New "Mac Studio" from Apple

[Michael Carnes]

I thought I'd resurrect this thread just long enough to share the conclusion I came to. When I picked up the MacBook Pro M1 Max, I needed a new laptop (I was tired of the noise and heat of the i9 I had previously). I knew this new laptop is half of the Studio Ultra and I wanted to get an idea of how much of the load of my 2019 Cheesegrater it could take on.

I built up slowly, with my ultimate target being a large composition I'd mixed for Atmos a couple of years ago. I tested some BWAV masters first and then brought in the PT project. My VI tracks were all frozen, and I began to unfreeze them a couple of tracks at a time. After a while I had the whole mix running, with all VIs being driven by MIDI tracks. The Dolby Atmos Renderer was also running. The mix plays without problem. And the MacBook was sitting in my lap, making no sound and not warm enough to be uncomfortable. My goodness! There are 208 tracks, the majority of which are stereo, with wider stems for verb and effect. In addition to the VIs, I had a few pre-recorded tracks. There are 6 Exponential verbs (2 Stratus3D and 4 Symphony3D, all configured as 7.1.6). I tossed in a couple of Excaliburs too. By feature film standards this isn't a huge mix, but it's still pretty decent-sized.

I'll attach a couple of pictures. The first shows CPU meters, memory used, and just a hint of the mix window:
Mainly Meters.jpg
You can see, by both the PT CPU gauge and Activity Monitor, that there's plenty of horsepower still available. I think the thing you have to pay the most attention to is the memory monitor in the top center of the image. I've used most of the physical memory (I didn't do any optimization yet). If I want more simultaneous VIs, I'll have to do those tweaks. The Memory Pressure meter is really important. It's at a pretty safe value with no swapping. As soon as there are swaps, performance goes in the hopper.

The second image shows the renderer:
Renderer.jpg
You can see there are 83 objects. What you can't really see is that this mix is really active. There's stuff moving all over the place.

And I should point out that everything is running under Rosetta! I'm also pushing it out to my Focusrite 16Line and a pair of large computer monitors.

The conclusion: I've stripped down the Cheesegrater and removed my M.2 memory to place into another pair of little Sonnet Docks. I'll sell the beast for the pittance they're currently going for. Sure, I'll want an Ultra down the road. But this little laptop is doing everything I was doing on the Cheesegrater, using a lot less power and generating a lot less heat and noise. It's not going to be enough for you folks doing re-recording, although an Ultra may very well do the trick. This is truly a generational change.

[Eric Lambert]

Great info!

Originally Posted by Michael Carnes

The Memory Pressure meter is really important. It's at a pretty safe value with no swapping. As soon as there are swaps, performance goes in the hopper.

I've suspected that this is the culprit, partially if not wholly, for more than one of the less-than-glorious results we're seeing reported in some threads. As we keep suggesting, there are so many components at play, and *one* of them could be enough to bog everything down. That's why it's a good idea to monitor the entire system, as you've done here.

Honestly, I was considering canceling my Studio order and waiting until things became more Native, but I think I'll keep it in the queue, for now.

[kings79]

Originally Posted by audiolex1

Have you guys tried this:

https://www.shutterencoder.com/en/

Yes I use it from time to time when editors refuse to learn to send the correct format Video. Although I could never get it wrap to an MXF with my cMP

[kings79]

Originally Posted by Eric Lambert

Great info!
Honestly, I was considering canceling my Studio order and waiting until things became more Native, but I think I'll keep it in the queue, for now.

I think youve made the right choice Eric

[Eric Lambert]

Originally Posted by kings79

I think youve made the right choice Eric

Thanks! I think so, too. I run a well-oiled ProTools rig and don't typically run into the issues I'm seeing on the forum, so I'm optimistic. If it runs slow, I'll find ways to hone it. If not, I'll shelf it until the Studios are ready for prime-time, and continue with my current Mac which I'm not selling just yet.

[685]

Originally Posted by Michael Carnes

. . .
The conclusion: I've stripped down the Cheesegrater and removed my M.2 memory to place into another pair of little Sonnet Docks. I'll sell the beast for the pittance they're currently going for. Sure, I'll want an Ultra down the road. But this little laptop is doing everything I was doing on the Cheesegrater, using a lot less power and generating a lot less heat and noise. It's not going to be enough for you folks doing re-recording, although an Ultra may very well do the trick. This is truly a generational change.

