M1 Mac Mini/PT 2021 having Memory issues?
 

Hey wise wayward wizards of Pro Tools, I'm an intermediately skilled PT user, but I must say I'm at a loss here. I upgraded from a 2015 MBP (16 GB RAM) to: M1 Mac Mini (16 GB RAM), PT 2021.3.1, 4 TB ext SSD for libraries.

Video Engine is always OFF. Cache size = Normal.

Ok. That should be insanely sufficient from what I've seen on the YouTOOBS in the past 6 months to run some medium-sized hybrid orchestral, virtual instrument-focused, sessions. Here's how I used to understand the best way for Pro Tools to handle multiple KONTAKT libraries:
Load up 1 instance of Kontakt, route the many outputs, and libraries inside that single instance, as I've done on my MBP for years.

Of course I'd have to bounce down to audio every so often, but it was doable. Editing your MIDI, going back to change parts that you'd bounced down already.....not ideal. So enter the M1 Mini.

Same setup as before, now I'm getting error messages saying the Memory is being capped out? Sure enough in System Usage, the idiot Memory meter, which only goes up (NEVER down), is upwards of 80%? On an M1? The CPU % is crazy low, that's great. But the memory meter continues to grow until you Quit out PT and re-open. Even after closing out all instruments, etc.

But why then, is the Memory peaking?
Sure a Kontakt Jaeger Violin + Viola patch + Damage 2 would seem a bit much for a MacBook Pro pre-M1, but this seems....wrong now. The M1 is a beast, to be sure. And will only get better when companies catch up. So what's going on?

Gents I'd love to be able to have a session with 40-50 MIDI tracks playing simultaneously - not even bounced down to audio yet. It seems like a dream.

Are there Kontakt, Pro Tools settings that I'm just flat out missing?
Do I load up one Kontakt instance PER .nki / instrument like you would for Logic?
Is it best to run the session off the ext SSD, or the M1's desktop? I've been running it off the desktop, but attempting from the SSD next.

Any help is greatly appreciated!! Apologies if I've missed something here, there are SO many friggin variables it becomes a bit over-whelming

Re: M1 Mac Mini/PT 2021 having Memory issues?
 

Hi, welcome to the community.

Apple Silicon is not yet natively supported. That may be the cause of your issues.

Re: M1 Mac Mini/PT 2021 having Memory issues?
 

Same here. I think it's because pro tools is not compatible with M1 yet. So there are still some issues there to be solved.

Re: M1 Mac Mini/PT 2021 having Memory issues?
 

Not only is PT not natively supported, but I don’t believe NI products are compatible either.

Some people have had success running everything under Rosetta, but you’re definitely in unsupported territory across the board atm.


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Re: M1 Mac Mini/PT 2021 having Memory issues?
 

Thanks so much for the replies. Yep, yalls is 100% right - while it technically "works", it just can't really take advantage of that ARM processor setup, so it runs just like an Intel w/ 16GB would run huh? welp. :(

That's fun. Still a bad@$$ machine, but we're just all in that waiting game.

Hope yall have a great weekend, keep on trackin

Re: M1 Mac Mini/PT 2021 having Memory issues?
 

It's still 16g ram. Too little.

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Re: M1 Mac Mini/PT 2021 having Memory issues?
 

They don't make M1's with more than 16 at the moment.

In short time 16GB of RAM with Pro Tools will be as sufficient as a system 3-4x its memory. That time is not now :D

I've made 16GB of RAM work for years on my MacBook Pro, for the hybrid orchestral music I create. It's definitely not ideal, but it's doable. The RAM race will be over, but the question on everyone's mind is just: when will Pro Tools catch up to the M1 technology?

Re: M1 Mac Mini/PT 2021 having Memory issues?
 

No, it won’t.

Re: M1 Mac Mini/PT 2021 having Memory issues?
 

Good luck loading 64GB library into 16GB memory, it needs whole another kind of optimisation if your system is severely memory constrained.

Re: M1 Mac Mini/PT 2021 having Memory issues?
 

"Is it best to run the session off the ext SSD, or the M1's desktop? I've been running it off the desktop, but attempting from the SSD next."

I believe that you should *always* save to and run your sessions from an external drive. I clearly recall Avid's instructions specifying that as being the best way to work in PT.