New "Mac Studio" from Apple

[TimNielsen]

So after a week plus with the new Studio, I can say overall I'm happy. BUT there is one HUGE bummer and I think from internet searching it's an issue with Monterey and not just the studio, but I'm getting a LOT of drives falling offline, just unmounting in the middle of a big copy, or even just sitting idle. Any drive, USB or thunderbolts cables, through a hub or directly attached... it's becoming a bit of a nightmare.

And lots of others in Monterey noticing the same thing, so hope it can get fixed, but it's a stupidly frustrating thing!

[JoeTools1963]

Originally Posted by TimNielsen

So after a week plus with the new Studio, I can say overall I'm happy. BUT there is one HUGE bummer and I think from internet searching it's an issue with Monterey and not just the studio, but I'm getting a LOT of drives falling offline, just unmounting in the middle of a big copy, or even just sitting idle. Any drive, USB or thunderbolts cables, through a hub or directly attached... it's becoming a bit of a nightmare.

And lots of others in Monterey noticing the same thing, so hope it can get fixed, but it's a stupidly frustrating thing!

Odd. I have not had any of that at all on the Mini M1?


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[thebeatless]

I have made some progress with narrowing down which plugins seem to be using way more CPU than they do on Intel. It seems to mostly be Gullfoss Master, which is sometimes a nice quick eq fix/cheat. The master versions just sounds slightly nicer to me on large groups of instruments. On my intel imac and Windows machine I'm able to have multiple instances of Gullfoss Master in a session. Looks like 1 tops on the ultra right now. Ozone 9 and Pro L2 with oversampling on seem way more CPU hungry than previously as well. Luckily disabling a single gullfoss master allows my mix session to play back just fine. Waiting to hear from soundtheory to see if they might know of a solution.

Here's a screenshot showing CPU usage of this session after unfreezing everything and disabling 1 gullfoss master, there's still one active.

[BScout]

Originally Posted by thebeatless

I have made some progress with narrowing down which plugins seem to be using way more CPU than they do on Intel. It seems to mostly be Gullfoss Master, which is sometimes a nice quick eq fix/cheat. The master versions just sounds slightly nicer to me on large groups of instruments. On my intel imac and Windows machine I'm able to have multiple instances of Gullfoss Master in a session. Looks like 1 tops on the ultra right now. Ozone 9 and Pro L2 with oversampling on seem way more CPU hungry than previously as well. Luckily disabling a single gullfoss master allows my mix session to play back just fine. Waiting to hear from soundtheory to see if they might know of a solution.

Here's a screenshot showing CPU usage of this session after unfreezing everything and disabling 1 gullfoss master, there's still one active.

Gullfoss and ooeksound Soothe both massively use up cpu (and delay comp)

[thebeatless]

Yeah, but seemingly even more so with apple silicon/rosetta.

[Eric Lambert]

Originally Posted by thebeatless

I have made some progress with narrowing down which plugins seem to be using way more CPU than they do on Intel. It seems to mostly be Gullfoss Master, which is sometimes a nice quick eq fix/cheat. The master versions just sounds slightly nicer to me on large groups of instruments. On my intel imac and Windows machine I'm able to have multiple instances of Gullfoss Master in a session. Looks like 1 tops on the ultra right now. Ozone 9 and Pro L2 with oversampling on seem way more CPU hungry than previously as well. Luckily disabling a single gullfoss master allows my mix session to play back just fine. Waiting to hear from soundtheory to see if they might know of a solution.

Here's a screenshot showing CPU usage of this session after unfreezing everything and disabling 1 gullfoss master, there's still one active.

Now it's starting to make sense. I'd find an alternative to Gullfoss, and any other CPU hogs, until they can nail down the issue and provide updates.

[thebeatless]

Originally Posted by Eric Lambert

Now it's starting to make sense. I'd find an alternative to Gullfoss, and any other CPU hogs, until they can nail down the issue and provide updates.

I can when I'm making the choice to use it. I mostly use it out of laziness anyway. haha But.... when I get a session that already has it, it's a little harder. I guess I can commit it unless it's on the master and it's a big part of how the production was done. It's a tough one to remove when every production choice was made with it digging in. I always try.

[K Roche]

Originally Posted by thebeatless

I can when I'm making the choice to use it. I mostly use it out of laziness anyway. haha But.... when I get a session that already has it, it's a little harder. I guess I can commit it unless it's on the master and it's a big part of how the production was done. It's a tough one to remove when every production choice was made with it digging in. I always try.

What I am much more interested is do you hear/notice the Studio's cooling fans while mixing or playback ? Also am I correct in assuming you have not yet tried recording.

[Phil O'Keefe]

Originally Posted by K Roche

What I am much more interested is do you hear/notice the Studio's cooling fans while mixing or playback ? Also am I correct in assuming you have not yet tried recording.

The fans in my Mac Studio are audible - barely. That's with it sitting about a foot and a half below ear level and about two to three feet away from me on the top surface of my desktop.

I tried measuring the radiated noise level with an SPL meter, but it's below the 30 dBA SPL noise floor of my control room.

According to iStatistica Pro, the fans are running at 1,325-1,333 RPM and they stay in that range, regardless of the load I hit the computer with. Compared to the M1 Mac mini, it's louder (the mini is basically silent unless you put your ear within inches of it) but the M1 Max Mac Studio VERY quiet, and the fan speed and noise level do not change, no matter the load.

[thebeatless]

Originally Posted by K Roche

What I am much more interested is do you hear/notice the Studio's cooling fans while mixing or playback ? Also am I correct in assuming you have not yet tried recording.

My computer is in my "machine room" (Large closet outside of the main control room). I'm running an optical thunderbolt cable, optical HDMI, and cat 6 cables through a conduit. When I go in the closet I can definitely hear it, but it's not as loud as my 4 bay hard drive enclosure. I really don't think I'd want it right next to me when mixing. The fans are definitely on since I'm pushing it to the max all day everyday. It is quieter than any other desktop I've ever owned though.

Sorry, no recording here.