Advices for buy a new Mac and upgrade Protools

joelouis

New member
Hello everybody. I have the gear bellow. I'd like to improve it. A bit faster Mac and an upgrade to Protools. I'll appreciate any advice. Thanks

Mac Mini (Late 2014) 2.6 GHz Intel Core i5
Memory 8 GB 1600 MHz DDr3
OS X Yosemite Vers 10.10.2

Protools 12.0.1
Focusrite Scarlett 6/6
 
Not enough memory IMO. You need to find out if it’s still upgradeable. Somewhere along the line Apple changed the Mini so it didn’t have socketed DIMMs.

I upgraded my 2012 to 16GB and an SSD. It chugs along on an i3 but I’m using Logic and Final Cut Pro.
 
If you open Utilities/Activity Monitor then click the memory tab, it will tell you if you need more ram or not.
As a general rule more = better is fine, but if your system is happily ticking along using 5/6gb, upgrading to 16 won't help anything.

Do you have issues or symptoms? Where/how is your setup lacking?
 
If you open Utilities/Activity Monitor then click the memory tab, it will tell you if you need more ram or not.
As a general rule more = better is fine, but if your system is happily ticking along using 5/6gb, upgrading to 16 won't help anything.

Do you have issues or symptoms? Where/how is your setup lacking?

Thanks for your answer Steenamaroo. The main problem is that PT is distorting, even if there's not any audio file in the session, just soft instruments. I actually use around 20-24 tracks in my sessions. I think that the mini couldn't be enought and was considering upgrade maybe to imac. Does the Focusrite the cause of the problem?. Thanks so much for your help
 
You have a few threads going to try to solve this problem of PT 'distorting'.
As mentioned in the other thread, more info is needed.
How is your recording rig, set up, what and how are you recording, etc.

And no. I sincerely doubt your focusrite is the cause of your problems.
 
Ok,
The thing to do is open activity monitor (Utilities) and watch it while your computer is under load and suffering those glitches.
If your CPU and/or ram usage aren't maxed out when the problem happens, then they aren't responsible.

Are you running the session from the built in hard drive?
If so, that's a more likely culprit, I'd think. In that case it would be worth trying the session from an external drive.
 
That's a lot of tracks if you've got FX on them.

Does the distortion go away when you bounce the tracks to stereo and play that? If it does it's that old real-time processing bugaboo, which can be memory, CPU, bus congestion, disk speed, buffer size setting, etc., or any little combination of some kind of resource glitch.

Check CPU utilization, too, and watch for any kind of spikes (or dips!) when you hear the distortion.
 
I can't quite understand 'distortion'. All my computers for audio (Mac and PC) produce high quality sound up to the moment they don't, when it goes quiet, or I get audio cutting in and out, or perhaps odd cracks, and on one machine a quiet ticking sound in the background (that one is where a driver has been dropped and the system (windows) loaded a compromise generic driver instead). I don't get distortion of any kind on any machine, in any combination. Distortion is generally an analogue product - so digital distortion generated internally would be very different. Any chance we can hear it? Could be a clue?
 
i think the iMACS are pretty reasonably priced check tiger direct or sweetwater.com usually good deals... as far as pro-tools i am biased against them...always have been since the days when to run pro-tools you had to use their supported hardware interfaces etc. and now they want you to "buy a subscription each year" to stay activated? NO THANKS!..I think they are "too big for their own breeches". that being said, they are not to me the only "industry standard" but then that is my opinion and my own hangup LOL... if using Apple why not get Logic Pro? I have heard recordings and the sound is phenominal! it's a no brainer and many producers use it... or Motu Digital Performer i have seen used by producers in Nashville...
 
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