Apple announces new Mac Mini, Air + 13" MBP featuring their own M1 chip.

[Double Tap]

Thanks very much - so, the message is that the Mini is really very good for the price, but some of the benchmarking showing it as better than any other Mac was a bit too good to be true when it comes to DAWs.

[Double Tap]

.........

We are not talking about multiple synths or multiple tracks, where OBVIOUSLY multiple cores help. We're talking about single audio chain, like (to stick to U-He stuff) RePro-1 bassline -> Colour Copy delay -> Uhbik-A reverb -> Presswerk compressor -> Satin tape effect.

This, for the most part, can not be split into separate jobs to be processed in parallel, hence it requires fast single-core performance. So the longer the chain and/or more CPU-heavy the plugins, the more single-core perfomance (still) matters.

I am not sure about that.

I ran Cubase 11 on my mac... Three different screen shots.
Repro Disabled.
One Track of Repro with a one note bass line
your chain (repro-colourcopy-uhA-presswerk-satin)
Sure looks like Cubase is spreading it out to me.
rsp

Great to see that - thanks for showing us.

[zvenx]

Most Welcome. I myself was curious.
rsp

[spacepluk]

That could be that it's rotating between threads every time it fills a buffer or something like that. It doesn't mean it's parallelizing the chain, which would involve predicting the future

[zvenx]

Oh I wasn't playing live... I recorded a sequence.
rsp

[spacepluk]

Oh I wasn't playing live... I recorded a sequence.
rsp

I don't think that makes a difference in this case, maybe the repro patch was using unison?

[zvenx]

Does Repro-1 even have a unison mode?

It was an unaltered factory patch.

[spacepluk]

Oh, I thought it was Repro-5. But I still don't think it is possible to parallelize a serial chain like this, there must be other explanation for that multicore usage.

[zvenx]

Not sure why you thought it was Repro-5 (which indeed can be multi core processed, u-he even has that provision built in)

We are not talking about multiple synths or multiple tracks, where OBVIOUSLY multiple cores help. We're talking about single audio chain, like (to stick to U-He stuff) RePro-1 bassline -> Colour Copy delay -> Uhbik-A reverb -> Presswerk compressor -> Satin tape effect.

I can understand one note on one instrument can't be.... but why can't several effects whether they are on one track or not be?
rsp

[spacepluk]

If they are routed in series they need the output of the previous one to be processed before they can start calculating their own output.

[DoktorTenma]

With regards to testing single core performance, read this article: https://www.anandtech.com/show/14873/re ... y-metrics-

The second page outlines how Intel defines their turbo and shows that max turbo frequency is only reached when utilising a single core of the CPU. When using multiple cores most CPU's will reduce their clock speed to keep within its designed power envelope.

So when you look at your CPU monitor when running your typical project and you see more than 1 core being used, any single core benchmarks are not applicable anymore. You can't predict how much the CPU will reduce its frequency from the single core score.

[zvenx]

And why can't that be on a different thread/core? And on a recorded track, the DAW indeed can tell the future.
Anyway, what Daw are you using..
Try it please.
rsp

[spacepluk]

And why can't that be on a different thread/core? And on a recorded track, the DAW indeed can tell the future.
Anyway, what Daw are you using..
Try it please.
rsp

It can do it in a different thread but it doesn't make it faster because it still has to wait for it to be processed beforehand.

[zvenx]

I am not sure I agree with you at all for two reasons.

1) open your daw.. one instance of Repro -5.... play eight notes simultaneously at the highest upsampling Repro-5 has, try it with and without Repro-5 multicore enabled...... Huge Difference in whether it glitches or not... Huge. night and day.

2) as I mentioned before, recorded tracks the daw knows what is happening bars ahead of what you are hearing...

Anyway, the screenshots and Markus are there.
rsp

[Etienne1973]

Thanks very much - so, the message is that the Mini is really very good for the price, but some of the benchmarking showing it as better than any other Mac was a bit too good to be true when it comes to DAWs.

iMac 27 2020 i9 3,6Ghz 10-core reaches 317 Alchemy tracks.

Mac Mini 2020 M1 8-core reaches 126 Alchemy tracks.

I'm close to tears. Straight disappointment this real-world comparison.