Mac Studio in the real Logic world

[IAA]

Well, I will have to move off my Studio iMac which has served me well since 2015 at some point to retain the latest OS. I’m working through my plugins etc for Monterey and Apple Silicon native compatibility but I’m struggling to work out the best config.

I use lots of softsynths and Kontact as well as audio from guitar/hardware synths and voice. My interface is Apogee element and I useEucon for my controller.
Looking at the specs, it seems the ultra is 2 max’s glued together (spot my engineering familiarity) giving same core speed but double the cores. So is it really worth going for the ultra? The benchmarks I’ve seen for the ultra weren’t that impressive over the max. Either way it’s got to last at least 5 years so I want to futureproof as best I can. Likely buying this year before Christmas unless the Studio is slated for an M2 chip and it’s worth hanging on. It was much easier to figure this out when I bought my first studio g5 power Mac
Grateful for any tips or real life experiences.

Ian

[MarkOne]

I can only go by my experience with an M1 MacBook Pro and an M1 mini, (both 16GB RAM) and both basically handle everything I can throw at them right now.

I use a lot of Kontakt too, and stuff from Spitfire, Arturia, Waves, etc.

FX wise, I regularly have a Softube console 1 plugin on every track, and often a bunch of Slate virtual mix rack stuff on there too.

The project I have open right now has 11 drum tracks (8 audio, 3 AU samples), percussion, bass (DI and Amp) 8 seperate guitar tracks, 11 synth tracks(all AUs), 7 vocal tracks and an acoustic piano, running on a 64 sample buffer using an Audient iD14.

The MacBook was happy editing a fairly biggish music video in Adobe Premier with a fair amount of FX, Real time playback started to get a bit sluggish with some of the more demanding plugins, but I managed it fine.

I can't believe there is anything you couldn't do in audio land with a Mac Studio, now, or for a good few years to come.

[sonics]

As MarkOne has said, I think either machine would handle production duties for the next five years. What you should consider closely are the elements you cannot change, like the internal storage and memory. Max out those elements and then buy a warranty!

[muzines]

Single core speed will be the same, you just get more of them. So you won't benefit much if your channel strips contain heavy instruments or massive plugin chains (which all ned to be one on core), or require Live mode with heavy CPU requirements, but it will help if you want more tracks, as there are more cores to spread the load around...

[IAA]

Thanks, the core speed was what I suspected I’m not convinced given others points it’s worth the 2k extra for the ultra. That’s a synth…….

[IAA]

Well it’s arrived. I went for the max and saved the cash. I also got the studio display since I used an iMac, I have to say if nothing else Apple can package very well, you can see where the ££ go

So I’m in the transition stage, so far I’ve done a basic test to make sure it works with minimum data transferred. I’ve worked up a migration path and made the decision to run an Apple silicon native studio. A few plugins aren’t there yet, most of those I’ve not used recently so I’ll leave a couple (M Tron pro and SSL) are more of a nuisance. But I’m not going to run Rosetta I’ll use my old tron samples and stock Logic eqs instead.
I’m pruning my virtual synths (do I really need 4 Juno 6’s? ) going to just use Arturia, Spitfire and my 4 Roland cloud emulations. Keep it really simple. When I look at my last years work I realised I’d not used any others (apart from the k1 emulation for one of the OSC’s ). So I think less is best.

I’m set for probably a few more days of steady step by step migration but at least I have a plan and an opportunity to have a clean system.

I’ll drop updates as I go. First job today is reformat external SSDs to APFS, then start installing key m1 native apps including apogee, ilok and software authorisation centres for the software I’m going to use.

So far I’m frustrated at SSL not yet porting to native (except guitar strip, g force and Apple for doing another chip jump I remember having to move from my trusty G5.

No doubt I’ll get to play some music soon…..

[Kwackman]

Congrats on the new toy.
I might be replacing a 2010 Mac Pro in the future for a M1 machine, and I'd be keen to hear of your experiences.
So please keep updating this thread! Ta.

[muzines]

Which Roland Cloud plugins? Roland's M1 support is pretty dire and although they improved it a little for some of the ACB instruments, which are the worst offenders, they still perform really badly - the ACB engine is just not optimised for M1, say Roland - likely because the engine is multicore, which doesn't work the same on M1 as for Intel (Korg had a similar problem with the first versions of their wavestate and opsix plugins, but they rewrote their audio engine to fix it and they work great now).

No problems with the SSL plugins in Logic natively, but you'll need Rosetta of course. Having said that SSL promised M1 versions late this year ("Autumn 2022"), so hopefully it's not much longer to wait for native updates...

[IAA]

Which Roland Cloud plugins?

