Jump to content


Please note: You can easily log in to MPN using your Facebook account!

Mac Mini for music production?


Recommended Posts

My laptop is showing it"s age and I"m considering a 3.2ghz 6-core, 8th generation i7 with 32g of RAM. I use Digital Performer and an Apollo. I"ve been out of the market for some time and would live some feedback on adequacy of this machine vs another MacBook Pro for all. All virtual recording, two tracks at a time. Thank you!
Link to comment
Share on other sites



  • Replies 19
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

Record two tracks? Any Mac made in the last 20 years can do that. Of course once the track count builds up and you start with the plugins the equation changes - but I'm very confident saying the Mac Mini you're looking at will work just fine. Don't listen to anyone else on this thread - you've been warned! :)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I got that very model about 2 months ago (not M1 model) to replace my ageing Mac Pro. Mac Pro was still going strong but I"m just downsizing a little. The Mac mini is great, I"ve tried some of the heavy logic sessions I"ve recorded over the years and it"s showing no sign of stress, no beachballs, audio fine and latency perfect. Even tho most of my projects of late are pretty small in terms of session size I did upgrade to 64gb ram myself just in case I need to use bigger sessions again. There"s plenty of outputs on the back as well so I"ve transferred most of my samples to an external dock that connected via one of the thunderbolt port.

 

I haven"t been using 1000+ plugins like the M1 tests but I don"t know who does and if you"re using that much plugins you"re probably in the market for a newer Mac Pro. Mac mini is a great machine with a Avery small footprint and suprisingly expandable. Any questions just holler or Pm me if you want more info.

Yamaha MODX8, Legend Live.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I"ve been out of the market for some time and would live some feedback on adequacy of this machine vs another MacBook Pro for all.

 

Being a laptop, the MBP would have a different form factor, but based on your descriptions you would get much more than you need from this Mac Mini. You'll be presently surprised, I imagine. You already have good careful habits with track freezing etc, which you may do less of.

 

I think you'll notice that there are no problems to notice and you can focus instead on music. All the best.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A very few people (VERY few) are reporting occasional stumbles in the switchover to the M1 from the old Intel designs, but by and large the M1 has proven to be an absolutely killer machine, shocking the hell out of nearly everyone who's tried it. For your needs, I think it will be an amazing box, and will futureproof your studio for a very long time.

 

If you want to save a little money and have a system that is still powerful enough to do what you want easily, consider picking up a recent-vintage used mini from a reliable and Apple-approved reseller like Mac Of All Trades. However, the M1 is so inexpensive for what you get that it's a little trickier than one might think to truly justify the savings!

 

The only other thing to consider is that if you really like the form factor of a laptop, be aware that the M1 does come in laptop format already, including a completely silent MacBook Air that is incredibly kickass for music.

 

However, if you're not stressed out about waiting a little while longer, Apple is poised to announce a new MBP line in a month or so... and normal Apple policy is that the units will be shipping within a few weeks of being announced. They will have a faster chip and are rumored to be bringing back at least a couple of features that folks miss on the laptops Apple sold during the Dark Times (2016-2020), like MagSafe power connection. They've already ditched the butterfly keyboard, thank God.

 

Oh, and since I don't think anyone mentioned it: the M1 runs an emulation layer called Rosetta 2 automatically in the background, so original Intel software can run on it. Based on previous attempts to do this kind of emulation, users might expect that this could cause significant slowdowns... but the M1 is so stupidly fast that even emulated software on it runs faster than it does natively on most Intel Macs.

 

Good luck and have fun.

Dr. Mike Metlay (PhD in nuclear physics, golly gosh) :D

Musician, Author, Editor, Educator, Impresario, Online Radio Guy, Cut-Rate Polymath, and Kindly Pedant

Editor-in-Chief, Bjooks ~ Author of SYNTH GEMS 1

 

clicky!:  more about me ~ my radio station (and my fam) ~ my local tribe ~ my day job ~ my bookmy music

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh, and since I don't think anyone mentioned it: the M1 runs an emulation layer called Rosetta 2 automatically in the background, so original Intel software can run on it. Based on previous attempts to do this kind of emulation, users might expect that this could cause significant slowdowns... but the M1 is so stupidly fast that even emulated software on it runs faster than it does natively on most Intel Macs.

 

It's not a given that all Intel music software will run OK in Rosetta 2. Best to investigate one's particular softwares and make sure of it before buying. Like previous Apple platform transistions, this one does seem pretty smooth and I'm guessing all the major music s/w devs will be M1-native in the next year if not sooner (I confess I'm not checking up on these matters since I'm happy with my late-2013 MBP!).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

JUst to jump into the fray.

 

I have a late 2018 Mac Mini with 32GB ram. It runs Mainstage, Gigi Perfomer, and the heavy VST's like Keyscape, Syntronik, etc. just fine. No hiccups at all.

 

I also pulled the trigger on a new M1 Mini and am running parallel gig setups on it for testing. So far everything is working fine. However, I won't gig with it until the official word comes from any specific software company that they have completed testing, etc.

 

The new M1 barely moves the needle when I did the "load several instances of Keyscape" thing...

