Looking to buy Mac Studio M1 max for LUNA

[jonchristopherhughes]

it's time for me to just bite the bullet and get a new dedicated mac for my studio rig.

using LUNA, an apollo 16, apollo 8, apollo twin and a few quad satellites.

i mostly use UAD plugins plus valhalla, soundtoys, fab filter, slate trigger, softube, plugin alliance and waves.

my main work is tracking and mixing live bands. i don't use many soft synths other than some melotron stuff, strings, maybe the uad moog. usually when i use that stuff i end up freezing the tracks as my current laptop starts to bog down.

my mixes are usually 16-40 tracks maximum and not a lot of plugins but have been using the UAD tape and console emulations a lot more.

looking at the mac studio m1 max with 32g ram.

current computer is macbook pro 15 retina core i7 2.2ghz. with 16 g ram which i will keep as a remote rig.

i use a blackmagic designs thunderbolt ssd drive bay for my recording drives

my sessions have mostly been fine on my macbook but the fans always run and i do need to freeze tracks sometimes on bigger mixes especially when i use soft synths.

surely the mac studio m1 max would be more than i'd need, right ?

anyone else running a similar rig ?

any recommendations on which OS to use ? i'm likely going to buy from OWC and they are telling me it will come with some OS after 12.3 and can always be downgraded to 12.3 if needed.

 

[LesBrown]

surely the mac studio m1 max would be more than i'd need, right ?

I haven't been able to slow mine down, yet, even using 100% native plugins.

 

[jonchristopherhughes]

I haven't been able to slow mine down, yet, even using 100% native plugins.

thank you. that is promising.

what OS are you running on your rig ?

 

[swaite]

You will have all the power you need and then some.

Rock on!

 

[jonchristopherhughes]

You will have all the power you need and then some.

Rock on!

right on, looks like your rig has 64g memory. trying to figure out if i should spend the extra and get more memory.

 

[Joe Porto]

right on, looks like your rig has 64g memory. trying to figure out if i should spend the extra and get more memory.

Mx chips share memory between CPU and GPU. The M1 Studio is a graphics powerhouse. But if you're not doing multiple 4K monitors and intensive 3D rendering, 64GB is overkill. In fact, 32GB is probably overkill for audio use.

Keep in mind, the difference between the Mx Pro and Mx Max is more GPU Cores, pro res and video engines, and a faster memory bus to accommodate the additional graphics demands. They share the same amount of CPU cores. You may get more bang for your buck with an M2 Pro Mini for audio use. The M2 Pro 10 core has about 30% faster CPU than the M1 Max, and the M2 Pro 12-core adds 2 additional performance CPUs over the M1 Max.

 

[swaite]

right on, looks like your rig has 64g memory. trying to figure out if i should spend the extra and get more memory.

I went back and forth and decided to do the memory upgrade. I often run dual monitors with LUNA on one screen and Ableton Live on the other.

My old Intel MBP used to crash often but the Mac M1 Studio runs smoothly. I used to also Render in the Red frequently with LUNA on the old computer but always in the Green with the Mac M1S.

I also upgraded to 2 TB SSD. I have a separate 1 GB SSD that has my sample/sounds library.

 

[jonchristopherhughes]

I went back and forth and decided to do the memory upgrade. I often run dual monitors with LUNA on one screen and Ableton Live on the other.

My old Intel MBP used to crash often but the Mac M1 Studio runs smoothly. I used to also Render in the Red frequently with LUNA on the old computer but always in the Green with the Mac M1S.

I also upgraded to 2 TB SSD. I have a separate 1 GB SSD that has my sample/sounds library.

ok right on, appreciate the info and advice.

i use a black magic thunderbolt ssd dock for my recording drives and samples and stuff.

 

[jonchristopherhughes]

Mx chips share memory between CPU and GPU. The M1 Studio is a graphics powerhouse. But if you're not doing multiple 4K monitors and intensive 3D rendering, 64GB is overkill. In fact, 32GB is probably overkill for audio use.

