Hi im thinking of moving over to a mac mini from my windows laptop does this look a good spec?
Mac mini (Intel, 2018)
Core i7 -3.2GHz
64 GB
1000 GB
Are you interested in having the latest macOS versions?
If so, you may want to buy a model with an Apple Silicon chip.
For example, macOS Tahoe supports only a smaller number of Intel models (2019 and later). Next macOS may remove support for the Intel chips completely (Apple is famous for removing compatibility)
Thank you for your reply. This is why I find it so confusing lol. Do I need to be able to have the latest os ? Im going to be using this as a live only system so no Internet connection, no other uses except for gig performer.
Are the M chips what you mean by silicon?
Sorry for my stupidity
From the Gig Performer’s perspective, you don’t need to have the latest OS. Even macOS 10.9 Is fine.
Just checking because some users may be concerned with that.
Not stupid - just unfamiliar with Mac stuff. Yes, the M means Apple Silicon machines.
You don’t need to have the latest OS though I would not go back as far as 10.9 - that’s just for people who already had an older version and don’t want to change anything (personally for live performance I am still running 10.14 on Intel Macs from 2018) and the plugins that exist that run on that version of the OS are all I need for my shows.
That said, if you’re buying new, you should probably get an M4 if you can afford it with as much RAM as possible. Disk (or SSD) space depends on what kind of sample libraries you might want to use. It’s generally better to use the internal drive for everything rather than plug in an external drive as that’s just another potential risk for failure (e.g. USB cable falls out during a show)
If your budget is limited, then even the M1 will be good enough for most things - the choice really depends on (A) what plugins you need to run and their CPU needs and (B) do you expect to want to keep updating plugins or buying new ones, some of which may no longer work on older machines.
Thank you both very much for your help. What im leaning towards is maybe I should look at m1 mini macs then as budget is limited but I equally don’t want to waste money buying something that isn’t going to be future proof at all.
The M chip will be supported for quite a while, even those they are evolving with each release.
The other concern is the plugins need to be supported.
IIR the M1 Mac mini with the smallest SSD uses a slower SSD than the 512 and upwards.
Have you considered a MacBook?
I have looked at possible macbook but obviously it then pushes the cost alot.
I’ve just looked and the m1 isn’t available with anymore than 16gb so thats a no go.
Beginning to wonder if I should just go with windows, although I hate all the extra crap thats included with windows
Yeah, they do cost a bit more. For me i find the all in one that i can put almost anywhere, run off battery if needed (i have done 4 hour rehearsals with my MacBook Air on battery and still had 30% left) worth the extra cost. I guess if you have the monitor/keyboard etc already and space for it all then its not really an advantage getting an all in one.
What spec is your mini?
Mine is a 3.2 GHz 6-Core Intel i7 with 32 GB running Sequoia 15.7.7
I’ve had to make the same decision and choose between Mac and Windows and chose Windows, as that OS I know very well in case of emergencies, plus, building the system in a mini case at the time was much cheaper than a similar speced MacMini (AMD Ryzen 9900X3D, 64GB Ram, 2x1TB SSD). Since the Ram prices have died and gone to heaven I’m not so sure that situation is still the same pricewise. You can customize a windows installation so it does not contain any services that you do not need and/or interferes with an live audio PC
Check out refurbished Macbooks - they can be significantly cheaper and still work very well
I’m a full-time professional musician in Spain playing all stores of music, from Spanish classic to dance, rock, Latin American pop etc etc… So I have to use every kind of vst instrument I can find for each necessity.
I’m on an Intel I-9, 32G 1Tb machine… Mac OSX 10.14, secondary screen for music scores etc etc. Presonus 1824c for multiple outs and monitor setup
Absolutely no probs…
FWIW, I have a Mac Mini M2 with 12/19 cores and 32 GB RAM. I run two instances of Gig Performer live. One for my guitar rig with 3 audio in and 6 audio out and a second instance just for vocal FX with 5 in and 5 out. For my guitar instance, it supports 3 guitars using 4 heavyweight VST amp modelers. I also have about a 20 FX plugins running between them. I barely hit 50% CPU at 96 sample buffer size on the guitar instance. The vocal instance is at about 30% CPU.
I have a MacBook Pro M1 with 32 GB RAM as a backup. The guitar instance gets close to 60% and the vocal instance gets close to 50%. No issues using it live as a backup with plenty of headroom.
I wouldn’t necessarily invest in an M4 since you can find a cheap M1 or M2 option that are very powerful. If money is not an issue, then M4 all the way. The most important spec is memory. Get at least 32 GB. I would personally not invest in an Intel Mac. My MacBook i9 cannot handle my current guitar GP instance. It gets up to 90% then starts acting weird. I’m sure it’s not GP causing it, it my plugins, but that’s something you should think about. It will work as long as you keep things lean and lightweight.
I should add the top spec is for a windows mini pc and the 2nd is mac book pro
As I explained before. I’m on an i9 and am not limited at all. I use synths for live, Kontakt, IK multimedia B-3X, Pianoteq, Korg synths etc etc… I’m reaching max 32% GP CPU and in the activity monitor I’m no where near maxing out. Temperature is at 58 - 61ºC all night and if it’s a warm evening, I have set up a cooling system installed in my laptop shelf with 3 8cm vents that keep things under control. I mean I’m doing some serious techno/dance/pop music in one part of the show, with a stupid amount of sounds (29 different sound effects / arpeggiators, etc), synths, kontakt samples and it all goes as smooth as silk.