Jump to content

Performance


elvisfridge

Recommended Posts

After watching a few MBP Silicon posts re performance etc (on the few other sites that have any info) I got so fed up I decided to do some totally un scientific tests of my own (the relevance is I have purchased a 16" MBP, M1Pro, 32 Gig RAM, 1 TB internal, new machine which hasnt arrived lol x but its on its way and money has changed hands)

Basically I watched a few videos online of new MBP's rocking 100's of audio tracks and plug ins, it started to make me think well this is all Logic (which I use) and mainly their plug ins (virtually nothing else is compatible, so fair play) but as I have a reasonable system which is staying in situ, whats all this business about track counts and what will take it down moving forward.

 

Current set up is MBP, Mid 2014, 2.8ghz, 16Gig RAM, 1TB SSD internal. Loads of stuff plugged into it (external audio drive and sample drive removed) everything running off internal system drive. This is where I ended up. NB: I purposefully threw non Logic plugs in and I kicked the s#!+ out of the VI's note wise.

 

I stopped at 156 channels because I got bored. I could not get the SSD to budge re audio, it wanted more. The chanel breakdown was 12 VI's (4 Kontakt, 2 Avenger, 2 Nexus, 4 Alchemy, just thought I would throw them in) and the rest audio.

 

156 Ch EQ's of which 48 were Fabfilter Pro Q 3's and 156 Ch Comps of which were Fabfilter Pro C 2's (I ended up freezing the VI's all will be revealed)

 

In the mixer I had 248 sends into 8 Aux busses:

1. Valhalla

2. Enverb (Logic)

3. Tsar 1

4. Gold Plate

5. Tape Delay (Logic)

6. Timeless

7. Flanger (Logic)

8. GoodHeartz Tremolo

 

SSL Mix Bus 2 (SSL) SSL Fusion Stereo on mix bus.

 

I was just throwing cake at it, but what did I learn?

 

The internal SSD from 2014 would take it all day long (audio wise)

The 2.8 quad core was smashed by the CPU requirement of Avenger, Nexus, and Kontakt. Although Kontakt is a streamer its CPU overhead is considerable.

 

I went further. I decided to plug just the sample drive back in (obviously I had to tell Kontakt where the Library was and get rid of the desktop stuff) and see what happened. It was slightly better, the CPU indicator calmed down a little, but not much. I put the audio drive back in place and ran it on my normal system (they are both SSD drives) It all smoothed out but I only gained opening up some of the VI's from frozen, but it all ran better. It played much nicer.

 

Lessons Learned. Dont worry about audio streaming. Worry about what your programs are doing to your processor.

It was also apparent that its smoother with external fast drives, your processor likes it more. In short the more grunt and disk the better. And dont be fooled by the Logic video guys because other Plug In providers will be on the bus soon. I love Logic.

 

I will be purchasing something to assist my new Mac. Merry Christmas and junk my post if in the Wrong Place.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Welcome Aboard! :D It sure looks like you're doing some amazing things with your new system! It looks like you've got easily enough memory and internal disk capacity (no doubt: SSD ...) to do a lot of things at once – and that you are right now doing that.

 

We look forward to hearing more of your experiences. What sort of music you are making ... share it with us? ... and how you are doing it. There are "Showcase" sections here just for that purpose. Technical breakdowns and analyses welcome.

 

To me, one of the very nicest things about Logic is how easily it handles "sometimes necessary things" such as "bouncing" and "freezing." The software's designers obvious placed a great deal of emphasis upon this. No matter how powerful your system may be, eventually you're going to bump up against it. So, these are important things to become familiar with very early. "A whole bunch of tracks," for the time being, "become one," and so the CPU and other resources now become available for other creative uses, greatly extending your possibilities through the magic of "off-line." I've used other DAWs, and to me Logic stands out in how intuitive it makes this.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi and thank you.

 

I think I was simply trying to say I was amazed at how much my 2014 MBP could do and that the new Macs will be amazebomb but dont get fooled by Logic only videos of hundreds of tracks (they already do that) Also that its the CPU hit that brings stuff down like Kontakt, Nexus, Avenger, Alchemy etc.

 

Yes I love Logic. Its a great programme.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Logic is an awesome tool. "We live in an embarrassment of riches."

 

(Yes, I am (koff, koff ...) "old enough" to well remember when artists paid more than $100,000 ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synclavier and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairlight_CMI ... for a mere fraction of what is now even free to us today ... At the time, "today" was utterly inconceivable. Yet, here we are and let's make music.)

 

Now – use exactly as many tracks as you need, and not one more. And, "there is always 'just one more' Logic plug-in that you need Santa Claus to bring you!"

 

Welcome to the infatuation . . . :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes Mike im old enough too and for some reason I max out at 24 tracks lol. I used to engineer years ago and paid for some of the gear we now take for granted. This site is a great resource and I will try to add value (in my own small way) I fancy looking at whether running Straming samples and session audio from one external drive (SSD obviously) my previous shenanigans would suggest that it will probably work fine? Oh and looking forward to my new mac arriving.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...