I actually find I’m doing ok with the Mac Mini M1. Got a caldigit element hub with 4 thunderbolt 4 on the front and 4 USB 3 on the back and that only uses one TB port on the Mini. I also run my old Thunderbolt Display off it which has a few USB ports on the back of it - and use those ports with my system 8, KK S49 mk2 and maschine and it all works well. Downside is Roland cloud plug ins and the M1 mini with 16GB as anything heavy like the Jupiter 8 - you might as well give up. As for storage - I just have a couple of 2TB NVME SSDs in TB enclosures running off the hub and there’s all my Komplete CE stuff and samples and things. The mini definitely needs more ram and the CPU in your new one, but Live/Logic and a few instances of Kontakt/KK and Omnisphere and some effects and it works well. I was looking at the studio and it is a great little desktop, but I might wait and see if an M2 mini comes sometime with some more ports like the old Intel ones had. If not - I’ll likely get the same as you. Great video as always. Ps for audio in I use the Scarlett 4i4 and midi I have a mioXL. The mioXL is probably overkill since I only have an MKS-80, MKS-70 and TX802 in the rack with it, but it sits nicely in the rack and has 6 USBs in the back (4 on the front) and an Ethernet in the back too. The mioXM would probably have been fine but I didn’t want anything else laying around (plus the XL was a little cheaper than usual as it was amazon warehouse). Btw on the storage - I have 512 internal and have Omnisphere, K13 CE (libraries on external SSD), falcon (UVI libraries all on external SSD), Arturia v collection and pigments, and the Izotope stuff and a bunch of other plug ins - along with Live and Logic and FCP and still have 300GB on the internal remaining, so it’s possible to get away with 512. A decent SSD through a hub or just plugged into the TB port and things load up well - even UVI vintage vault stuff. Quick note on the NI libraries - the Komplete Kontrol previews can take up a lot of internal space, but if you set the library install path to external SSD before installing anything - it’ll throw that folder on the external too. I appear to have written a book 😂
Hi Starsky, a couple thoughts: - I have confidence you'll let us know if you start to hear the pitched whine. Most users are claiming it develops after 2-4 weeks. - The M1 Max in the Mac Studio is not the same as the M1 in the Mac Mini. The Max has more CPU cores and faster memory throughput. It should perform a bit better.
I made the same upgrade from the cheese grater and not only the were the quiet fans a huge difference but i didn't realize just how much heat that thing was putting off (not to mention the electricity bill)
I went from M1 mini to Mac Studio. Love the Mac studio!! besides liking to run a ton of applications at the same time, I also love to open tons of tabs in Safari, playing TH-cam video's. The Mac mini m1 CHOKED all the time trying to do this. The Mac Studio NEVER chokes!!! That is what makes it perfect for me!
Thanks for your real world experience video! I am patiently waiting for my Ultra with 2 Tera to arrive - I do music, video, 3D, etc. My 2010 Mac Pro has been great, but is asthmatic, and is on version 10.8.5, so it can't really evolve. I see the Ultra as a 5 to 10 year dependable machine, and am sure that software will become more and more CPU hungry in the coming years. Finally, I, too am not a poet, but my feet are Longfellows. Cheers!!
I've had pretty good results using a thunderbolt hub i purchased from Amazon. No issues with UAD hardware. I have an Apollo X6, Apollo Twin X and an Octo satellite all hooked up to one thunderbolt port on my Macbook Pro (M1 Max) using this hub, and I havent run into a problem yet.
I just bought a M1 Mac Mini with 16GB RAM & 512GB SSD. With a 1TB SSD plugged into one of the USB-C it's pretty much everything I wanted from a music PC. I couldn't get used to the Magic Mouse though, so that had to go back. Apple were very good at refunding me even though I had used it for a week or so. The smaller white keyboard is better value than the bigger black one at around £90.
The Logitech MX keys keyboard and MX anywhere mouse are really good with the Mini. I was missing backlit keys and felt the same about the Magic Mouse (and trackpad too).
Apple keyboards look nice, but if they're built like their laptop keyboards, they probably aren't very robust. Plus, I prefer the feel of mechanical keyswitches, so I'd rather get a Matias Tactile Pro or Quiet Pro for around the same price. (Although the Tactile Pro is probably louder than most people would bear, especially in a music studio.) As far as extended keyboards go, it's true, the 10-key keypad doesn't get much use, so one might not want to spend the extra money to get it. But I find I use the Home/End/PgUp/PgDn keys all the time, and full-size arrow keys in a proper inverted-T configuration are way better than the stupid full-size left/right arrows but half-height up/down arrows in a diamond configuration. Apple already went back to the all half-height inverted-T arrow keys in their new laptops, hopefully they do the same with their keyboards.
I own a regular PC, 32 GB RAM, 2 TB SSD, 8 Core CPU (AMD Ryzen 7 2700X). I paid 2200 Bucks in total for it in december 2018 (it's pretty quiet and has good cooling). Almost everything works, sometimes there are inconveniences, but having to use Rosetta would be an inconvenience in my world too. I understand the appeal of something "just working", that's why I probably would have waited another year or two before buying an M1. Although: most issues seem to have been resolved by now, as far as I've heard. I'm not in IT, but I've been told that for music-production the most important aspect is CPU. RAM only up to a certain degree (so I don't think 64 instead of 32 GB RAM will be very benefitial). I hope I can use my PC for another solid 6 years. To be honest I hope that we hit a point soon, where it simply makes no sense to upgrade PCs for audio anymore. I don't really see the benefit of convolution based plugins and other than that I wouldn't know why future plugins should be CPU-heavier - quite to the contrary. But that's probably just me being naive. It's capitalism after all.. and they'll find and create reasons that lead us to believe we need an upgrade and we will buy them.
>To be honest I hope that we hit a point soon, where it simply makes no sense to upgrade PCs for audio anymore I would argue that we are already there... for "PCs". Macs have been trailing in power for a long time, and now the high end $4k machines are finally up to the day to day power of an upper-mid to high level PC. An i9 with 8+ cores, 64 gig of ram and an NVidia video card will run Maya, Unreal/Unity game engines, render VR, etc... so that is WAY more power than audio will ever use. The only exception would maybe be 100+ tracks of orchestral stuff with tons of sample libraries, etc. But anyone doing "normal" songs like most of us do has plenty of processing power. Case in point, if someone has been using a 10 year old mac, or any macbook (which are heat/speed throttled) for professional work and that was enough... those needs are far less than they think they are. I've used both Macs and PCs for nearly 3 decades, in both audio and game development, and I've always chuckled when someone with a Mac Pro or Macbook says they have "a pretty powerful computer".
@@ChristopherOrth I wouldn't know, I don't have an equivalent to an i9 and 4k is certainly not something many can afford - I can't. My PC isn't bad though and it's pretty easy for me to "overwhelm" it in normal sub 20 track productions. I still have to be conscious about what plugins I use in terms of CPU-efficiency, unless I'm willing to commit a track. I can not imagine that an i9 will be able to handle everything I throw at it, when I stop caring about making conscious processing decisions with CPU-load in mind. Now I don't have one, so I can't say that for certain but that i9 would need to be over 10 times more powerful than my Ryzen 7 2700X AND that power would need to get actually used efficiently by the DAWs - in order for me to be able to throw something like the IK tape emulations on every track and changing parameters while playing a busy song (some Softube processors are also heavy hitters). I'd really be very surprised if any "regular" processor out there can handle a producer being "unreasonable" with their plugin-choices. As I stated the RAM and the GPU is not where it's at for audio as far as I've been told and have experienced it. 16 to 32 GB RAM barely made a difference for me (in terms of audio). I know upgrading to 64 GB would make no difference at all. It's all about that CPU and how it is used. Spreading the processing across all cores is no easy task, especially when you introduce "heavy hitters". It's easy to spread 1000 plugins with low CPU-load, seems to get more difficult if one Plugin has the CPU-load of >30 "regular"-plugins.. because at that point you simply overwhelm one or two cores.
