Advice for P Tools HDX & Apple Silicon

[glasswing]

Originally Posted by midnightrambler

I know not everyone has the choice but wouldn't it be better to wait until everything can run without Rosetta? I'm only going by my memory of what happened the last time we had this Rosetta nonsense (which is that it was a complete nightmare!)

Well I tested it yesterday and it worked quite well.
Installing the HD Driver was quite a little nightmare but I got it sorted out.

The Avid system activity monitor yellow bars were barely visible. 36 tracks first - 32 latency - with no plugins then with some. Even tried Gullfoss - which is a CPU hog - and no noticible change in usage. This is a track prepped for Brauer to mix so there were no edits on the tracks etc - so that's kind of cheating. But I'm really happy so far.
Not one 9171 in sight!

Spent most of yesterday downloading VI"s and installing them into P Tools. No testing yet. Have a few more download/installs yet to go but will report back when I know more. MY main VI's are Ivory, Trillian and various Spitfire Audio plugins. With Spitfire, I go for the ones that have AAX plugins - no Kontakt.

I'll try your testing idea, Darryl. I am trying to use as few plugins (other than VI's) as I can these days. Seems to sound better!

Will report back when I know more. Fingers crossed

[Will Russell]

-9171 error are my only real issue with my M1PRO MBP w/ HDX in Avid TB chassis.

I get them intermittently when instantiating McDSP or Metric Halo plugins. Kinda driving me crazy at the moment. Sometimes the system "calls out" either Gullfoss or Seventh Heaven in the error dialog even though I was opening McDSP or MH. Not sure what's up but I'm gonna figure it out…

[glasswing]

7APR22 - I've only been testing so far. No full tilt session etc as the studio's a total wreck due to install mania - but everything seems to be running quite well. The VI's are working fine and fast. Vienna Ensemble Pro 7 is working like a champ. I opened an old session with a big VEP7 setup on it and it recalled and works great.
There was a lot of little stuff that was screwing things up like my keyboard - a Doepfer Mk4II - seems to send out program change when I switch presets within the keyboard so I used the Midi Input Filter and that made all the difference in the world.
I can't say yet whether Gullfoss or Vienna Ensemble Pro will spit out 9171s yet. I never had a problem with Gullfoss on the 5.1 Mac Pro but VEP drove it totally crazy. But, again, I haven't really put it through its hard paces.
Omnisphere, Trillian, Ivory, Spitfire plugins (BBCSO etc) - everything loads up works great in my simple tests.
Next up is Kontakt. I've been loathing it because I loathe it in general. But I'm wanting to get a Japanese instrument library that only runs on Kontakt so I'm going to bite that bullet now and see how it works.
The NVMe's seem to be working fine too. I have to tweak some settings to really put them through their paces and try to stream more from disk. Have to figure out how to do that.
Thanks for allt the great advice.

[glasswing]

Originally Posted by Will Russell

-9171 error are my only real issue with my M1PRO MBP w/ HDX in Avid TB chassis.

I get them intermittently when instantiating McDSP or Metric Halo plugins. Kinda driving me crazy at the moment. Sometimes the system "calls out" either Gullfoss or Seventh Heaven in the error dialog even though I was opening McDSP or MH. Not sure what's up but I'm gonna figure it out…

Will - I looked at your studio. It's beautiful!!! I've always said, If it ain't beautiful, I don't want to work there. I've been in so many studios that felt like a dark coffin. No thanks. Good job!

[Will Russell]

Thanks and right back at ya! Nice view over the c24!

[glasswing]

A fun thing happened yesterday. There's a record company in the UK who wants to re release an old LP of mine (Circus Underwater - now a collectible vinyl) and they asked about out takes or unreleased tracks so (yesterday) I went back to where I'd digitized three of the 6 tapes (from the original 8 Track Otari Machine) and the system usage meter wasn't even moving. Disk Cache was active but no signs of life on the meters! Just a few AVID AAX plugins running. I know this is near zero as far as a test - but I thought it was fun.

[glasswing]

Originally Posted by 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.

Haven't had any problems other than software weirdness from doing a cold install. And Vienna Ensemble Pro fumbling the ball on transition to iLok. Worked all day on the Mac Studio and it was quite cool to the touch at the end of the day. Have been watching the system usage meter and everything seems fine. Will post more as I learn more but, so far so good.

[glasswing]

Originally Posted by 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.

Well I was watching the PT System Usage Meter today on a session with very many tracks of heavy duty Spitfire Audio VI"s, Omnisphere and a few Kontakt instruments with maybe ten tracks of audio - with the lead voice being heavy with edits and, with buffer at 256 (I think the number is) there was no visible movement of the core usage meters. The Mac Studio Ultra seems to get cooler under pressure - warmer when it sleeps. It was cool to the touch under fire. The one thing I can't figure out is what the "Mixer" meter is measuring. It was at 50% sometimes. But I know there was NO WAY in the stars I could have run that session at anything other than 1024 buffer before. Sometimes I could track at 512 on a big project like this one. So I'm really happy. I think you must have had a dog plugin running or something. I had Gullfoss running in Master setting on the main vocal - but no Fab Filter. I could actually run Spitfire's "Symphonic Motions" with this machine. It would crash the old cheese grater every time.

[Carl Lie]

Originally Posted by glasswing

Well I was watching the PT System Usage Meter today on a session with very many tracks of heavy duty Spitfire Audio VI"s, Omnisphere and a few Kontakt instruments with maybe ten tracks of audio - with the lead voice being heavy with edits and, with buffer at 256 (I think the number is) there was no visible movement of the core usage meters. The Mac Studio Ultra seems to get cooler under pressure - warmer when it sleeps. It was cool to the touch under fire. The one thing I can't figure out is what the "Mixer" meter is measuring. It was at 50% sometimes. But I know there was NO WAY in the stars I could have run that session at anything other than 1024 buffer before. Sometimes I could track at 512 on a big project like this one. So I'm really happy. I think you must have had a dog plugin running or something. I had Gullfoss running in Master setting on the main vocal - but no Fab Filter. I could actually run Spitfire's "Symphonic Motions" with this machine. It would crash the old cheese grater every time.

This is good news. Your plunge is working out for you!

C