This video's selling me on the MacMini M2 pro

[artfarm1]

Here is a video where this guy tries to crash the MacMini M2 pro 16gb/512 (while running Logic)

He can't! ....that machine will be plenty good enough for me! He gets tired of trying to duplicate tracks and quits at 231 tracks before starting to get the odd beachball....but it's still running and continues again!

He thinks he's breaking his audio/MIDI interface at one point, but the Mac just pauses for a few seconds and then continues on.

I'd never use 231 tracks of multi-Omnipheres, 40 multi-Arturias DX7, and countless other cpu hungy softsyths and plugins like this.

Wow. Pretty convincing!

https://markellisreviews.com/can-i-brea ... roduction/


note:* here's his follow up video which I'm just starting to watch as a continuation of the first video, and also has the Resource Monitor running at times.

He takes into consideration readers criticism's of the first video, because he didn't have all the tracks playing at the same time.

This time, he puts MIDI into each track so they are actually working. Gets up 49 and then more actual tracks playing at same time with very intensive softsynths, and then can still add more audio tracks.

Still...... he sells the MacMini for me!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChGC9Sq1FEo

[bayswater]

Still...... he sells the MacMini for me!

I know what you mean, although probably just about anything from the past few years would leave the 2009 Mac pro in the dust.

When I was looking for a replacement for my ancient iMac, Apple had just introduced the 2018 Mini with an i7. They also had a new optimized version of Logic. Demo Macs in the Apple store had a Logic project with 500 tracks installed. I got a few hours on one with an i5 and 8G RAM. I duplicated the 500 tracks and shifted the duplicate out a beat. It still played back, showing CPU at around 70%

That convinced me that an i7 version with 32G RAM would do what I need. Logic is still a bit more CPU efficient than DP, but it was a difference of having 10 time versus 9 times the power needed.

I guess those who need to do a lot of video might actually need some of this power, but it seems to me that for most of us, just about any recent machine running our most complicated DP projects is as bored as Marvin the Robot in The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe.

There are teething pains showing up with the new new Studios and Ventura, with complaints of overloads, but no doubt that will pass. Perhaps focus can turn to stability and compatibility of hardware and software.

[mikehalloran]

...

I'd never use 231 tracks of multi-Omnipheres, 40 multi-Arturias DX7, and countless other cpu hungy softsyths and plugins like this.
…

A fairly famous test when the iMac Pro came out in 2017 was 1,000 instances of VI tracks in Logic, each wath a plate and a convo reverb on it. By comparison, the 12 core 5.1 Mac Pro choked on 150 and the 6.1 MP 12 core had problems with 300 tracks.

The M2 Pro is supposed to smoke my 18 core iMac Pro when it comes to that kind of load.

Unlike the other M1/M2 Macs, the M2 Pro can run three monitors.

[artfarm1]

Still...... he sells the MacMini for me!

I know what you mean, although probably just about anything from the past few years would leave the 2009 Mac pro in the dust.

Hah! You can say that again! It's been rock-solid reliable over the years, and I never bothered doing the full 5.1 upgrade because I knew the day would inevitably arrive when I had to get 'up to speed'.

I don't run massive templates, but I've been held back from not being able to fully use a lot of my library's and soft-synths' capabilities too many times and have had to make too many composing/artistic choices based on 'what would work' without having to resort to a lot of track freezing, audio rendering, changing instruments.

For audio work, the good old 2009 MacPro has been fine for what I do as far as recording, editing, finishing projects, etc. It's been great for rendering Video/Audio as well in DP11 for the many projects I do with multi-media artists, dancers, etc.

Will report on my change in gear, and I'm sure I'll be back here in the forums more than ever in seeing how others have been handling the transitions over the last couple of years a little more in depth

**
Mike!....I always read whatever you have to say in MOTUNation!
Like many here, I couldn't do what I do without having followed your advice and expertise on so many matters concerning DP and Apple.

If I'm ever out your way, I at least owe you a dinner!

**
questions for you:

What's the smoothest way to transition from High Sierra to Ventura?

Use Time Machine? (I've never used it!) I've been using Carbon Copy Cloner for years over many changes in OSX's and hard drives without problem.

Is there a safe way to migrate my current main hard drive contents to a new Apple?...or is it best to just start fresh downloads and fresh installations and updating of all the various products I own?

Does Time Machine make life easier in the long run?

[HCMarkus]

As someone who moved to one about a year ago, I'd heartily recommend a fresh install of Apps and Plugins when moving from an Intel Mac a new Apple Silicon Mac.

When I moved from my 2010 Mac Pro to my Mac Studio, I used a Sneaker Net approach for data transfer... When the M1 Mac and external storage was ready, I simply pulled whatever Mac Pro drives the data resided on and transferred the data using an inexpensive USB3 drive docking station. Although some VI installers required re-downloading of data, I was able to point many of the VI Plugins to the transferred data in its folders, saving a some time, not to mention preserving my folder structure. I put all my VI Data on external Thunderbolt NVMe SSDs.

I used Migration Assistant for Network Settings only. I logged in to iCloud and set up my various email addresses in Mail, then spent a few hours over two days downloading and installing the Apps and Plugins I actually use; this way, I avoided cruft and was able to be sure to have Apple Silicon-Native versions of everything (except for a few essential laggards that require Rosetta2... looking at YOU Altiverb!).