You could have easily connected everything you have to a Mac Mini using TB docks and USB hubs. My studio is about the same amount of stuff as yours, probably even more USB connections for the custom-build touch controllers, and I had the same concerns as you. But since the Mac Studio wasn't available in my region yet I decided to just try the Mac Mini and see where it gets me, and all I can say is.. it successfully replaced my 5500€ iMac Pro.
Haha thanks for that! Always good to know I’ve chucked away a grand 😂😂 you’re probably right (although I’ve now got my fingers firmly suck in my ears!) but when I was first checking it out a year or so ago I couldn’t quite find the right connectors - plus some of the hubs cost a small fortune. But yeah the mini would’ve been an option especially as it’s now got the M1
@@StarskyCarr Yeah, the M1 changed everything in that regards. Before I bought the iMac Pro, I tried the Intel i7 Mac Mini, and it was a disaster, it couldn't even keep up with macOS in HiDPI Mode, so I guess the Intel integrated graphics were the bottle neck.. and it was loud as hell. But that said, I'm sure you've got more headroom to work with now with the Mac Studio, which in turn means it might serve you longer than the Mac Mini is going to do for me. So I think there's still alot of reasons to enjoy your purchase free of regrets :D
Thanks for the review specific to music/midi/keyboards. I’ll be upgrading my 2014 27” iMac that has been my workhorse to a Mac Studio with 64GB/2TB based on your review. If it lasts anywhere near what the iMac did, the ROI is a no brainer.
People tend to minimize the GPU in audio and it is a big error. Once you start openning windows and plugs you'll see the performance of you computer starts to add-up. Don't skip on the GPU if you can.
I live in Texas, I've got air conditioning running + fans in opposite corners of the room - bad for recording vocals but it pretty much erases any concerns about computer noise.
Usefull video, thank you. I'll certainly have to switch to the new M1, 2 or 3 stuffs in the future. As I use a lot of virtual instruments and orchestral libraries I'm thinking about buying 2 "average" machines instead of a big one and run them with Vienna Ensemble Pro (2 minies instead of a studio). One machine for Logic (my DAW) and the other one dedicated to the big plugins. Well, I'm not yet decided and my setup is working fine, I've time to think about that.
10 years ago, 16GB RAM in my Hackintosh was more than enough for most purposes. Today, 16GB in my 2018 MBP isn't enough. I don't think I'll buy another Mac with less than 32GB, preferably 64GB.
Just ordered the MacBook Pro M2 . I hope it is good for what I need. I liked your rhyming introduction. Thought it was good like the rest of your content on your channel.
Using an external usb c nvme card holder and good quality nvme ssd and works really well for holding Kontakt instruments and samples. Would recommend looking for Black Friday deal as I did last year
the info went by pretty fast,,did you say you settled on 32GB ram? or 64GB ram? I am tryingto decide if 32GB ram is enough. I intend to use some Orchestra samples and a variety of other sampled instrument utilizing an external NVMe PCIe gen 4 or 5 thunderbolt enclosure for Orch samples. Is 32 gig enough? Of course I will be using Logic Pro. THanks ! great video!
For external storage I use a NAS. You can put it anywhere where there's networking that way. Like the garage 😊 just got a 2012 mac mini upgraded to monterey, will see how much jam that thing has with its older tech
Is a NAS drive fast enough when accessing large sample libraries? I did have a networked drive at some point and it was super slow - but could be a great solution
@@StarskyCarr The problem with a NAS is that it’s limited by your network speed and that’s typically 1Gbps, even with a wired Ethernet connection. SSD’s deliver speeds anywhere from 50 to 5000 MB/s (megabytes per second) depending on the model, whether it’s reading or writing random or sequential data and a ton of other factors. In general, you want a connection that can handle at least 500 MB/s to get good performance from an SSD. 1Gbps Ethernet is equivalent to about 120 MB/s transfer speed so that doesn’t cut it. 10Gbps Ethernet is rolling out now. Since it’s 10x faster than 1Gbps it should deliver around 1,200 MB/s, making it a good fit for networked SSD’s. 10Gbps Ethernet works with most Cat 6 cable so upgrading could be as simple as replacing a switch. However, every device in the chain must have a 10Gbps Ethernet connector and they’re pretty rare on consumer NAS devices. The good news is that the Mac Studio does have a 10Gbps Ethernet jack. Once they become common on NAS’s and switches then network attached drives would be a great option. Until then, stick with locally attached Thunderbolt (or USB C 3.2 at 10Gbps) drives. OWC has a great product called the ThunderBay Mini that holds up to four drives and should be much quieter than the noisy unit you mentioned.
I don't actually have that large of a sample library but it is quite slow. I use an old hp microserver. Actually I thought the NAS you bought had 10gbe already but I was mistaking it for the F4-422 which looks identical. :)
@@StarskyCarrso I set up a NAS with my old Mac mini 2014 in a Sonnet X Mac mini server 1u with 10gbps Ethernet card, it connects via thunderbolt inside. storage of that Mac mini has 8tb of SSD in 4tb on NVME and 4th on Sata, speed of that machine was around 800MB/sec NVME and 550 off the SATA, network can push in the 1250MB/ sec so file transfer is never an issue. The biggest change is moving away from spinners - with non Apple SSD storage so cheap it’s a no brainer. This unit also backs up all my macs to a separate 16tb mirror, those are spinners as SSDs can and do suddenly die, spinners let you know and can be fixed,or hot replaced before full failure.
Just got one today to experiment with how Apple Silicon will for for my setup. Have an 18 core iMac Pro currently. Figure this’ll do until the new Pros come out next year.
Could you please make an update video. It is nearly a year since you made this video. I have always used pc and will update my computer in 2023. It will be the last computer I get as I am 62. A pc only had a usable life of 3 years but a Mac should last 10 year. I had always thought I could never use a Mac because I have so many usb devices but I found the usb dock you mentioned on thonmonn and thought this is possible.
I only mage this a few months ago (June 2022) and I’m so leased I bought it. My update is… it works great and I’m a very happy man. The usb hub is brilliant - I’ve had no issues whatsoever. I even had spare usb slots in the machine itself so have just used external drives to keep things quieter. I don’t notice the sound from it at all. … it’s under my desk where it’s just forgotten about. After advice from these comments I simply leave it on 24/7 and it jumps into life when I wiggle my mouse. Very happy overall.
I stick to PC, not only because I can get around installing what I want, but a motherboard that I purchased 2 years ago with my 3700X has now seen a 5900X with 64GB RAM. The upgrade was cheap, I also added a RTX3070 TI, makes a great video editor as well as a Pro Tools machine. 8 USBs all running external SSDs. Total cost around 2K Squids. The beauty though was it was not all in 1 go, and this PC in its current state should last easily another 4 years on the CPU side, GPU, well my last 1 lasted 7 years, and it still works. If I were to buy into the Apple ecosystem with similar specs, minimum, I am looking around 3K squids up front. It's why I haven't bothered, it is just too expensive upfront.
A guy who does professional audio and music composition for TV and movies recently bought a Mac Studio, to use along side his Mac Pro cheese-grater machine. This guy is a big fan of the Mac, and is working on Hollywood projects every day, full time. He had a terrible experience, and ended up returning the Mac Studio for a refund. M1 Mac does *NOT* play nice with older Intel Xeon based Mac Pro machines. Logic Pro software has loads of issues. The guy's name is Neil Parfitt, he has a channel here on TH-cam.
I’d definitely recommend some USB C hardrives. Solid state are silent:) anyone who struggles with connectivity limitations due to not enough ports - the Cal digit Thunderbolt hub has one Thunderbolt cable into my MacBook that manages my 2 UAD interfaces, 32inch monitor, 2 external hardrives, motu midi interface and a couple of synths I connect direct via usb. Also SD card reader and charges my Apple Watch! One port manages all this with no issues:)
its crazy how its twice the price for the Ultra when i dont think the box is twice the size and not teice as many fans or twice as much components, just the M1 chip doubled,
Hey there, I liked your video, but wanted to ask, I have an iMac 2015 and thinking of getting either a MacBook Pro or Mac mini or Mac Studio. After eating this a couple of times, I was wondering should I just get the studio or mini because the MacBook Pro is a lots of money? I’m fighting with my own of what I really need and will it just be better to set up at home and do music and I can upgrade with libraries instead of buying MacBook Pro. Will, thanks anyway for reading. Hopefully, I’ll hear from you.
