Advice for P Tools HDX & Apple Silicon

[glasswing]

I bought a Mac Studio Ultra 128 (arrives mid April) to replace my old groaning, flatulent 5.1 cheesgraters (one for Vienna Ensemble Pro). I've gotten some really useful advice on setup and what it the best stuff for the job (thanks Marsdy and Dominic) - having never NOT had a Mac without PCIe included. And I'm switching to NVMe for both P Tools Sessions/data and VI's.
My quesiton is, assuming all the HD and PCIe works as hoped, is there anything I should know? I've read this excellent basic setup advice - https://www.pro-tools-expert.com/pro...n-apple-m1-max
I use a ton of VI's sometimes. I try to use as few plugins as I can - by getting the tones etc going in. Any other trapdoors, land mines or general advice? I'm trying to get the jump on it before I start so I can be as well informed as possible from the get go. Thanks

[loopzilla2]

Every pro on this forum is about to do what you've done. As you progress, keep us posted. :)

[Wolfgang Eller]

I'm absolutely convinced that ARM is the future but I think that I'm very optimistic to say that it needs another year to get all the plugins ready I'm using right now.

That's why I bought a used MacPro (2013 model) a half year ago to be safe for the next 2 (?) years.

I have a M1Pro 16" MBP and it's a dream.
But not with audio!
Right now there is no way to do the step to ARM.
Even Monterey Intel is not really working.

[StudioTalk]

Here’s a video that I did, specifically about making my own external NVME drives that I use for my session files, as well as another one for my sample library‘s.

https://youtu.be/mPfKu3OVpyk

[glasswing]

Cool stuff!!!! Thanks
I bought the new Sonnet Echo Dual NVMe. $350. Actually bought two - one for p tools audio / sessions and one for VI's. Sonnet said the 970 is the fastest NVMe, but it only comes in 1TB - so I got the second best - Samsung 970 Eco - 2X2TB, 2X1 TB (Pro Tools). Bought those from Amazon. While I was watching your video I spotted another fascinating vid from The Verge. They TESTED the Mac Studio Ultra and it made me even more happy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irjc1nJ1eJs
Just this morning I was trying to fix a problem with my Doepfer MK4 controller and my old 5.1's were 9171 all the way. I can't wait!

[Will Russell]

I ordered an M1MAX Mac Studio w/64G RAM and a 2TB SSD due to be delivered early June :-(

In the meantime, I bought the Avid HDX thunderbolt chassis and hooked it up to my 16 inch M1PRO MacBook Pro and I'm happy to report that I've been running this system for the last couple days and everything is working very very well! I didn't even have problems getting my old D-Command connected!

Yesterday Avid announced support for Monterey (running on Rosetta2) and released a working version of the complete plug-in bundle! Pretty much all of my 3rd party plug-ins are working with the exception of Autotune. 250 track pop mixes that used to run my 12 core cheese grater CPU up to about 75% register approximately 15% on my laptop

I rarely use VIs so I can't advise you on that but I'm using a Samsung T5 as a work drive and it works perfectly.

[glasswing]

Will - Yeah I bought the Avid PCIe Chassis - 1 card. Should be here sooner than the Mac Studio Ultra. REALLY good news on Monterey. Here's hoping Apple doesn't come up with a new OS between now and mid April!!! Really good news that the Avid Pcie Chassis works. Of course, I'm both nervous and excited. I've been using Apple PCIe since the CI. If anyone remembers that.

[glasswing]

Will Russell - I'm wondering about my C24 with this new setup. Adventures lie ahead!!! I've been thinking about getting rid of it. I probably only use a fraction of its capacity - the faders, all solo's off etc. I know Richard Furch uses the C24 a lot. But I could use the space for other things and maybe get a smaller fader setup. I wish Console 1 worked with P Tools

[FilterDecay]

not ready from what ive done. I got a 14" m1pro and put it thru its paces. Returned it 3 days later. Protools would not release the memory used from the session when i closed the session. the next session opened would add memory onto that and after a few of those the whole system would grind to a halt until you restarted protools. it worked fine but when i started adding plug ins (fab filter) into the mix it stressed the cpu horribly. These were big post sound sessions but its not ready for work unfortunately.

[glasswing]

You were running it in Rosetta?