Is the Apple MacBook Air M1 2020 model enough for my needs?

[Mikelo]

I'm looking to purchase my first apple laptop for portable recording.
As Apple is expensive, I'm looking at a basic 2020 MacBook Air M1 256GB with 8GB ram.
I'm not looking to create hundreds of virtual instrument tracks and effects, it's mainly for recording my guitars and basses.
I do use EZ drummer, EZ keys, Amplitube and a few softsynths (Synthmaster 1/2 and Bx Oberhausen for instance).
Basically what I'm asking, will an M1 MacBook Air with 8GB ram be enough??

[chagzuki]

I used one for a year or so. It coped with a lot of synth tracks, but I work on very complex projects and ultimately ran into limitations. So long as your needs don't expand you'd be fine with that, though the hard drive will run out of capacity very fast. I forget how much space the OS takes alone, but it's probably most of that drive. Unless you have a very smart system for offloading to an external drive you'd make life a lot easier with 512GB.

[chk071]

Does it have the 13.3" screen? If so, it's something to consider, as you probably will get the one or the other issue with screen real estate, either with plugins and/or your DAW.

[Mikelo]

Thanks for the replies. Not sure how much the O.S takes but I only plan on putting Cubase Essentials and the following plugins mentioned. I want to keep it minimal and work with the "less is more".
Currently I run my music through my 2009 Scan 3XS with the original i7 920 core and hard drives.
Over the years I've collected too much unused software that I never use (I think few of us are guilty of that). I write rock and metal, so guitars are my main instruments, Plus now I'm going to lose the room where my home studio is and I'm glad I am, oddly enough. Never get inspired when I'm looking at the laundry basket and the pile of crap my wife sticks in the spare room.

[Jolaff]

...
I'm not looking to create hundreds of virtual instrument tracks and effects, it's mainly for recording my guitars and basses.
...
Basically what I'm asking, will an M1 MacBook Air with 8GB ram be enough??

Yes, it will be enough !

I have the first Macbook Air M1 with 8 GB of ram and my projects have to be quite big to see a lack of ram. I don't see how it could be a problem just to record guitars and basses...

[Mikelo]

...
I'm not looking to create hundreds of virtual instrument tracks and effects, it's mainly for recording my guitars and basses.
...
Basically what I'm asking, will an M1 MacBook Air with 8GB ram be enough??

Yes, it will be enough !

I have the first Macbook Air M1 with 8 GB of ram and my projects have to be quite big to see a lack of ram. I don't see how it could be a problem just to record guitars and basses...

Hi Jolaff, that's great to hear
Can you please give a run down of what and how many instances you use in a typical project so I can get a rough idea what 8gb can cope with?

[Jolaff]

...
I'm not looking to create hundreds of virtual instrument tracks and effects, it's mainly for recording my guitars and basses.
...
Basically what I'm asking, will an M1 MacBook Air with 8GB ram be enough??

Yes, it will be enough !

I have the first Macbook Air M1 with 8 GB of ram and my projects have to be quite big to see a lack of ram. I don't see how it could be a problem just to record guitars and basses...

Hi Jolaff, that's great to hear
Can you please give a run down of what and how many instances you use in a typical project so I can get a rough idea what 8gb can cope with?

It's hard to say ...my projects usually goes up to 80 tracks at least with something like 10 instances of serum, 10 spires and the rest are samples and sampler that plays drum hit. At that point it glitch when the song goes from one section to another (when a couple of new instruments start playing). I had to adapt my way of "working".

Maybe you could load one of your project and check your activity monitor in your OS to see how much RAM Cubase is using. I think that would gives you a better idea...

[Jolaff]

By the way, check if your EZ Toontrack stuff are supported on the latests MacOS ...I have Superior Drummer 2 but I can't use it anymore ...I would have to buy Superior Drummer 3...

[machinesworking]

I'm looking to purchase my first apple laptop for portable recording.
As Apple is expensive, I'm looking at a basic 2020 MacBook Air M1 256GB with 8GB ram.
I'm not looking to create hundreds of virtual instrument tracks and effects, it's mainly for recording my guitars and basses.
I do use EZ drummer, EZ keys, Amplitube and a few softsynths (Synthmaster 1/2 and Bx Oberhausen for instance).
Basically what I'm asking, will an M1 MacBook Air with 8GB ram be enough??