Excellent video. Real world examples which I’m looking at to make a decision. I’m looking at a m1 MacBook Pro. Could you let me know What the spec and size of the m1 MacBook Pro that you used to test against the studio ? Many thanks
Corr blimey my old Mac Pro 2012 is no way near as loud as that which is probably why I still have it. Thinking of upgrading soon though. This review was super useful thanks. I might hold out a bit longer for the next Mac Mini.
I will say for storage that a thunderbolt NVME enclosures are expensive but will get you similar speeds to the internal drives for cheaper. I believe aliexpress will have them for about $75-80US.
I’ve been using a gaming budget laptop since 2017. I know it’s time to upgrade. My local Costco has a m1 studio at a crazy price. 32gb of RAM, but only comes with the 512 drive. Already have an external monitor and external drives. So the 512 space may not be that much if an issue when running music programs. I’d probably end up with my samples and what not running off the externals. Thanks for the review, now to convince the wife I NEED more gear lol
Oh boy, I went from a 2010 Mac Pro to a M1 Mini to a M1 Pro Studio like you. I also got dual studio displays, which I highly recommend. Though the other day one of the monitors crashed on me and had to restart while I was gaming, I had never experienced that before. cheers from Merica
Hi Starsky, nice video and thanks for going through the details in easy to understand language. I am seriously considering a Mini, I currently have a Dell Laptop Inspiron but finding it's now very limited. I use Empirical Labs Compressor, Steve Slate VSX and Slate Rack effects, Soundtoys (all of their effects), LFO Tool, Valhalla (all of their effects), Some Lexicon and TC Electronics effects, Ableton Live 10 Suite, Fab Filter (most of their range), A few VST synths (Sylenth, Spire and Massive) and sample player (Nexus), and then all my outboard is analogue mono synths with just one poly. I am getting the RME UCX II and Expert Sleepers for sample accurate timing on the analogue CV/Gate synths. I doubt there will be any future gear added. What do you think about the Mini for this set up?
I can’t say for sure. It really depends on how many channels you use and how many effects on each etc. BoBeats has the mini I think, so he could comment more on that. This is the best I’ve ever had - but then it’s my latest and most expensive!!
Thanks You've given me stuff to think about.. I have to say (and I hope you don't mind): A computer that lasted you a decade performing well (I put mine in a DIY soundproof cupboard) is not rubbish. I still love my cheesegrater! I'm not going to give it up, but use it for administration, emails etc. That, my old G4 and the 2012 MBP I'm typing on, have been my best, most reliable computers. I hope the Mac Mini can live up to that?!?! So, like a lot of other people (in this chat) I'm facing ta simular choice (also editing video)... The big issue I have with this M1 M2 generation is that it's NOT upgradable. In 2 years it will be slow compared to Ryzen. There's a whole new generation coming this fall. On the plus side is the Mac OS, and low power consumption. I've not made up my mind yet. Maybe I can have computers share the load, using Audiogridder. Brilliant software. One question, please: What did you put on your internal harddrive? I use seperate drives for skratch (recording) and to store all the samples and IRs. Finished projects (and those put on hold) are moved to an external HDD now. I'm thinking of investing in a simple NAS with some enterprise size drives, in case I opt for the Mac Mini.
I’ve only had this one a couple of years. The 2009 previous one was good for ages, but couldn’t cope with new updates. This one has never felt like it belongs - just too noisy.
@@StarskyCarr That's gotta be your graphics card. My Mac Pro "5,1" was beautifully quiet until I needed to upgrade the graphics card to run Mojave. Now it's beautifully quiet about 70% of the time - just not when that graphics card fan ramps at startup, and during regular use for no apparent reason.
@@infindebula it’s 100% the graphics card. I got monitoring software etc. I thought it was extremely loud at its lowest level. It can get a lot louder. Oddly my son - who’s a PC buff and built his own - thought it wasn’t too bad. My 2009 MPro didn’t have an additional graphics card and that was lovely and quiet.
I have the same Mac Pro 2010 upgraded to 2012 but mine is dead quiet. ? The only drawback is that I can’t upgrade to Catalina, now. So…. Watching your video while considering an upgrade.
It’s the graphics card that makes the noise… not a standard Mac one. My 2009 was v quiet which is why I was shocked at the volume of this one. I’m in no way regretting the purchase btw. Best move 😀
While your experience was easily useful, I think you made the case well for those of us who are running really big templates should go for twice the number of cores in the Ultra model.
I have a good studio. I manly use presonus ( studio one) 32s desk moog sub phatty Moog sub 37 mini brute 2 etc etc I do have a tr8s so did you resolve your Roland issue. I have a 2012 MacBook Pro but I gave up trying to use it for music. I got it second hand to see if I could get on with a Mac but had problems connecting everything and gave up. I only use the studio one plugins ( I have Reason 11 that I use for years before moving to studio one) would you still move from pc to Mac.
I’ve no idea if I’d move from PC these days tbh. I was just having so many issues which I don’t get any more. I’m sure PCs have moved on since then, so many people say they work just fine - but then they did when I was having all my issues 😂 so I can’t help really!
Yes for sure, not the actual room but common to it…I can still hear 20kHz fortunately, so that would annoy me…I’d suggest it’s a transformer or synth psu?
Yes all running fine no issues. My big tip would be buy SSD externals rather than the noisy thing I bought - now replaced with …. SSD external drives 😂
@@StarskyCarrstrange thing is, I've seen a few reviews where they get 100+ tracks with logic, putting reverbs and diva etc on every track. Then you put some decent plug ins on and were suddenly down to 22 tracks. That's a hell of a difference.
Hi now you have been using the usb hub for a wile how have you got on with it .What port did you plug it into on your Mac Studio. I found it on Thonmmon and some people said it was fantastic and some had had problems has it been fime for you so far.
@@StarskyCarr thanks for answering. I just wanted to know what ports I would have left. I still haven’t delivered wetter to go Mac or get a new PC. The new M2 Mac Pro could be good. I definitely will get the doc you are using. Thanks again
Maybe you could have waited a few months for the M2 Mac Mini, which should have almost as many ports and is rumoured to also have the upcoming M2 Pro chip. You could get that £500-1000 saving mate. See how you get on and maybe you can send the Studio back to get a refund…….👍
@@mattchang3266 The next Mac mini could launch as soon as 2022, but a specific date is not yet known. It's worth noting that while some rumors have pointed to a 2022 launch date, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo believes Apple won't release an updated model until 2023...
That doesn’t make sense. These product launches are planned out years in advance and segmented to ensure (usually) clear delineation between them. Why go through the trouble of creating a brand new market segment with Mac Studio as its flagship device and then release another product with “almost as many ports” and a more powerful CPU in the very same year? No, I suspect the upcoming Mac mini refresh will feature the M2 and nothing more; It’s their entry level consumer desktop. Mac Studio then covers the midrange and Mac Pro tackles the top end.
So is this what you have on your current setup ? I am quite surprised that the cpu test only handled 23 tracks :/ Sounds so tiny. If we think of 96khz we are only with 10 tracks... Damn that is low! Right ?
Yeah, but don’t forget I purposely put a fair few hefty plugins on each track. I wouldn’t normally have as much going on tbh. Even in huge mixes with 50 tracks a lot of them are single shots or bounced Fx or a synth with very little processing etc. I’m not convinced of the benefits of recording at 96kHz, particularly as lots of plugins use oversampling. But maybe because it’s such a hassle I’m happy to put it into a corner! 😂
@@StarskyCarr Since I have at least to upgrade the ram and the HDD, I think for the extra effort I can have a machine that will last (logically) a few more years. Hope that I am right!! I can get the base Max version at such a good price but the fact that is not upgradeable at a later stage scares me.. really need to make the effort now. Thanks mate :)
Wait, is that D4-300? You are not recommend it only because it's noisy right? I ask this because that's the one I consider for my storage solution. Wanna know how it is.
