I am thinking of ditching my old Mac Pro Tower (2x2.6 Quad Core) which runs DP8 reasonably well, but stalls a little with a number of virtual instruments. I need portability more, so considering a 15" MacBook Pro, 1TB, Turbo Boost to 3.8GHz, with 16 GB ram, adding a cinema screen when needed. Does anyone have experience of running this laptop? Will it do most DP tasks well with the i7 and limited ram?
I need advice and reassurance that I needn't really aim to get a Mac Pro or boosted iMac.
Also, I use a Firewire Motu 828. Has anyone run this well using a thunderbolt/firewire adaptor?
DP8 and MacBook Pro
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This forum is for most discussion related to the use and optimization of Digital Performer [MacOS] and plug-ins as well as tips and techniques. It is NOT for troubleshooting technical issues, complaints, feature requests, or "Comparative DAW 101."
This forum is for most discussion related to the use and optimization of Digital Performer [MacOS] and plug-ins as well as tips and techniques. It is NOT for troubleshooting technical issues, complaints, feature requests, or "Comparative DAW 101."
Re: DP8 and MacBook Pro
As long as that 1TB is an SSD (which i assume it must be), then that should be a great machine. 16GB should be more than enough for all but the biggest templates given the fast drive.
Depending on how many VIs you own, you might at some point feel a little cramped if you're limited to the internal drive only, but you can always keep TBolt externals next to your cinema screen, and you can have a "laptop" set of instruments that cover all your compositional bases without employing multi-gigabyte versions of those same instruments.
MOTU 828 via TB adapter I can't specifically address, but most interfaces work fine through Apple's TB/FW adapters as a rule.
Now: having said all this, if portability is not an urgent issue, you might be able to get a lot more life out of your tower merely by adding SSDs for your samples, as that's almost certainly a bottleneck. Plus the nice thing about doing so is there's nothing lost; you can take them with you via thunderbolt whenever you move on to a new cpu.
Depending on how many VIs you own, you might at some point feel a little cramped if you're limited to the internal drive only, but you can always keep TBolt externals next to your cinema screen, and you can have a "laptop" set of instruments that cover all your compositional bases without employing multi-gigabyte versions of those same instruments.
MOTU 828 via TB adapter I can't specifically address, but most interfaces work fine through Apple's TB/FW adapters as a rule.
Now: having said all this, if portability is not an urgent issue, you might be able to get a lot more life out of your tower merely by adding SSDs for your samples, as that's almost certainly a bottleneck. Plus the nice thing about doing so is there's nothing lost; you can take them with you via thunderbolt whenever you move on to a new cpu.
- mikehalloran
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Re: DP8 and MacBook Pro
Yes. There's a recent thread on this but I can't find it.Also, I use a Firewire Motu 828. Has anyone run this well using a thunderbolt/firewire adaptor?
DP 11.31; 828mkII FW, micro lite, M4, MTP/AV USB Firmware 2.0.1
2023 Mac Studio M2 8TB, 192GB RAM, OS Sonoma 14.4.1, USB4 8TB external, M-Audio AIR 192|14, Mackie ProFxv3 6/10/12; 2012 MBPs Catalina, Mojave
IK-NI-Izotope-PSP-Garritan-Antares, LogicPro X, Finale 27.4, Dorico 5.2, Notion 6, Overture 5, TwistedWave, DSP-Q 5, SmartScore64 Pro, Toast 20 Pro
2023 Mac Studio M2 8TB, 192GB RAM, OS Sonoma 14.4.1, USB4 8TB external, M-Audio AIR 192|14, Mackie ProFxv3 6/10/12; 2012 MBPs Catalina, Mojave
IK-NI-Izotope-PSP-Garritan-Antares, LogicPro X, Finale 27.4, Dorico 5.2, Notion 6, Overture 5, TwistedWave, DSP-Q 5, SmartScore64 Pro, Toast 20 Pro