Advice for Which Mac to buy please.

[Musicgenie]

Hello. 

I am looking into buying a new Mac. Iv'e had my iMac for about 5-6 years so it it's time to update it.

I currently have an iMac on which I have :

Logic Pro

Rob Papen Explorer 7

Omnisphere 2

Arturia V 5 

On a separate hard disk I have installed Native Instruments Komplete

I would be grateful if anyone could provide some tech advice on a suitable upgrade spec. I was looking at a Mac Studio. 

What kind of spec would be required for my kind of set up ?

Also what hard drive would you recommend for installing NI Komplete on ? I would probably install NI Komplete Standard for now, with the possibility to upgrade to ultimate or collectors edition in the future. 

Is it possible to set up an external hard drive and partition it for use as a Time Machine Back up for Mac, as well as installing software such as NI Komplete on ? 

Also It it possible to open projects created on an older version of logic and run it on the latest version ? Including automation. 

Any Advice I would be grateful. Happy Music making to everyone. 

Thanks

Lee

 

[des99]

6 hours ago, Musicgenie said:

would be grateful if anyone could provide some tech advice on a suitable upgrade spec. I was looking at a Mac Studio. 

Any of them, according to your budget. They're all great machines.

6 hours ago, Musicgenie said:

What kind of spec would be required for my kind of set up ?

I have no idea of your needs, someone making movie scores with 400 tracks of hybrid orchestra needs a beefier system than someone making some EDM with loops and a few synths. As we have no idea of your use cases, it's impossible to tell you what's the best system for your needs.

The smallest current Macbook Air will run all your plugins without problems, all these machines are great.

What you might want to do is look at the geekbench score of your current computer, and the performance you get from that, and it's onboard memory, and use that to scope what you'd like your next system to have.

6 hours ago, Musicgenie said:

Also what hard drive would you recommend for installing NI Komplete on ?

The inbuilt SSD is by far the fastest drive.

6 hours ago, Musicgenie said:

Is it possible to set up an external hard drive and partition it for use as a Time Machine Back up for Mac, as well as installing software such as NI Komplete on ? 

Sure.

6 hours ago, Musicgenie said:

Also It it possible to open projects created on an older version of logic and run it on the latest version ? Including automation.

It depends what you mean by "older version of Logic". if you mean an older version of "Logic Pro 10" projects, then yes. Logic 7.x - 9.x (generally, but not always). Logic 1-6.x projects, no, they will need an intermediate conversion step.

Edited October 29, 2023 by des99

[analogika]

Wait another 30 hours, when new macs are due to be released, and we’ll have a new market to judge. 

[Atlas007]

Depending of your Mac turn-over, you might consider aiming at bigger than what your first assessment needs.

[MikeRobinson]

Couple of points:

The filesystem that's usually used today for (e.g.) SSD drives supports the concept of "volumes" which are not "physical partitions." You can think of them as a "topmost-level directory or folder," and they flexibly compete with all of the other volumes on the same drive for space. (A volume doesn't have a "size limit" that I know of.)

Every single Mac that I have ever bought – save one – was purchased at the "refurbished" section of Apple.Com. This is where you find the stuff that was used last year at schools and Apple retail stores. It has now been restored by Apple to "like new" condition, and they back it with the same bumper-to-bumper AppleCare® warranty that they offer for "actually new" gear.  But, since in the eyes of the law the equipment is not "new," it costs less. It arrives at your front door in a couple days in the most "ordinary-looking" box 🙂 that you have ever seen. (Yes, you pay sales tax.) The inventory of units available for sale changes constantly and quickly, so when you find one that you like, grab it.

Virtually any "modern" Mac will run Logic with ease. Be sure to equip the unit with "plenty" of RAM.

The now-SSD built-in "hard drives" may be a little smaller than you may wish, but fast, USB-C connected external hard drives are positively cheap at any office-supply store, and their capacity is becoming ridiculous. Reformat it with a Mac filesystem using "Disk Utility," and away you go. (For instance, I keep my entire instrument library on one.) Always set aside a volume somewhere for "Time Machine."

Edited October 30, 2023 by MikeRobinson

[Musicgenie]

On 10/29/2023 at 7:40 PM, des99 said:

Any of them, according to your budget. They're all great machines.

I have no idea of your needs, someone making movie scores with 400 tracks of hybrid orchestra needs a beefier system than someone making some EDM with loops and a few synths. As we have no idea of your use cases, it's impossible to tell you what's the best system for your needs.

