New "Mac Studio" from Apple

[Michael Carnes]

Originally Posted by Marsdy

I tried decreasing the Kontakt preload buffer from the default 60KB to 24KB and it didn’t seem to adversely affect streaming performance much...

I just went back to the mix and cut my preload size in half. I couldn't hear any glitches and got back about 12 GB from the original 50-ish. That's a reduction of nearly 25%--not exactly tiny. I could probably take it down more, but I've really heard this mix enough for now.

[kings79]

Originally Posted by Eric Lambert

Speaking as the co-OP of this thread, this type of data is precisely what I was hoping to gather and quite useful as I'm setting up the new computer. The thread is bound to migrate as it has, from "what will this new machine be" to "which should I buy" to "how do I best set this thing up" to "hey, why is it doing that?"

Co-OP? No. OffTheWall was the OP. You commented 8min after his OP...

It was just a general discussion about the machine.

Gather away Eric..

[Michael Carnes]

There was a general sentiment offered perhaps 3000 posts back on this thread. And that was basically to buy as much computer as you could practically afford. Some of the reasons for that are obvious: future-proofing and all that. But there's another reason that's rarely remarked on, and that's lost time in setting up a new computer. Even if you've kept a task-specific machine it's pretty easy for a complete port to take a week or two. The first 90% goes fast, but then it's death by a thousand cuts afterwards.

If you've got a revenue-producing room, then the port can cost you way more in down-time than popping down some more money at purchase. And if it involves a complete refactoring (moving to-from PCIe, HDX, new CPU architecture, etc) that's not an experience you want to go through any more often than you have to. That probably accounts for the continued prevalence of old 2012 Cheesegraters in some of the biggest facilities around.

I tend to agree with some of the sentiment expressed here and by the shouty guy on the Youtube video. For a huge number of people--folks mixing local bands, TV spots, hobby projects--then an M1 Pro will serve you for many years. But I'm not sure how many of those people are considering a Mac Studio anyway. A MacBook will serve them well and I'm sure will be seeing an up-spec'ed Mini before long.That will be the sweet spot for a lot of people.

[smurfyou]

Originally Posted by Michael Carnes

I just went back to the mix and cut my preload size in half. I couldn't hear any glitches and got back about 12 GB from the original 50-ish. That's a reduction of nearly 25%--not exactly tiny. I could probably take it down more, but I've really heard this mix enough for now.

That is a big reduction. Much more than I would have expected. Good to know.

I'm hoping some day NI will actually improve the performance of Kontakt AAX. It's lagged behind the VST version for years.

[kings79]

Originally Posted by Michael Carnes

There was a general sentiment offered perhaps 3000 posts back on this thread. And that was basically to buy as much computer as you could practically afford. Some of the reasons for that are obvious: future-proofing and all that. But there's another reason that's rarely remarked on, and that's lost time in setting up a new computer. Even if you've kept a task-specific machine it's pretty easy for a complete port to take a week or two. The first 90% goes fast, but then it's death by a thousand cuts afterwards.

If you've got a revenue-producing room, then the port can cost you way more in down-time than popping down some more money at purchase. And if it involves a complete refactoring (moving to-from PCIe, HDX, new CPU architecture, etc) that's not an experience you want to go through any more often than you have to. That probably accounts for the continued prevalence of old 2012 Cheesegraters in some of the biggest facilities around.

I tend to agree with some of the sentiment expressed here and by the shouty guy on the Youtube video. For a huge number of people--folks mixing local bands, TV spots, hobby projects--then an M1 Pro will serve you for many years. But I'm not sure how many of those people are considering a Mac Studio anyway. A MacBook will serve them well and I'm sure will be seeing an up-spec'ed Mini before long.That will be the sweet spot for a lot of people.

I agree. You should buy as much computer as you can afford. Your last paragraph is just plain incorrect. I'm mixing 5.1 Shows with hundreds and hundreds of tracks. Same as the article I posted above...

All I'm saying. And I'm saying this for the final time.

The Ultra costs twice as much as the Max. You DO NOT get twice the net gain when you use Pro Tools on an Ultra.

