Needing an upgraded Mac for music production (Need some thoughts/opinions)

The Lounge General Discussion
#22

Question about using an external SSD drive.
Are you guys talking about wiping my system clean then reinstalling the OS and everything onto the SSD drive and using it as the primary drive to boot from?
Or are you saying I should use it to save and run any and all Ableton projects, audio recording etc
I don’t see how the latter would do any more good than using a regular external drive to handle audio.
If we are talking about the former I have never done that, Is it possible to wipe my OS override the internal 500GB drive and use only the SSD for everything? Also if I do that would I still be able to use the ‘Time machine’ function? Not that it’s that big of a deal but I have a 1TB drive for Time machine automatic backups…I have never had to use it but the idea of having everything constantly backed up is nice. Again if that’s not an option if I am running my OS and all my applications from an external SSD drive then it’s not a big deal at all.

It’s going to be a bitch to wipe everything and reinstall everything but if it makes as much of a difference as you guys are saying then it sounds well worth it.

My 500GB internal that I have now still has plenty of room (I would have to be at the studio space to check exactly how much of the HDD that’s in use but I know it’s at least 100GB away from being full) so I think the 500GB range would be just fine.

Any recommendations on SSD drives in terms of brands etc and good places to buy them?
Thanks again for all of the help!

#23

SSDs add a lot of speediness to old computers that’s for sure, but I don’t think it will help audio latency and high plugin cpu, but still it will make your computer seem much newer. Often wiping and clean installing actually improves performance anyway, and you could consider El Cap or Sierra as they may have better performance than Yosemite and maybe better support for your hardware with more current drivers, I don’t know though, I’m still on Mavericks… :slight_smile:

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#24

Good advice from both of you I will try that and report back if it fixes the issue,
All of my drivers are up to date on everything that was on of the first things I did when this issue started really getting to me (about a week ago lol)

So if I set the buffer size down to say 128 or even 256 what is the deal in Live where you can set the ‘Driver error compensation’? Should I even bother with that?

In terms of setting the audio rate from 48 to 44 I have heard sooo many arguments about this and frankly I’m not sure which side of the argument I’m on, Personally I don’t hear a serious difference between the two though I know any clients I work for always require the samples to be recorded at 48.

#25

True, I actually really regret upgrading. I almost never upgrade the OS unless I absolutely HAVE to since in my experience it seems that with OSX updates the newer the slower lol

#26

Don’t worry about driver compensation, 44100 uses a little less cpu and is the quality of a cd if you want to try, otherwise 48000 is fine…

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#27

Something tells me El Cap or Sierra might be faster than Yosemite, I heard bad things about that one… At some point I’m going to jump to Sierra and hope for the best!

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#28

At this point I’d recommend setting buffer to 256, disabling and removing all overbridge plugins and any other audio streaming devices if there are any, and only using audio interface test for cpu usuage with your plugins and leave running for a long time to see if the latency creeps in, maybe just use a new ableton project to keep it easy. If no problems add overbridge and test again…

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#29

I send stuff off for TV and Radio broadcast every day all day and all my deliverables are 44 and some even want mp3???

if you are trying to record nat farts, then worry about the difference between 44 and 48. Really the only folks who really worry about that are recording entire string sections and they want to hear every hair on every bow rubbing every string in the symphony. I’ve recorded the same synth all the way up to 192 and the difference is lost as soon as you bounce it down to 44.1 CD standard audio, or squish it down to Soundcloud or Itunes level mp4 or mp3.
Dont worry about driver comp, that shouldnt even really be an option there… its over kill.

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#30

I concur that the 32 sample buffer is too low. I use 128 on my system and don’t really notice any latency. I’m not at my machine just now, so can’t give you the exact latency times, but it’s pretty low.
As for the SSD, I was suggesting removing your internal drive and replacing it with a SSD. There are various guides on Youtube.
I realize it’s probably a bit trickier with an imac than a macbook, but definately worth it. I agree that you probably won’t notice that much improvement using it as an external.
When I did it, I created a couple of time machine backups (an extra one just in case!). I think I created a bootable flash drive with OS installer, swapped the internal out for the SSD, installed the OS then transferred my files from the backups, reinstalled applications, etc… Long tedious process but very worth it. There are loads of guides for all this all over the inernet and youtube.
I think mine is a 500Gb Samsung Evo. It’s been solid for about 18 months so far.
Also, I did the upgrade from Yosemite to Sierra and it has seemed a bit more stable - especially noticed using Traktor.
I’ve found Sierra to be rock solid for Ableton. Similarly to you I’m generally just recording a few tracks of Audio from my hardware and a few plugins. Not really any softsynths. Nothing too taxing on the system.
Hope some of that helps.