David

Gig Rig:Casio Privia PX-5S | Yamaha MODX+ 6 | MacBook Pro 14" M1| Mainstage

 

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The good thing is Logic/MainStage is ready for M1. Keyscape/Omnisphere without doing the sample thinning and limiting poly is rough on less than modern hardware. David, as far as you understand it - is Keyscape running in Rosetta? And if so, and it"s barely moving the needle on CPU, that"s just incredible.

Yamaha CP88, Casio PX-560

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh, and since I don't think anyone mentioned it: the M1 runs an emulation layer called Rosetta 2 automatically in the background, so original Intel software can run on it. Based on previous attempts to do this kind of emulation, users might expect that this could cause significant slowdowns... but the M1 is so stupidly fast that even emulated software on it runs faster than it does natively on most Intel Macs.

 

Rosetta 2 is actually a translation scheme - Intel binaries are translated into native Apple Silicon binaries once, either when the app is installed or the first time you launch it. This gives some significant advantages over conventional emulation techniques, and generally seems to achieve about 75% of the performance of true native code. That figure can vary wildly with specific examples, however, and you can't load a translated plugin and a native plugin into the same process (despite both being native code they operate slightly differently on a few levels as a byproduct of the translation scheme to improve compatibility), so DAWs like Logic introduce some overhead communicating between Rosetta 2 and native plug-ins. It'll be desirable to get everything native eventually.

 

The biggest hurdle is that device drivers cannot be translated at all using this scheme, and these new systems can only run Apple's latest OS: Big Sur. So pay close attention to whether any hardware you rely on has required drivers that aren't yet available, and whether all your software is compatible with Big Sur before taking the leap. I've been dipping my toes in, but don't expect to be able to live entirely on an Apple Silicon machine until later this year.

Acoustic: Shigeru Kawai SK-7 ~ Breedlove C2/R

MIDI: Kurzweil Forte ~ Sequential Prophet X ~ Yamaha CP88 ~ Expressive E Osmose

Electric: Schecter Solo Custom Exotic ~ Chapman MLB1 Signature Bass

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I looked at a mac mini too (haha the ONLY way Id ever be able to afford a MC) and decided to go for an Intel NUC8iHNK - LOT more grunt and upgradeable as well...not that I need more than an i7 and 16g of ram...

There is no luck - luck is simply the confluence of circumstance and co-incidence...

 

Time is the final arbiter for all things

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Any comments on how the Mini and/or the M1 handles ProTools? I'm running ProTools 11.

I'm almost certain that Pro Tools 11 has 32-bit components. It is at least a half dozen years old at this point, after all. If so, that would prohibit it from working beyond Mojave, which was Apple's final macOS that supported 32-bit applications.

 

Best,

 

Geoff

My Blue Someday appears on Apple Music | Spotify | YouTube | Amazon

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Any comments on how the Mini and/or the M1 handles ProTools? I'm running ProTools 11.

I'm almost certain that Pro Tools 11 has 32-bit components. It is at least a half dozen years old at this point, after all. If so, that would prohibit it from working beyond Mojave, which was Apple's final macOS that supported 32-bit applications.

 

Best,

 

Geoff

There's some info in their status on Catalina:

 

"ALERT: macOS Catalina 10.15.5 to 10.15.7 supported with Pro Tools 2020.5 and later

Pro Tools supports macOS Catalina with version 2019.12 and later, though support for some file types, plug-ins, and functionality are not yet available due to the 64-bit transition."

"The Angels of Libra are in the European vanguard of the [retro soul] movement" (Bill Buckley, Soul and Jazz and Funk)

The Drawbars | off jazz organ trio

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There's some info in their status on Catalina:

 

"ALERT: macOS Catalina 10.15.5 to 10.15.7 supported with Pro Tools 2020.5 and later

Pro Tools supports macOS Catalina with version 2019.12 and later, though support for some file types, plug-ins, and functionality are not yet available due to the 64-bit transition."

 

We're coming up to four years since Apple announced support for 32-bit apps was ending. Catalina was introduced 16 months ago. Yet here we are today and "support for some file types, plug-ins, and functionality are not yet available due to the 64-bit transition." Is there something I'm not getting? This is sincere, not sarcastic!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There's some info in their status on Catalina:

 

"ALERT: macOS Catalina 10.15.5 to 10.15.7 supported with Pro Tools 2020.5 and later

Pro Tools supports macOS Catalina with version 2019.12 and later, though support for some file types, plug-ins, and functionality are not yet available due to the 64-bit transition."

 

We're coming up to four years since Apple announced support for 32-bit apps was ending. Catalina was introduced 16 months ago. Yet here we are today and "support for some file types, plug-ins, and functionality are not yet available due to the 64-bit transition." Is there something I'm not getting? This is sincere, not sarcastic!

 

I seem to recall from my support days that Digidesign has a history of really, REALLY shitty upgrade support â years late, and just dropping support for various hardware seemingly arbitrarily.

 

I guess they see themselves as part of the market that uses computers as a tool to support the studio, not *as* the studio. As such, I suppose you're meant set up your ProTools rig and not touch it until it stops working.

"The Angels of Libra are in the European vanguard of the [retro soul] movement" (Bill Buckley, Soul and Jazz and Funk)

The Drawbars | off jazz organ trio

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...