I have the D50, Jup 8, Juno 106 and 5080, the 5080 is the one I use most for some of those “just right pads”

My progress in transition, in summary is…

Didn’t realise about Thunderbolt cable differences - buy adapter for audio interface
Longer Thunderbolt cable needed for display, - buy 2m cable stop short at 3m Apple cable at £160
Take opportunity to move external storage to SSD - buy 4tb of SSD

Start installation of all native s/w

Ilok went ok

Apogee required changing security profile at recovery level, but ok

EUCON for avid artist didn’t work on direct connection (10gb Ethernet issue) so buy simple Ethernet switch. Worked flawlessly

Install logic. Went fine till I tried to move sound library to external disk. No options to do this. Likely due to some remembered library path on previous installation. Spent 6 hours re downloading all library, twice before speaking to Apple support. They couldn’t crack it. So I completely erased and reinstalled without ant migration except Apple ID. that did it. Moved sound library.

Phew, now I have Logic, Eucon and apogee interface all working in native mode. Now to start loading instruments and samples. But first Synthfest!

The hardware seems fine, quiet and quick. But I’d expect that for the £££ I’ve shelled out on it.

More to come….

Eucon

[muzines]

Which Roland Cloud plugins?

I have the D50, Jup 8, Juno 106 and 5080, the 5080 is the one I use most for some of those “just right pads”

The D50 is fine, the 5080 is heavier than it should be but doesn't cause problems in practice. JP8 and 106 were terrible (unusable) and the last minor update improved them a bit and they're borderline - Ok at higher buffers but lower buffers might still overload a core - I haven't checked for a while, so ymmv.

Same for the other ACB and Aira plugins, they all nearly overload a full core and just glitch out...

So it's worth checking their performance on your system when you get that far...

Install logic. Went fine till I tried to move sound library to external disk. No options to do this. Likely due to some remembered library path on previous installation. Spent 6 hours re downloading all library, twice before speaking to Apple support. They couldn’t crack it. So I completely erased and reinstalled without ant migration except Apple ID. that did it. Moved sound library.

If you'd have asked here, I'd have told you what you could do to sort this... no re-downloading necessary.
Nevermind, you sorted it the brute-force way...
.

[IAA]

I'd have told you what you could do to sort this

I did think, but went for brute force

I’m at Synthfest today do it will be tomorrow before I start loading key plugins. I think based on native compliance they’ll be:

Arturia
Kontact
Spitfire including beta versions of some libraries
Izotope
Soundtoys
Slate
Waves (v13) my wup has just expired but I think v13 is native.

Ones for later when compliant

SSL
GeForce

I’ll keep you posted.

Cheers Desmond.

Ian

[IAA]

Episode 3 - it’s starting to work!

Soooo, hardware working well, midi for external synths all working, software install nearly completed.

Isotope Neutron 2 not m1 native so I’ve left it and not prepared to shell out for v3 or 4.

Spitfire all working ok with beta programs for a couple of libraries.

MusicLab guitars are perfect at v6. (Support is great and responsive too)

Slate have left FG x so just sticking to tape machine and console collection. That will be fine.

Fabfilter updated legacy plugins so well done!

Waves worked fine at v13

IK multimedia are a work in progress. Amplitude and the Hammond are m1 rest of my stuff is in the transition.

Valhalla supermassive (free) is at v 2 and m1 native. One wonders if they can do that for a free plugin why SSL can’t pull their finger out.

Left to do; relocate all spitfire Labs, straightforward I think but repetitive. A bulk relocate would be good.

Set up back up routine

Create new logic templates

Create music.

It’s taken me on and off a week. But it’s nearly there I think. I don’t want to do it again for some years.

[muzines]

It does take a while doing an install from scratch, even if you're organised and have all your serials/etc documented and in good order.

For me, the joy of getting a spiffy new computer is always countered with the existential dread of knowing the week or so of work installing and configuring, and problem solving of older, no-longer compatible software I've got ahead of me...

But when you're over that stage, that's when the fun begins!

Power on through!

[Luke W]

Hope you're nearly there, IAA!

For me, the joy of getting a spiffy new computer is always countered with the existential dread of knowing the week or so of work installing and configuring, and problem solving of older, no-longer compatible software I've got ahead of me...

I've just been nosing through this thread to keep an eye on the the progress as I received my Mac Studio along with some new storage bits and pieces a week or two ago. My new interface has arrived today so this sums up how I'm feeling pretty well...

Lots of planning, a few spreadsheets, and I'm still pretty sure that something will take me by surprise.

