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OT: new Mac Pro


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Great article.

 

Man do I want one and yet really totally do not need one. Kind of like wanting a $100,000 car or something. In theory I could way over leverage my life with $1,000 payments every month, but it would be dumb and way overkill when my prius does a kick ass job for my needs in every way.

Kawai C-60 Grand Piano : Hammond A-100 : Hammond SK2 : Yamaha CP4 : Yamaha Montage 7 : Moog Sub 37

 

My latest album: Funky organ, huge horn section

https://bobbycressey.bandcamp.com/album/cali-native

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The stand for the $5000 monitor is $1000.

 

How much is the cheese for the cheese grater?

Eugenio Upright, 60th Anniversary P-Bass, USA Geddy Lee J-Bass, Yamaha BBP35, D'angelico SS Bari, EXL1,

Select Strat, 70th Anniversary Esquire, LP 57, Eastman T486, T64, Ibanez PM2, Hammond XK4, Moog Voyager

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  • 6 months later...

It's now available, but the prices will make you weep.

 

My minimum config clocks in at $7099 (8-core, 48GB RAM, 2TB SSD, standard GPU). Preferred config (16-core, 96GB RAM, 4TB SSD, standard GPU) is $10,399

 

And getting the 16-core with 192GB RAM, 4TB SSD and the 32GB GPU takes you to $14,849

 

Excluding taxes.

 

 

Right now I feel like I'll never own one...

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I'm so happy I don't work in a field where I need even remotely that much power. I paid $2.5 K for my Mac Pro in 2010 and though it's getting rickety in many ways, it still does everything I need it to.

 

For those that need that much firepower, is the machine worth it?

Kawai C-60 Grand Piano : Hammond A-100 : Hammond SK2 : Yamaha CP4 : Yamaha Montage 7 : Moog Sub 37

 

My latest album: Funky organ, huge horn section

https://bobbycressey.bandcamp.com/album/cali-native

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I don't know. Omnisphere 2's latest patches tax my 6-core pretty heavily, combined with newer plugins, it's not that hard to bring it to its knees. What's more, the latest OS'es aren't officially supported.

 

I used to have an iMac, which was a grrreat all-rounder, but not suited for sustained heavy lifting. I thought about a Mac Mini, but I'm kind of worried it is similarly constrained. The Mac Pro is the only computer Apple makes that isn't thermally restricted.

 

It's not just about the CPU power, it's also about the ability to run all day long without throttling down.

 

edit:

 

One more thing, your 2010 Mac Pro chugs along precisely because its components receive adequate cooling and can be replaced/upgraded. I'm pretty sure a 2010 iMac/MacMini would have stopped being useful about three years ago.

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LOL, 1400W PSU. They're not gonna make the same mistake twice.

 

Logic demo is impressive! I guess the need for VEP is going away for 90% of its users.

 

Starting at $5999.....with a 256GB SSD...

 

A new Mac Pro maxed out with the new monitor costs just under $60,000. These computers are for Disney, Pixar, or Lucasfilm animation rendering or intensive scientific/government/research applications. They aren't for your typical recording studio or prosumer. The $60,000 price might seem like a lot, but for comparison, just an ARRI Alexa camera body costs much more than that, so it's all relative. I was a programmer way back and I remember DEC, SGI and Sun Microsystems computers costing multiple times that with about 1/100th of the capability.

 

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Sitting me down in front of this thing would be like putting me in a Soyuz capsule. Its not only pointless, it approaches blasphemy in the level of its waste. I'm inextricably wedded to Logic Pro. It just works, whereas the 2 sequencers I tried pre-Logic were like a slap in the yap. I'm not an actual Luddite, but I also have work to do, so if you're going to get me to seriously upgrade, you'll have to tell me WHY. I loved sweating over my old Korg workstation, but now? Screw the ads and 'space-age' promises. I'm into the notes, so I seek to maintain a grab-it-&-go relationship with my DAW & instruments. I tend to lock in my system and refuse to upgrade until people are bitching about the OS *after* the current, bleeding-edge one. Its proven to be safer. Half of my base sound library is in EXS form and its migrated across 4 Macs without a hitch. I dare anyone to offer me better sound palette security than that. Anything less is a crap burrito. :Python:

 "I want to be an intellectual, but I don't have the brainpower.
  The absent-mindedness, I've got that licked."
        ~ John Cleese

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Sitting me down in front of this thing would be like putting me in a Soyuz capsule. Its not only pointless, it approaches blasphemy in the level of its waste. I'm inextricably wedded to Logic Pro. It just works, whereas the 2 sequencers I tried pre-Logic were like a slap in the yap. I'm not an actual Luddite, but I also have work to do, so if you're going to get me to seriously upgrade, you'll have to tell me WHY. I loved sweating over my old Korg workstation, but now? Screw the ads and 'space-age' promises. I'm into the notes, so I seek to maintain a grab-it-&-go relationship with my DAW & instruments. I tend to lock in my system and refuse to upgrade until people are bitching about the OS *after* the current, bleeding-edge one. Its proven to be safer. Half of my base sound library is in EXS form and its migrated across 4 Macs without a hitch. I dare anyone to offer me better sound palette security than that. Anything less is a crap burrito. :Python:

I"m with ya Brother!

I make what I have sync with my workflow. I"m a for-life Logic user as well. Only difference is I dump my finished projects into PT and send them off to mastering for deadlines.

I"ve given up on bleeding or cutting edge upgrades and only do so when obsolescence or slowdowns make effective work impossible.

Same thing with instruments. I ask for what I need in riders and if I need to substitute, I work with what gets me closest. The good stuff is at home for effective practice and play and I take it out when and if I can.

If it works, I don"t mess with it, nor do I waste practice, play or work with latest and greatest OCD-ness. My work and play is more effective and joyful and my focus and time-management have improved a thousand-fold.

"I have constantly tried to deliver only products which withstand the closest scrutiny � products which prove themselves superior in every respect.�

Robert Bosch, 1919

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To put the prices in perspective, I just built a PC with Intel i9 9900k (8 core), 64GB of RAM, 2TB Samsung SSD (NVME - fast!), dead-silent case, and a motherboard with Thunderbolt support for about $2,000 and change. And it rocks!

 

This is why I switched to PC years ago. My 2010 MacPro still soldiers on as a sample server for my orchestral template, but my main DAW is now in a top-notch case with a fanless power supply. It is presently a 9900K also. The beautiful thing is that anytime, I can buy a new motherboard, RAM and CPU and have however much power I want/need. This is always under $2k at this point. Apple's hardware refresh cycles are no longer of any concern, nor their premium pricing for entry level server parts. Their machines are nice. They are also unnecessarily expensive for making music. There will be hardcore Logic users that need a new hardware dongle to authorize their software, and this I do understand. But when they announced the trashcan, I was gone and never coming back - it was so clearly aimed only at video editing. For music use, the i9's are better than the Xeon chips - the faster core speeds and overclocks are highly useful in keeping real-time CPU performance high. My 9900K runs at 4.7Ghz, on near silent air cooling and never gets above 60C.

 

When I transitioned, I first went to Cubase on the Mac so I didn't have to buy hardware. Then when happy with it, went to Cubase on Windows, and then never looked back. I took a special upgrade deal last year and now run Nuendo. I still use a Mac laptop - this lets me use any MacOs specific stuff out there. I'm writing this on a MSFT surface - this lets me do other software mobile that doesn't run on MacOS. I lost interest in OS wars ages ago, and have run both for years and years.

 

 

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You can also build a Hackintosh.

 

 

 

For Pros, the DAW is of prime importance. The guys I work with and for and most others here are Logic/PT focused.

Projects are created in Logic then ported to PT for finishing, post and then to mastering. I haven't seen a Cubase project in the past decade. Some folks use DP, a few PC guys still have Sonar, but those folks are all switching to either Studio One or DP on win.

 

Not meaning to throw shade. If it works for you, great, but if you"re getting paid you need to go where your colleagues go.

 

"I have constantly tried to deliver only products which withstand the closest scrutiny � products which prove themselves superior in every respect.�

Robert Bosch, 1919

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