I have a 15" 2017 i7 2.9ghz Macbook Pro (touchbar) 500gb SSD and 16gb ram and a Microsoft Surface Laptop (1st generation) with an i5 CPU, 256gb ssd and 8gb ram. I use the Macbook Pro entirely for my audio/midi music studio and my Surface Laptop entirely for work use (mainly email/browser/office type work). I also use Dropbox and have almost a full terrabyte of data there I partially sync to multiple devices (due to storage constraints). On my macbook pro I need to use an external SSD to have more of the dropbox contents sync, which is a pain. I hate the surface laptop, it is the most useless device I have ever owned, won't go into the specifics but needless to say, I don't want it anymore.
I have been looking at the 2018 Macbook air and wondering if I could replace both devices. Ideally I'd buy the regular macbook but it can't support enough storage. I was thinking a 2018 Macbook Air with 16gb of ram and a 1.5TB drive would allow me to have 256gb for Mac OS, 256gb for Windows 10 for work (bootcamp) and 1tb for dropbox to sync (maybe on both OS's, not sure how that will go).
What is holding me back from buying the Air with confidence:
1) I will need to sell both other laptops to buy it, so need it to take the place of both of them without issue
2) It is really a downgrade from the Macbook Pro, which I love but is too big to carry around for work. I have a LOT of meetings
3) In my music studio I plug in a large amount of USB devices (32 channel mixer, many synths, drum machines and midi controllers). Particularly with the audio IO (32 inputs and outputs being accessible at once if needed) and the lesser number of USB C ports, I'm wondering if the USB bandwidth might become saturated? I'm not sure if there are 4 dedicated USB host/hubs on the macbook pro but it handles it all very well. The guy at the apple store told me that in the Air they may be shared (eg a single USB host/hub on the logic board for all USB to go through)
4) I have seen a bunch of posts saying the T2 chip can cause issues with USB audio and midi devices
5) Whilst I don't use any VST/AU plugins within my DAW (Ableton Live Studio), I do use some FX on recorded tracks. The main audio load is the recording and playback of the audio tracks and making sure not to introduce additional latency or midi timing issues. There is a big drop between the quad core 2.9ghz i7 and the 1.6ghz dual core i5 processor on the Air.
6) The Air comes with Mojave, which I don't think is supported yet by all of the audio software I use, have kept the macbook pro on high sierra for the time being, but that won't be possible on the Air.
Its nearly $4000 to buy the Air in this spec in Australia, which is about the same cost of the 15" pro I bought not that long ago, seems nuts to spend this but the form factor and internal storage are really important to me.
What do people think? Will I be able to do what I need with the Air? Am I making a mistake to get the Air?
Please don't reply telling me to lug the macbook pro around because its an awesome laptop, its not practical
Thanks in advance!
I have been looking at the 2018 Macbook air and wondering if I could replace both devices. Ideally I'd buy the regular macbook but it can't support enough storage. I was thinking a 2018 Macbook Air with 16gb of ram and a 1.5TB drive would allow me to have 256gb for Mac OS, 256gb for Windows 10 for work (bootcamp) and 1tb for dropbox to sync (maybe on both OS's, not sure how that will go).
What is holding me back from buying the Air with confidence:
1) I will need to sell both other laptops to buy it, so need it to take the place of both of them without issue
2) It is really a downgrade from the Macbook Pro, which I love but is too big to carry around for work. I have a LOT of meetings
3) In my music studio I plug in a large amount of USB devices (32 channel mixer, many synths, drum machines and midi controllers). Particularly with the audio IO (32 inputs and outputs being accessible at once if needed) and the lesser number of USB C ports, I'm wondering if the USB bandwidth might become saturated? I'm not sure if there are 4 dedicated USB host/hubs on the macbook pro but it handles it all very well. The guy at the apple store told me that in the Air they may be shared (eg a single USB host/hub on the logic board for all USB to go through)
4) I have seen a bunch of posts saying the T2 chip can cause issues with USB audio and midi devices
5) Whilst I don't use any VST/AU plugins within my DAW (Ableton Live Studio), I do use some FX on recorded tracks. The main audio load is the recording and playback of the audio tracks and making sure not to introduce additional latency or midi timing issues. There is a big drop between the quad core 2.9ghz i7 and the 1.6ghz dual core i5 processor on the Air.
6) The Air comes with Mojave, which I don't think is supported yet by all of the audio software I use, have kept the macbook pro on high sierra for the time being, but that won't be possible on the Air.
Its nearly $4000 to buy the Air in this spec in Australia, which is about the same cost of the 15" pro I bought not that long ago, seems nuts to spend this but the form factor and internal storage are really important to me.
What do people think? Will I be able to do what I need with the Air? Am I making a mistake to get the Air?
Please don't reply telling me to lug the macbook pro around because its an awesome laptop, its not practical
Thanks in advance!
