New M2 Studio / PT Ultimate / Sonoma

[innerbooty]

Brand new, clean install of Ventura (sorry, I know this is a Sonoma thread!) onto the M2 right out of the box just a few days ago. Brand new install of PT 2023.12, followed up 2023.12.1 a day after. All plugs have been installed from new downloads, not copies. I'm currently running a bunch of compare/contrast tests - 5,1 vs. ARM vs. Rosetta. M2 definitely winning, for sure. I just don't know if it's many thousands of dollars worth of winning?? I'll report back with more specifics.

[crazy_ow]

I managed to get through the weekends tracking sessions with the Mac Studio with no Pro Tools issues. The only thing that didn't work was plugin search. I'm fairly impressed with performance 160 tracks at 64 samples with no issues and only running at about 44% CPU.

However I've still had no joy with getting into the IO setup as soon as I open it I just get the spinning ball.

I've now posted this in a new thread in the hardware section of the forum as I think this is probably a hardware issue with my native card running old firmware....

As I said last week when I tried to test my HD native card with digi test on the Mac Studio I got an error message saying "Could not complete your request because cannot DigiDalDevice of dsiDeviceIndex = 0"

Last night I put the HD native card back into my 5.1 MacPro and it tested fine and digitest showed FPGA version: 1.05.0 (0.02.0). Which from what I read I don't think is the current firmware version??

I've downloaded Pro Tools 2023.3 to try and update the firmware using my 5.1 Mac but when I open Pro Tools it doesn't say I need to upgrade the firmware.

This week I've got a load of mixing work to get through and really need access to my IO setup, so this could be a major issue. I've put a support request in with Avid so hopefully they can give me some advice.

[smurfyou]

Originally Posted by innerbooty

For the other M2 Studio owners on this thread, I would be very curious to see what System Usage numbers you get when running the Avid Pro Tools Demo Song, which can be found in my.Avid.com , then My Products, then Pro Tools Ultimate, then Show Software Download Links. I fully respect that you guys are forging ahead to make the M2 Studio work for you. Because I believe I am still able to return my M2 Studio, I might pull the plug on the whole upgrade and take stock, depending on how some of these further tests pan out. And yes - I am on Ventura, which is also off-topic for this thread. Apologies for that as well...

I was going to try this for you but opening the demo session reminded me I didn't install the Air plugins... So can't give a comparison. But I haven't had any CPU issues with an M2 Max Studio.

I notice you mention the Lexicon reverb. Which STILL isn't native. While Rosetta performance is usually great you should test running native.

[innerbooty]

Glad the M2 got you through your weekend sessions! I'm sure you'll get the HD Native card issues sorted… I Ran some M2 tests yesterday (thoroughly unscientific) but thought I'd share some results. Then I will bow out and leave this thread alone for a while.
I did two main tests yesterday.

TEST #1:
New 44.1K / 24-Bit PT Session:
- Loaded a mono audio track w/ FF Pro-Q EQ, FF Pro-G Gate, FF Pro-L2 (**16X Oversample**), Eleven MkII, MDWEQ6
- Master Fader = EQ3-7, ChannelStrip, ProComp, ProLimiter, MDWEQ6, F670, EQP-1A, MEQ-5, Maxim, POWr Dither

Then I tried to see how many times I could duplicate the audio track before the session crapped out with CPU overload:
1. 2009 CHEESEGRATER 8-Core = 22 Tracks [Buffer = 512]
2. M2 STUDIO - ROSETTA MODE = 64 Tracks [Buffer = 64]
3. M2 STUDIO - ARM MODE = 110 Tracks [Buffer = 64]
4. M2 STUDIO - ARM MODE = 122 Tracks [Buffer = 512]
5. [Buffer setting seemed to make no difference in M2 ROSETTA Max Track Count?]

TEST #2:
Tried to see how many times I could duplicate ALL the tracks and folders in the Avid "Low Road" Demo Song (except the final Mix Aux and Master fader)
1. 2009 CHEESEGRATER 8-Core = 7X @ 512 Buffer (266 Voices)
2. M2 STUDIO - ROSETTA MODE = 8X @ 64 Buffer (304 Voices)
3. M2 STUDIO - ARM MODE = 23X @ 64 Buffer (874 Voices)

No idea if these results seem as they should be? Good? Bad? Does it seem my M2 / Pro Tools setup is operating as it should? I really wish more plugins were ARM compatible because Rosetta is clearly a poor second. Curious that my 15-year old Cheesegrater could run 7X instances of the full demo song, and M2 Rosetta could only run one more at 8X! I have System Usage screenshots if anyone is interested.