Good info to hear!
My first thought was to upgrade my MacbookPro first as well but I ended up getting the Studio Max to replace my 2010 Cheesegrater. The Studio Max is definitely an upgrade in power

Unfortunately I'm still having the issue with a 100% spiked CPU most of the time when I start Protools while using my HD Omni/HD Native PCIe(Sonnet Echo III Desktop). I've been in back and forth contact with Avid and Sonnet for about 3 weeks but no solutions as of yet . Last week I installed Protools and the HD driver onto my daughter's M1 Macbook Air(Big Sur), plugged in the Sonnet Echo, and Protools opened/played sessions without issues even after several restarts. Updated it to Monterey a few days later for more tests and boom, CPU spike the very first time I opened Protools. Makes me want to order the MacBookPro until most of the kinks are worked out with the Mac Studio.

[Michael Carnes]

Originally Posted by 685

Good info to hear!
My first thought was to upgrade my MacbookPro first as well but I ended up getting the Studio Max to replace my 2010 Cheesegrater. The Studio Max is definitely an upgrade in power

Unfortunately I'm still having the issue with a 100% spiked CPU most of the time when I start Protools while using my HD Omni/HD Native PCIe(Sonnet Echo III Desktop). I've been in back and forth contact with Avid and Sonnet for about 3 weeks but no solutions as of yet . Last week I installed Protools and the HD driver onto my daughter's M1 Macbook Air(Big Sur), plugged in the Sonnet Echo, and Protools opened/played sessions without issues even after several restarts. Updated it to Monterey a few days later for more tests and boom, CPU spike the very first time I opened Protools. Makes me want to order the MacBookPro until most of the kinks are worked out with the Mac Studio.

Here's a suggestion: Bring up Activity Monitor and make sure you're looking at the main window. At the top of that window, click the 'Memory' tab and watch the Memory Pressure gauge (bottom left) and the Swap Used value (bottom center). Also take a look at the amount of memory Pro Tools is using, compared the the amount of memory on your system. Run your session and keep your eye on those values. Won't hurt to bring up the CPU history window as well.

If you ever see the Swap Used value at non-zero, you have your answer. If memory pressure values are very high, you're pretty close to swapping. Swaps happen when there isn't enough physical memory to handle whatever you're doing, The system shuffles data back and forth between physical memory and storage. This takes a ton of time and is pretty much guaranteed to cause spikes.

The only real solution is to either add more RAM (which you can't do on an M1) or figure out how to reduce memory required by your session. Freeze tracks, investigate plugins, etc will help. You can also try to shut down any programs (browser etc) that you don't need for the session. Good luck!

PS - for what it's worth, I'm running Monterey, so I don't think that's necessarily your problem.

[685]

Originally Posted by Michael Carnes

Here's a suggestion: Bring up Activity Monitor and make sure you're looking at the main window. At the top of that window, click the 'Memory' tab and watch the Memory Pressure gauge (bottom left) and the Swap Used value (bottom center). Also take a look at the amount of memory Pro Tools is using, compared the the amount of memory on your system. Run your session and keep your eye on those values. Won't hurt to bring up the CPU history window as well.

If you ever see the Swap Used value at non-zero, you have your answer. If memory pressure values are very high, you're pretty close to swapping. Swaps happen when there isn't enough physical memory to handle whatever you're doing, The system shuffles data back and forth between physical memory and storage. This takes a ton of time and is pretty much guaranteed to cause spikes.

The only real solution is to either add more RAM (which you can't do on an M1) or figure out how to reduce memory required by your session. Freeze tracks, investigate plugins, etc will help. You can also try to shut down any programs (browser etc) that you don't need for the session. Good luck!

PS - for what it's worth, I'm running Monterey, so I don't think that's necessarily your problem.

Thanks, I will take another look but my CPU spike issue always show up immediately after Protools loads and with no sessions opened. Protools memory usage is usually about 1gig, no swap memory being used, and memory pressure is low and all green. About 7 of 32gigs of total memory being used by the Mac Studio and that's after a fresh restart. I can still open sessions but none will play(AAE -9093). If I load Protools using any other playback device things run smoothly even 3rd party plugins. I figure it may have something to do with the HD Driver and/or the sonnet chassis being on the new computer. 2022.4 did not address the issue.

[Michael Carnes]

Originally Posted by 685

I figure it may have something to do with the HD Driver and/or the sonnet chassis being on the new computer. 2022.4 did not address the issue.

Ooh. That's above my pay grade I've never had a need for an HD system, so there could very well be pains there that I haven't experienced. I do have PT occasionally balk on a freshly-loaded session, but it's almost always OK if I wait a few seconds and swear at it.

[685]

Originally Posted by Michael Carnes

Ooh. That's above my pay grade I've never had a need for an HD system, so there could very well be pains there that I haven't experienced. I do have PT occasionally balk on a freshly-loaded session, but it's almost always OK if I wait a few seconds and swear at it.

LOL Thanks though

I also wondered if the issue was with the 28 plugins that Protools always loads at startup. The Avid tech said there was no way to stop them from loading into the plugin folder.