Hardware - How Much HorsePower Is Enough?

What about the last MacBook pro with max ram and ssd ?

As dhj replied:

The point is that there are several solutions to your question depending on your pocketbook, which you can built yourself or buy from a specialist vendor. Some of the well known vendors have their own networked DSP/audio solutions for any sized live performance or studio. It would be worth your while to cruise through the Topics in this Category (Hardware) as well as this is a Topic that comes up with a lot of regularity. Good luck on your quest, and we would all be interested in hearing about your solution and success when you get your problem sorted out!

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I’ve been using 2 MacBook pros for my setup. One just runs gigperformer to record 16 tracks the other is gigperformer doing 6 instances of most virtual instruments. Also running MainStage for guitar emulation and vocal processing on 5 channels- all for live show. Also sending MIDI for lighting control.

I just tried to do all this in one MacBook Pro 2015 i7 four core and it worked for a few minutes but the cpu temp got over 65c even with it sitting on a fan. I’m thinking of getting a more powerful laptop cooler fan but for now it’s 2 computers. At least the recording computer can serve as a backup to the processing computer.

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After rereading @dhj 's reply and hearing the general consensus on multiple machines, it sounds like I need to give it another go.

My plan is to buy a maxed out MacBook Pro and pair it with an RME Babyface. The new MacBook will do the heavy lifting and I’ll combine this with my older setup (2012 i7 Mac Mini w/ RME FF400).

The older Mac/FF400 will be used for lighter CPU loads that utilize the FF400’s 8 outputs

IN 1/2 - Recording Mixing Board Out
IN 3/4 - IEM Input

Out 1 - LH Bubble
Out 2 - LH Piano
Out 3-6 - Ableton Tracks
Out 7/8 - IEM Out

My new machine will be running my VST ensembles, unique rackspaces, and covering video needs.

Out 1/2 - Main Board/Ensembles
Out 3/4 - Top Board

I like the idea of keeping two functional machines in use and the added hardware redundancy in case of a catastrophe. OSC/Midi will be sent over a network. I’ll use the MacBook as a monitor for the Mini using Screen Share. If I need to send audio between the machines, I’ll use ADAT between the interfaces.

A big plus to the MacBook/BabyFace combo is that it is fully functional on battery power. (hours of GP guitar in the van :+1:)

Once things are solid, I’ll add my 2012 MacBook Pro into the mix and start campaigning for my engineer/bandmates to leave their rigs at home and convert into the GP ecosystem :wink:

I’m also in process of designing a keyboard case that will house a chopped Yamaha p125, the Mac mini, FF400, outlet strip, and the mess of dongles and hubs in my setup while being a two-tier, organ-style stand. I still have some tweaking to do, but I’ll make another post with the designs for anyone curious in trying something similar.

Thanks for the ideas, everyone!

Cheers :v:

I’ll throw one more item to think about onto your list as you build your setup…

It was mentioned that running multiple instances of GP on the same machine will allow you to split a lot of the audio processing across CPU cores, thus getting more use out of each machine.

Another way to achieve similar use of multiple cores within one instance of GP is to use a VST like Blue Cat PatchWorks. PatchWorks lets you put up to 8 chains of VSTs in parallel and if you turn on the “multicore” option it will put them on different cores and sum them all together at the end.

I haven’t played with it too much, but enough to see that it does what it says. You can also nest instances of PatchWorks within itself, so in theory you could have all 32 of your SWAM instances in one GP instance and still spread the load across all processor cores.

From what I recall it only has one midi in, but you can direct different midi channels to different paths.

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Thanks for the info! This sounds fascinating. I have some questions about this, but I don’t want to wander too far from our original topic. I’ll open a new topic.

Be sure, Hans Zimmer, have a dedicated room with a lot of high end pc server and not a Single machine :wink:

Admittedly, I’ve been pushing laptops to the edge for a long time, expecting them to perform like desktops under the load of mixes with lots of processing plugins and a combination of audio and software instrument plugins. After years of annoying overload messages, I decided to go all out now with a new MacBook Pro loaded up with M1 Max processor, 64 GB RAM and 4 TB onboard storage. I saw a number of articles and videos saying that because the new chips are so crazy powerful, such a configuration would be overkill. So be it, I don’t want to see any more overload messages, and just work the way I choose with whatever load suits the purpose. Yes, it was expensive, over 5k with tax, but I’m reasonably certain I won’t feel the need for another upgrade for quite a few years.

It will be arriving in 10 days. After I transfer and configure everything, I’ll put up a post describing that experience and comparing the performance to my current 2+ year old MacBook Pro. Of course, the new machine will also be the engine for my GP live rig, which I’'ll be using for a four night run with The Zappa Band here in L.A. at the end of February. I’ll post photos of that setup, hopefully along with a highly satisfied report about how it all works out!

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Thanks ! I hope we can really push the limits with the news macs :))

I’m sure we can. Remember, the issue isn’t Gig Performer per se, which already runs natively on Apple Silicon. The problem is trying to mix Native and Intel together with Rosetta.

When all the plugins we need are available natively, the situation will improve significantly

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