@@StarskyCarr funny how I try to doing opposite of what you plan to do. I don’t like noise too, but have no confidence in me to organize multiple portable ones. Hope it works great for you with your setup 😊
Wow... you've kept that going well. My MacPro2009 could upgrade to whatever OS a while back, and stopped me using various things and software. got the MacPro2010 (2012 upgrade) and it worked fine, albeit noisy. However, recently a few things have been getting clunky. The graphics on my software Console1 for example were very glitchy and wouldn't update - probably something to do with compatibility with a video card that's no longer updated etc.
@@StarskyCarr Yea had from new.. upgraded the hard drive to an SSD and the RAM to a whopping 2GB! Yea things are getting more difficult.. Support is dropping off rapidly for various things so an upgrade is on the horizon
@@StarskyCarr having finished watching your video I think I am going for the mac mini 16gb. The dude at apple said the magic keyboard and trackpad I have were compatible. My current set up is 2 midi keyboards an APC40 and a TD3. I use the Arturia soft synths and they are guzzling CPU on my 2015 iMac 🤣 and I think I can get another 27inch 4K monitor with the savings. Love the channel. thanks for doing it.
@@accentontheoff they’re the same processor. You can configure the studio for more ram… almost different form factors for the same thing. Studio has more input/outputs MBP has screen, battery and keyboard. Studio can have 2 CPUs.
That whole "windows doesn't work, macs just work" is SERIOUSLY like 15-20 year old belief systems. If PCs didn't work for professional needs, much of what you listen to, and nearly every movie and TV show you watch and game you play would never have been made. Buy a mac if you want... I have a Macbook myself so no flame wars, but omfg that is some dead reasoning for why to buy one. Otherwise, love your vids man!
Windows UI is absolutely unproductive for me. There are some things that have been there for Mac for 15 years like tabbed folders, spring-loaded folders, new folder with selected files and many more that are missing in Windows that make it impossible to work with for me. That's why it's worth it for me.
I've been an Apple guy since 2004, but I am not buying any new Apple machines going forward. Because A) flexgate - my macbook pro screen died because of dodgy engineering of the display flex cables (Apple admitted this problem) then they refused to fix my expensive machine because it had just turned 5 years old when it died. B) Macs have been non-user upgradeable for a while now. You can't change the CPU (ok no biggie) nor memory (more of a problem) nor (which is more serious) change the hard drive(s) out, which are based SSD's and WILL DIE after a certain amount of writes, making your machine a paperweight. As a musician the only way you have to mitigate B is to put all your libraries and audio on an external drive. Not great if you're a mobile user.
great video thanks Starsky ! Im in the same boat, what was your main reason for not going the the mac mini ? Was it only ports ? Im considering the new macmini which is due soon, but still undecided
Yes it was the ports, but someone else has mentioned that the mini isn’t the same chip or doesn’t have as many cores or something. If you read through the comments you might find it. I was concerned that I could’ve bought something cheaper but apparently it’s not as powerful 🤷♂️ I can’t say for certain but worth checking out.
It’s now 1 year later and it’s crazy to see how much has changed. I didn’t go for the macmini. Meanwhile I learned so much about the memory , bandwidth speeds etc in the Mac Studio and just about to order the Max version this week. Are you still happy with you spec you got Starsky ? I decided on 64gb and 2 Tb, this needs to be the last Mac I buy for the music studio. I realise the M3 may be due in a few months but honestly the M2 is decent enough. Even though the M1 Ultra has come down in cost, and not as expensive as before, but you then getting a used machine. M2 seems the sweet spot
Haha... He arrived with his wife - she stayed in the car. He'd driven from Hull and I'm convinced it was because it was so loud if he'd posted it I'd have returned it immediately. I'm a sucker.
To fix the power button issue, just don’t turn it off. Seriously. It draws almost zero power in sleep mode and it will start back up much faster. There’s no advantage to powering off. This is why Apple puts the power button in a hard to reach location. It should rarely be used.
@@StarskyCarr And you're definitely doing right there. But this is mostly valid for all your synthesisers and outboard equipment, maybe even screens or external harddisk boxes. But just let your Mac go to sleep when you end a session. They're perfectly fine doing this at almost no power consumption. I have only every turned off my last handful of MacBooks over the last ten years or so, when I restarted them for system upgrades... ;)
@@everpuremusic With all Starsky's connected USB and TB peripherals, I'd be doubtful the system would consistently wake up correctly. I'd love to be wrong about this of course.
@@StarskyCarr mine gets pretty crazy after just opening a couple internet tabs haha, ordered the Mac Studio shortly before watching! Definitely felt better after watching these comparisons. 😁
You don't need to turn it off. Unix machines don't like to be turn off generally, no need. So unless you are going away, you really should not turn it off.
Terra master is complete and utter rubbish based on my experience. One World Computing is significantly better quality and also has a small hub built in for extra monitors and thunderbolt ports, etc. then, a thunderbolt to USB 3/c multiport hub for your keyboards, etc.
They are not aimed at the price sensitive. If you balance out the initial outlay with any downtime and maintenance costs then not overpriced. These are fillet steaks not Burger King.
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I actually find I’m doing ok with the Mac Mini M1. Got a caldigit element hub with 4 thunderbolt 4 on the front and 4 USB 3 on the back and that only uses one TB port on the Mini. I also run my old Thunderbolt Display off it which has a few USB ports on the back of it - and use those ports with my system 8, KK S49 mk2 and maschine and it all works well. Downside is Roland cloud plug ins and the M1 mini with 16GB as anything heavy like the Jupiter 8 - you might as well give up. As for storage - I just have a couple of 2TB NVME SSDs in TB enclosures running off the hub and there’s all my Komplete CE stuff and samples and things. The mini definitely needs more ram and the CPU in your new one, but Live/Logic and a few instances of Kontakt/KK and Omnisphere and some effects and it works well. I was looking at the studio and it is a great little desktop, but I might wait and see if an M2 mini comes sometime with some more ports like the old Intel ones had. If not - I’ll likely get the same as you. Great video as always.
Ps for audio in I use the Scarlett 4i4 and midi I have a mioXL. The mioXL is probably overkill since I only have an MKS-80, MKS-70 and TX802 in the rack with it, but it sits nicely in the rack and has 6 USBs in the back (4 on the front) and an Ethernet in the back too. The mioXM would probably have been fine but I didn’t want anything else laying around (plus the XL was a little cheaper than usual as it was amazon warehouse).
Btw on the storage - I have 512 internal and have Omnisphere, K13 CE (libraries on external SSD), falcon (UVI libraries all on external SSD), Arturia v collection and pigments, and the Izotope stuff and a bunch of other plug ins - along with Live and Logic and FCP and still have 300GB on the internal remaining, so it’s possible to get away with 512. A decent SSD through a hub or just plugged into the TB port and things load up well - even UVI vintage vault stuff. Quick note on the NI libraries - the Komplete Kontrol previews can take up a lot of internal space, but if you set the library install path to external SSD before installing anything - it’ll throw that folder on the external too.
I appear to have written a book 😂
The Caldigit hub is great for extending cable range. I have two of them and they work a treat!
Hi Starsky, a couple thoughts:
- I have confidence you'll let us know if you start to hear the pitched whine. Most users are claiming it develops after 2-4 weeks.
- The M1 Max in the Mac Studio is not the same as the M1 in the Mac Mini. The Max has more CPU cores and faster memory throughput. It should perform a bit better.
Yes, I'll keep folks updated. If it starts whining its going back!
And thanks for the info on the Mini M1 - you've put my mind at rest ;)
FWIW, I've had my Mac Studio for about six weeks, and no whine.
@@coyotegeek thanks
@@coyotegeek Max or Ultra?
@@infindebula Ultra
I made the same upgrade from the cheese grater and not only the were the quiet fans a huge difference but i didn't realize just how much heat that thing was putting off (not to mention the electricity bill)
That's definitely true. I've noticed the studio is much cooler now! Honestly!
But great for Canadian winters hahaha. Don't even have to turn up the heater when I'm working!
Yes! Noticed the same thing when I was still running my 2012 MP years ago and switched to the 2013 MP. The electric bill got a nice drop.
I went from M1 mini to Mac Studio. Love the Mac studio!! besides liking to run a ton of applications at the same time, I also love to open tons of tabs in Safari, playing TH-cam video's. The Mac mini m1 CHOKED all the time trying to do this. The Mac Studio NEVER chokes!!! That is what makes it perfect for me!
