Snow Leopard and Pro Tools

[guitar486]

I have noticed a slight increase in performance after installing snow leopard. I checked a few sessions system usage with the same buffer and core settings (1024, 5 cores at 99%) before and after the installation and they all have consistently showed a small improvement in the CPU meter. About 3% less system usage. Nothin' big but thought you might want to know. 2008 Mac Pro dual quad, 5GB ram.

[ronwasserman]

and here it is............

Avid/Digidesign is pleased to hear that Apple has released Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. At this time, we’re working closely with Apple to bring Snow Leopard support to the entire Pro Tools® line and extended product families, and ask that all Mac users please wait to upgrade until we officially announce Snow Leopard support. Stay tuned...

[DigiTechSupt]

Sorry for the frustration guys but Digi should know better and work in collaboration with Apple when developing the software in my opinion.

We do - but having a final version ready when Apple ships Snow Leopard is nearly impossible as the last seed (GM) is so close to their release date that any changes in it may need to be accounted for. However the biggest time delay is due to testing, which is typically 6-8 weeks after we have a final candidate. If we start testing immediately after Apple announces GM, it's still 4-6 weeks of testing until we're satisfied that our GM candidate is ready.

[Mark Waters]

Note that Snow Leopard does not boot the 64 bit kernel by default in most situations, and in fact if your MAC is more than a few months old it may not boot to 64 bit mode anyways. My one year old quad core pro im on now wont.

There are apparently more performance improvements in 64bit than just Memory allocation. I specifically notice that the current pro tools has a real hard time utilizing large multiple CPU counts. With an 8-core MAC PRO for pro tools ( thats 16 hyper-threaded CPU presented to the OS ) I can set Pro Tools to 4 CPU and it performs about the same as if I set it to 16 CPU .. something is not right and it appears the current 8.0 version was never really meant for more than 4 CPU. Tis is a problem when loading LOTS of big plugins - mainly a dozen or so soft synths ( yes I can bounce, but I don't want to have to )

arstechnica has a good article onSnow Leopard - here is the link to the 64 bit page where you can check if your MAC will boot to 64bit kernel ( or K64 )

http://arstechnica.com/apple/reviews...s-x-10-6.ars/5

So at a minimum Im hoping to simply be able to fully utilize all my CPU power, but it will be interesting to see if they follow apple's push to go full 64bit, which may lock some people out with older hardware .. or maybe they will release 2 versions ?

Mark

[DigiTechSupt]

I specifically notice that the current pro tools has a real hard time utilizing large multiple CPU counts.

This is an issue with Pro Tools and not the OS, so it won't be 'solved' by Snow Leopard - you may see some gains in performance due to other changes, though.

The ultimate fix for this will come with the RTAS engine work that's currently in progress...

[docbop]

Originally Posted by Alexrkstr

Sorry for the frustration guys but Digi should know better and work in collaboration with Apple when developing the software in my opinion. If it is almost a staple to have ProTools running on a Mac to record in every studio [that I have been to], that must mean something.

As someone who used to do QA and support for a couple large Mac software publishers I'd like to let you know working with Apple is not as easy as the public would like to believe. Apple can drag their feet and not as forth coming with low level developer info. as a 3rd party developers would like. Things are not always what you think they are.

[flommer]

Things are always what you think they are.

Wheew...! That's a relief...

[Obsidian Dragon]

Originally Posted by docbop

Things are not always what you think they are.

Oh no! So much for the relief.

[flommer]

Originally Posted by Obsidian Dragon

Oh no! So much for the relief.

Very sneaky edit there, Doc...

[docbop]

Originally Posted by flommer

Very sneaky edit there, Doc...

The early bird gets to see my brain fart.