Sascha Franck

Yeah, I already found them. Pretty weird to me as these have been Logic's defaults since, well, forever or so. And all of a sudden they're assigned to some system functions. Anyhow, in this case I think I'll try to get used to the new combination - which is making sense on a Macbook anyway, because the command key is on the right side of the keyboard as well, whereas the CTL key isn't (on a full size keyboard it is). So when working without an external keyboard, that's the better way to zoom in/out.

I have some of their mobile gadget peripherals (also another HUB), and while not great, they always did their jobs fine. But this is really annoying...

Yeah, it's been the key commands. Let's hope I won't find much else along those lines (I have sort of elaborated set of my own KCs). Yeah, I'm aware of that. Thanks anyway!

Oh, let me look - that might be it, I just imported my old ones. Hold on...

Sorry, but that doesn't work, either.

Title says it all. You could use the CTL key and the arrow keys to zoom in/out for decades. Doesn't work in 10.8.1 on my new MBA anymore. It rather triggers some scrolling through Spaces or whatever. Can I get that back?

Fwiw, as far as the little HUB I bought goes: Don't! I just discovered my mouse would only work on one of the 3 USB-A ports. Ridiculous. Other things are working fine on the other ports, but this is too fishy for me so it'll go back.

The only thing I noticed is that I already need more ports. Getting along for now, but will order a larger one the next days and use this for traveling. Regarding anything else, this thing just delivers. I'm really having issues with Apples pricing ideas, but in case the thing won't break and stay alive without issues for the next 5 years, I think it'll be money well spent. Also quite happy I went with the 13" instead of the 15" (which was my first plan), the form factor is just perfect.

Fwiw, the little HUB I bought works as supposed. It's made by Hama and called "USB-C Multiport + HDMI, Ethernet". Might buy their bigger version, too, already running out of USB-A ports (but this one will be perfect for traveling).

Ok, first very, very rough tests. Logic Benchmark #2 from here: https://music-prod.com/logic-pro-benchmarks/ 128 tracks. Very good. My Mac Pro (see signature) does 92, which I was quite satisfied with already (never needed all the multithreading performance anyway). I was switching to the maximum number of cores in the preferences - and well, the E-cores are in fact in use. Possibly not just as much as they could be, though - but still, 128 tracks is more than what people got from M1/M2 machines and very likely more than what I may ever need. But now it comes. The very thing my MP was lacking off the most has been singlethread-"oomph". One of the reasons why I wanted to get a new computer, so I could always work at 32 samples buffersize and never worry. I was creating a little singlethread test that I think translates pretty well to real life experiences. Goes like: ES2 playing 3 voices (really doesn't matter, could've been anything to "trigger" the signal path) followed by Space Designer instances in each insert, using the factory default setting with the wet slider all the way down and the quality set to "low" (which allows for finer scaling). As each channel strip would only allow for 15 inserts, I'm running the channel strip output into bus 1, bus 1's output in bus 2 and so on, just to force serial (hence singlethreaded) processing (obviously, the track needs to be selected for that as well). I would then go through the various buffer sizes. On the Mac Pro that is. Because on the Macbook Air I had to take a break after 32 samples buffer size. Because, well, the MP got me 14 SD instances before crackles appeared. The MBA however managed to fo 50-51 perfectly flawless, at around 52-53 things started to feel a little laggy and at 54-55 crackles showed up. So, after that test I had to take a break to look for my jaw which was somewhere on the floor. I needed it for that big grin...

I just picked up my MBA and got a €30 HUB from the multimedia shop on the way back. HDMI, Ethernet, 3 x USB-A, 1 x USB-C /w power-thru. Will report whether it works well. There's one with more ports for roughly 90 bucks. The one you've linked to is way too expensive in case you don't need TB/USB-C outs.

From all I know (and obviously that's quite plausible) you can squeeze some more juice out of the Pros because of the fan. When reaching a certain CPU load, the MBA has no other way of dealing with it but to either just say "no" or throttle the CPU speed. The MBP then still has the fan available. Whether that difference is worth the extra money - not for me at least. I absolutely love the idea of a laptop with zero moving parts inside, especially as replacing the fan in my Macbook back then has turned into a major drama. And it'd be even more of a drama these days as you likely can't do it yourself at all anymore.

Fwiw, I just ordered a maxed out M3 MBA (13", 24GB, 2TB), once it'll be there and Logic is installed, I'll happily put it through it's paces, running the infamous Logic Benchmark (or rather version 2 of it) and report here. Got an extra test regarding single core performance, too (which the Logic Benchmark pretty much deliberately excludes), which would be the most important thing for me. The dealer at first told me I might've to wait for up to 4 weeks, but the latest information is that it could be here in 2-3 days already (I rather don't trust that, fingers crossed, though).

Space Designer Manager is a (non free) third party utility to create Space Desiger presets (along with the audio files) so you can access them from the preset menu or library tab easily. But you don't need it for a start. If you want a free, pretty much no fuss IR loader, you might want to check this: https://www.igniteamps.com/#nadir or this: https://lancasteraudio.com/shop/plugins/pulse/ They're basically pretty much the same (perhaps even using the same code base). Oh fwiw, those two allow you to mix and match 2 IRs at the same time, which you might find useful.

And btw, make sure to mute the dry output of SD.