Originally Posted by crazy_ow

I managed to get through the weekends tracking sessions with the Mac Studio with no Pro Tools issues. The only thing that didn't work was plugin search. I'm fairly impressed with performance 160 tracks at 64 samples with no issues and only running at about 44% CPU.

However I've still had no joy with getting into the IO setup as soon as I open it I just get the spinning ball.

I've now posted this in a new thread in the hardware section of the forum as I think this is probably a hardware issue with my native card running old firmware....

As I said last week when I tried to test my HD native card with digi test on the Mac Studio I got an error message saying "Could not complete your request because cannot DigiDalDevice of dsiDeviceIndex = 0"

Last night I put the HD native card back into my 5.1 MacPro and it tested fine and digitest showed FPGA version: 1.05.0 (0.02.0). Which from what I read I don't think is the current firmware version??

I've downloaded Pro Tools 2023.3 to try and update the firmware using my 5.1 Mac but when I open Pro Tools it doesn't say I need to upgrade the firmware.

This week I've got a load of mixing work to get through and really need access to my IO setup, so this could be a major issue. I've put a support request in with Avid so hopefully they can give me some advice.

[crazy_ow]

Last night I made some progress....

I wiped the internal drive and ran a clean install of Sonoma 14.3, installed Pro Tools 2023.12.1 and then installed the HD Driver 2023.12.1.

When I ran digitest I got the same error message as last week, so digitest is obviously not working under Sonoma.

After digitest failed I moved forward testing the system with just an Omni connected to the HD native card and I could access IO setup with no issues.

I then tried just 1x Aurora connected to the HD native card and again no issues, as that working find I added in a 2nd aurora and again now issues.

I then tried to add the Omni back into the system with the Auroras connected to port 1 and Omni attached to port 2 and I couldn't get anything to clock. I tried a few things and just couldn't get all 3 interfaces to clock properly.

So for the time being I'm dropping my Omni and just going to run the auroras as (fingers crossed) they seem to be working and Pro Tools isn't crashing when I open the IO setup.

[Harris Pepsi]

Situation update -- Got the card firmware updated and working in Sonoma and Mac Studio M2 Ultra Man.

The official AVID chassis arrived a few days ago but I had not time to test it since I was in the middle of 3 projects. I opened the box and I realized that the "legs" where uneven, so it was tilting on three or the four legs. That is a big no no in Japan, cos we have earthquakes and Godzilla. Actually yesterday a 4.6 quake woke me up around 9 am. So I sent it back and got a new one.

For the record, my HD Native PCIe said FPGA Version 1.05. Assembly revision D. This stuff has been on a Mac Pro 5.1 for 10 years untouched (perhaps there was some firmware update ages ago, but I'm talking about PT10 or 11). The new Mac Studio M2 Ultra shipped and is still untouched with Mac OS Sonoma 14.2.1.

What I did:

With the Mac Studio off

1. Opened the chassis, and inserted the Native HD PCIe card into the slot.

2. Immediately, and before closing it, I unplugged the fan jumper. Do this at your discretion. The noise is not that terrible, but it's high pitched and it bothered me big time.

3. Closed and locked.

4. Plugged the provided thunderbolt cable to the chassis and the Mac. Then plugged it to an outlet.

5.Turned on the Mac Studio with the ILok 3 already plugged with the licenses for PT and other stuff.

6.Installed iLok softtware just in case. Then I also checked System Report. Both on PCIe and Thunderbolt our good old friend pci11af,ef80 (allegedly the HDX PCIe showed as Other Multimedia Drivers not installed.

7. Went to MyAvid page and downloaded Avid Application Manager (AAM)

8. Launched it. It forced me to go Rosetta.

9. The thing began installing lots of stuff without really asking me. Yes it was prompting for my password installer after installer, but I don't recall asking it to download the whole circus. Anyway, I went with it because I knew whatever I was gonna wipe SD anyways.

10. Just in case I reset the computer. I didn't see any driver installation during the process but I was a believer.

11. After re-start I checked System Report and pci11af,ef80 was still there as described in number 6.

12. Launched Pro Tools Ultimate. PCIe Native card not seen anywhere (didn't even try to look for it). Prompted to choose a device. I chose the Mac Speakers, created a blank session, opened playback engine and IO, just to see if it would crash. No crashes here.

13. Saved session and closed PT.

14. Manually downloaded the HD Driver from Avid.

15. Installed the driver. At one point the installed prompted and error, and referred me to Security. I think I screwed here and ignored it because I wouldn't find the option to allow me to give it permission to install.

16. Finished the install and restarted the Mac Checked System Report, but the driver showed as not installed.

17. Launched Protools. No progress.

18. Time to clean up the mess. I forced the execution of the HD driver uninstall script that came with it.

== THE REAL DEAL ==

19. Went into preferences and made sure Prevent computer from sleeping automatically when the display is off is checked and that the Turn display off after slider is set to Never. I checked it twice just to be sure.