Yeah I’m please I got mine.
Thanks for your real world experience video! I am patiently waiting for my Ultra with 2 Tera to arrive - I do music, video, 3D, etc. My 2010 Mac Pro has been great, but is asthmatic, and is on version 10.8.5, so it can't really evolve. I see the Ultra as a 5 to 10 year dependable machine, and am sure that software will become more and more CPU hungry in the coming years. Finally, I, too am not a poet, but my feet are Longfellows. Cheers!!
I've had pretty good results using a thunderbolt hub i purchased from Amazon. No issues with UAD hardware. I have an Apollo X6, Apollo Twin X and an Octo satellite all hooked up to one thunderbolt port on my Macbook Pro (M1 Max) using this hub, and I havent run into a problem yet.
Which hub did you get?
I just bought a M1 Mac Mini with 16GB RAM & 512GB SSD. With a 1TB SSD plugged into one of the USB-C it's pretty much everything I wanted from a music PC. I couldn't get used to the Magic Mouse though, so that had to go back. Apple were very good at refunding me even though I had used it for a week or so. The smaller white keyboard is better value than the bigger black one at around £90.
I quite like the Magic Mouse... I did try the touch pad but that's just too weird! Yeah the little keyboard is a better value option.
The Logitech MX keys keyboard and MX anywhere mouse are really good with the Mini. I was missing backlit keys and felt the same about the Magic Mouse (and trackpad too).
Apple keyboards look nice, but if they're built like their laptop keyboards, they probably aren't very robust. Plus, I prefer the feel of mechanical keyswitches, so I'd rather get a Matias Tactile Pro or Quiet Pro for around the same price. (Although the Tactile Pro is probably louder than most people would bear, especially in a music studio.)
As far as extended keyboards go, it's true, the 10-key keypad doesn't get much use, so one might not want to spend the extra money to get it. But I find I use the Home/End/PgUp/PgDn keys all the time, and full-size arrow keys in a proper inverted-T configuration are way better than the stupid full-size left/right arrows but half-height up/down arrows in a diamond configuration. Apple already went back to the all half-height inverted-T arrow keys in their new laptops, hopefully they do the same with their keyboards.
Thanks. I have Mac Studio base version with 2TB. Glad you mentioned Roland Cloud gives issues. Have not downloaded it.
You're welcome.
Thanks Starsky for this. I am about to switch over to a full Mac Studio based system and this video has been very helpful for me.
I own a regular PC, 32 GB RAM, 2 TB SSD, 8 Core CPU (AMD Ryzen 7 2700X). I paid 2200 Bucks in total for it in december 2018 (it's pretty quiet and has good cooling). Almost everything works, sometimes there are inconveniences, but having to use Rosetta would be an inconvenience in my world too. I understand the appeal of something "just working", that's why I probably would have waited another year or two before buying an M1. Although: most issues seem to have been resolved by now, as far as I've heard.
I'm not in IT, but I've been told that for music-production the most important aspect is CPU. RAM only up to a certain degree (so I don't think 64 instead of 32 GB RAM will be very benefitial). I hope I can use my PC for another solid 6 years. To be honest I hope that we hit a point soon, where it simply makes no sense to upgrade PCs for audio anymore. I don't really see the benefit of convolution based plugins and other than that I wouldn't know why future plugins should be CPU-heavier - quite to the contrary. But that's probably just me being naive. It's capitalism after all.. and they'll find and create reasons that lead us to believe we need an upgrade and we will buy them.
>To be honest I hope that we hit a point soon, where it simply makes no sense to upgrade PCs for audio anymore
I would argue that we are already there... for "PCs". Macs have been trailing in power for a long time, and now the high end $4k machines are finally up to the day to day power of an upper-mid to high level PC. An i9 with 8+ cores, 64 gig of ram and an NVidia video card will run Maya, Unreal/Unity game engines, render VR, etc... so that is WAY more power than audio will ever use. The only exception would maybe be 100+ tracks of orchestral stuff with tons of sample libraries, etc. But anyone doing "normal" songs like most of us do has plenty of processing power. Case in point, if someone has been using a 10 year old mac, or any macbook (which are heat/speed throttled) for professional work and that was enough... those needs are far less than they think they are. I've used both Macs and PCs for nearly 3 decades, in both audio and game development, and I've always chuckled when someone with a Mac Pro or Macbook says they have "a pretty powerful computer".
@@ChristopherOrth I wouldn't know, I don't have an equivalent to an i9 and 4k is certainly not something many can afford - I can't. My PC isn't bad though and it's pretty easy for me to "overwhelm" it in normal sub 20 track productions. I still have to be conscious about what plugins I use in terms of CPU-efficiency, unless I'm willing to commit a track. I can not imagine that an i9 will be able to handle everything I throw at it, when I stop caring about making conscious processing decisions with CPU-load in mind.
Now I don't have one, so I can't say that for certain but that i9 would need to be over 10 times more powerful than my Ryzen 7 2700X AND that power would need to get actually used efficiently by the DAWs - in order for me to be able to throw something like the IK tape emulations on every track and changing parameters while playing a busy song (some Softube processors are also heavy hitters). I'd really be very surprised if any "regular" processor out there can handle a producer being "unreasonable" with their plugin-choices.
As I stated the RAM and the GPU is not where it's at for audio as far as I've been told and have experienced it. 16 to 32 GB RAM barely made a difference for me (in terms of audio). I know upgrading to 64 GB would make no difference at all. It's all about that CPU and how it is used. Spreading the processing across all cores is no easy task, especially when you introduce "heavy hitters". It's easy to spread 1000 plugins with low CPU-load, seems to get more difficult if one Plugin has the CPU-load of >30 "regular"-plugins.. because at that point you simply overwhelm one or two cores.
You could have easily connected everything you have to a Mac Mini using TB docks and USB hubs. My studio is about the same amount of stuff as yours, probably even more USB connections for the custom-build touch controllers, and I had the same concerns as you. But since the Mac Studio wasn't available in my region yet I decided to just try the Mac Mini and see where it gets me, and all I can say is.. it successfully replaced my 5500€ iMac Pro.
Haha thanks for that! Always good to know I’ve chucked away a grand 😂😂 you’re probably right (although I’ve now got my fingers firmly suck in my ears!) but when I was first checking it out a year or so ago I couldn’t quite find the right connectors - plus some of the hubs cost a small fortune. But yeah the mini would’ve been an option especially as it’s now got the M1
@@StarskyCarr Yeah, the M1 changed everything in that regards. Before I bought the iMac Pro, I tried the Intel i7 Mac Mini, and it was a disaster, it couldn't even keep up with macOS in HiDPI Mode, so I guess the Intel integrated graphics were the bottle neck.. and it was loud as hell.
But that said, I'm sure you've got more headroom to work with now with the Mac Studio, which in turn means it might serve you longer than the Mac Mini is going to do for me. So I think there's still alot of reasons to enjoy your purchase free of regrets :D
I have about ten usb controllers and sequencers could you recommend something? It’s the only thing keeping me away
@@kevinjackson7539 just connect them to a powered USB hub, should generally be fine. this stuff needs almost no bandwidth!
I'm looking at a similar rig but going with the 4TB drive as I also do a fair amount of videos.
I’ve started running 10gbps file server out of the studio on the network for all files, so just have near silent Mac mini in the studio. It’s a dream!
Fantastic review Starsky. The most useful assessment of the Mac Studio I’ve seen.
Thanks for the review specific to music/midi/keyboards. I’ll be upgrading my 2014 27” iMac that has been my workhorse to a Mac Studio with 64GB/2TB based on your review. If it lasts anywhere near what the iMac did, the ROI is a no brainer.
People tend to minimize the GPU in audio and it is a big error. Once you start openning windows and plugs you'll see the performance of you computer starts to add-up. Don't skip on the GPU if you can.
I live in Texas, I've got air conditioning running + fans in opposite corners of the room - bad for recording vocals but it pretty much erases any concerns about computer noise.
