Recording to DAW on macbook - glitching & Buffer size

danielgosling · 2024-02-29T14:24:10.713Z

Hi Guys

I have a focusrite 2nd Gen 18i8 , and macbook M2Pro with 16gb ram running Reason10

I had severe glitching at 96000 audio rate and buffer sizes under 512 , but rarely now at 44000 auido rate and 512 buffer …but I felt the quality of audio was nicer with the higher settings.

With such a good laptop surely I should be able to run lower latency with higher bit rates?? What is the weakest link here? I am just mixing on my A4/AR and recording into my DAW

Thanks!
Dan

BLKrbbt · 2024-02-29T14:35:09.365Z

Its the buffer size… drop it to 256.

Or keep it high, but know that you may get buffer overrun… its a known issue with Macbooks… Especially with the M3’s

If you keep it high, just close out every other process, and try to do it on a clean startup… and even then you may need to try multiple passes to get a “good” take.

Also… bounce some tracks in place, and eliminate instances of vsts… just stack the deck in your favor as much as possible.

victorcampos · 2024-02-29T14:40:29.629Z

I read in some places around the internet about M1/M2/M3 Macs behaving badly with larger buffers (which is counterintuitive since a larger buffer allows the processor more time to “catch up” with processing if it’s too heavy). Since then I’ve been keeping mine at maximum 128 and never had issues, the computer is fast enough for my needs to keep dozens of VSTs running at 64/128.

BLKrbbt · 2024-02-29T14:42:42.468Z

yup.

It also glitches with multisample vst engines… I forget who, but I wrote in because it was glitching like mad… and they recommended 256 at most… but it was during the transition to Silicon.

I could be a case by case situation as well…

im on MBP M1 Max… 64 gb ram. (humble flex)

Claid · 2024-02-29T14:42:59.693Z

I can’t speak for Reason but for Ableton Live, 512 buffer size is enormous. On my 2020 M1 MacBook Air I run my buffer size at 64 or less.

Kultschar · 2024-02-29T14:47:08.569Z

I do same here. No glitches Macbook Air M1 8gb ram

danielgosling · 2024-02-29T14:54:41.299Z

hey guys , thanks for this

So the advice is to run at 44000 audio at lower buffer size

Do any of you also run low buffer with 96000 audio rate?

I am literally only running Reason , and recording in from my elektrons to two audio tracks

Claid · 2024-02-29T15:10:42.656Z

I run 48000 @ 64 or less with no issues usually, but I don’t tend to run huge projects

BLKrbbt · 2024-02-29T15:14:24.600Z

Audio rate shouldnt have too much impact…

for anything not 44 or 48… actually even then, make sure you have dithering on.

the non noise shaping one. (on bounce down)

mabelsound · 2024-02-29T15:14:59.409Z

I’ve found I only have these problems when there’s a vst running under Rosetta. If all the plugins are native, the stuttering stops. I’m on an M1 MBP running reaper

BLKrbbt · 2024-02-29T15:16:50.426Z

danielgosling:

recording in from my elektrons to two audio tracks

oh wait… are you using Overbridge? Wasnt there a glitching problem that they rolled out a hotfix for? or a beta?

Did you get in on that?

reeloy · 2024-02-29T16:09:14.211Z

…don’t fool urselve…

96k resolution does not really make anything sounding better…
it only bumps up ur workload and workflow…it makes some sense, if u actually record something in a dedicated room, with dedicated mic set ups and all the signals ur about to catch are of fragile, hypersensitive/detailed and accoustic nature…
while even then, it’s a total purist thing…no realworld need…

while anything else does NOT profit from such hi res in any way…especially if u try to work it via some focusrite interface in first place…dunno what makes u think, it sounds way better at 96 k…
but naked truth is, there are way too many good reasons why all u really need is 48k…
and ur audiointerface is no beauty when it comes to internal converter clocking, which is the only thing to actullay “hear” any difference from…that’s this last little margin that diifers truu hi end gear from all the rest…

yes…forget about 44k…sure…we’re long done with that cd consumer lowest edge possible to make it happen consumer compromise…

but do urself, ur toolset and ur nerves the favour and switch reason and ur totally fine but never the less average audio interface to 48k and enjoy a flawless workflow at 128 ms of best average full circle latency setting…and once it comes to recording a real drummer, give it the luxury of 64 ms of latency…

do it ALL in 48k…u’ll never need no further dithering and converting, no matter what u wanna do…
and even all inbetween and final bouncing processing becomes truly lossless…

BLKrbbt · 2024-02-29T16:25:01.846Z

reeloy:

it’s a total purist thing…no realworld need…

I was going to say this, but I didn’t want to shatter someones illusions.

reeloy:

do it ALL in 48k…u’ll never need no further dithering and converting, no matter what u wanna do…

Truuueeee

reeloy · 2024-02-29T16:38:01.604Z

…never the less…it’s an illusion…even purists just do for their totally fine and accepted audio fetish…no synth sound, no drum sound and even no vocal will see any benefit in “quality” of sound by raising the audiorate to the double amount of 48k…

BLKrbbt · 2024-02-29T16:42:17.069Z

Just to not sound like Im hating, I do want to say there surly has to be some application for this, or they wouldn’t be choosable options.