Rosetta2 will automatically ask to be installed when you run your first Intel app on an M1/M2 Mac. Altiverb actually required me to run DP11 in Rosetta Mode once to complete the install. After that, It runs under Rosetta while DP is running AS-Native.

I dumped MS Office for Apple Silicon-Native Libre Office. Installed and set up Drop Box for data sharing and BackBlaze for cloud backups and put a fresh USB Time Machine drive into action. IIRC, DropBox now requires mirrored data to reside on your internal drive; keep this in mind if you store a lot of local data with DropBox.

Mike has written about the fact CCC or Super Duper no longer recommend creating bootable backups for M1 Macs. The best approach these days is to create non-bootable clones or TM backups. If you need to restore, re-install the OS, then restore Data and Apps from the clone/backup.

[artfarm1]

As someone who moved to one about a year ago, I'd heartily recommend a fresh install of Apps and Plugins when moving from an Intel Mac a new Apple Silicon Mac.

When I moved from my 2010 Mac Pro to my Mac Studio, etc. etc.

Thank you Thank you! Will do.

Yes, moving from previous OSX to OSX, from hard drive to hard drive, and from laptop to laptop while trying to keep all my music software identical on all machines began to become a real headache with trying to trouble-shoot all the little problems that occur along the way while dumping digital data from one machine to the next and doing major upgrades.

And, yeah....there's a lot of stuff I don't really need anymore that has 'run it's course'.

Definitely want to get it all right. Thanks for sharing your experiences!

[mikehalloran]

Migrating rom High Sierra to Ventura…

First, if you are using cloneware, you are using Time Machine (shhhhh…. Don’t tell anyone). Last I checked, you can no longer boot from the clones but you can’t boot from a TM volume either.

Moving on.

Migration assistant works from your old Mac, a System drive or a TM backup. If from your old Mac, it must have a monitor connected so that you can grant the proper permissions for the data transfer. Thunderbolt is fastest if you have a TB 1/2 cable and the Apple TB 2–3 adapter. Ethernet and WiFi also work. You can’t use USB Mac to Mac .without a hub but you can from a drive in a dock or a TM drive. It’s supposed to work from a clone but I haven’t done that in decades.

You have many choices with Migration Assistant: A, B, C or any combination of the three. Likewise, you can do them one at a time or in combination.

A) Network and System Settings — do this first or in combination with B or C or B and C.

B) Applications — I’m in the “time to do a clean install of all apps and pug-ins” camp. By using the latest installers, you minimize potential problem. It’s a time consuming PIA that will save headaches later. If the last installer doesn’t work, time to log at alternatives and upgrades.

C) Documents and Data —

1) Sneakernet is one way. I recommend zipping all DP project folders and all MS Office documents first (or your entire Documents folder if you have the space) and un-zip on the new machine to avoid potential permission/privilege problems.

2) Migration Assistant: You can bring it all over on in groups after the list displays. This is a good time to clean house but I prefer to do that on the new Mac after bringing it over.

3) Time Machine. You can also search a TM volume, display the folders and /or work files you want to bring over and drag them to the new machine. There are no permission/privilege issues when you do this. Like sneaker net but without having to zip anything first. Over Thunderbolt, it’s faster, too.

My last clean install was because of a bug in Mavericks 10.9.4 (fixed in 10.9.5). I will be buying a new Mac this year and am girding my loins to go through it again. Because I’ll be upgrading from 4TB to 8TB internal storage, I’ve a bit of work to do. Yikes!

[artfarm1]

Migrating rom High Sierra to Ventura…

etc. etc.

Gotcha.... thanks again!.... good thing I'm not 'totally new' to moving things around.

Will do fresh installs for sure so no old code gets through.

And I like the idea of doing a Time Machine backup and then being able to then drag and drop files where needed from the TM drive to the new drive or external drives.

I'll resurface here for sure!

[artfarm1]

Well, I bought the new MacMini M2PRo version.

Wow! (Don't need to say much more) Just wow.

After baby-ing my 2009 MacPro and 2015 MacBook Pro i7 over the years and doing good work in them, I just completed a project last week (an updated, but new and similar music track they needed for this year's shows) so I knew how long it should take me from start to finish.

Wow...everything just loads practically instantly, which saves many minutes/hours over the space of a couple of days.

Not a mega-template project, but I used 6 instances of Kontakt (Session Horns Pro, CineBrass CORE, Kontakt 7 Factory Library, a couple of Spitfire instruments, Session Electric Guitar Sunburst), more from BBCSO Pro, Spitfire Colossus, EZ Drummer, DUNE 3, and a lot of iZotope Ozone plugins along with some stock plugins, ProVerb, etc.

Not a glitch or a hitch even once. Ran every track without freezing anything.

I mean...how much faster can you get than 'practically instantaneous' useage?

And, to top it off, I bought the new MOTU M6. Very nice!

I took Mike Hallorans' suggestions and did fresh installs of everything while dragging other need folders, etc. over from Time Machine. Got a nice extra fast-USB-C hub from OWC to plug in some new Samsung/Crucial SSD's to handle the software libraries. Took time to get it all set up, but well worth it.

Wow.

It kind of makes the whole DAW experience 'new and different'.

All for now!