Carbon - Intel Mac mini vs M1/M1x Mac mini

[darkwavo]

Originally Posted by JFreak

Hopefully we see progress in early 2022. Apple just updated Monterey to 12.1 version and it seems to have fixed the memory leak problems. Too early to confirm, but if that is the case, then Avid has something to build on. So I would expect Apple Silicon native PT software (and plugins) within the first quarter. But it is just an educated guess, nothing more. Hang in there!

Thanks for the update.
Anyone have a workaround suggestion for mixes in progress that have the 304c / Fairchild plugs in use.
I’m using them on busses, what’s the best way to commit these sounds on my Big Sur/ laptop rig so I can keep working on my new iMac/Monterey rig ?

Thank you all!

[darkwavo]

Originally Posted by darkwavo

Thanks for the update.
Anyone have a workaround suggestion for mixes in progress that have the 304c / Fairchild plugs in use.
I’m using them on busses, what’s the best way to commit these sounds on my Big Sur/ laptop rig so I can keep working on my new iMac/Monterey rig ?

Thank you all!

Any suggestions ?

[darkwavo]

Hey all.

Beside the incompatible plug-in issue….
I’m noticing that my Carbon disconnects from the iMac everytime it falls asleep.
Like when I’m listening to mixes or Apple Music and using the Carbon as core audio interface…
It will still show up the audio/midi menu and Sound menu in preferences…. But the only way to make it play audio is to restart the iMac . It happens way too often.

Does someone have the link to the recommended setup for Apple computer.. I think there’s an option for switching off sleep mode…And some other suggested settings…

Thanks !

[darkwavo]

Nobody?

I found this setup page for Catalina … is there also one for Monterey?

https://avid.secure.force.com/pkb/ar...Optimize-10-15

Thanks

[Ben Jenssen]

Here is the link on "Help us help you" page:
Computer Optimization and Troubleshooting Guides
Tips for MacOS up to bigsur but nothing for monterey.

[dominicperry]

Originally Posted by darkwavo

Nobody?

I found this setup page for Catalina … is there also one for Monterey?

https://avid.secure.force.com/pkb/ar...Optimize-10-15

Thanks

Monterey is not qualified by Avid. It is not supported by Avid.
Don't use Monterey with PT unless you have to - i.e. if you have an M1 Pro or M1 Max chip.

As far as Avid optimisations go, there's a lot of nonsense buried in amongst the sensible stuff.

For example - you are told to turn WiFi off. Well, if you use iLok cloud, how will that work with WiFi off? But you are also told to turn WiFi on if you are recording sessions of over 33 minutes (or some such weird condition) because otherwise the session will stop recording. It's all rubbish. Having WiFi on is fine, unless your machine starts sending or receiving lots of data - updates, background sync etc.

[EDIT: It looks like they've dropped this one, finally]. {{Likewise, the advice is still to use an external "session" drive. As discussed elsewhere, on a modern machine this is completely unnecessary and can create more problems that it solves - and performance (total number of tracks etc.) can be worse with an external session drive.}}

There is one thing which has remained constant though, and that's power settings. Set your Mac to "never sleep" or equivalent. PT will go completely to pieces if your Mac sleeps while it's open.

Carbon disconnecting when your machine sleeps is not surprising, but you may also find you are suffering from the random Carbon disconnects which have plagued some systems. There are "fixes" for this in various versions of Big Sur and updates to PT. However, you should start with setting your Mac to "never sleep" and see if that fixes the proble. The "never sleep" settings used to be called 'Energy Saver' but are called 'Battery' in Monterey. Turn off "Put Hard disks to sleep when possible". Turn on "Prevent your Mac from automatically sleeping when the display is off". Do it for both power adapter and battery settings. Make sure there is no power on/off schedule set. Turn off power nap.

Be aware that on Monterey, with an external monitor connected and the laptop in clamshell mode (internal screen closed), even with all the right settings, the Mac will still sleep. This is a bug which has no fix, even hacking around in Terminal with pmset and caffeinate. Ask me how I know.....

Another requirement from Avid is to turn off filevault. I'm ignoring this one. I'm assuming ultimate disk performance will be better with filevault off but it's so fast anyway that I don't care. It may have been sensible 10 years ago but it isn't now.