Haha I don’t think you’ll notice this then
Usefull video, thank you. I'll certainly have to switch to the new M1, 2 or 3 stuffs in the future.
As I use a lot of virtual instruments and orchestral libraries I'm thinking about buying 2 "average" machines instead of a big one and run them with Vienna Ensemble Pro (2 minies instead of a studio). One machine for Logic (my DAW) and the other one dedicated to the big plugins.
Well, I'm not yet decided and my setup is working fine, I've time to think about that.
I have the Max studio and have been really happy with it in my studio
10 years ago, 16GB RAM in my Hackintosh was more than enough for most purposes. Today, 16GB in my 2018 MBP isn't enough. I don't think I'll buy another Mac with less than 32GB, preferably 64GB.
Just ordered the MacBook Pro M2 . I hope it is good for what I need. I liked your rhyming introduction. Thought it was good like the rest of your content on your channel.
Using an external usb c nvme card holder and good quality nvme ssd and works really well for holding Kontakt instruments and samples. Would recommend looking for Black Friday deal as I did last year
Mac Studio has 10 & 20 cores. In your test, I only see 8 of them. In audio preferences you can set all the cores.
the info went by pretty fast,,did you say you settled on 32GB ram? or 64GB ram? I am tryingto decide if 32GB ram is enough. I intend to use some Orchestra samples and a variety of other sampled instrument utilizing an external NVMe PCIe gen 4 or 5 thunderbolt enclosure for Orch samples. Is 32 gig enough? Of course I will be using Logic Pro. THanks ! great video!
For external storage I use a NAS. You can put it anywhere where there's networking that way. Like the garage 😊 just got a 2012 mac mini upgraded to monterey, will see how much jam that thing has with its older tech
Is a NAS drive fast enough when accessing large sample libraries? I did have a networked drive at some point and it was super slow - but could be a great solution
@@StarskyCarr The problem with a NAS is that it’s limited by your network speed and that’s typically 1Gbps, even with a wired Ethernet connection. SSD’s deliver speeds anywhere from 50 to 5000 MB/s (megabytes per second) depending on the model, whether it’s reading or writing random or sequential data and a ton of other factors. In general, you want a connection that can handle at least 500 MB/s to get good performance from an SSD. 1Gbps Ethernet is equivalent to about 120 MB/s transfer speed so that doesn’t cut it.
10Gbps Ethernet is rolling out now. Since it’s 10x faster than 1Gbps it should deliver around 1,200 MB/s, making it a good fit for networked SSD’s. 10Gbps Ethernet works with most Cat 6 cable so upgrading could be as simple as replacing a switch. However, every device in the chain must have a 10Gbps Ethernet connector and they’re pretty rare on consumer NAS devices.
The good news is that the Mac Studio does have a 10Gbps Ethernet jack. Once they become common on NAS’s and switches then network attached drives would be a great option. Until then, stick with locally attached Thunderbolt (or USB C 3.2 at 10Gbps) drives. OWC has a great product called the ThunderBay Mini that holds up to four drives and should be much quieter than the noisy unit you mentioned.
I don't actually have that large of a sample library but it is quite slow. I use an old hp microserver. Actually I thought the NAS you bought had 10gbe already but I was mistaking it for the F4-422 which looks identical. :)
@@StarskyCarrso I set up a NAS with my old Mac mini 2014 in a Sonnet X Mac mini server 1u with 10gbps Ethernet card, it connects via thunderbolt inside. storage of that Mac mini has 8tb of SSD in 4tb on NVME and 4th on Sata, speed of that machine was around 800MB/sec NVME and 550 off the SATA, network can push in the 1250MB/ sec so file transfer is never an issue. The biggest change is moving away from spinners - with non Apple SSD storage so cheap it’s a no brainer. This unit also backs up all my macs to a separate 16tb mirror, those are spinners as SSDs can and do suddenly die, spinners let you know and can be fixed,or hot replaced before full failure.
The Intro - Instant Masterpiece :)
Just got one today to experiment with how Apple Silicon will for for my setup. Have an 18 core iMac Pro currently. Figure this’ll do until the new Pros come out next year.
every video you do is so thorough, I love your channel
I’ve been looking for a decent USB hub for months for my studio- this looks perfect 😊👍🏻. Thanks for sharing!
Glad it was helpful
Just wondering if you can link your USB hubs? Good review
Could you please make an update video. It is nearly a year since you made this video. I have always used pc and will update my computer in 2023. It will be the last computer I get as I am 62. A pc only had a usable life of 3 years but a Mac should last 10 year. I had always thought I could never use a Mac because I have so many usb devices but I found the usb dock you mentioned on thonmonn and thought this is possible.
I only mage this a few months ago (June 2022) and I’m so leased I bought it. My update is… it works great and I’m a very happy man. The usb hub is brilliant - I’ve had no issues whatsoever. I even had spare usb slots in the machine itself so have just used external drives to keep things quieter. I don’t notice the sound from it at all. … it’s under my desk where it’s just forgotten about. After advice from these comments I simply leave it on 24/7 and it jumps into life when I wiggle my mouse. Very happy overall.
I stick to PC, not only because I can get around installing what I want, but a motherboard that I purchased 2 years ago with my 3700X has now seen a 5900X with 64GB RAM.
The upgrade was cheap, I also added a RTX3070 TI, makes a great video editor as well as a Pro Tools machine.
8 USBs all running external SSDs.
Total cost around 2K Squids.
The beauty though was it was not all in 1 go, and this PC in its current state should last easily another 4 years on the CPU side, GPU, well my last 1 lasted 7 years, and it still works.
If I were to buy into the Apple ecosystem with similar specs, minimum, I am looking around 3K squids up front.
It's why I haven't bothered, it is just too expensive upfront.
A guy who does professional audio and music composition for TV and movies recently bought a Mac Studio, to use along side his Mac Pro cheese-grater machine. This guy is a big fan of the Mac, and is working on Hollywood projects every day, full time.
He had a terrible experience, and ended up returning the Mac Studio for a refund. M1 Mac does *NOT* play nice with older Intel Xeon based Mac Pro machines. Logic Pro software has loads of issues.
The guy's name is Neil Parfitt, he has a channel here on TH-cam.
I just like the utter simplicity of the knob!
I’d definitely recommend some USB C hardrives. Solid state are silent:) anyone who struggles with connectivity limitations due to not enough ports - the Cal digit Thunderbolt hub has one Thunderbolt cable into my MacBook that manages my 2 UAD interfaces, 32inch monitor, 2 external hardrives, motu midi interface and a couple of synths I connect direct via usb. Also SD card reader and charges my Apple Watch! One port manages all this with no issues:)
Nice one, thanks for the info - very useful. Hopefully other will get the message.. Pinned.
its crazy how its twice the price for the Ultra when i dont think the box is twice the size and not teice as many fans or twice as much components, just the M1 chip doubled,
M2 Max Mac Studio out now. Might wait for M3?
Hey there, I liked your video, but wanted to ask, I have an iMac 2015 and thinking of getting either a MacBook Pro or Mac mini or Mac Studio. After eating this a couple of times, I was wondering should I just get the studio or mini because the MacBook Pro is a lots of money? I’m fighting with my own of what I really need and will it just be better to set up at home and do music and I can upgrade with libraries instead of buying MacBook Pro. Will, thanks anyway for reading. Hopefully, I’ll hear from you.
I'd go with the Studio unless having a laptop is necessary.
Excellent video. Real world examples which I’m looking at to make a decision. I’m looking at a m1 MacBook Pro. Could you let me know What the spec and size of the m1 MacBook Pro that you used to test against the studio ? Many thanks
It’s the 16” MBP Max not ultra.
Corr blimey my old Mac Pro 2012 is no way near as loud as that which is probably why I still have it. Thinking of upgrading soon though. This review was super useful thanks. I might hold out a bit longer for the next Mac Mini.
I will say for storage that a thunderbolt NVME enclosures are expensive but will get you similar speeds to the internal drives for cheaper. I believe aliexpress will have them for about $75-80US.
