New "Mac Studio" from Apple

[Brandonx1]

Just updating my report. I'mat one of my remote locations bouncing out a M and E mix. Mac Mini 5.6X Mac Studio 4.9X speed. I think this machine is going back.

[Eric Lambert]

Originally Posted by Brandonx1

Just updating my report. I'mat one of my remote locations bouncing out a M and E mix. Mac Mini 5.6X Mac Studio 4.9X speed. I think this machine is going back.

Offline bounce speeds aren't the greatest indicators of a machine's abilities. Have you tried what Michael Carnes had suggested? It's not everyday that someone of his caliber offers personal insight into his own experiences and fixes.

[Brandonx1]

Originally Posted by Eric Lambert

Offline bounce speeds aren't the greatest indicators of a machine's abilities. Have you tried what Michael Carnes had suggested? It's not everyday that someone of his caliber offers personal insight into his own experiences and fixes.

Well, I sent it back. Every Indicator I tested in real world situations has this machine 1/2 or more behind my 16 core and about on par or slower than my mac mini i7. So, it's going back. The only thing this machine has going for it is the price and disk io speed. it is still the fastest thunderbolt throughput I have tested.

[Eric Lambert]

Originally Posted by Brandonx1

Well, I sent it back. Every Indicator I tested in real world situations has this machine 1/2 or more behind my 16 core and about on par or slower than my mac mini i7. So, it's going back. The only thing this machine has going for it is the price and disk io speed. it is still the fastest thunderbolt throughput I have tested.

Again, it's unfortunate that you've had that experience, but it's still an atypical, outlier encounter. Most are seeing substantial improvements in nearly every aspect. In my case, it's the first computer I've owned (going back to 1982) that's transparent. Ask it to do something and it's done without waiting, and I've never had a CPU overage that was ultimately attributable to the computer itself; it was always software related.

Perhaps Apple will have something new for you that will perform more adequately.

[Michael Carnes]

Originally Posted by Eric Lambert

Again, it's unfortunate that you've had that experience, but it's still an atypical, outlier encounter. Most are seeing substantial improvements in nearly every aspect. In my case, it's the first computer I've owned (going back to 1982) that's transparent. Ask it to do something and it's done without waiting, and I've never had a CPU overage that was ultimately attributable to the computer itself; it was always software related.

Perhaps Apple will have something new for you that will perform more adequately.

This should perhaps serve as a caution (or perhaps two). This is a whole new generation of processor and--just like when we moved seriously into the box--it may require a user be comfortable in digging deep in the system to discover the bottlenecks. And for Pro Tools users, keep in mind that the DAW and all of its plugins are running under emulation. By my measure that's about a 30% performance tax (which is pretty good for emulation). We don't have any idea when PT. HD drivers and a majority of useful plugins will be native. So for a lot of people it doesn't hurt to wait until that last box is checked.

We can't infer actual statistics of people who successfully moved to Apple Silicon from this thread, although the number seems high. Some folks may be happier holding back another year or two. I for one appreciate the increased computer power along with the decreased footprint, power consumption, noise and heat. we'll all get there in time.

[Benoni]

Any of you guys using the new Mac Studio for audio and video?

I'll need to replace my current HP Z series soon and I'm still debating whether to get an updated HP Z unit or a Mac Studio.

I need faster render speeds for 4K video and better playback when using lots of video effects.

Normally I would just stick with Windows, but the Mac Studio is a whole new level of power for the price. It would be about the same price for a Windows based machine (actually a bit more) with the same processing power when it comes to video renders. At least from the specs I have seen so far - but real world results are always different.

[AlexLakis]

Hey, Brian. I don't work with video in Pro Tools, but I do relatively-demanding audio work and, as a Mac Studio owner, I think you will be disappointed with the Mac Studio as it is at the moment. My 2018 i7 Mac Mini out-performs it in almost every way, including offline bounce/render times. Us Mac Studio/Pro Tools users are basically playing the waiting game with Avid supporting Apple-silicon natively. Then we will be looking at a whole different ball game. Just my thoughts!

[Eric Lambert]

Originally Posted by Michael Carnes

We don't have any idea when PT. HD drivers and a majority of useful plugins will be native.

I checked my plugin folder a few days ago and the numbers weren't great. I still have an awful lot leaning on Rosetta. Yes, even after PT makes the move to Silicon (date unknown), the rest must follow before the bottleneck is fully removed.

Any thoughts on how a Silicon version of ProTools might change things? Many plugins will continue to require Rosetta, but I wonder how the landscape will look when the DAW itself no longer requires Rosetta.

Or... will the mere existence of Rosetta-enabled plugins in ProTools force PT itself to use Rosetta in order to access them? I suppose we're still waiting to see how Avid handles this, i.e. will they work out a way for plugins to operate under a Rosetta wrapper (of sorts), independent of PT, the way Logic does? There might be a lot of bugs to sift through with such a large change.

[Benoni]

Originally Posted by AlexLakis

Hey, Brian. I don't work with video in Pro Tools, but I do relatively-demanding audio work and, as a Mac Studio owner, I think you will be disappointed with the Mac Studio as it is at the moment. My 2018 i7 Mac Mini out-performs it in almost every way, including offline bounce/render times. Us Mac Studio/Pro Tools users are basically playing the waiting game with Avid supporting Apple-silicon natively. Then we will be looking at a whole different ball game. Just my thoughts!

Interesting. Thanks.

There are things I love about Windows and things I love about macOS.

Luckily with apps from Rogue Ameoba I'm able to get the Windows functionality for audio routing on my Macbook, and with some other apps I can get the Dock to work more like the Taskbar.

The integration on Mac is still superior to Windows. Working between an iPad, iPhone, and Macbook is so easy.

But Windows is still better at multi-tasking. And I much prefer the File bar be attached to the app and not always at the top.

I'm leaning toward a Mac Studio for the size, power, and sound level. But maybe I should wait a bit more for the kinks to be worked out.

Either the Mac Studio or a new HP Z will cost me between 6-8K for the specs I need, and I don't want to drop that much money until I know real world performance with audio and video apps.

If I had an extra 16k i'd get an HP Z desktop and a new M1 Max Macbook Pro w/64GB Ram and 8TB SSD. But that's not going to happen this year.

I wonder what Apple is going to announce on Sept. 7? New Mac Pro desktop with M2 or 3? Or just the iPhone 14? I hope the new iPhone keeps the flat edges and finally includes Always On Display. A USB-C port would be nice to have too. I'm sick of these Lightning cables and all the dongles

[Eric Lambert]

Originally Posted by Benoni

Any of you guys using the new Mac Studio for audio and video?

To an extent, yes. Video running in ProTools, and a limited amount of video editing.

Which app(s) would you be using for video? It might be worth checking out the Apple-provided demos which illustrate how well (i.e. quickly) it handles video. Quite a lot of hardware is being thrown at that specific task.