The smallest current Macbook Air will run all your plugins without problems, all these machines are great.

What you might want to do is look at the geekbench score of your current computer, and the performance you get from that, and it's onboard memory, and use that to scope what you'd like your next system to have.

The inbuilt SSD is by far the fastest drive.

Sure.

It depends what you mean by "older version of Logic". if you mean an older version of "Logic Pro 10" projects, then yes. Logic 7.x - 9.x (generally, but not always). Logic 1-6.x projects, no, they will need an intermediate conversion step.

Thank you for your reply. I average about 30-50 tracks, but  a song, but can be more. Some of them can be quite long, up to 15-20minutes. I do sound design and composing using Omnisphere, Rob Papen explorer bundle, arturia V5, and NI Komplete. I understand Apple are doing an event this evening so will see what they announce, possibly new IMac. Either that or will go with a Studio M2 max.

[rAC]

Well the ‘event’ has been and gone. So I guess that means @Musicgenie you will get a Studio: if you need to get a monitor to go with it check the alternatives to the Apple Studio Display - there are some around that can save you quite a bit for similar viewing spec’s. And I agree with @MikeRobinson the refurbished section is the place to shop for Mac’s.

It would be worth your while to have an eye on a memory monitor while you work on some of your larger tracks to see what sort of pressure it is under so you can work out what you need in terms of memory. In terms of internal drive size - I’m a believer in putting everything you can onto external drives my Omnisphere and Komplete Kontact 13 are on T7 Samsung external SSDs and they don’t seem slow at all. 

[MikeRobinson]

Any, no matter how "big and beefy" your hardware may be, the day may come when you need to learn about "freezing" and "bouncing."  This converts a track (or stack) into an audio track containing the exact same rendered content, then mutes the source tracks.  (And, it no longer matters just how much "time" the computer requires to do the render.)  It then requires no resources at all to "play an audio track."

This is a well thought-out feature of Logic, whose designers knew that eventually you would run out of "in real time" horsepower. You can approach the project "section by section," freeze each section and keep on going. Always being able to go back and do it again, since the feature is non-destructive. Now, with just a little bit of planning, you can easily handle projects that would greatly exceed your computer's ability to "do in real time."

Edited October 31, 2023 by MikeRobinson

[Holger Lagerfeldt]

The current line-up of M3's are not a good deal. I'd skip this round of M3s or you'll pay a premium for an in-between product with limited choice in RAM as well.

For mix/mastering I recently went with the biggest M2 Mac mini, which is also the best VFM Mac overall, but not the top performer.

For production (as opposed to just mix/mastering) you should ignore even the largest M2 Pro Mac mini and get a Mac Studio instead. Same cost (bar ≈ $50), but better performance with the Studio.

I made a spreadsheet with the Geekbench single + multi core score versus dollar cost of all the current Mac models, and for production the Mac Studio is the best VFM.

The new Mac Studio doesn't have the fan problem the first model did, so it's safe to buy the Studio now.

How much RAM is up to your wallet, but remember the new SoC design means RAM is more efficient/fast, so you won't necessarily need as much RAM as you would with Intel.

It's possible to get an external SSD that rivals or theoretically exceeds the internal SSD in terms of speed/performance, especially if you put it together yourself. It's cheaper, better, and not difficult at all:

Check out Acasis, Orico or DeLock for a M.2 NVMe enclosure. Then slot in a good SSD, e.g. a 2 TB Samsung 980 Pro or a budget WD Black SN770. If you aim for extreme speeds then it should connected directly to the Studio with a quality cable. With regular speeds you can go through a quality hub. Cables matter when it comes to TB/USB at high speeds.

You still need at least 1 TB for the internal SSD due to the SoC design. This is related to memory swapping and overprovisioning. Small SSDs can pull down the entire computer speed with SoC designs and you don't get to change your mind on size later. Larger also means the SSD will last longer due to fewer overwrites.

Regarding the screen, there really is no alternative to the Apple Studio Display 27" if you want Retina and a decent size. The LG Ultrafine 5K has the same panel inside but lower nits and the build quality is vastly inferior. There's a new "alternative", the Samsung ViewFinity, but again its vastly inferior in build quality.

A great non-Retina monitor would be the newest Asus ProArt 27" with HiDPI enabled on your Mac via the Terminal or an app. I use Better Display for this.