MAC STUDIO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[HCMarkus]

Congrats Anders!

I’m in a similar boat; here’s what I’m planning:

Clean OS install
Clean DP11, drivers and plugins installs
Copy VI sample data to new Thunderbolt external SSD

Going to strive to avoid Rosetta as much as possible but a few essentials require it.

No more partitions. For housekeeping, use Volumes.

DP11 for sure.

[greg328]

Mike -amazing post- thank you for the useful info.

I’m strongly considering a Mac Studio Ultra to replace my flashed MP 5.1, but holding out for the next Mac Pro to see what that looks like. Have any of your industry connections leaked any advance info on what Apple may have up its sleeve for the upcoming AS Mac Pro?


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[HCMarkus]

2TB Samsung 970 Evo Plus formatted nicely in OWC Envoy external Thunderbolt enclosure. It will be slower than internal SSD but less than half the cost.

[Anders Peev]

Do not partition an SSD on a Mac. Not only is there no need but you are making drive space unavailable. With APFS, you can create additional Volumes but I do not see the need unless you want to boot from a different OS — as some of us have for one reason or the other.

RAID is not an issue on the internal SSDs in a Studio. The larger ones have a pair configured RAID 0 (sort of, per Apple) while the smaller ones have only one SSD. We know the 8TB uses a pair while the 512GB and 1TB have a single. I've not seen a teardown of the 2TB & 4TB Studios so I have no idea. There's a ton of misinformation out there by people who haven't a clue. The rated speed of the internal storage in a 2-blade Studio is 7,600 Gb/s (up from 7,000 in my iMac Pro or a MacPro 7.1) while the single blade rating is close to 4,000.

As for external storage, the fastest is 2,800 Gb/s using a single NVMe 3 x4 blade. A pair doubles the storage over RAID 0 but is a little slower, and increasing the number of SSDs or HDDs gives you more storage but slows it down even more. There's a 4 lane pipe with storage over TB3. TB4 is no faster but allows multiple TB3 devices to be connected to a single port.

Do not ever run disk optimizing apps or write to zeros on any SSD — ever. The good apps will not run on an SSD but the crapware might. You'll cripple the performance in the short run and shorten the life of the drive over time. SSDs do not function at all like HDDs. Cells, when erased, must be prepared before they can accept new data. APFS adds other differences, some are way cool.
viewtopic.php?t=64689

Not everything that requires Rosetta 2 triggers it. You can determine which apps run over R2 and which run Native. If there are plugs or libraries not yet Native, the app may not function correctly. Example: Finale just released 27.2 which can run Native but many use it with NotePerformer, myself included—if I don't have 27.2 running in R2 (Get Info, check a box) then it cannot see or use NP.

DP 11.04 runs Native but not all my plugs and VIs do (yet?). DP 10 cannot run Native but it might run over R2 — not installing it on my M1 to find out.

A Clean Install or not? You have an old system with a lot of apps and drivers that will be incompatible with the Studio. None of your 32 bit apps and plugs will run, for example. Although the MacOS is very good at filtering out the old crap, it is not perfect. Old code can absolutely screw you up and I've been through some major Apple hell due to old apps and code as recently as last month. Apple was ready to replace my Logic board and SSDs a few weeks ago before I found an Autotune license run time from 2019 that was causing all the problems. I've had old versions of Soundflower, HP print drivers, Finale 2009, NI Guitar Rig II, Bresink, Corel and others cause major grief — Migration Assistant will bring them all over.

You can use Migration Assistant to copy over your Network Settings and work files (Music, Documents, Movies, VIs in the Shared folder etc.) I do not recommend bringing over your apps and supporting libraries—that's where the old crap is. You want to reinstall them all, one by one. If they won't, you'll need to update or discard. I expect this to take a week when my Studio arrives, a week I won't have till July.

As for your work files, if you do not use Migration Assistant as recommended, DO NOT COPY THEM STRAIGHT OVER (especially Office and DP). Instead, zip (compress or archive) them first and unzip onto your new Studio. Zipping and Unzipping grants you the required ownership and permissions on the new Mac. Again, Migration Assistant does this automatically.

Thank you Mike! What a fantastic list of good advice! I'm saving your text in a note! I'm defintitely going for a clean instalI now. I use only 3 Sonnox plugins apart from the MAS ones. Maybe I should just wait for them to be Silicon approved before installing them on my Mac Studio? They have been behaving oddly on my MBP M1Pro. I use a free IR-reverb library someone told me about here. M7-something. Works fine with Proverb.
Great to know that I must use the Migration Assitant and not just copy files (I was planning on doing that!! ) I guess I will find out wether the Migration Assistant will do this from a 2007 Mac or not. If it does, I'm impressed, otherwise I will take your advice and do the zip-unzip walz! Thanks again Mike!

