I need more power/speed in my Mac

J

joelouis

New member
Hi folks. Technology is like Chinese to me. Please excuse my clumsiness.

MY SETUP
iMac 5K 27” 2019
Processor 3.7 GHz 6-Core Intel Core i5
Memory 32 GB 2667 MHz DDR4
Mac OS Ventura 13.0.1

Pro Tools 2020.12.1 - Working in 24-bit
Buffer 1024 - Cache 4GB
Focusrite Scarlett 616 (interface).

I need to improve power/speed. I want to get some plugins, but I don't have the necessary requirements:
64 bits (I'm on 24), i7, i9 (I'm on i5), Vst…

My OS was 10.15 (Catalina). I asked for an update and they gave me Ventura 13.0.1 which gives me a bit of trouble with Pro Tools. I can't downgrade to macOS 12 (Monterey). On the other hand, PT does not allow me to make an update.

Can I upgrade my iMac? i5 to i7 or i9, 6 core to 8 core?

I have been recommended to buy an Apple Silicon Mac. I found this one:
Apple M1 Max with 10-core CPU, 24-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
32GB unified memory 512GB SSD storage
This is the basic. Is it enough or do I need to improve something?

I will greatly appreciate your tips/suggestions. Thanks.
joelouis
 
You are confusing your audio bit depth (24) with your operating system's native word length (probably 64). I very much doubt that you need a new system unless you are thinking of buying some ludicrously processor hungry plug-ins. What plug-ins are you thinking of buying?
 
I've got a few Macs and none have any issues with power or speed. You have plenty pf memory. What makes you think there is a problem? My old iMac can do audio pretty well with a lower spec? I think you've just misunderstood the spec. Plugins are rarely big issues - only when you have loads and loads of them all loaded up do issues creep in. i3 is perfectly workable for modest systems - absolutely no need to go wild here. The latest OS you installed is not on my Macs ........ yet! No need. Wait till protools catches up.
 
As others said, you should have plenty of resources in that system for audio processing. How many tracks are you working with?

And, you’ve had a 64-bit MacOS since Catalina. Your Protools problem will sort itself out when they update that software, so the lesson to learn here is do not needlessly update MacOS unless absolutely required. (And most of the stuff going in to the most recent versions is targeted to Apple silicon, and provides no benefit at all for older systems.)

If you have massive mixes with VSTs, learn how to freeze tracks, and use other techniques to reduce CPU loading, if that’s where you are seeing bottlenecks. Poor resource management will throttle almost any system.
 
Even with some big VSTs, I would suspect that the processor, which is probably an I5-9600K, should be able to handle them. I see lots of times when software is recommending a Core I7, but it's for several generations back, like a 3rd or 4th gen. Each generation gets progressively faster at equivalent speed.

An I5-9600K specs out in most testing as about equal to an I7-8700 for both single and multicore tasks.
 
jamesperrett said:
You are confusing your audio bit depth (24) with your operating system's native word length (probably 64). I very much doubt that you need a new system unless you are thinking of buying some ludicrously processor hungry plug-ins. What plug-ins are you thinking of buying?
Click to expand...
Thanks James. Is better y any way if I work in 32 bits instead 24? The plug-ins I want are basically virtual instruments (brass, strings, bass.....) processors for improve my mixes.
 
rob aylestone said:
I've got a few Macs and none have any issues with power or speed. You have plenty pf memory. What makes you think there is a problem? My old iMac can do audio pretty well with a lower spec? I think you've just misunderstood the spec. Plugins are rarely big issues - only when you have loads and loads of them all loaded up do issues creep in. i3 is perfectly workable for modest systems - absolutely no need to go wild here. The latest OS you installed is not on my Macs ........ yet! No need. Wait till protools catches up.
Click to expand...
Thank you Rob
 
keith.rogers said:
As others said, you should have plenty of resources in that system for audio processing. How many tracks are you working with?

And, you’ve had a 64-bit MacOS since Catalina. Your Protools problem will sort itself out when they update that software, so the lesson to learn here is do not needlessly update MacOS unless absolutely required. (And most of the stuff going in to the most recent versions is targeted to Apple silicon, and provides no benefit at all for older systems.)

