First gig with new MBP M1 Pro: Success!

[EscapeRocks]

Since I like to throw caution to the wind I simply went for it!

 

Out of town road trip gig.  For this gig:

Arturia 61 MK1 Black Edition

Roland RD 88

MacBook Pro M1 14"

RD88 as audio interface

two USB C to USB A adapters plugged into the MBP

USB Cables from boards to MBP

Lowest key on RD88 mapped to "next patch"

Have a couple buttons on Keylab mapped to Patch Next and Patch Previous

 

I used mostly Apple sounds.  My main piano was the Steinway and Yamaha layered. (I learned long ago how to edit them to dial them in)

Synth sounds came from Arturia JUP-8V, Prophet-V, and MINI-V, OBx-V: all latest versions

Organ was iKMulitmedia B3X and Leslie.  All controls mapped to Keylab

Mainstage audio preferences set to buffer 64

 

Some songs I layered in some RD88 tones.  Mainstage sent the scene (patch) change to the RD88

 

Load in a 3pm

Soundcheck at 5pm

Downbeat at 8pm

Outdoor gig with fully covered/enclosed stage  No direct sun during setup/soundcheck

Temp about 78degrees F

Macbook Pro was on the entire time from before sound check until last notes at 10pm

 

No hiccups.   No disconnects.   Sound was killer!

Highest CPU% was caused by the B3X/Leslie, which we know going in.   It capped out at 37% when seriously jamming.

 

As I mentioned in another thread, so far I, and a couple friends with new MBPs, have anecdotally determined that Mainstage 3.6.xxx optimized for the new M1 Pro and M1 Max machines running OS Monterey.

Any of the oddball things I had when running 3.6 on older Intel Macs never came up on this new machine.

 

One more interesting tidbit:   My late 2018 Intel Mac Mini runs 32gb and an internal 256SSD with an eternal 1 TB SSD

This MBP M1 Pro is 16GB with 1 TB internal SSD

Stress tests that would hamper my Mini, haven't' caused the new MBP to break a sweat.   For example, the best buffer I could run in Mainstage was 128 before things got crackly, especially with Omnisphere/Keyscape

 

On this new MBP, I run Omnisphere/Keyscape at full tilt with no "thinning" and CPU is never above 40% when sustaining several large chords.

I'm not a computer tech, so I don't know what it is, but the M1 Pro chips sure seem to be kick-ass

 

Happy boy here

 

Also, my new Fantom-08 will take place of the RD88 when it gets here.  Why?  Because      I have three weeks until next full on band gig.    I can really dig into the nuances of sound programming now that I know the new MBP is just fine

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ElmerJFudd]

Very nice.  When you send to front of house.  Are you sending them mono or stereo.  And do you have all keys mixed together as one thing, or does FOH have control of your piano, synths, organ separately? 

[EscapeRocks]

3 hours ago, ElmerJFudd said:

Very nice.  When you send to front of house.  Are you sending them mono or stereo.  And do you have all keys mixed together as one thing, or does FOH have control of your piano, synths, organ separately? 

Regardless of what I use for Audio Interface, I always send stereo out to my Pro D2 DI, then to FOH or Monitor desk...

 

I gain stage everything in Mainstage.  Every channel strip, every output, etc...    I even set the relative levels between channel strips on various patches.

I always leave some headroom in case I want to stab it up for a "power chord".

FOH loves that they get a consistent signal from me.