I’ve been using a gaming budget laptop since 2017. I know it’s time to upgrade. My local Costco has a m1 studio at a crazy price. 32gb of RAM, but only comes with the 512 drive. Already have an external monitor and external drives. So the 512 space may not be that much if an issue when running music programs. I’d probably end up with my samples and what not running off the externals. Thanks for the review, now to convince the wife I NEED more gear lol
Oh boy, I went from a 2010 Mac Pro to a M1 Mini to a M1 Pro Studio like you. I also got dual studio displays, which I highly recommend. Though the other day one of the monitors crashed on me and had to restart while I was gaming, I had never experienced that before. cheers from Merica
Hi Starsky, nice video and thanks for going through the details in easy to understand language. I am seriously considering a Mini, I currently have a Dell Laptop Inspiron but finding it's now very limited. I use Empirical Labs Compressor, Steve Slate VSX and Slate Rack effects, Soundtoys (all of their effects), LFO Tool, Valhalla (all of their effects), Some Lexicon and TC Electronics effects, Ableton Live 10 Suite, Fab Filter (most of their range), A few VST synths (Sylenth, Spire and Massive) and sample player (Nexus), and then all my outboard is analogue mono synths with just one poly. I am getting the RME UCX II and Expert Sleepers for sample accurate timing on the analogue CV/Gate synths. I doubt there will be any future gear added. What do you think about the Mini for this set up?
I can’t say for sure. It really depends on how many channels you use and how many effects on each etc. BoBeats has the mini I think, so he could comment more on that. This is the best I’ve ever had - but then it’s my latest and most expensive!!
Also have a look at @songstriker comment about this having 70-80% more power than the mini.
@@StarskyCarr Thanks for getting back to me, and for the Bo Beats tip.
Thank you, right tone point is always better!
Thanks You've given me stuff to think about..
I have to say (and I hope you don't mind): A computer that lasted you a decade performing well (I put mine in a DIY soundproof cupboard) is not rubbish. I still love my cheesegrater! I'm not going to give it up, but use it for administration, emails etc.
That, my old G4 and the 2012 MBP I'm typing on, have been my best, most reliable computers. I hope the Mac Mini can live up to that?!?!
So, like a lot of other people (in this chat) I'm facing ta simular choice (also editing video)... The big issue I have with this M1 M2 generation is that it's NOT upgradable. In 2 years it will be slow compared to Ryzen. There's a whole new generation coming this fall. On the plus side is the Mac OS, and low power consumption. I've not made up my mind yet. Maybe I can have computers share the load, using Audiogridder. Brilliant software.
One question, please: What did you put on your internal harddrive? I use seperate drives for skratch (recording) and to store all the samples and IRs.
Finished projects (and those put on hold) are moved to an external HDD now. I'm thinking of investing in a simple NAS with some enterprise size drives, in case I opt for the Mac Mini.
I’ve only had this one a couple of years. The 2009 previous one was good for ages, but couldn’t cope with new updates. This one has never felt like it belongs - just too noisy.
@@StarskyCarr That's gotta be your graphics card. My Mac Pro "5,1" was beautifully quiet until I needed to upgrade the graphics card to run Mojave. Now it's beautifully quiet about 70% of the time - just not when that graphics card fan ramps at startup, and during regular use for no apparent reason.
@@infindebula it’s 100% the graphics card. I got monitoring software etc. I thought it was extremely loud at its lowest level. It can get a lot louder. Oddly my son - who’s a PC buff and built his own - thought it wasn’t too bad. My 2009 MPro didn’t have an additional graphics card and that was lovely and quiet.
Thanks for the info … just got the Apple studio display and I’m about to get the Mac Studio … thanks again for the heads up … peace ✅
I have the same Mac Pro 2010 upgraded to 2012 but mine is dead quiet. ? The only drawback is that I can’t upgrade to Catalina, now. So…. Watching your video while considering an upgrade.
It’s the graphics card that makes the noise… not a standard Mac one. My 2009 was v quiet which is why I was shocked at the volume of this one. I’m in no way regretting the purchase btw. Best move 😀
While your experience was easily useful, I think you made the case well for those of us who are running really big templates should go for twice the number of cores in the Ultra model.
Thanks... the only thing I would add to that is the Ultra seems to be a little more noisy. But if you need the power these are great.
This has USB 3.2 10 Gbps speed. Regular USB 3 is 5 Gbps
Sabrent USB 3.2 5-Bay 3.5" SATA Hard Drive Tray-Less Docking Station (DS-SC5B)
Thanks for the video! Were those CPU tests done at 1024 buffer size?
I can’t remember tbh. I doubt it was 1024, more like 256. I don’t think I use 1024
The high spec model is sooo expensive. I need to replace my 10 year old iMac 27”. Better start saving.
I have a good studio. I manly use presonus ( studio one) 32s desk moog sub phatty Moog sub 37 mini brute 2 etc etc I do have a tr8s so did you resolve your Roland issue. I have a 2012 MacBook Pro but I gave up trying to use it for music. I got it second hand to see if I could get on with a Mac but had problems connecting everything and gave up. I only use the studio one plugins ( I have Reason 11 that I use for years before moving to studio one) would you still move from pc to Mac.
I’ve no idea if I’d move from PC these days tbh. I was just having so many issues which I don’t get any more. I’m sure PCs have moved on since then, so many people say they work just fine - but then they did when I was having all my issues 😂 so I can’t help really!
Thanks for the good advice
I’m thinking about the Mini Pro M2 or the Studio 😅
Happy to help!
In the graphs you have a fair spike at 12000hz or so…what is that I wonder? Common to the room?
I do think that would be the room, more like a fan component or something.
Yes for sure, not the actual room but common to it…I can still hear 20kHz fortunately, so that would annoy me…I’d suggest it’s a transformer or synth psu?
Do my old emagic amt8 midi interfaces work on the mac studio?
Yes Apple updates driver for Apple Silicon! Amazing I have a Unitor8 and AMT 8 running flawlessly.
Still decent? I'm due a new computer. Been thinking about a m2 mini or studio.
Yes all running fine no issues. My big tip would be buy SSD externals rather than the noisy thing I bought - now replaced with …. SSD external drives 😂
@@StarskyCarrstrange thing is, I've seen a few reviews where they get 100+ tracks with logic, putting reverbs and diva etc on every track. Then you put some decent plug ins on and were suddenly down to 22 tracks. That's a hell of a difference.
14:31 the couple of things in PA mega bundle that won't work are the Schoeps plugins, and they are so useful 😭😭😭
I’ll have to have a play … once they’re working😀
Just wondering if you think you could get away with the Mac mini m1 knowing it's maxed out at 16gb of RAM vs the studio max with the stock 32gb?
Thanks for sharing your experience, much appreciated.
Excellent video mate. Cheers for this
Your Poetry apologie has been accepted, I enjoyed the rhyming and did not reject it.
Oooh nice 👌
Hi now you have been using the usb hub for a wile how have you got on with it .What port did you plug it into on your Mac Studio. I found it on Thonmmon and some people said it was fantastic and some had had problems has it been fime for you so far.
Its been fantastic - no issues whatsoever. I simply plugged it into one of the USB ports on the back.
@@StarskyCarr thanks for answering. I just wanted to know what ports I would have left. I still haven’t delivered wetter to go Mac or get a new PC. The new M2 Mac Pro could be good. I definitely will get the doc you are using. Thanks again
Maybe you could have waited a few months for the M2 Mac Mini, which should have almost as many ports and is rumoured to also have the upcoming M2 Pro chip. You could get that £500-1000 saving mate. See how you get on and maybe you can send the Studio back to get a refund…….👍
Haha thanks for that!! I think I’m stuck with this!
The new Mac mini is almost certainly coming 😏
@@mattchang3266 The next Mac mini could launch as soon as 2022, but a specific date is not yet known. It's worth noting that while some rumors have pointed to a 2022 launch date, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo believes Apple won't release an updated model until 2023...
That doesn’t make sense. These product launches are planned out years in advance and segmented to ensure (usually) clear delineation between them. Why go through the trouble of creating a brand new market segment with Mac Studio as its flagship device and then release another product with “almost as many ports” and a more powerful CPU in the very same year? No, I suspect the upcoming Mac mini refresh will feature the M2 and nothing more; It’s their entry level consumer desktop. Mac Studio then covers the midrange and Mac Pro tackles the top end.