[mikehalloran]

When using Migration Assistant between two Macs, you will need to connect the two via USB or ethernet (WiFi works but it is sloooow). A permissions screen will show up on the old Mac — pay attention to that. You have three check boxes: Network settings, Applications, User Data (or something like that). Network Settings saves a little time over doing it manually. User Data grabs your work files.

You can also import from a Time Machine backup the same way.

[Anders Peev]

When using Migration Assistant between two Macs, you will need to connect the two via USB or ethernet (WiFi works but it is sloooow). A permissions screen will show up on the old Mac — pay attention to that. You have three check boxes: Network settings, Applications, User Data (or something like that). Network Settings saves a little time over doing it manually. User Data grabs your work files.

You can also import from a Time Machine backup the same way.

I did this when migrating from a Macbook Air to my new MacBook Pro M1. But then I just told it to become my old Mac. Very good to know that I can and should skip the applications. My old Mac Tower is packed with 32 bit apps that I don't remeber anymore! It was ok with the macBook Pro I think!

[bdr]

2TB Samsung 970 Evo Plus formatted nicely in OWC Envoy external Thunderbolt enclosure. It will be slower than internal SSD but less than half the cost.

How much slower??

[HCMarkus]

2TB Samsung 970 Evo Plus formatted nicely in OWC Envoy external Thunderbolt enclosure. It will be slower than internal SSD but less than half the cost.

How much slower??

I haven't tested yet, but it is my understanding the Envoy is a 2-lane device, which will limit max speed to about 1/2 what an NVMe SSD can deliver for sustained transfers. Since I don't generally do big data transfers, and don't plan to use the Envoy-housed Samsung SSD if I do, this does not significantly concern me. VI data is what is going on the Samsung; I'm transferring from SATA SSDs now. When my VIs are working, the Samsung will be spitting out lots of small reads, which it (like all drives, SSD or HD) will deliver much more slowly than its max sustained rate.

As this data is transferring, the Envoy is warm to the touch. Seems like the aluminum case is doing a good job keeping the drive inside cool.

I've read Mike's recommendations with regard to data transfers; for now, I'm just trying a straight copy of my sample data from drive to drive. I'll report back on my success or failure with this process. I did use Migration Assistant to transfer system and network settings. Worked great!

PS: The Mac Studio Ultra has arrived! I'm in the middle of a big project with my old Mac Pro, so it may be awhile until the new machine is fully integrated into my workflow.

[mikehalloran]

2TB Samsung 970 Evo Plus formatted nicely in OWC Envoy external Thunderbolt enclosure. It will be slower than internal SSD but less than half the cost.

How much slower??

Let’s look at that.
970 EVO — $279 n Amazon. Great price has come down a lot. There are high speed NVMe 3 x4 m.2 blades rated 2800 MB/s and slow blades rated 2000 MB/s. This is one of the fast ones.

If the enclosure is not rated 2800 MB/s, it is not Thunderbolt 3. Period. OWC and many others use such nonsense as “Thunderbolt certified” and “compatible” to describe slower USB 3, 3.1 and 3.2 enclosures. Nothing wrong with that but know what you are buying.

This is the least expensive external empty TB3 enclosure I can find on OWC, nice that it can hold up to 4 2TB m.2 blades— $249 for empty to $979 for 8TB. Has a fan which is good because the 970 EVO is known to run hot.
https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/TB3MPDU000J/
The 8TB version is rated at 2408 MB/s. Why doesn’t RAID 0 nearly double the speeds? It can’t do to the 4 lane limit on external storage over TB3. RAID 0 with 4 blades slows it down a little as each blade uses only one lane. There is no TB3/4 solution that overcomes this. Perhaps, there will be a TB/USB 5 spec someday that gets around this but that day isn’t here.

If you start with the 512GB Studio, storage upgrade is priced as follows: 1TB—$200, 2TB—$600, 4TB-$1,200, 8TB—$2,400.
If you start with the 1TB version, storage upgrades are 2TB—$400, 4TB—$1,000, 8TB—$2,200. On either, if you can buy through the EDU store, there are savings to be had.

“Less than half” only works at higher capacities.

Speed. Studios with two internal SSDs such as the 8TB are rated 7600 MB/s per what I’ve been reading (up from 7000 MB/s on my iMac Pro or a MP 7.1). I’ve not seen a rating on the single SSD version such a the 512GB and 1TB but, since RAID 0 is never twice as fast, 4000 MB/s is probably close. I’ve not seen a tear down of the 2B or 4TB versions so I don’t know where Apple draws that line.