Disabling automatic updates is a good and sensible thing - you should definetely disable automatic OS updates, you really want to be able to choose exactly which ones of those you install - but also automatic updates of other applications - Microsoft Office and Google applications have their own updaters which are irritating and hard to turn off, but possible. Others are worse - dropbox has NO option to turn off automatic updates. AntiVirus software is often the same. This is theoretically why turning WiFi off can help, but often the applications which are auto updating get upset if they can't update and stuff the machine anyway. It's better to unload them before running a session, or don't install them at all.

Dominic

[JFreak]

I have always WiFi off but use gigabit ethernet for internet. Also have gigabit fiber connection, which is also why I keep WiFi off (cannot get full speed).

[dominicperry]

Originally Posted by JFreak

I have always WiFi off but use gigabit ethernet for internet. Also have gigabit fiber connection, which is also why I keep WiFi off (cannot get full speed).

Sure, but you have a machine with wired Ethernet as an option.
WiFi cards and drivers used to have problems with inetrrupting CPU operations. Not really any more.
As an aside, Gb internet is still unusual. Most of the UK is on 2 - 100 Mbs. Many parts of the US are far worse.

Dominic

[JFreak]

Originally Posted by dominicperry

Sure, but you have a machine with wired Ethernet as an option.
WiFi cards and drivers used to have problems with inetrrupting CPU operations. Not really any more.
As an aside, Gb internet is still unusual. Most of the UK is on 2 - 100 Mbs. Many parts of the US are far worse.

I know. And to say I pay 5eur monthly for mine feels like soon I am going to get bucketful of stuff on my neck..

[darkwavo]

Originally Posted by dominicperry

Monterey is not qualified by Avid. It is not supported by Avid.
Don't use Monterey with PT unless you have to - i.e. if you have an M1 Pro or M1 Max chip.

As far as Avid optimisations go, there's a lot of nonsense buried in amongst the sensible stuff.

For example - you are told to turn WiFi off. Well, if you use iLok cloud, how will that work with WiFi off? But you are also told to turn WiFi on if you are recording sessions of over 33 minutes (or some such weird condition) because otherwise the session will stop recording. It's all rubbish. Having WiFi on is fine, unless your machine starts sending or receiving lots of data - updates, background sync etc.

[EDIT: It looks like they've dropped this one, finally]. {{Likewise, the advice is still to use an external "session" drive. As discussed elsewhere, on a modern machine this is completely unnecessary and can create more problems that it solves - and performance (total number of tracks etc.) can be worse with an external session drive.}}

There is one thing which has remained constant though, and that's power settings. Set your Mac to "never sleep" or equivalent. PT will go completely to pieces if your Mac sleeps while it's open.

Carbon disconnecting when your machine sleeps is not surprising, but you may also find you are suffering from the random Carbon disconnects which have plagued some systems. There are "fixes" for this in various versions of Big Sur and updates to PT. However, you should start with setting your Mac to "never sleep" and see if that fixes the proble. The "never sleep" settings used to be called 'Energy Saver' but are called 'Battery' in Monterey. Turn off "Put Hard disks to sleep when possible". Turn on "Prevent your Mac from automatically sleeping when the display is off". Do it for both power adapter and battery settings. Make sure there is no power on/off schedule set. Turn off power nap.

Be aware that on Monterey, with an external monitor connected and the laptop in clamshell mode (internal screen closed), even with all the right settings, the Mac will still sleep. This is a bug which has no fix, even hacking around in Terminal with pmset and caffeinate. Ask me how I know.....

Another requirement from Avid is to turn off filevault. I'm ignoring this one. I'm assuming ultimate disk performance will be better with filevault off but it's so fast anyway that I don't care. It may have been sensible 10 years ago but it isn't now.

Disabling automatic updates is a good and sensible thing - you should definetely disable automatic OS updates, you really want to be able to choose exactly which ones of those you install - but also automatic updates of other applications - Microsoft Office and Google applications have their own updaters which are irritating and hard to turn off, but possible. Others are worse - dropbox has NO option to turn off automatic updates. AntiVirus software is often the same. This is theoretically why turning WiFi off can help, but often the applications which are auto updating get upset if they can't update and stuff the machine anyway. It's better to unload them before running a session, or don't install them at all.

Dominic

Thanks for the expert suggestions.
Yesterday I optimized according to the guidelines. Kept Wi-Fi on, and also the other settings you’ve mentioned. All is working great. Now I’m only missing some incompatible plugins… but I’m using fewer and fewer plugs (almost none) the deeper I get into this fresh batch of recordings..
Appreciate the detailed responses.
Thanks y’all!