I'm not a coder. In not making videos. I'm not using any VI's I'm a Audio Post Pro. If you're using 1000 VI's or making videos. Get the Ultra. If your recording and mixing music or a audio post Pro like me get the Max.

It's simple math. You just don't get twice the performance with PT on the Ultra now and in the short to medium term. Same as you don't need much more than 64gig of RAM. This has been said over and over again by pro's like the article I posted a page or two back.

There is a tendency to get obsessed with geek bench scores, full nerd out trying to do all this fake math about what uses single core/multicore, load files, test disk speeds & brag about the size of your computer rather than actually going out there being honest with yourself and use these things in a real world way. Because you ain't doing any of that when your using these machines for work or capturing that inspiration. Get real.

[Carl Lie]

I'm not quite sure why this has gotten so far off track. People form opinions form various sources and they state their opinions as well.

There is no such thing as a correct or incorrect opinion!

Maybe it's time to close this one out.

C

[Marsdy]

Originally Posted by Michael Carnes

I just went back to the mix and cut my preload size in half. I couldn't hear any glitches and got back about 12 GB from the original 50-ish. That's a reduction of nearly 25%--not exactly tiny. I could probably take it down more, but I've really heard this mix enough for now.

Ha! Those mixes that won’t go away!

If my memory serves me correctly (pun intended,) the Kontakt default of 60KB was a throwback to the age of “spinning” hard drives. NI have specifically said you can lower it if you’re using SSDs. They also say “ It is not necessary to store your libraries on a separate disk to your operating system.” Given how fast the Mac Studio’s internal storage is, especially above 4TB, it kind of makes sense to use it!

[K Roche]

Originally Posted by Carl Lie

I'm not quite sure why this has gotten so far off track. People form opinions form various sources and they state their opinions as well.

There is no such thing as a correct or incorrect opinion!

Maybe it's time to close this one out.

C

Close out Na.... But you are Correct,,, unfortunately there are some who feel their personal opinion "Should be" the guiding criteria for the purchase decisions of others

[Michael Carnes]

Originally Posted by Marsdy

Ha! Those mixes that won’t go away!
Given how fast the Mac Studio’s internal storage is, especially above 4TB, it kind of makes sense to use it!

I'm going to be very interested in testing that speed myself. I do have an Ultra coming--still a couple months off--that's configured with 4TB. Reading between the lines (and also seeing a teardown video that showed 2 sockets for storage) I'm guessing that it's internally configured as a RAID-0 from 4TB up.

On my now-departed 2019 Mac Pro, I measured the speed of the internal 2TB storage. I didn't make a note of the number, but I seem to remember it as being somewhere in the neighborhood of 4000 MB/s. I had an internal Sonnet PCI-e card with a set of 4 M.2 cards set as RAID-0. It measured about 8200 MB/s--quite a bit faster than the internal. It will be interesting to see how the Ultra compares. My sample volumes are T-Bolt, with dual M.2 connected as RAID 0. Those give me a read speed of about 2500 MB/s per dock, which is a constraint of PCI over T-Bolt. I think I can extend that to say that people with whopping-sized projects might still need internal PCI for the higher bandwidth (some day we'll know what the next Mac Pro will be). But a lot of people have worked successfully for years with HDX cards in a T-bolt enclosure, so I expect they're still Mac Studio candidates.

I'm sure the internal storage on the Ultra will be quite fast, but I'm interested in the real numbers. I'm sure that speedwise it will do anything I need. But even with the painfully expensive maxed-out 8TB, I need more capacity. That's why I have the external docks.

[Carl Lie]

Originally Posted by K Roche

Close out Na.... But you are Correct,,, unfortunately there are some who feel their personal opinion "Should be" the guiding criteria for the purchase decisions of others

We all can get to a point where we think our word is the only truth. It's human to be that way and human to get bothered by it in others.

Getting back to PT. It is not clear to me that any gains in computing power translate in a linear fashion to better performance in Protools unfortunately. It is strictly PT experiences that I hope to learn more about.

Looking forward to hearing from those who are just now getting a Mac Studio.

C