So I bought and m3 MacBook Pro 14" with 18 gb of ram and evidently the ram isn’t enough
To avoid worrying about memory overload and crackling - what would be the ideal specs in a 14" MacBook Pro 128gb? Or is that overkill
If there were a one-size-and-price-fits-all, then everyone would be using that machine. 
You have to determine what the RAM demands are for your particular usage, and then factor in some room to grow and breathe. Then of course that has to be balanced against cost. Is 128GB overkill? Probably, but once again you have to find out how much your gig files are demanding and then upgrade accordingly.
I feel like 128 is a lot but then again - it’s my main instrument now - why not.
Uhh here is why - to get to 128 u have to select the 40 core chip - and then you are in the $4000 range - yikes
What about 36 is that enough using pianote and 3-5 additional plug in’s for performance
Well, that all depends on which additional 3-5 plugins and how many rackspaces you‘re using in total.
Me, personally, I’m typically also running 3-5 plugins per rackspace, 70 rackspaces in total and I’m perfectly happy with a Mac mini M4 with 32 GB of RAM.
Please note that most of the used plugins are physical modelling and I don’t own Kontakt.
It‘s running smoothly at 32 samples (main instance) and 16 samples latency (vocals & master reverb in a second instance) - even over VNC since I don’t have a monitor.
16 GB would have been too little RAM in my case, too.
Found a refurb MacBook with 48gb and M4 pro chip with 14 and 20 core cpu
Thinking this is the muscle needed
2 Likes
Definitely an M series chip with 32 gigs of RAM and at least 2 TB of storage. That gives you a lot of headroom and elasticity with updates and upgrades. Plugins are taking more and more storage space.
16 gb of RAM should normally be more than enough for most performances. Are you going into the individual plugin settings and making sure that your buffers are not too small. That makes a huge difference on Memory consumption.
Does it matter which m series chip - I may look for a refurb that has 32 plus 2 tb
I was gigging with an M1 16GB until recently. No real issues, but it was obvious I needed more RAM if I loaded all my Rackspaces in at once. Just a few hiccups on some Rackspaces that used Halion more than anything. These were getting loaded in a bit slower than id like.
I recently got an M4 24GB and things are better. My Gig files is still over 24GB but so far ive not the swap file issues I was having before.
There is always Predictive loading though.
really?
or do you mean RAM usage?
its using 33GB of RAM.
The file is only about 60MB
Feels like 36 or 48 should nip it in the bud
I’m going to use predictive loading for my next gig to see if I have any issues
You should test before the next gig 
Illl have a week to test - worst case - swap in a new MacBook with ram
Have you checked how much ram it’s using when fully loaded?
How do u do that - I’ve seen cpu usage go up fast
Open Activity Monitor and go to the Memory tab.
On my Windows machines I am in the process of upgrading to 128GB (from 64 GB). But, Windows uses more ram and the price for the upgrade is not anywhere close to what you are talking about. (Just saw your post on the costs. Yikes!).
Windows user here. Crackling and pops are usually related to CPU and your soundcard buffer. So if you use CPU-intensive VST plugins you need a powerful CPU. If you use sound libraries based on sampling you will need more RAM.
Personally, I use an ASUS Vivobook i7-12700h with 40Gb of RAM and 1Tb NVMe drive. Plus external 1Tb NVMe via USB3.0. Steinberg UR44 as sound interface. Use 2 midi controllers via USB (Arturia Keylab Mk2 and M-Audio Keystation Pro 88). Essentially use Arturia VCollection X and NI Komplete Ultimate 15. I built my setup as 1 rack space per song. I can load a whole show (around 32 rackspaces) in RAM without any issues. I never exceed 50% CPU usage. Also use an old iPad2 as 2nd screen for chords and lyrics via Splashtop XDisplay (free app).
Don’t know what would be the corresponding setup for a Mac.