20. Turned on the Mac while holding Command+R to get into recovery mode.

21. Once there I clicked on Options. Then on the top menu bar Select Utilities > Startup Security Utility. Then Security Policy.

22. Selected Reduced Security and checked Allow user management of kernel extensions from identified developers.

23. Reboot the Mac.

24. Installed HD driver. This time I made sure to check Security after it prompted me with the warning dialogue message saying it was trying to mess with the kernel. There was a button there saying "Allow Avid to do.." I forgot what it said, but it was there, so I just pushed it.

25. Finished till the installation process was over, restarted the Mac.

26. After logging in I checked if the driver for pci11af,ef80 was installed. It was, indeed.

27. Launched Pro Tools. While launching it prompted the HD Card needed a firmware update.

28. After the usual warnings it also said it would take like 6 minutes. Clicked on "I don' care if it hurts" and jumped straight into it.

29. When updating it looks like it's doing nothing, just the same PT startup screen for minutes. It's easy to think something is wrong because there is no progress bar whatsoever. Suddenly, after minutes in limbo it said the update was successfully completed. It tells you exactly what to do from here, so you'd better take notes or a picture.

30. Did exactly as told. I think it was shutting down the Mac. Waited until the chassis was also off, and unplugged it from the electricity. Waited five seconds. Plugged the chassis on again to the power outlet, turned on the Mac again.

31. When booting the OS I could definitely see my OMNI and HD I/O were changing bitrates and syncing. It behaved as if something had changed.

32. Launched PT ultimate.

PT automatically launched from HD Native as Playback Engine and the hardware was recognized. At this point it was just too early to say it worked just after the simple steps above so I downloaded the demo session, ran it with a buffer size of 32, moved plugins from here and there, added sends to external hardware and created a couple of busses. Played while input monitoring a track, and also while recording a track. I kept the recording mode in Quick Punch as well. I installed some Plugin Alliance plugins, like Brainworks b3_digital, SPL, moved around. So far so good. Pro Tools was running in ARM mode, not Rosetta.

I did not try to address any of the issues related to Sonoma that AVID states on their website. Or at least none that I'm aware of. The whole thing took a while, I was tired, and I used ProTools for one hour and went to bed at 4am.

It's too early to say Sonoma is safe and that this will work for everyone. Just for the record, again, this was everything on a clean factory Sonoma install that came with the Mac Studio. with a HD Native PCIe card that had been working in Pro Tools HD 11, MacOs 10.8.5 and 10.13.6.

This morning after waking up and taking my ADHD medication to really wake up, I put back the PCIe card to the old Mac Pro 5.1 and it worked. So so far it looks the update is backward compatible with the old system, cleaned up the mess, new Mac Studio back to its box.

Now it's time to go ahead and spend the cash in docks and drives, which is was not willing to do until I found wether this might work without bricking the card or major hardware issues.

I wrote here everything I did in detail for a reason, not to spam the thread. I might have made mistakes through the process, that can ring a bell and help troubleshooting others, or I might have done something someone has not just by chance. By any means I think I did it right, just that I apparently I got it working from the systems I described above, and on the OS I also specified. To me it looks pretty generic and sterile, though. Fresh and untouched Sonoma 14.2.1 as shipped with Mac Studio M2 Ultra, the PCIe revision and version and the fact it has been never used on any PT but 10 and 11. What's to see is if I wipe my SDD to perform a "real install", but not the "let's try see if i can get it working once and for all" one, the Mac would try to go 14.3 without asking, rendering the system not usable at all. That is a major concern.

@innerbooty I saved the demo session, closed PT and reopened it again. I got the message about clips having invalid bounds. I did not create a session from scratch so I don't know if this is only with this session or after having changed IO settings. That remains to be checked. Performance with the demo session ARM mode was around 17 percent at it's peak and outboard sends, while recording an audio track as well. Playback buffer stayed at 32 samples the whole time and HEAT on as well. The 17% is brief, and drops to 10% of average throughout the whole session, ore even less. The CPU usage followed a pyramidal pattern as the screenshots you uploaded to this thread. I failed to take a screenshot. I was just too tired. Sorry.

@crazy_ow Did you have any success? I don't rule out the option of using third party hardware units together with an OMNI. In my case both OMNI and HD I/O were detected and I sent audio out through sends. Also via ADAT to a Yamaha 01V96, and played well.

As soon as I begin to install things for reals, or if I find anything that can help anyone here, I will post it straight away, and I'll answer any questions regarding this issue. I'm not leaving cos it just looks it worked for me. The problem is far from being solved.

Good luck.

ps. Thanks to @JFreak for the heads up approving this message.