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#31

The i3 processor probably is not helping you either.

I’ve had issues with Elektrons on C2D, Xeon 8 cores, and i3s, all had SSDs.

but on both a 2013 i5 iMac Quad, and a 2012 i7 MBP Quad that I tested (my wife’s), AR+AK together work great, with 16 audio streams, 64 sample system buffer settings, negligible latency, etc. etc. Both were running El Capitan.
And no overHub, fwiw.

My next Mac will def be an i7 quad.

That said, my 2009 MBP is still kicking and doing everything (except Overbridge audio streaming) quite successfully.
Just one anecdote to counter the anecdotal caution against Mac.
8 years is good run. Hope I can push it to 10.
Like a Subaru seeking its 300,000th mile.

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#32

I still have my mid-2010 imac 27", but a few years back I bought a 2012 13" 2.9GHz i7 MBP, took out the superdrive and HDD and put in two samsung SSD’s (256Gb 840 pro) in RAID 0. I use Logic pro X and run a moderate amount of plugins (Madrona Labs, Valhalla etc.). It has been the best music machine I have ever used. Also, it has two USB ports and a firewire port for my audio interface/Mixer (onyx 820i). I’ll bet the newer ones run even better but they don’t have the I/O I need.

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#33

^2012 was the last great MacBook Pro year for connectivity.

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#34

IMac has been doing me just fine since I’ve owned it in 2014. The used MacBook I bought, I can’t say the same for :confused:

#35

It would be helpful to know which specific iMac and MacBook you are referring to.

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#36

Ah, I was just adding to the conversation. Though, I DID have both logic and Ableton on the book, haven’t tried it since I removed logic.

#38

Upgraded from Mac to Windows a few years back. Never looked back.
Should have done it earlier :quirky:

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#39

Thank you guys so much you been so incredibly helpful, I love this forum!
I am heading to the studio tomorrow for an all day session (That’s only downside of having an actual studio space is that you can’t just walk into another room in your house and make stuff whenever you feel creative, Fot that reason I’m thinking about moving everything back home even though I’d lose the room treatment at least I’ll be able to work or write whenever I feel like it)
but anyways yes you guys are great and when I get in there I will try out some of the stuff you guys said, Obviously I won’t have an SSD to install tomorrow but I will bring it down to 128 or 256 and bring it down to 44 instead of 48 see what happens and update you guys. I’ll be in there for a full day so it will be long enough to test this stuff out.

Just to clarify one thing on the SSD, You guys are saying no not an external SSD and installing everything on that you are saying replace my internal 500gb mechanical drive with an internal SSD right?

I’m going to have to figure out which model of SSD is compatible with my iMac and go from there.

Thanks again everyone you guys are the best!

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#40

I purchased a late 2012 Mac Mini server, Quad 2.6ghz i7 with 16gb ram few months ago for $700. That model/year hands down is the best bang for the buck Mac You can buy to this day. Loaded with 4-USB 3.0 ports 2-thunderbolt, firewire and HDMI. Would recomend to anyone.

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#41

PLEASE TRY ONLY INCREASING YOUR BUFFER SIZE TO 256 FIRST BEFORE YOU MAKE ANY OTHER CHANGES!

I’m pretty sure that running at a more sane buffer size than 32 samples should fix most of your issues. That was also the first thing I recommended two days ago!

NEXT, TRY REMOVING OVERBRIDGE!

You started out mentioning you didn’t use any CPU-heavy plugins. Overbridge is actually a pretty CPU-intensive plugin and also tends to introduce additional latency.

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#42

Oh, and changing your sample rate from 48 kHz to 44.1 kHz won’t make any real difference.

48 kHz is the default rate used in the video world which is probably why your clients insist on it.

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