Keep in mind, the difference between the Mx Pro and Mx Max is more GPU Cores, pro res and video engines, and a faster memory bus to accommodate the additional graphics demands. They share the same amount of CPU cores. You may get more bang for your buck with an M2 Pro Mini for audio use. The M2 Pro 10 core has about 30% faster CPU than the M1 Max, and the M2 Pro 12-core adds 2 additional performance CPUs over the M1 Max.

ok great. hadn't considered that.

yeah i just use one 32" usb c monitor. i have a thunderbolt ssd drive dock and a usb 3 drive enclosure for backups. i run 3 apollos and a few satellites. that's it.

don't do any video work. just audio.

i'll check out the m2 pro mac mini.

one of the main reasons i thought of the studio was the number of thunderbolt and usb 3 ports. i hate having docks and hubs.

thanks for the input !!

 

[LesBrown]

thank you. that is promising.

what OS are you running on your rig ?

I am running the lastest OS, but I haven't upgraded to the latest update due to all the problems reported.

 

[chrisharbin]

When I was looking into going mac, there was quite a bit of buzz about the first-gen mac studios being noisy. Now, I'm not expert enough to know what that was about, but I thought it was worth bringing up. I went M2/Studio = zero noise.

 

[tomtama]

I'm using a Mac Studio M1 Max with 32GB. Works great!

 

[DanteMurphy]

one of the main reasons i thought of the studio was the number of thunderbolt and usb 3 ports. i hate having docks and hubs.

thanks for the input !!

On my Mac Studio M1 I use a Satechi Hub fitted with a WD 2TB SSD

It’s a perfect fit !

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[DavidCaraccio]

Hey there,
I bought a Mac Studio M1 Ultra when it came out and it’s been running LUNA flawlessly. I produced a couple tracks with some orchestral parts on Pro Tools and there the computer started to slow down a bit, I had a couple CPU-overload messages when running 30+ Kontakt instances for example.

So when people tell you they think a M1 Pro might be overkill for audio, keep in mind this will always depend on what kind of sessions you’re running.

 

[Joe Porto]

On my Mac Studio M1 I use a Satechi Hub fitted with a WD 2TB SSD

It’s a perfect fit !


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Satechi makes solid stuff. I have their TB4 and USBC hubs.

 

[Joe Porto]

Just to put things in perspective, I have an M1 Max Studio and an M2 Max MBP. Both can handle huge audio projects without a sweat, but the M1 Studio cannot play certain dual patches of the Arturia CS-80 at 64 sample buffer without pops and clicks, where the M2 can run at 32 samples. This is the standalone version with no DAW running as well as the plugin.

 

[Neotrope]

Have M1 Studio Max downstairs with 32GB, and M1 Studio ULTRA 64GB upstairs in the main room. Main benefit of the Ultra really is extra Thunderbolt buses, which I actually need with 3 Apollos, 3 SSL controllers, USB MIDI controller(NI), MP Midi Controller touchscreen (uses two USBC cables due to touchscreen drivers on Mac), etc. Chose to buy the M1 as "last year models" as the M2 didn't add enough speed to warrant the extra $800, which I then put toward OWC storage docs that sit under each M1 and hold 1 4TB SSD for samples, and 1 NvME for audio rendering.

 

[Appledude]

Aren’t the studios due to get the M3 max and M3 Ultra soon? October?

 

[Matt Hepworth]

Get an M2 Pro base, or wait for M3 Studio, unless you can get an M1 studio for a price close to the M2 Pro base mini.

 

[daveming3]

When I was looking to upgrade my 2013 iMac a few years ago, there was all this talk about whether Apple was going to make a Studio with the (then new) M2 Max chip, which resulted in a discussion about whether people like me should wait to see if they did. And I remember watching a video where a guy made a point: the question is not whether you need the fastest, bestest one out there, but is the one you have (or the one you’re looking to buy) fastest, bestest enough for your needs for the foreseeable future?

On the other hand, there is the UNforseeable future..