The new 16” is strong enough for music studio?

Pioki, thanks so much for writing back. I have long been interested in bringing my MacBook Pro, RME 802 and a keyboard to gigs and live work... and wanted to ask you about your rig. Do you have stuff in racks? How do you keep your computer safe with the rigors of live work?

I have a 6HE rack on the floor next to my keyboard stand. Laptop is on the rack, the rack has rubber clipped on top so the laptop doesn't dance around on it.

I'm not happy with it tho, i'm thinking of buying a hard case, and attaching it to the rack. so the case is attached to the rack, and the laptop snaps in.

 

I'm also thinking of buying some word of "telephone cord" style breakout box to connect stuff to it to act as a physical "buffer" over tripped cables.

we'll see.

 

so far so good tho, no damage.

Excellent. Thank you. Oh p.s., please feel free to post pics. I'm curious what that looks like. Thank you again.

Hi,

The new 16" MacBook pro is strong enough for 96/88.2Khz with 150-250 tracks (include bus/aux) with Omnisphere/Alchemy synths and a lot of plugins?

The fans not make too much noise when recording?

 

MacBook Pro Specs:

2.4GHz 8‑core 9th‑generation Intel Core i9 processor, Turbo Boost up to 5.0GHz

32GB 2666MHz DDR4 memory

 

Today I'm using Hackintosh with i5-4460 and 16GB RAM on drop/chorus I got "system over load" message (48KHZ)

 

I’m undecided if buy MacBook Pro 16” or wait to new Mac Mini

 

Get a laptop pad with built-in fans

Excellent. Thank you. Oh p.s., please feel free to post pics. I'm curious what that looks like. Thank you again.

I will next time i have it setup for rehearsals

Excellent. Thank you my friend.

The cheesgraters are still totally viable. I will be using mine for several more years. Albeit it’s a maximally upgraded cheesegrater, dual processor, fastest and lots of ram. I would not vouch for lessor configurations. While an i9 will definitely beat the single core low latency performance, it still handles everything I am throwing at it with certain practical advantages that the iMac and mini still can’t compete with. It’s dead silent for one thing. All my drives are inside it for another. Super low latency pci audio for a third thing. Use whatever monitor I want for a 4th thing which in this case is a 32” 4k in hidpi mode and I prefer that by a long shot over a 27” Retina display with reflective glossy screen.

 

Last time I checked a fully decked out cheesegrater was closer to $2k from a reputable reseller that includes a warranty, etc might find it for $500 less on eBay. But don’t discount these just yet they are still perfectly viable and able to handle big instruments and big mixes. Me personally I would never trade mine in for any current mini or iMac, regardless of the cost.

If i had $2k i think a 2012 system is just not viable as a new purchase. They're already out-dated and the price will drop like a lead weight as we've seen historically. Just not a smart investment at this point (in my opinion).

 

You've got to be wanting at least 4-5 years use buying a new machine, surely? And the single core speed is really an obstacle on the older cheesegraters - i know as i've got 2 sat around and rarely used anymore as a modern i7/i9 runs rings around them.... In my experience MacOS is Just snappier in general use on modern hardware, i don't know if that's down to more modern chipsets and faster DDR4 RAM, CPU (+Instruction sets) or GPU - but just navigating the OS is a smoother experience in comparison. Particularly switching between apps and screen spaces.

 

Performance wise, the way Xeon's operate with a more consistent speed vs intels vastly more reliant turbo/boosted CPU's is the only advantage i see to dip back to the old models. But with that said, the single core bottlenecks can't be ignored. To put things into perspective the old Xeon's can't even hit modern i3 standards for single core processing.

 

So, If you're stacking up on a single channel or do lots of live monitoring then i wouldn't dip into the cheesegraters, one or two stock plugins can cause playback to stop on my 12 core machine in a loaded project when instantiated. One of those is Chromaverb. If i manage a project carefully it's a monster still... But, that's today, in 2-3 years it's much deeper into the ground and aged than a modern build.

 

When you can pick the higher end cheesegraters up for the $1k mark then it would be a different predicament. They are/were truly superb machines - and most definitely from a great era in Mac history.

You can pick them up for the $1k mark, but not fully loaded and maxed out config as the last time I checked, which has been a while, they might be less now. By the way a fully maxed out iMac or Mini will cost more too.

Anyway different strokes for different folks. If Apple put an i9 into a cheese grater enclosure for a reasonable price I'd buy one this afternoon, but they don't offer that and those things do still matter to some of us, its not just all about the CPU clock speed.

You can pick them up for the $1k mark, but not fully loaded and maxed out config as the last time I checked

Well therein is the problem, you need to get the top models for them to be worthy for at least a few years usage, or else the single core comparison suffers moreso. Hence the pricing difference on the cheesegraters, people know the market and what's capable. You wouldn't want to go below the 3.1ghz 12 core in my opinion.

 

But even then, best case scenario is having to run on a hack to use latest OS, none of it is ideal and certainly not if you're throwing equal money into 2012 tech vs a brand new Mac Mini.