Mine will have 8TB onboard when I order but I’ve written why in other threads.

[HCMarkus]

I don't think this uses USB protocol Mike.

https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/envoy-e ... gKMAfD_BwE

From what I can find via Google, it is a 2-lane TB connection, which is why it is slower than 4-lane TB cases, but still TB. I believe TRIM is supported.

I got 2TB in my Mac Studio. The external 2TB SSD will house my sample data; total $280.

[mikehalloran]

I don't think this uses USB protocol Mike.

https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/envoy-e ... gKMAfD_BwE

From what I can find via Google, it is a 2-lane TB connection, which is why it is slower than 4-lane TB cases, but still TB. I believe TRIM is supported.

I got 2TB in my Mac Studio. The external 2TB SSD will house my sample data; total $280.

Read the print, large and fine:

THE WORLD’S FIRST THUNDERBOLT™ CERTIFIED BUS-POWERED ‘ADD YOUR OWN DRIVE’ ENCLOSURE.

UP TO
1553MB/s
REAL-WORLD PERFORMANCE

Yea, rught…

The speed rating is the same as USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 aka 3.2 which, as you surmise is 2-lane. Unfortunately, there is also USB 3.2 Gen 2, aka USB 3.1 and USB 3.2 Gen 1 aka USB 3.0. What's worse is the continued use of the theoretical maximums: TB 3/4 40 Gbps, USB 3.2—20 Gbps (same as TB2), USB 3.1—10 Gbps (same as TB 1) and USB 3.0—5Gbps, none of which apply to external storage. At least, no one has changed USB 2.0 which maxes out at 480Mb/s or USB 1 which is 12 Mb/s.

OWC is now using USB 3.2 (5Gbps) for what used to be known as USB 3. Last year was different when USB 3.2 referred to 20Gbps (USB 3.2 Gen 2×2). They have changed the terms without re-defining them.

Pretty sure that OWC's use of TB3, in this case, refers to its bus powered capabilities.

Besides being the industry’s first Thunderbolt™ 3 bus powered (no power adapter required) enclosure, …

In other words, MMMMMMMMMarketing!

It would be nice if everyone used the same nomenclature but they don't. As far as I am concerned, TB3 external storage is 2800 MB/s and anything slower is something else. When referring to external storage on the Studio, I think it's important to keep these terms and protocols straight, even if OWC does not. The only way to know is to look at the claimed data transfer rate, same as when buying cables at Amazon.

[HCMarkus]

Mike you may be correct. I don't know for sure, but I do note that OWC sells USB-C versions of its Envoy cases, labeled as USB-C, and the claimed data transfer rate is lower...

https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/ENVPROC2N00/

They call the USB one "TB Compatible." It has this chipset: ASMedia ASM2362

They call the Envoy Express "TB Certified." It has this chipset: Thunderbolt 3: Intel Alpine Ridge LP. LP appears to stand for "Low Power."

Anyway, it is what it is. Seems pretty fast to me, but what do I know?

[HCMarkus]

Kontakt Sample Data seems to be working fine on the new Mac Studio; I just copied my VI Sample Data SSDs onto the External TB Envoy/Samsung 970 EVO Plus, and preliminary tests have Kontakt accessing the data fine from Stand-Alone and DP Plugin versions. Loading time feels speedy.

Next up will be installing some audio plugins and testing project files from my Mac Pro. Won't be happening today... got to get some work done!

[James Steele]

Kontakt Sample Data seems to be working fine on the new Mac Studio; I just copied my VI Sample Data SSDs onto the External TB Envoy/Samsung 970 EVO Plus, and preliminary tests have Kontakt accessing the data fine from Stand-Alone and DP Plugin versions. Loading time feels speedy.

Next up will be installing some audio plugins and testing project files from my Mac Pro. Won't be happening today... got to get some work done!

Can't wait to hear about it when you start putting the Mac Studio through its paces! Maybe if you have some downtime I can take you to lunch and you can let me see it in action. I'll try not to drool. I want to get one of these later in the year, but I'm probably going to have to go with the M1 Max version.

[HCMarkus]

Kontakt Sample Data seems to be working fine on the new Mac Studio; I just copied my VI Sample Data SSDs onto the External TB Envoy/Samsung 970 EVO Plus, and preliminary tests have Kontakt accessing the data fine from Stand-Alone and DP Plugin versions. Loading time feels speedy.

Next up will be installing some audio plugins and testing project files from my Mac Pro. Won't be happening today... got to get some work done!

Can't wait to hear about it when you start putting the Mac Studio through its paces!

You got it!