Another MacBook thread

They are slightly upgradeable. You can add new RAM cards. (I would answer your question, but I have no experience of macbook airs)

The Macbook air is Apple's idea of a disposable netbook. Ram is not upgradable (it's integrated into the logic board). The hard drive is the 1.8" format so you can upgrade to a larger SSD if you want. None of that is a bad thing. You just don't get the mod-ability/upgrade-ability/repair-ability of a Macbook Pro. But here in 2014, even a budget i5 is a pretty potent machine. Just for cross-reference, my late 2008 2.8GHz C2D MBP lets me run live sound with at least 36 inputs and simultainiously record all the inputs to multitrack while I'm mixing. This is with "real-time" (ie. 11ms or less) low latency with a 128 sample disc buffer. Or I can do post production mixing with 100's of tracks and 100's of plug-ins (disc buffer at 1024 since there's no live monitoring going on). I play my guitar thru it too. Basically the live sound rig setup with a few channels of amp sims and looper stuff added. Still recording muiltitrack of myself and the whole band. It does seem somewhat punishing for that machine with cpu use in the 90% range. This MBP puts up with a lot of abuse and has been running nearly 24/7 since I got it in 2009. The 8 core i7 does all that with usually no more than 7 - 15% cpu use. Pretty sure just about anything here in 2014 will handle 16 tracks. :D Put a SSD in whatever you get.

Any of the current models should easily suffice. Don't underestimate the interface as a bottleneck for audio production. It, and especially the quality of the driver software, can make or break your system.

Get the i7 if you can but I've had zero problems with my i5 iMac. Get as much ram in it as you can; you can't upgrade later and its best to just max ANY daw out.

EXTREMLY grfeatful for all of your input, thank you guys! i think im going to get a MBA with the i7 and upgraded ram. it should suffice for my needs and seeing how everyone seems to be getting by with theyre old macs, i think itll be fine. Thanks again! Cheers

Walk into an Apple Store and explain that you want to test Reaper. They should allow you to install it on an Air and a Pro so you can compare.

You will be fine with apple's current macbook air lineup. I take a mid-2012 2GHz i7 with 8 GB's of RAM out on remote gigs with a Metric Halo LIO8 all the time. I run Reaper and Logic on it and have zero issues. Plenty of power to spare when you're tracking real/live instruments and vocalists. It's actually an awesome little portable box to have. I admit I dump everything to a Mac Pro for mixing most of the time but even just running an additional monitor / HD tv with the air makes it a powerful little recording tool.