 

And it saddens me as i'm a huge fan of the Cheesegraters... But man, when you move on and taste a modern build, the whole thing is just far more zippier and compatible. Which is why i've decided to go Win 10 route and build a machine that suits my requirements and budget, and it's been fantastic, PCI cards work, Firewire works and finally i have a GPU that ploughs through anything and i can define CPU performance and Fan profiles. The freedom is a breathe of fresh air.

 

...being spied on continuously by MS, maybe not as 'fresh' though lol.

Its not a "problem".

 

But I agree, I would not go below 3.1 cheese grater. Here is one on ebay for $800, for example. 12 core 3.33ghz.

 

I don't know if I would buy a cheese grater right now if I had to buy one, i would be seriously on the fence about it, mainly because of being deprecated officially from Apple. But still...they are perfectly viable still. I will be using mine 3 more years at a minimum. Is it worth $800 to wait 3 years to see if Apple will come out with something better then mini/iMac? In my view, it just might be!

 

As far as zippiness and compatibility, I disgagree, mine is running perfectly snappy and I have been testing new macs at the apple store, I don't feel any difference. I have installed Catalina on mine to test, it works totally fine. But I don't want to use Catalina for other reasons anyway so its a moot point. The only compatibility issue is AVX which so far has only prevented me from using MassiveX, which I can live without.

 

Again, just saying... The cheese grater is most definitely NOT too old that it needs to be put to pasture and the the iMac/mini's are also not all they are cracked up to be in certain ways. If you only value the CPU clock speed, then you should definitely go with one of those, but there are other factors that also matter to some of us...and the cheese grater still fits the bill honestly for audio making in my opinion much better than a brand new iMac or Mini. But I say whatever works for you and makes you happy!

Agree with Dewdman42, I have a MP 5.1 with 128GB RAM, 4x internal SSDs, RX580 / 8GB RAM with full h/w acceleration, running Catalina without a hitch, very snappy and can handle anything I throw at it without any thermal or spinning fans issues (never hear the fans except on boot)...

 

And if that's not enough I also have a Thunderbolt 3 working flawlessly with an RME interface...

 

For a 10 years old machine, it's unbelievable... definitely the best value Mac I've ever got! The only issue is if you need AVX for latest apps (I don't)...

If you don't need Thunderbolt, the old cheesegraters mac pros are plenty for audio.

Been using one for 10 years.

Isn't it possible to fit them with thunderbolt since recently? I think i saw an article somewhere

not easily and basically it doesn't make sense to mess around with Thunderbolt on the cheese grater except for certain unique situations where you just have to have it...in which case that would be a strong motivation to get something newer if you absolutely must have thunderbolt.

 

For me, a primary reason to use the cheese grater is because I use a Lynx PCI-base audio card that has extremely low latency and high performance. I have all my storage inside the computer as well, no thunderbolt needed or wanted.

It’s really not that complicated to get it working but you do need to invest sometime to set it up (involves dual-booting into Win or Linux before booting up again into macOS - this is only needed after shutdown / cold boot but not after warm reboots)

 

Obviously it’s not for everyone but it does help extend the usefulness of those machines for few more years.

The Thunderbolt hack for the cheesegraters is a pain, and you're still limited to the PCI 2.0 bus.

Also ... even though "if overloaded, Logic will halt," Logic was always designed to give you options. You can "bounce" tracks off-line to generate equivalent audio-only tracks. (Or, freeze/thaw.) "You can always find a way to work within your particular machine's limitations. The necessary secret is to plan ahead. (Just like our music-god predecessors had to do. when all they had to work with was "analog and X-track magnetic tape.") Edited February 25, 2020 by MikeRobinson

you can also use Freeze tho. they're not "so called" limitations, they are limitations, and while mixing its really really annoying to freeze/unfreeze all the time.

 

A real killer is also "live input", which there so far is no way in logic to turn off, which makes every loaded instrument track a potential CPU murderer, with no real permanent work around (except clicking R or clicking an audio track)

Above post edited.

New mac mini soon

https://9to5mac.com/2020/03/04/imac-and-mac-mini-refresh-soon/

damn, i want one already

The new Mac Mini is not 8 core so disappointing

The new Mac Mini is not 8 core so disappointing

 

I love mine, it’s a great machine.

The new Mac Mini is not 8 core so disappointing

 

wow what a disappointing upgrade - they only nudged the SSD size up a notch. LOL.

The new Mac Mini is not 8 core so disappointing

 

wow what a disappointing upgrade - they only nudged the SSD size up a notch. LOL.

 

i'm not buying one until apple gives us 9 cores, and a 257G SSD...

Not much of an upgrade coz its already a great machine, nice size, looks fab, really powerful.

 

I'm not buying one till they get rid of Catalina and ditch the T2chip.

 

wow what a disappointing upgrade - they only nudged the SSD size up a notch. LOL.

 

i'm not buying one until apple gives us 9 cores, and a 257G SSD...

 

No i mean they didn't even refresh chips :/ it's literally the same machine as 2 years ago, it's not really an update, not enough to warrant a "new" sticker. It's in every sense a discount on SSD price...

 

Not much of an upgrade coz its already a great machine, nice size, looks fab, really powerful.

 

I'm not buying one till they get rid of Catalina and ditch the T2chip.

 

so... Never?

Ha! probably never, or not soon anyway, I do really like it though, love all the ports, the form factor, excellent.