If you have massive mixes with VSTs, learn how to freeze tracks, and use other techniques to reduce CPU loading, if that’s where you are seeing bottlenecks. Poor resource management will throttle almost any system.
Click to expand...
Thank you so much Keith
 
Thank you so much pals. Then you think it's better for me keep my current setup instead of get the Apple M1?
In PT is better for me to work in 24 bits or in 32 bits? Thanks
 
The main reason to work in 32 bit depth in audio is when you need a LOT of headroom. 24 Bit audio is capable of 138dB of dynamic range. 16 bit is 90dB. 32 bit has the capability of 194dB but in reality, the electrical parts will introduce enough noise that most equipment will top out in the 128-130dB range. Look up the term Johnson Noise for resistors. Hence the only real thing that 32 bit fixed bit depth is that it takes up more storage space. Note that most current DAWs work at 32bit floating point internally. This keeps errors in calculation and manipulation of the data out of the realm of audibility. 32bit Floating point has the theoretical limit of something like 1600dB which is simply insane.

That means that 24 bit audio is more than sufficient unless you are trying to record things like airplane jet engines, bomb explosions or other extremely high SPL events. Add in that most microphones are going to distort when they get into those extreme levels. Most mics will have a max capability of 125 to 140db, depending on the design. Gunfire at close range is in the 150dB range.

The next important point would be the sample rate. While 44.1kHz is the CD standard, and theoretically sufficient to do 20-22,000Hz, many people use a higher sample rate, typically 96kHz or even 192kHz. It gives you the possibility of recording higher frequencies without resorting to drastic anti aliasing filters. There are debates as to whether this is audible. In the end, most audio is presented at 16bit/44.1k format.

All of this has nothing to do with the OS spec (32 or 64 bit) which really determines things like memory space addressing. Modern systems (Mac OS, Win10 and 11, Linux) all operate in 64 bit mode these days.

RE; capability of your system, I run a 4th Generation I5 processor, 12GB RAM with Reaper on Win 10 and have absolutely no problems recording 6 or 8 channels at the same time via USB interface. I wish I had something as powerful as your 9th gen processor. I would be good for another 5-10 years.
 
Last edited:
My MacBook Pro died so I bought another an m1. Then I fixed the old one and have the backup installed so I have two identical machines. Rendering video is quicker on the M1. Perhaps 25% quicker maybe. On Cubase that I use there’s no detectable difference. The only important thing us just ram. Audio rarely tickles i3 processors. In fact the iMac in my office that I use for word, excel and email is quite happy with 20+ tracks of audio! It’s issue is the hard drive transfer rate. I use an external drive which is better than the old original drive. Cubase has a dual performance monitor processor load is low, hard drive is often maxed out
 
Alias your ProTools (?) folder to a fast external drive (or SSD) and keep the projects off of the system drive. Your system has USB 3.0 ports, so while you don't need that speed for audio, I would consider a USB 3 capable external drive, and interface, too, if you update that at some time.
 
keith.rogers said:
Alias your ProTools (?) folder to a fast external drive (or SSD) and keep the projects off of the system drive. Your system has USB 3.0 ports, so while you don't need that speed for audio, I would consider a USB 3 capable external drive, and interface, too, if you update that at some time.
Click to expand...
Excellent point. Grab an external SSD, running on USB3 and you'll see a boost in access speed.
 
TalismanRich said:
RE; capability of your system, I run a 4th Generation I5 processor, 12GB RAM with Reaper on Win 10 and have absolutely no problems recording 6 or 8 channels at the same time via USB interface. I wish I had something as powerful as your 9th gen processor. I would be good for another 5-10 years.
Click to expand...

I can record 24 tracks at 24 bit, 44.1kHz on the cheapest laptop that I could buy back in 2004. It has a 1.4GHz processor and 512MB RAM. I've also recorded 16 tracks at 96kHz on the same machine. I have very few limitations with Reaper's own plug-ins unless I try to use convolution reverbs at 96kHz. In fact, I could record 16 tracks on a 233MHz Pentium 2 machine running Windows 98 although I couldn't really do any other processing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top