Phil O'Keefe: In The Studio Trenches

[lotlizard]

Refurbs are the way to go, particularly if you use PT. Avid always takes a while to qualify computers, and buying the latest/greatest Mac always seems to give PT users fits (at least based on what I have read at DUC).

I often wonder how many people are out there still rocking Digi001s and old G4 towers. That particular interface was sort of like the Tascam PortaStudio of digital audio.

Sorry to take the thread off topic Phil. I was in a sentimental mood.

[Phil O'Keefe]

No, that's okay - I remember the Digi 001 of course. Like probably tens and tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of others, I had one myself for a while. The converters were pretty bad, and I never used the mic preamps for anything other than scratch parts, but it was one of the first affordable, multichannel Pro Tools interfaces. 24 bits, 44.1 / 48kHz, and a 24 audio track limit with the bundled PTLE 5. Can you believe it's been over twelve years since it was first released? :lol: :facepalm:

[Phil O'Keefe]

New MacBook Pro day - 2.2GHz quad-core i7. Woot! It's here - I'm copying all my data over to it off of my Time Machine drive.

[lotlizard]

Very nice. I just returned from a two hour drive to the nearest Apple store. I am considering a Mac Pro tower. Loaded (three 1TB hard drives, two 27" monitors, 32 gb of ram) it runs north of 6K. Thankfully, the company is paying for it and not me. I was recently charged with creating the musical motif for our "branding" after the higher ups were displeased with what the vendors created. The head honcho wanted something identifiable, just like HBO, Microsoft, and THX, yet totally different from all of those (I felt like I was living in a chapter from mixerman's diaries). He liked what I put together and told me to buy what I needed to continue moving us away from external vendors and marketing companies for internal media productions. Given a semi-blank check, I couldn't bring myself to tell him I did the entire project in Garageband on a MB just like the one you have. I'm incredibly rough on my MB, and it has traveled across the country many times. On my experience, I'm convinced it is one of the better machines Apple has built.

[Phil O'Keefe]

This was probably the simplest system migration I've ever done. I've got to say, I am really impressed with how easy Apple makes it to go to a new machine. I did a Time Machine backup to an external drive on my old MacBook the night before the new machine got here. When I fired up the new one, it asked I wanted to migrate from another Mac. I pointed it to the Time Machine backup on the external drive, and it went to work. About an hour later, I had everything from my old Mac installed on the new one. The one exception to that was Pro Tools. However, there was a good reason for it. The version of PT9 I had installed on the Macbook had been running on Snow Leopard, and it needed an update to work with Lion. I went to the Avid site, downloaded the recommended update (9.0.6), installed 9.0 manually from the disks, then the update and hardware drivers, and it's working perfectly. Even most of my plugins and virtual instrument installations seem to be intact, although I imagine a few will need Lion related updates too... :idk: All in all, this was soooo much easier than doing a OS9 or Win XP install, then installing your apps, etc. etc. I'm really impressed with just how well Apple's current Migration Assistant does. hil: I went to Best Buy to get a fitted hard case (Speck) for it, but they were out of stock locally. I did get a Incase zippered neoprene sleeve for it. I still want the Speck too... and RAM. It's got 4GB, but as soon as I can get 16GB into it, I will. Again, the local Best Buy didn't have the 2x 8GB sticks of RAM in stock, so I'll have to get the cover / case and RAM online.

[CME]

I'm sure you probably already know but check out owc. I've had great experiences with them. Let us know what you think once you've player around with PT.

[aZnrockstar]

So do all of the '11 mpb's technically handle up to 16GB? I remember seeing your post on the subject, Phil, but I don't remember which thread it was on. Do you have a judgement on where the extra RAM makes the biggest difference? I'm not one to use a ton of plugs, I will put compression and EQ on most tracks and run delay and reverb on busses. Most of my mixes so far have capped at around 30 tracks, assuming I'm doing a full band with overdubs. I've had my 2.5GHz quad i7 with 8GB of ram, but I haven't been able to get PT10 yet.

[Phil O'Keefe]

I checked with Crucial's site and used their system scanner to see if my particular machine could handle 16GB. They said it could, and I ordered a pair of 8GB SODIMMs. Here's what I get when I run the scanner: Memory Type: DDR3 PC3-10600, DDR3 (non-ECC) Maximum Memory: 16GB Currently Installed Memory: 16GB You also get links to their recommended RAM and SSD offerings for your particular system. If it can handle 16GB, they'll tell you when you run the scanner. If not, you'll only see 8GB and smaller options on the results page.

