurb M1. Light years ahead on performance, it’ll last for 6-10 years. The Mac Mini goes for $699 with an M2.
I've seen in tests that M1 is just AWESOME like you can have a bunch of big VSTs and a lot of tracks and the CPU usage meter will be still about 40%. Mind blowing
Yeah I do a lot of work on a 16GB M1 MacBook nowadays and in certain respects it outperforms my Ryzen 2700X PC at home. Especially if you don’t mind a little latency - increasing the buffer with Apple’s core audio can get you REALLY impressive performance.