MacBook Air M1 - who needs the "pro?"

To many ads? Support ODJT and see no ads!
ian

ian

DJ Extraordinaire
Apr 29, 2011
64
89
49
UK
www.discofever.co.uk
I've always been a mac kinda guy, for nearly 20 years now and when DJ'ing, certainly in the last 10 or so years, the MacBook Pro was always my weapon of choice. My laptop bag was stolen out of my car in October last year and whilst I didn't bother replacing it straight away because here in the UK we've not really been able to do parties properly until the 19th of July, I never bothered buying another laptop.

I did however buy the Mac Mini M1 for office work and was quite a useful machine. In fact I did take it out and did a few gigs with it and it worked well with a portable USB-C 4K display. But I'll be honest, it was a bit of a headache carrying the wires, the keyboard and mouse, etc.

A few weeks ago I faced a dilemma...parties were starting again and I needed a laptop. The Air M1 has a great price right now and there were plenty of buying opportunities for M1 MacBook Pro's as well but when it came to saving a bit of money, I leaned more towards the Air. Surely it was powerful enough to run Rekordbox?

Anyway, I bit the bullet and picked up a 16GB / 1TB MacBook Air and am happy to report it works just fine. No more MacBook pro's for me!
 
  • Like
Reactions: ittigger and sonic-vision
Glad to hear it's working for you :)

Pretty much any laptop should run Recordbox just fine and Apple excels at any media you will have good luck for a long time with that machine. The only real problem I have with the Air, aside from the fact I personally am real clunky with a Mac is the screen size. For these old eyes 13.3 is a little small. For me 15.6 is a bare minimum requirement
 
  • Like
Reactions: MIXMASTERMACHOM, Andy A, ittigger and 1 other person
I am in love with my new MBA M1. No fans, and it never gets hot, not to mention insanely fast.

I honestly bought it b/c of overheating issues with direct sunlight in outdoor gigs.

I have yet to get it to overheat.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Andy A and ittigger
I use to use both but found myself getting more frustrated on Windows. My other job is IT, and I have now just marketed myself to Mac only as Windows causes me to pull my hair out lol. It's so lackluster and I feel like I am stuck in 2001. Everything takes longer, more clicks, more hassle, and I am not as efficient.

Windows still does not have a quick preview feature!!! It take it for granted hitting the spacebar on my mac to view files quickly.

But as I mentioned, they heat up quickly and in direct sun, Serato is not happy. I literally bought the M1 b/c of no fans.
 
BlueLineDJ said:
Once you go Mac you never go back! I love my pro. I use Megaseg with it to DJ. Flawless.
Click to expand...
I used Mac and went back. I used a MBA from 2016-2018. My two main complaints were that there was no touchscreen option and that the hinge only opened to about 120-130 degrees. When lying on the couch with my feet up, I often have my 2-in-1 open to ~180 degrees.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ittigger
I remember somebody saying if you're not using a Mac you're not a true DJ. Most people expect you to use a Mac. I have never used a Mac and I have no issues with what I use to DJ with. For me the price is too much. I have a lenovo I'm using now to make this post and no issues.
 
ittigger said:
I know of no one that 'expects you to use a Mac'. They expect you to perform.
Click to expand...
I said it wrong. Some people are use to seeing a DJ use a Mac laptop. For me it's about making sure you have the right laptop to get the job done with. For me using VDJ you certainly need enough ram speed to run the program so it doesn't have buffering issues. Before you needed at least 4 gigs of ram to run VDJ. Now with the graded version you probably need more ram speed.. so far the 2 laptops I have are working great. No need to buy a Mac.
 
MIXMASTERMACHOM said:
I said it wrong. Some people are use to seeing a DJ use a Mac laptop. For me it's about making sure you have the right laptop to get the job done with. For me using VDJ you certainly need enough ram speed to run the program so it doesn't have buffering issues. Before you needed at least 4 gigs of ram to run VDJ. Now with the graded version you probably need more ram speed.. so far the 2 laptops I have are working great. No need to buy a Mac.
Click to expand...
Again, I know of no one that's 'use to seeing a DJ use a Mac'. They expect you to perform. As for system performance, it's about much more than ram speed and size.
 
  • Like
Reactions: SEDJ and Jeff Romard
MIXMASTERMACHOM said:
I said it wrong. Some people are use to seeing a DJ use a Mac laptop. For me it's about making sure you have the right laptop to get the job done with. For me using VDJ you certainly need enough ram speed to run the program so it doesn't have buffering issues. Before you needed at least 4 gigs of ram to run VDJ. Now with the graded version you probably need more ram speed.. so far the 2 laptops I have are working great. No need to buy a Mac.
Click to expand...

I can run VDJ with video on a 14 year old laptop with Win 7 on it....That's not what I normally use for video I use it for a backup but it works just fine
 
  • Like
Reactions: ittigger and sonic-vision
ian said:
I've always been a mac kinda guy, for nearly 20 years now and when DJ'ing, certainly in the last 10 or so years, the MacBook Pro was always my weapon of choice. My laptop bag was stolen out of my car in October last year and whilst I didn't bother replacing it straight away because here in the UK we've not really been able to do parties properly until the 19th of July, I never bothered buying another laptop.

I did however buy the Mac Mini M1 for office work and was quite a useful machine. In fact I did take it out and did a few gigs with it and it worked well with a portable USB-C 4K display. But I'll be honest, it was a bit of a headache carrying the wires, the keyboard and mouse, etc.

A few weeks ago I faced a dilemma...parties were starting again and I needed a laptop. The Air M1 has a great price right now and there were plenty of buying opportunities for M1 MacBook Pro's as well but when it came to saving a bit of money, I leaned more towards the Air. Surely it was powerful enough to run Rekordbox?

Anyway, I bit the bullet and picked up a 16GB / 1TB MacBook Air and am happy to report it works just fine. No more MacBook pro's for me!
Click to expand...


So, my fellow DJ's - I am looking to buy a new laptop and looking very seriously at the Mac Air. To set the stage, I currently use a PC with NO controller and just use my laptop as my controller. I do 98% weddings, nothing that I really need to be mix artist. While I do a little mixing, my main concern is just to keep the music moving and keep people dancing, so far... I have been successful with those tasks at hand.
So, my question is this; can I use the MAC Air the same way? By the way, I am using VDJ and very happy with it, so my plan would be to load VDJ on the new MAC Air and use the laptop to drive my music. Additionally, does VDJ and Apple work well together and do they allow me to import my itunes music library as part of my playlist?
Thanks in advance for your assistance
 
I have a super old Lenovo I have been using for years to DJ with that I paid less then $50 for and it has not failed me yet. I bought another new Lenovo laptop from Micro Center that I'm using to make this post. I have it as a backup. It's not that you have to have a super expensive laptop to use to DJ with. It's about using the right one to DJ with. Some swear by a Mac Book laptop and won't use anything else to DJ with. That's fine if that's how you feel. I just can't justify spending over $1,000 for a laptop to DJ with. I know others have put me down for me using that old laptop. So far so good. Just needed to buy a battery for that laptop. So far I keep that machine from going online.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back