I run an M1 Air 16GB 1TB and it's more than powerful enough. It replaces a 12 core 3.33ghz Mac Pro for most things here.

IMO do what you can to get more RAM and at least 512GB SSD though. The only downside to SSDs is the smaller ones are going to fail quicker, so a 256 is going to fail before a 512. My solution might not work for you, but I bought used, there's enough graphic designers and tech people in my area that it's not uncommon to find 3-9 month old laptops on craigslist for 30-40% off retail, and still eligible for Apple Care.

[Mikelo]

Thanks Jolaff for your reply. Sounds like it can handle more than enough for what I need.
To answer your Toontrack compatibility question, yes Toontrack have updated native silicone support for Ez drummer and Superior.

[chk071]

Out of interest I'll ask again: Does the Macbook Air you want to buy have a 13.3" screen? If so, how do you cope with screen real estate, or the size of control elements on the screen? I recently bought a 14" laptop, and I will sell it again, because I just can't cope with the lack of space on the screen. It's a bit of a different thing though, as 1. Windows does scaling differently, and 2. it has a 16:p aspect ratio which isn't ideal for vertical screen space.

Especially for DAW's which IMO don't scale/resize very nicely, it can be a real problem. For Studio One, for example, I wouldn't recommend anything below 1920x1080 resolution and 100% scaling. Even with 125% scaling on my laptop, there already were control elements in the track inspector which weren't accessible.

[tehlord]

Should be more than enough for your needs. They are incredibly powerful for the money.

Just for reference, I created this project on PC, but after uploading the project to Dropbox I ran it on the Macbook Air with no problems at all. I recall the CPU use being under 40% just using Core Audio and no soundcard at 256 samples. I link the video as it kinda shows what the project consists of.

[Mikelo]

I'm looking to purchase my first apple laptop for portable recording.
As Apple is expensive, I'm looking at a basic 2020 MacBook Air M1 256GB with 8GB ram.
I'm not looking to create hundreds of virtual instrument tracks and effects, it's mainly for recording my guitars and basses.
I do use EZ drummer, EZ keys, Amplitube and a few softsynths (Synthmaster 1/2 and Bx Oberhausen for instance).
Basically what I'm asking, will an M1 MacBook Air with 8GB ram be enough??

I run an M1 Air 16GB 1TB and it's more than powerful enough. It replaces a 12 core 3.33ghz Mac Pro for most things here.

IMO do what you can to get more RAM and at least 512GB SSD though. The only downside to SSDs is the smaller ones are going to fail quicker, so a 256 is going to fail before a 512. My solution might not work for you, but I bought used, there's enough graphic designers and tech people in my area that it's not uncommon to find 3-9 month old laptops on craigslist for 30-40% off retail, and still eligible for Apple Care.

Thanks for chipping in!
I know this might sound odd and maybe weird, but I don't like buying second hand. Sorry, I know it sounds strange.
Even with guitars, I always buy from new
I see the 8gb MacBook Air m1 for £829 in a local store and similar prices in other stores, but they are all 8gb.
To tailor 16gb ram, it only seems available in the Apple store and that bumps the price to £1199. That's a big difference from £829.

[chagzuki]

16gb ram is certainly nice and might prolong the life of the ssd, but M1 systems work really well on 8gb. I'd prioritise ssd capacity over ram.
I did find the Air thermal throttled at times, though not that much. Nevertheless, a 2020 13" MacBook Pro would be a better option if prices are similar.

[Mikelo]

Out of interest I'll ask again: Does the Macbook Air you want to buy have a 13.3" screen? If so, how do you cope with screen real estate, or the size of control elements on the screen? I recently bought a 14" laptop, and I will sell it again, because I just can't cope with the lack of space on the screen. It's a bit of a different thing though, as 1. Windows does scaling differently, and 2. it has a 16:p aspect ratio which isn't ideal for vertical screen space.

Especially for DAW's which IMO don't scale/resize very nicely, it can be a real problem. For Studio One, for example, I wouldn't recommend anything below 1920x1080 resolution and 100% scaling. Even with 125% scaling on my laptop, there already were control elements in the track inspector which weren't accessible.

Sorry for late reply, yes it's 13.3
Oddly enough, I prefer compact in size..