Im at the limit of my understanding of audio rates, and Im just relating with the stuff I was taught in my Pro tools class

Phillip · 2024-02-29T18:25:27.326Z

Why don’t you record using the overbridge standalone app? I love reason but if all you’re doing is recording the 2bus then what’s even the point?

danielgosling · 2024-03-02T09:40:08.143Z

hey guys

thanks for the feedback! Very probable 96000 was all in my head. but I had that impression. who knows!

When you’re just recording audio into a DAW would 8GB macbook air be fine? The macbook im using now is my work one and they’re clamping down on unapproved software now

15 inch macbook air looks decent screen estate wise for editing songs

reeloy · 2024-03-02T10:42:19.826Z

…in days of m chip gen macbooks, unified ram and the actual ssd tech benchmarks, ur totally fine with 8 gigs of ram…days of the more ram the better are for most missions to be accomplished pretty much over…only thing u really must take care of, to get at least 512gigs of ssd capacity…
i really wonder how they still even dare to offer 256 versions…since they know, that’s the real deal that slows it all down and get’s overpopulatetd pretty fast, since u always better leave some 10 to 15 % of free headroom on ssd’s to make sure they last “forever”…once any sdd is forced too much to rewrite/reorder their segments, which they always do during processing to some extent, and got not enough free sectors left to use to do so while internal data swapping, they wear out pretty fast and will let u down…
the only real valid point that still speaks for more ram is “better”, is xactly this unified thing, which allows ur computer to also use the ssd as more frequent realtime ram support…

if u never wanna think about all this, the best and total nobrainer macbook config is 16 gigs of ram and a 1tb ssd…such a laptop will serve u well for at least a decade to come…but if used properly any 8ram meets 512ssd variant can count the same…

so any macbook wether it’s an air or a pro, no matter if it’s first m or latest m gen, no matter if it’s 8 or 16 or 32 gigs of ram will make u totally happy when it comes to common audio tasks of all kind…background processing/final renders might take a few seconds more or less overall, but that’s about it and does not make any difference for u as a single user with single tasks…

also all these different m gens really just diiffer, in essence, with the count of neural processing capabilties, which really comes into play when we start talking ai sort of stuff…no real need for now, when we’Re talking any sort of daw use…

at least if u don’t force it all up to 96k in constant realtime processing…

and investing in an official live or, even better, a bitwig license, or, since ur an apple user, a quite reaonable logic deal, is another timeless and good investment u won’t regret…

and before u get lost in way too many vst’s…always give urself and ur daw of choice the time to really know what u got in there already before u give anything on top and in addition to all that a try…most of what u can get with third party plugins is already right in front of u, provided by the daw itself already, with way more cpu efficient internal tools…and nothing let’s u fly like u really intertwined with the daw of ur choice, knowing at least it’s most common shortcuts that can speed up ur workflow soo faar beyond any cursor clicking safaris all over ur screen real estate…

and no matter how many neural engines ur m chip has to offer, each of them will let u talk to ur daw from next year on… additional audio engineers for all of us…

danielgosling · 2024-03-03T21:01:17.242Z

thanks v much! I think Ill go for a 16inch 16GB , 1TB M1 macbook pro , refurbished via Amazon Renewed. is 2000e in excellent condition. Yes I got 13 years out of my 2011 macbook pro! still useable but chrome is slow at times let alone a DAW

Tempted to switch to Logic Pro from Reason. Main areas of interest my side are better workflow and mastering suite. As Ill be mixing in the elektron boxes

Would you recommend I upgrade my focusrite 2nd gen 18i8 for a mixer interface? Any recommendations for compact mixer interfaces? Would be mainly for home studio use but occasional live gig

thanks!

Phillip · 2024-03-03T22:06:36.105Z

If all mixing is too be done within the boxes, you don’t need to spend money on another daw, but instead on mastering tools which is what you’re going to do in the daw and that’s going to be the same no matter the dawn so use what you already have but get what you’re missing, namely, mastering tools (fab filter or iZotope will probably cover all the main bases there).