I’m using Cubase on my 2020 PC which is a i9 9900k with 32gig ram, over clocked a sensible amount, interface RME Babyface pro fs. It has worked well for the last 6 years and still does but vsti’s like omnivocal push it really hard as does impact soundworks stratus guitar. I find to use those I have to push my buffers up to 256. On most other plugins I can run on 128 and even 64 until the project gets too busy. It’s only recently even on a busy project I’ve had to start using 256 due to the plugins mentioned.
I can get a used Mac Studio M1 Max with 512gig drive and 32gig memory at a very reasonable price and fancy giving it a go. Good old AI thinks it’s a good idea and that it would outperform my i9. This would be dipping my toe into the Mac ecosystem for a reasonable amount. I do use an IPhone and iPad Pro so that would work well.
So I mainly want comments from anyone still using a Mac Studio M1 and how it’s coping these days with the single thread heavy vsti’s.
Dont expect any huge change. The m1max is faster than the 9900k and getting older.
But be aware the the cpu are likely legacy in 2028 or 2029 and wont get more osx versions then.
Yeah Im still curious to see how Apple deals with their ‘retiring’ of these ones. With the same architecture behind them all (sort of), I would think these would carry on longer, like the old PPC’s did. It’s not like we’ve had some significant jump in one of the generations and added any new features, like the whole AVX thing with Intels. Apple really seems intent on rolling out new ones just for the sake of it and they do want you to keep upgrading however..
My 16GB M2 Pro Mini is still doing its job just fine, I would think the M1 Max Studio would be just as good if not more robust than this thing.. I use an M4 MBP at work, I don’t see much difference between my Mini at home and it, but its not like I can install Cubase on it and use it here so I haven’t seen that side of it..
I do not think apple will stop supporting the devices because they are obsolete and slow. And they now also tell software vendors to stop support Intel. xcode will follow and it will be hard to maintain the old stuff. It is simple, money talks.
Have you tried sandboxing the heavy plugins in Audio Gridder? Sometimes it can buy you some head room. Could be a nothing burger, but it’s free to try.
I did a bit of testing last night and managed a huge amount of vsti’s including the stratus guitar. It was only when I introduced omnivocal that you see the cpu rise significantly. With buffers set at 256 (still below 10ms with my RME Babyface pro fs) it is workable. I don’t really use omnivocal to be honest but it surprised me how much it stressed my computer. I use asio-guard and it only jumps up when omnivocal is record enable (as it would do)
As far as getting a 64gig Mac Studio then I think that is out of the question as they are silly expensive. I did a bit of testing with my memory usage and I don’t really stress my 32gig.
So I think I will stick with my pc for now. When it does totally run out of steam I’ll probably go new and make the decision then on Mac or PC. I also have an old Xeon pc which I could offload to but I don’t fancy relying on two. I’ll also have a look at audio gridder. I downloaded it once but never got round to trying it. I’ll see what it does now.
By the way the Mac Studio M1 Max I was looking at was £850 but may have taken offers.
I have a Mac Studio M1 Max and it is working great. I haven’t had any of the threading issues related to CPU with Cubase (Ableton Live still chokes just like it did on my Intel iMac). My understanding is, that because of the relatively low CPU count (10 cores), that the issue is not present. I have 64 GB of RAM - and a 4 TB SSD