Pro Tools 2021.10 on Mac

[raypiasecki]

Ive been researching the new Pro Tools Version. 2021.10
I am trying to sort this all out, but I am finding so many different things everywhere! Any help is appreciated! Thanks!

MacBook Pro M1 16GB Unified Memory
512GB Drive

Im looking at a LaCie 500GB 1GB/s SSD Thunderbolt3 drive as recommended for Pro Tools 2021.10 one or more drives for audio record/playback

Do I need two, one for playback and one for record or just one for each? 1GB/s enough for maximum performance? Is this LaCie fast enough? Its bus powered.

My Pro Tools 2021.10 shows a HD Driver download under my products. Are some HD Devices CoreAudio under bigSur 11.6 with the TB3 Chassis? Do I need the HD Driver or Pro Tools | Ultimate? Is there a HD Hardware I can use with Pro Tools 2021.10? I know that some HD Hardware come with HD Ultimate, but do I need Ultimate to use them? Can I use a HD Hardware with 2021.10 regular? Is it core audio under bigSur 11.6? Is 11.6.1 supported with Pro Tools 2021.10 or just 11.6? I know I am asking a lot of questions but I am finding so many different thing across the AVID website and Google and I am trying to make this short and sweet! Thanks!

Thanks much! Student here and loves AVID! Much love, happy holidays!

[JFreak]

You only need HD driver if you have Avid HD hardware. PT standard or PT ultimate running 3rd party CoreAudio interface does not need driver install.

[dominicperry]

No need for an external drive for sessions if you have space on the internal one.

If you do decide to use an external drive, then you only need one (you don't need one for recording and one for playback). You might, however, choose to put your sample libraries on an external drive, so that would be two - one for samples, one for the session.

You don't need a TB disk unless your sessions are absolutely massive - an USB3 disk will be fast enough. For example, a Samsung T5 is perfect, used by many people, and has a transfer rate of 350-400MB/s.
The price of TB disks is very high and generally not worth the price.

Dominic

[Darryl Ramm]

Hopefully you know the M1 are not officially supported, basic Pro Tools seems to run OK under Rosetta 2 but that does not mean you won’t run into problems. And you cannot switch to M1 native until Avid, iLok and any plugins you are using all offer an M1/arm binary version.

As others said, forget external drives, that is ancient advice, which it is embarrassing Avid has not updated/corrected. The fastest/most reliable storage for Pro Tools on a MBP is the internal Ultra fast PCIe/NVMe SSD… and since these are not upgradeable try to buy the largest possible internal SSD you can, even at Apple tax/extortion pricing.

[dominicperry]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

Hopefully you know the M1 are not officially supported, basic Pro Tools seems to run OK under Rosetta 2 but that does not mean you won’t run into problems. And you cannot switch to M1 native until Avid, iLok and any plugins you are using all offer an M1/arm binary version.

As others said, forget external drives, that is ancient advice, which it is embarrassing Avid has not updated/corrected. The fastest/most reliable storage for Pro Tools on a MBP is the internal Ultra fast PCIe/NVMe SSD… and since these are not upgradeable try to buy the largest possible internal SSD you can, even at Apple tax/extortion pricing.

I believe M1 Macs are now supported on Big Sur 11.6 and PT 2021.10

https://avid.secure.force.com/pkb/ar...m-Requirements

Clearly this does not include M1 Pro and M1 Max machines, only the original MBA M1, MBP M1 and Mac Mini M1. The iMac M1 is not explicitly mentioned.

Monterey is most certainly not supported.

[JFreak]

Supported with certain limitations, but what we need to wait for is native build of PT/iLok then wait for plugin support.

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by dominicperry

I believe M1 Macs are now supported on Big Sur 11.6 and PT 2021.10

https://avid.secure.force.com/pkb/ar...m-Requirements

Clearly this does not include M1 Pro and M1 Max machines, only the original MBA M1, MBP M1 and Mac Mini M1. The iMac M1 is not explicitly mentioned.

Monterey is most certainly not supported.

Thanks for the correction/update.

I was running Pro Tools on a M1 for a little while (Edit: NOT on Monterey to be sure), worked quite nicely, and I expect an M1 Max will be very nice, especially with native code. But I'd be cautious, especially would not move a production system a business was relying on there for some time.

[JFreak]

M1 and Big Sur works pretty nicely actually, but Monterey is a disaster. Severe memory leaks and windows-like forced reboot once a day.

[dominicperry]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

Thanks for the correction/update.

I was running Pro Tools on a M1 for a little while (on Monterey to be sure), worked quite nicely, and I expect an M1 Max will be very nice, especially with native code. But I'd be cautious, especially would not move a production system a business was relying on there for some time.

Base PT runs ok on Monterey on M1 Max but the Avid Complete Bundle doesn't work and Eucon is a total disaster. Things are so bad that I'm trying the betas, which I have never done before.

I'm finding performance is unpredictable even on Native apps like Logic. But overall speed is good and a 16" MBP M1 Max is way more portable than a Mac Pro 7.1 (16-core) for about the same horsepower. Pretty amazing.

Dominic

[Darryl Ramm]

Grrr sorry I meant to say "NOT on Monterey" ... to clarify my comment and I compeletly farked it backwards. Sorry. (That M1 13" MBP did really impress me with battery life and how cool it ran and performance on other apps as well... these are going to be great DAW laptops once stuff sorts out).