[IAA]

A day off today from the studio being sociable, as you do. But I was noticing last night that the core Kontact library is nowhere to be found so I’m going to be hunting that tomorrow. I wonder if it defaulted to the Macintosh HD of my last machine? Don’t fancy downloading it all again. I did like the keys one and some of the ethereal earth sounds they’re probably in the same place!

What threw me (apart from annoying logic sound library thing) was my high strength passwords on sites not popping up for use in that companies software manager. I mean these high strength passwords are not even easy to write down accurately never mind memorise.

It’s amazing having the luxury of reviewing all my plugins and deciding what i use and just installing those. It’s so much nicer and simpler with a few options and I’m looking forward to learning to use what I’ve installed rather than buy some great discounted new plugin.

So tomorrow is final installs and a dry recording run with new template. That’s great fun to set up again from scratch.

Let you know how it goes.

Ian

[muzines]

It’s amazing having the luxury of reviewing all my plugins and deciding what i use and just installing those. It’s so much nicer and simpler with a few options and I’m looking forward to learning to use what I’ve installed rather than buy some great discounted new plugin.

Yes, I took the opportunity to do the exact same thing moving to M1 - streamlining to things I actually need and use, and leaving the rest uninstalled (unless some later need comes up).

I still have my old machine to load projects that require those plugins/etc if necessary.

[IAA]

I still have my old machine to load projects that require those plugins/etc if necessary.

. Yes that’s what I’m going to do. I’m also going to start with a plan to make sure all my projects are properly catalogued and bounced to audio. I’ve been amazed at how much material I have that I’ve completely forgotten about or not been sure what it is from the very cursory description I gave it at the time.

One of the things I noticed on the way was that many logic stock plugins are actually as good as many of the “boutique” brands, to my ears at least. Certainly the compressors and EQs. So just getting that which Logic needs a hand with is the better way for me.

And isn’t Alchemy a rather good synth! I’d forgotten but found some old sound libraries that I brought over and they’re absolutely fab. You can even use the core samples and roll your own in a sampler of your choice.

Some of this is good fun.

Ian.

[sonics]

Congratulations. I know what a chore a new computer can be.

What do you use for backup? Does everyone use Time Machine, or is there a better alternative (specifically for system drive imaging)?

[IAA]

I use time machine generally and super duper for cloning.

Time machine is good and painless and I like the ease of the interface to track files down.

[muzines]

I’m also going to start with a plan to make sure all my projects are properly catalogued and bounced to audio. I’ve been amazed at how much material I have that I’ve completely forgotten about or not been sure what it is from the very cursory description I gave it at the time.

It's a good idea to do, if you don't have a regimented procedure of archiving projects once they're done. (Like, probably, nearly all of us! )

On a related note, I've developed a tool that will report on the plugins used in a Logic Pro 10 project (or recursively through a whole whole/drive of projects), and will note if any plugins are used in the project that are missing on the current system the reports are performed on. It will optionally write a text file alongside each project with the results, and can also include the Logic plugins if required.

It's quite handy to have a record of what third-party plugins a project uses, and you can search also to do for example things like "Show me all the projects in this folder that use Diva" etc.

Currently, it's a fairly solid proof-of-concept version that is a PHP script, but I may well getting around to doing a proper Mac app at some point... (so many things to do...!)

What do you use for backup? Does everyone use Time Machine, or is there a better alternative (specifically for system drive imaging)?

I don't use Time Machine, but I do clone with Super Duper, and have a few folder sync operations to mirror data between drives etc...

[IAA]

Episode 4 - the finale….

It’s done! Wayyyyyyyy

All software that I use and need is there, all midi for synths all working. All audio working, new logic template is a thing of simple beauty (if I say so myself) and to make it easy Spitfire Labs can all be repaired in one batch. Saved me ages that did.

Just fired everything up from scratch and it’s great, clean and working. Studio is looking good, now to start finishing my EP.

I think overall it’s been worth it, at least I’m 100% m1 native now and can hopefully relax a bit on the studio admin side.

Top tips from my experience and note to self for future…

give yourself more time (lots) than you initially estimate
Make sure you have ALL license info ready and check each account for compliance and latest installers before you kick off
Write down the logical order of the migration and stick to it, don’t mis steps out.
Be really clear on external storage strategy and paths to existing software beforehand
Make sure each step is robust before moving to next. And by robust include reboots to test. For example, I did OSX first on base machine, then external drives, then logic. When all that was sound moved to hardware connections.

Drink plenty of coffee. Keep reminding your loved one where you are and what you look like

Off to play now………….

[muzines]

Congrats, and I heartily concur with your tips - the more prepared you are before you begin, the smoother things go, generally.

Enjoy!