Pro Tools 2022.4 on Mac Studio M1 Ultra

[Eric Lambert]

Originally Posted by MARVINBASS

Wow! Really? I would never have thought that the current Mac Pro would be slower than a Mac Studio. What config on the Mac Studio?? I know you can spend up to $7k to max it out.

Mac Studio Ultra starts at $3999 and it outperforms the Mac Pro.

[Marsdy]

Originally Posted by MARVINBASS

Wow! Really? I would never have thought that the current Mac Pro would be slower than a Mac Studio. What config on the Mac Studio?? I know you can spend up to $7k to max it out.

20 core, 48 core GPU, 128GB RAM, 8TB.
I was actually surprised how much faster it is. I use a lot of VIs so the big jump in single core speed for the Studio compared with the Mac Pro makes a big difference. To be honest I just wanted rid of the 2019 whilst it was still worth something!

[MARVINBASS]

Originally Posted by Marsdy

20 core, 48 core GPU, 128GB RAM, 8TB.
I was actually surprised how much faster it is. I use a lot of VIs so the big jump in single core speed for the Studio compared with the Mac Pro makes a big difference. To be honest I just wanted rid of the 2019 whilst it was still worth something!

Thank You for your insight.
I am interested to see if Apple speed bumps the Mac Studio next week.

Cheers!

[daeron80]

Originally Posted by MARVINBASS

Hmm… but I see you are on a MacBook Pro not a Mac Studio. Correct??

Well, yes, and a first gen M1 MBP, at that. So, a Studio should be even faster, provided the sessions are on an internal SSD or an ultra-speed external.

[Carl Lie]

I'm loving the Studio Max I purchased. The most amazing thing is the ability to run at lower buffer sizes like 128 where I can add extra tracks with the latency acceptable. I used to need HDx for that on my cheese-grater. I am however only using a 2x2 interface so perhaps once I got to 24-32 i/o I may need HDx.

Looking back, I think the Ultra may have been a better choice but I got the Max Studio mainly as a backup in case the 5,1 goes down.

Studio's are great computers. Super quiet and fast.

C

[resonatee]

Wow, you are really working with VI's in PT and 64 buffer? What are your project sizes? are you using VePRO? Would love to see some movie recording of that, as that is my biggest question re Apple Silicon - Latency with Vi's.....

Originally Posted by Marsdy

Yes me too. I upgraded from a 2019 16 core Mac Pro. The Studio Ultra is noticeably faster and a LOT more stable. I’m running 100% AS native. 6 weeks now of heavy use with barely any CPU overloads and not one single crash. This at a buffer of 64. On the 7,1 16 core I was at 256, often 512 and had a lot more CPU overs. The CPU overs have mostly been in NI Starlight and when messing with Cherry Audio VIs at the highest quality setting.

Strong rumours that the Studio will get speed bumped on Monday at WWDC.

[climber]

Bumped today

[Marsdy]

Originally Posted by resonatee

Wow, you are really working with VI's in PT and 64 buffer? What are your project sizes? are you using VePRO? Would love to see some movie recording of that, as that is my biggest question re Apple Silicon - Latency with Vi's.....

No Apple Silicon native VE Pro available yet but the Synchron Player and Piano VIs are working great.

My currently Pro Tools sessions are between 30 and 40GB so reasonably big but not massive orchestral template big.

Most of the sessions I’m currently working on are playing back fine at a buffer of 64. CPU overs are VERY rare. For example, when committing a Cherry Audio synth set to highest quality 4x oversampling it might overload but this is with a unison mode set to high numbers of voices. I had a Synchron Player overload intermittently today but again with a very demanding patch with real-time time stretching enabled and very high polyphony. I would have needed a buffer of 512 do this on my old Intel 16 core 7.1 Mac Pro.