I nearly defected to windows when I went to upgrade my organ VST which needed about 96gb ram… but I was able to squeeze by by ordering the last generation of intel iMac which allows you to upgrade the ram yourself. Since it was last gen, a refurb, and I could do the ram myself, I could afford it. A similar mac studio would have cost almost as much as my car…
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Yes, but what I really need to focus on here is whether I will need the 64 gig RAM or not.
Considering you’re likely to have this machine for the next 6-8 years, I’d personally spring for the upgrade. Sample libraries are becoming quite huge.
OK, I’m trying to understand here. I just added up the size of the entire Halion sound library and it comes to slightly under 10 gig. I guess that would mean that if I used every single sound in the library (which I would not), then I would need 10 gigs of RAM. And, my file for one movement of my symphonic piece will be about 100mb when I finish it. I suppose, then, that the Dorico app needs some amount of headroom in order to function without slowing down. How much would that be? Does anyone know, or make an educated guess?
My present Mac Pro 2013 has only 12 gig and I’ve been using it for over 8 years, so I am a little skeptical that I would need more than 36 gig on a new machine. But maybe I am missing something?
Do you think it possible that at some point in the next few years you will decide you need better sound than you can get from HALion?
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I have a new Mac Mini M2 with 32 gigs of ram. The memory management of the new Apple silicon Macs is so good that it performs better than my old Intel iMac Pro (Xeon W) with 64GB of ram. There have been several large projects posted to the forum where I’ve used NotePerformer 4 with any of the following NPPE-hosted libraries (BBC Symphony Orchestra Core, Berlin Orchestra Berklee Edition, Cinematic Studio Series, and Hollywood Orchestra Opus Edition), without experiencing any slowdowns in Dorico’s general performance.
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That is possible, but I don’t really do a lot of orchestral scoring. But if I did decide to upgrade to a better sound library, would it be significantly larger (in gigs) than the Halion library? Personally, I’m not sure that bigger samples make for better sounds.
Better libraries do tend to be bigger, on the whole. Also, if you did decide to get a decent sample library, would you want to tinker with it yourself, adjusting the dynamics, note timings and so on? You could let NotePerformer do that stuff for you (if you chose a library that it works with) but that would probably require more RAM. For example, 32 GB is the recommended minimum for the EastWest Hollywood Opus Orchestra, but 64 GB is recommended if you want to use it with NotePerformer.
Come to think of it, do you even have NotePerformer? If not, get the demo and compare it with the sound you get from HALion. It doesn’t need much RAM, if you don’t want to use it in conjunction with a sample library.
“One of those things is not like the other.”
DDR4 plug-in modules are not LPDDR5 RAM (which you can’t buy as plug-in sticks). It has the greater bandwidth and speed that are part of the reason that M-series Macs are so fast, and can do the Unified Memory business with the GPU. Your sticks are 25 Gb/s – a Mac Studio’s RAM goes at 800 Gb/s!!
There’s a fair bit of markup, I’ll grant you; though if you configure a laptop from Dell, HP or other supplier, you’ll find considerably higher prices than what you could pick up components for at retail. There may be other costs in the business model beyond the mere bill of materials.
Audio sample libraries are one of the few tasks for which you do actually need a ton of memory. So, really, it depends which sample library you want to use. If you’re only going to use the default HALion HSO, ‘standard’ NotePerformer, Garritan – things of that order, then I’d suggest that 64 Gb is unnecessary.
If you’re using some of the more ‘professional’ libraries – Spitfire BBCSO, Vienna, East West, Orchestral Tools, Steinberg’s Iconica, etc, etc – then I’d go for 32 Gb at least.
If you don’t anticipate your usage changing, then I’d suggest no more than 32Gb. Only go for 64 Gb if you really think you will feel the difference with the top-end libraries. (These libraries themselves are often several hundred dollars, at least.)
I’d certainly recommend NotePerformer as the best quality for the smallest memory size (though it can also be used in tandem with the big libraries).
I bought the M2 Pro Mini with 32Gb RAM, which I’d suggest is the sweet spot between price and practicality. These systems are normally incredibly efficient in their memory usage – in fact someone here reported NotePerformer using 37Gb of samples on a 32Gb Mac, with no problem!!
The base 8Gb is still plenty for people using Office, email, browser (except Chrome 
), Garageband and stuff like that. But once you start using more ‘pro’ apps – of which Dorico is one – then you need a bit more headspace.
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@RobF Hey!
From Australia:
A$30,950
[disclaimer: I do not work for Aftershock PC.]
Although the Mac Studio is a great computer, is it not the case that it is hard or impossible to upgrade internal specs after purchase? So you have to order with future needs in mind.
No, I did not know about NotePerformer! Thanks for turning me on to it! I was very impressed with Wallendar sounds when they came out (years ago) with their WIVI product. I will probably go with their sounds! I am not into endless tweaking of sample libraries, most of my projects these days are for my own amusement. If a company was commissioning me, it might be a different story.