M1 Mac Mini running Atmos Renderer 3.7.0
 

Took the leap and bought a brand new M1 Mac Mini (Big Sur), installed iLok License Manager, installed Ravenna driver, and installed Dolby Atmos Renderer 3.7.0 and happy to report that all is working smoothly from ProTools to Renderer and back!

Re: M1 Mac Mini running Atmos Renderer 3.7.0
 

Good to hear. I also have a fully loaded Apple Silicon Mac Mini and the only real culprits so far are video engine not working and sonnox pro codec not working in any format or standalone. Other minor annoyances with AIR virtual instruments and SoundToys AU plugins, but that is something I can live with for now.

Re: M1 Mac Mini running Atmos Renderer 3.7.0
 

Just a quick question. How are you connecting the renderer to PT? How many channels are you getting in and out of the renderer?

Re: M1 Mac Mini running Atmos Renderer 3.7.0
 

If you’re running PT and DAPS on the same machine then the Dolby Audio Bridge is the most efficient way to get audio to the Renderer. 130 channels. It’s a one way path only from PT to Renderer

Audio out from the Renderer is through your audio hardware interface. At least 12 channels minimum for 7.1.4.

If using headphones as well for Binaural monitoring or using any live re-renders then you’ll need more hardware outputs.

Re: M1 Mac Mini running Atmos Renderer 3.7.0
 

I'm using Ravenna connecting 32 channels from my main PT system (on a 5,1 MacPro) over to the M1 running Production Suite, and then routing the main 7.1.4 output plus a live 2.0 re-render, and a binaural re-render over to Anubis (monitor controller) and then routed over to HORUS to feed main 7.1.4 speakers (Neumann KH120A), 2.1 monitors (ATC SCM20ASL) and headphones for Binaural.

I found out (although have not tested), after-the-fact, that you can only route 32 channels to the Production Suite version of the renderer. At some point, I'll upgrade Mastering Suite, but this is fine for now... I'm not doing crazy amounts of object stuff...

Re: M1 Mac Mini running Atmos Renderer 3.7.0
 

Do some testing. It is possible to run a full 128 channels of audio into Dolby Atmos Production Suite, unless they changed something in 3.7. Pro Tools has also increased the coreaudio I/O coint to 64 channels in 2021.6 or later.

Re: M1 Mac Mini running Atmos Renderer 3.7.0
 

Are you using Dolby Audio Bridge as your playback engine in Pro Tools?

Re: M1 Mac Mini running Atmos Renderer 3.7.0
 

It wouldn’t be possible in his setup with a 5.1 Mac Pro running pro tools and an external renderer running on an M1 Mac mini.

Re: M1 Mac Mini running Atmos Renderer 3.7.0
 

Well, I'm running an external machine to run the renderer because I kinda hate the Dolby Bridge. Using it, means that you're unable to use any hardware inserts, can't do a last minute overdub, you have to make a substantial change in terms of IO when you go between tracking mode and mix mode, you have very limited ability to route audio around your system (of course ProTools will only support ONE playback engine device, meaning that you cannot choose one source for inputs and another for outputs unless you use a super-flaky aggregate setup), and if you're monitoring through the Dolby Bridge, it's very painful to do regular editing & mixing tasks with the round-trip path of the renderer to your monitoring system.. It's fine for learning, etc., but I bet you'd be hard pressed to find a single pro facility running the bridge in their Atmos mix room (unless it's a small suite...)


Anyhow, happy to report that M1 is rockin' for this task!

Re: M1 Mac Mini running Atmos Renderer 3.7.0
 

I would have thought the vast majority of Dolby Atmos content created in Pro Tools comes from DAPS and DAB. DAB certainly isn't perfect... but then again, either is the prospect of spending $14,000 on hardware to achieve pretty much an identical result in many cases.