[Phil O'Keefe]

As far as the extra RAM, I have been running the Mac Activity Monitor app to keep tabs of how I'm doing with RAM use, and running things that would have killed my previous system's 4GB and sent it running to the hard drive to do a swap file are still well below the available RAM. I have not really pushed it with plugins yet, although I have done some that were pretty heavy and it hasn't blinked yet. Right now I have a 40+ track session in Pro Tools 9.0.6, and Firefox 14.0.1 (with about six separate windows and about 40-50 total tabs) open at the same time, and I've still got 10.28GB of RAM "free" according to Activity Monitor. It's definitely faster when the system doesn't have to write things to the HDD. I am very tempted to get a SSD for the system drive... I imagine that would make the system "feel" even faster. If you're running with 8GB, you're probably fine unless you're using a ton of virtual instruments or large sample libraries. I'm sure that 2.5GHz quad i7's a powerhouse! How do you like it?

[aZnrockstar]

I will let you know as soon as I start running pt. I never thought a year ago that a $2k mac would be cheaper than the software and plugins loaded on it. It looks like my board will support 16GB as well, so I'll put that on my list for further down the line. Do you track directly to an external drive? I'm using a 7200 firewire 800 lacie for all tracking, but I'll have to try tracking to a thumbdrive one of these days, just for s&g.

[aZnrockstar]

So far, I've been running 40+ track sessions with heavy use of McDSP 6030 comps and Sonnox Oxford EQ, and one or two instances each of stock reverb and delay. As you can see, I've got plenty of headroom. Running on 3 of 4 cores, buffer of 512 cycles, barely pushing 10% most of the time.

[Kerouac]

My new one will be here on Thursday. Retina...

[Phil O'Keefe]

How much RAM did you get? Did you go with the 2.3GHz or 2.6GHz model?

[Phil O'Keefe]

I will let you know as soon as I start running pt. I never thought a year ago that a $2k mac would be cheaper than the software and plugins loaded on it. It looks like my board will support 16GB as well, so I'll put that on my list for further down the line. Do you track directly to an external drive? I'm using a 7200 firewire 800 lacie for all tracking, but I'll have to try tracking to a thumbdrive one of these days, just for s&g.

I track to externals whenever I am using a laptop. I've got some older Oxford chipset external Firewire drive cases I bought locally and mounted 7,200 RPM drives into. I also recently purchased a Western Digital (WD) My Passport 1TB external firewire 800 drive that seems to be doing pretty well so far.

[Phil O'Keefe]

So far, I've been running 40+ track sessions with heavy use of McDSP 6030 comps and Sonnox Oxford EQ, and one or two instances each of stock reverb and delay. As you can see, I've got plenty of headroom. Running on 3 of 4 cores, buffer of 512 cycles, barely pushing 10% most of the time.

Impressive. hil: I have to ask about your extra large amount of screen real estate too - how big is your monitor? Also, as long as I'm being nosy, how do you like the McDSP plugins? I really don't have much experience with them.

[aZnrockstar]

I think it's a 21", if IRC. I would have to say, if I had to pick one compressor plug, the 6030 would be it, just for overall versatility. I want a good fairchild and tubetech model for colouration, but I only had the budget for one, so I went for the utility of the 6030. There's a few vintage models, a tube compressor, an 1176, a limiter, british, and a few other good ones. Lots to play around with. McDSP's C1 and C4 are a few other good ones to check out.

[Kerouac]

How much RAM did you get? Did you go with the 2.3GHz or 2.6GHz model?

16GB and the 2.6Ghz. Will be a uge upgrade over my current Duo Core. I'm also keeping my fingers crossed that I might have my first session with it next week. I've been trying to branch out into mobile recording sessions to fill a niche with bands that can't afford trips to the bigger studios, but still need some high quality demos.

[Phil O'Keefe]

You're upgrading from a Duo Core? That should be a considerable upgrade! It certainly was a big one when I went from a C2D to the MBP. Sounds like you have one sweet machine on the way - please let us know how it works out, and if those sessions happen next week, how it does on them.

[Kerouac]

You're upgrading from a Duo Core? That should be a considerable upgrade! It certainly was a big one when I went from a C2D to the MBP. Sounds like you have one sweet machine on the way - please let us know how it works out, and if those sessions happen next week, how it does on them.

Will do! Rig will be Apogee Ensemble w/ extra preamps (Focusrite ISA One and an FMR Audio RNP) into Logic 9. Tracking drums and bass simultaneously, overdubbing guitars, then doing vocals.

[Phil O'Keefe]

Do you already have the ISA One? How do you like it? I've been curious about it, as well as the ISA Two.