@@tronam Yeah, spot on.
It's funny how Apples own software Logic Pro cannot fully utilize the cores on the new M2 chips
Very useful info, thanks！
So is this what you have on your current setup ? I am quite surprised that the cpu test only handled 23 tracks :/ Sounds so tiny. If we think of 96khz we are only with 10 tracks... Damn that is low! Right ?
Yeah, but don’t forget I purposely put a fair few hefty plugins on each track. I wouldn’t normally have as much going on tbh. Even in huge mixes with 50 tracks a lot of them are single shots or bounced Fx or a synth with very little processing etc. I’m not convinced of the benefits of recording at 96kHz, particularly as lots of plugins use oversampling. But maybe because it’s such a hassle I’m happy to put it into a corner! 😂
@@StarskyCarr Since I have at least to upgrade the ram and the HDD, I think for the extra effort I can have a machine that will last (logically) a few more years. Hope that I am right!! I can get the base Max version at such a good price but the fact that is not upgradeable at a later stage scares me.. really need to make the effort now. Thanks mate :)
Wait, is that D4-300? You are not recommend it only because it's noisy right? I ask this because that's the one I consider for my storage solution. Wanna know how it is.
It is the D4 300. It's just the noise. As I have the USB hub I'm going to replace my HDDs with external portable hard drives which are silent.
@@StarskyCarr funny how I try to doing opposite of what you plan to do. I don’t like noise too, but have no confidence in me to organize multiple portable ones. Hope it works great for you with your setup 😊
Good Vid, thanks. I'm currently using a 2006.. yes a 2006 MacBook Pro! Been wanting to upgrade for a while 🤣
I'm holding on for the Mac Mini M2..... 🤞
Wow... you've kept that going well. My MacPro2009 could upgrade to whatever OS a while back, and stopped me using various things and software. got the MacPro2010 (2012 upgrade) and it worked fine, albeit noisy. However, recently a few things have been getting clunky. The graphics on my software Console1 for example were very glitchy and wouldn't update - probably something to do with compatibility with a video card that's no longer updated etc.
@@StarskyCarr Yea had from new.. upgraded the hard drive to an SSD and the RAM to a whopping 2GB! Yea things are getting more difficult.. Support is dropping off rapidly for various things so an upgrade is on the horizon
I love your poem
Haha.. I'd forgotten about that.
i'm thinking of getting one
Besides the price, I'm happy with it so far. I've forgotten about the money now its settled in really. As long as it behaves itself I'm a happy man.
@@StarskyCarr having finished watching your video I think I am going for the mac mini 16gb. The dude at apple said the magic keyboard and trackpad I have were compatible. My current set up is 2 midi keyboards an APC40 and a TD3. I use the Arturia soft synths and they are guzzling CPU on my 2015 iMac 🤣 and I think I can get another 27inch 4K monitor with the savings. Love the channel. thanks for doing it.
@@thedoc1210 Thanks, glad I could be of some help.
Sorry if I missed something but are you saying the M1 Pro processor and the M1 Max processor are the same.
Yes I think so.
@@StarskyCarr I presume you mean they are identical except that that one is an enhanced version of the other? Or am I missing something.
@@accentontheoff they’re the same processor. You can configure the studio for more ram… almost different form factors for the same thing. Studio has more input/outputs MBP has screen, battery and keyboard. Studio can have 2 CPUs.
@@StarskyCarr Ok thanks.
@@StarskyCarr So you’re advising us to buy the M1 Mac Mini? Even the M1 Pro is not worth it? For music production I mean.
You can get 3m Thunderbolt 2 cables
Thanks.. Do you have a link? 😀
That whole "windows doesn't work, macs just work" is SERIOUSLY like 15-20 year old belief systems. If PCs didn't work for professional needs, much of what you listen to, and nearly every movie and TV show you watch and game you play would never have been made. Buy a mac if you want... I have a Macbook myself so no flame wars, but omfg that is some dead reasoning for why to buy one. Otherwise, love your vids man!
He didn't say "Windows doesn't work". He said it didn't work _for him_.
Windows UI is absolutely unproductive for me. There are some things that have been there for Mac for 15 years like tabbed folders, spring-loaded folders, new folder with selected files and many more that are missing in Windows that make it impossible to work with for me. That's why it's worth it for me.
I've been an Apple guy since 2004, but I am not buying any new Apple machines going forward. Because A) flexgate - my macbook pro screen died because of dodgy engineering of the display flex cables (Apple admitted this problem) then they refused to fix my expensive machine because it had just turned 5 years old when it died. B) Macs have been non-user upgradeable for a while now. You can't change the CPU (ok no biggie) nor memory (more of a problem) nor (which is more serious) change the hard drive(s) out, which are based SSD's and WILL DIE after a certain amount of writes, making your machine a paperweight. As a musician the only way you have to mitigate B is to put all your libraries and audio on an external drive. Not great if you're a mobile user.
great video thanks Starsky ! Im in the same boat, what was your main reason for not going the the mac mini ? Was it only ports ? Im considering the new macmini which is due soon, but still undecided
Yes it was the ports, but someone else has mentioned that the mini isn’t the same chip or doesn’t have as many cores or something. If you read through the comments you might find it. I was concerned that I could’ve bought something cheaper but apparently it’s not as powerful 🤷♂️ I can’t say for certain but worth checking out.
@@StarskyCarr many thanks 🙏 appreciate the response
It’s now 1 year later and it’s crazy to see how much has changed. I didn’t go for the macmini. Meanwhile I learned so much about the memory , bandwidth speeds etc in the Mac Studio and just about to order the Max version this week.
Are you still happy with you spec you got Starsky ?
I decided on 64gb and 2 Tb, this needs to be the last Mac I buy for the music studio. I realise the M3 may be due in a few months but honestly the M2 is decent enough. Even though the M1 Ultra has come down in cost, and not as expensive as before, but you then getting a used machine. M2 seems the sweet spot
What language do you speak?
2:40 Haven’t you checked if he still lives? Maybe he never made it back…
Haha... He arrived with his wife - she stayed in the car. He'd driven from Hull and I'm convinced it was because it was so loud if he'd posted it I'd have returned it immediately. I'm a sucker.
To fix the power button issue, just don’t turn it off. Seriously. It draws almost zero power in sleep mode and it will start back up much faster. There’s no advantage to powering off. This is why Apple puts the power button in a hard to reach location. It should rarely be used.
It goes against my energy saving OCD turning everything off compulsion - but may be the answer 😀
@@StarskyCarr And you're definitely doing right there. But this is mostly valid for all your synthesisers and outboard equipment, maybe even screens or external harddisk boxes. But just let your Mac go to sleep when you end a session. They're perfectly fine doing this at almost no power consumption. I have only every turned off my last handful of MacBooks over the last ten years or so, when I restarted them for system upgrades... ;)
@@everpuremusic With all Starsky's connected USB and TB peripherals, I'd be doubtful the system would consistently wake up correctly. I'd love to be wrong about this of course.
I couldn't hear any of these Mac Studio examples over my intel Macbook Pro fan 😂😂😂
I've got an older MBP and the fan can get crazy.
@@StarskyCarr mine gets pretty crazy after just opening a couple internet tabs haha, ordered the Mac Studio shortly before watching! Definitely felt better after watching these comparisons. 😁
Oh man the old I am dying of cancer 2nd hand deal
You don't need to turn it off. Unix machines don't like to be turn off generally, no need. So unless you are going away, you really should not turn it off.
Got it.. you’re not the first to mention that. Thanks. It’s now left on.
Terra master is complete and utter rubbish based on my experience. One World Computing is significantly better quality and also has a small hub built in for extra monitors and thunderbolt ports, etc. then, a thunderbolt to USB 3/c multiport hub for your keyboards, etc.
Completely out of your league yet you have a Rolls Royce worth of synths behind you haha
Haha yeah… but that’s A SYNTH! 🎹💣🎹
@@StarskyCarr Exactly what I tell my wife!
Over priced…
...not.
compared to what?
They are not aimed at the price sensitive. If you balance out the initial outlay with any downtime and maintenance costs then not overpriced. These are fillet steaks not Burger King.