After well over six years with my (Intel) ‘2017’’ iMac Pro, I’m in the fortunate position of being able to upgrade.
Would users recommend the Mac Studio M4 Max or M3 Ultra for Dorico use, please?
I believe this question can really be phrased as a choice between working with single- or multi-Core? Any advantages to the more expensive range of models from a Dorico (and Roon) perspective, please?
Secondly, I’m thinking of keeping all my VST Sound Libraries (fast approaching 1 TB) on the internal Macintosh HD, rather than a dedicated external drive. Good idea?
I’d get the M4 Max. The Ultra is twice the price and much more than you need.
The Ultra is essentially 2 x M3s stuck together, so you get 28 CPU cores (and 60 GPU cores).
The M4 is 14 cores (32 GPU), but is the newer, faster CPU.
Dorico benefits from a faster single-core speed, which the M4 has. (Obviously, having more cores is good, too; but 28 cores is overkill, unless you’re doing massive amounts of parallel processing.
Roon looks to be a sort of iTunes alternative, and is unlikely to tax any Apple Silicon Mac.
If your sound libraries are approaching 1Tb in size, then you’ll need to get a 2Tb internal storage. (It’s important to have spare capacity on the disk to grow into, and to always leave some free space.)
However, there’s no real advantage to keeping everything on the internal (apart from that’s the default, and you won’t need to manage anything. External disks are fast enough for loading audio samples.
If the Ultra was in your budget, you could spend some of that on the bigger M4 Max (16 cores, 40 GPU), which comes with 48 Gb RAM. Throw in 2Tb of storage, and you’ll still have saved yourself a grand. That will be an insanely powerful computer.
I have the MBP M4 Max with 16cores 40gpu - and Dorico does not tax it in the slightest. On a 50 minute major orchestral and choral work (with extra instruments) pressing Command-S used to involve a 20-30 seconds wait on Intel; more or less instant with the M4 MBP. I agree with Benwiggy - the Ultra is overkill.
I have the M4 Max Studio with 128GB and 2TB internal. I also have the OWC Express 4M2 with an additional 14TB of M.2 storage. (I already had all these Samsung M.2 drives from when I was still on PC.) If you want to send me a Dorico project, I’d be happy to send you the times to do any task. I posted the 1000 bar, silence template, condensing test results here.
I think Roon is great and I always have it open. I did have one little snafu getting it installed and working with Roon ARC on my Mac Studio. I’m not sure exactly why it wasn’t working but once I went to Settings / Roon ARC and changed the Port #, it then worked fine. Perhaps a new install of a Roon Server needs a new port number? Anyway, after changing the number Roon ARC worked fine on my phone. (I wish they would release a desktop version of Roon ARC or allow it to integrate with the regular Roon desktop software. It would be great to access my entire library wherever I am on my laptop instead of just on my phone.)
That all makes perfect sense. Since I’ll have to buy a monitor, I’d be better off putting the money towards the larger Apple Studio monitor, I think. M4 it is!
Many thanks, @Seapaddler. I’ll follow the advice given. It’s tempting to go for overkill. But, frankly, both Dorico and Roon work very well on my old iMac. So the M4 will be a good step up, Appreciated… !
I have one: it’s a great display (and speakers); and Apple doesn’t really give much consideration to what things will look like on 52" 2K displays and similar.
I’ve been using an M2 Ultra since 2023 and it’s been great with Dorico and other pro apps. I also got the Apple Studio monitor after seeing many other options in store (many of which were half the price), but I don’t regret spending the extra dough one bit. It’s a beautiful display that will last many years to come.
I finally bought the M4max 16" Macbook pro (48GB, 1TB) because it was on sale on the Apple store (refurbished but brand new ) and I like being able to work out of home.
I have not had the time to perform any test but so far it’s much more comfortable than the 2019 16" MBP (last intel)
My previous system was a 5950x PC with 128GB. In Spring 2024 I was the copyist for a new ballet performed by the SF Ballet. I presented the composer with a few different mockup templates and he chose the one that primarily used BBCSO Pro. (There were quite a few additional instruments too including Stage Percussion and a Tres player.) With all the instruments loaded for that project, I was using >90GB and occasionally >100 with other programs active. Since it’s not really possible to upgrade the RAM in a Mac Studio after purchase, I went for 128GB so I wouldn’t be caught shorthanded. I don’t typically work on projects that large (and don’t often use BBCSO Pro) so I didn’t feel the need to go higher than 128.
I think Spitfire has done a bit of optimization since then though. If I open the Modern Orchestra template, and use the BBC SO Pro Playback Template, I’m just over 50GB in use. Obviously other instruments and programs could easily drive that up over 64GB, but I’m not in the 90+ category I was with on that other project.
Famously, someone here showed BBCSO using 34Gb of memory (within NPPE) … on a Mac with 32 Gb of RAM. And that’s before Dorico, the VST Engine, the OS and anything else that was running.!
.
) and I like being able to work out of home.
