KVR Audio

Jac459 · Post by **Jac459** » Wed Feb 22, 2023 12:45 am

To delete

jamcat · Post by **jamcat** » Wed Feb 22, 2023 1:18 am

Jac459 wrote: Wed Feb 22, 2023 12:44 am Yes absolutely actually! KVR is magical haha. I am upset against myself not to have been able to find these infos myself but very very happy about those.

Great! These are just things I found through trial and error to make my MacBook more familiar when I first got one. Something else that is MacOS exclusive that you'll want to do is customize your toolbar, if you haven't already.

Finder > View > Customize Toolbar...

You can remove or add any tool, change the order of the tools.

The tools I find most useful are:
Back/Forward, Get Info, Quick Look, Preview, Path, View, Group, New Folder, Delete, and New File Menu (if you purchased it in the Mac Store)

For example, the View tool lets you switch between Icon, List, Columns, or Gallery views for folder contents. Path tool shows the path from the root to your current folder as a stack of folders. You can click any of them to jump to that folder. Quick View will show you a preview of a selected document, or play a selected audio file without having to open it. (Not to be confused with Preview, which simply shows or hides the Preview pane.)

Uncle E · Post by **Uncle E** » Wed Feb 22, 2023 1:38 am

Page 5 of a Mac vs. PC debate and we’ve only had a minor dust up. Good show, people!

Jac459 · Post by **Jac459** » Wed Feb 22, 2023 1:50 am

jamcat wrote: Wed Feb 22, 2023 1:18 am
Great! These are just things I found through trial and error to make my MacBook more familiar when I first got one. Something else that is MacOS exclusive that you'll want to do is customize your toolbar, if you haven't already.

Finder > View > Customize Toolbar...

You can remove or add any tool, change the order of the tools.

The tools I find most useful are:
Back/Forward, Get Info, Quick Look, Preview, Path, View, Group, New Folder, Delete, and New File Menu (if you purchased it in the Mac Store)

For example, the View tool lets you switch between Icon, List, Columns, or Gallery views for folder contents. Path tool shows the path from the root to your current folder as a stack of folders. You can click any of them to jump to that folder. Quick View will show you a preview of a selected document, or play a selected audio file without having to open it. (Not to be confused with Preview, which simply shows or hides the Preview pane.)

Ha ha, you tell me that now that I am at work, i will have to wait the whole day

.

But thanks a lot for taking the time...

Fun fact is I am a long user of mac as i bought early the mac mini m1 but just using it as a silent server and connecting through command line remotely. So i suck at using the UI.

Jac459 · Post by **Jac459** » Wed Feb 22, 2023 1:50 am

Uncle E wrote: Wed Feb 22, 2023 1:38 am Page 5 of a Mac vs. PC debate and we’ve only had a minor dust up. Good show, people!

Hehe, trying to ...

jamcat · Post by **jamcat** » Wed Feb 22, 2023 2:10 am

Jac459 wrote: Wed Feb 22, 2023 1:50 am Ha ha, you tell me that now that I am at work, i will have to wait the whole day .

But thanks a lot for taking the time...

No problem. It's forced me to go back and review my own settings. One correction is you don't need to Use Groups and Group By > Name. For a Windows-like sorting, it's better to Sort By > Name, or just right-click in any folder and select Clean Up By > Name (assuming you have the box checked to keep Folders on top when sorting by name.)

maanga · Post by **maanga** » Wed Feb 22, 2023 2:37 am

Why don't some of the PC notebook owners and Mac owners here post their test track count in agreed DAW, agreed VST & effect inserts, agreed midi and audio tracks and post their results ? (instead of pointing to some you tube or external links)
Real life situation is never a R23 test. Must be a DAW test. Regards

jamcat · Post by **jamcat** » Wed Feb 22, 2023 3:11 am

maanga wrote: Wed Feb 22, 2023 2:37 am Why don't some of the PC notebook owners and Mac owners here post their test track count in agreed DAW, agreed VST & effect inserts, agreed midi and audio tracks and post their results ? (instead of pointing to some you tube or external links)
Real life situation is never a R23 test. Must be a DAW test. Regards

I was thinking just that.
But we need a more controlled test. We would need to do direct comparisons of the same DAW, with the same plugins, same track count and plugins per track, same samplerate, and same audio buffer size. (Windows complicates this a bit because of the need for ASIO drivers, which will affect performance depending on the audio device.)

Anyways, we could have direct comparisons of instances of plugins. Perhaps various configurations, such as how many Reverb X's on one-track, and how many tracks with with one instance of Reverb X each, to test both single-core and multi-core performance. I'm not sure about other DAWs, but Studio One has unlimited tracks with unlimited plugins on each track.

For another test, someone could create a test project using only their DAW's plugins and upload it, and then people with that DAW could run it and post their CPU readings.

I think testing audio track count isn't really worthwhile, because that's not even a concern in 2023 with SSDs.

Uncle E · Post by **Uncle E** » Wed Feb 22, 2023 3:14 am

Could you just play an 88 note chord in some standalone synth and record the readings?

jamcat · Post by **jamcat** » Wed Feb 22, 2023 3:17 am

That could be one of the tests. But it wouldn't tell the whole story by itself, I don't think.

Also, who has 88 fingers?

Jac459 · Post by **Jac459** » Wed Feb 22, 2023 3:50 am

But I think the point is not so much in raw power. The point is to have a laptop which doesn’t have terrible thermal issues.

I did a test with reason studios and a benchmark track that is increasing slowly the effects and tracks numbers.
My m1 was surviving longer than my razer with i7 8750h. BUT the main point was that the m1 was able to do that all day (like capital america) while my razer was burning hot despite the fan blowing at crazy speed.

For an audio oriented laptop, silence is very very important IMHO. Even going from a macbook air to a macbook Pro was an hesitation for me. Until somebody in kvr advised me that the mbp m2 pro never start the fan for cpu only usage. So far, it happens to be true.

Actually I think a PC laptop is acceptable if you want to do some gaming. Then you can compromise a bit on music. But for music only the pc laptop are currently too hot, too noisy. And of course the battery life is terrible.

It is sad because my razer was much much prettier than my new macbook. And the screen was also far better.

keyman_sam · Post by **keyman_sam** » Wed Feb 22, 2023 7:40 am

The game has changed. Apple laptops are now *cheaper* for what you’re getting.

The newer macs are just as powerful as desktops for audio, very silent. I have an older Mac mini i7 and I track in the same room as my Mac. I can’t tell if it’s on or not. Only during rendering the Fans kick in. Handles whatever I throw at it. With my PC I used to keep track of issues and workarounds. That spreadsheet has (knock on wood) not been touched since my Mac mini.

No contest, get a mac. Either MacBook or mac mini/studio, can’t go wrong with either. Don’t get the top spec, base or medium spec is where you get the best bang for the buck.

maanga · Post by **maanga** » Wed Feb 22, 2023 7:56 am

A guy from Canada tested various apple notebooks.
May this video will help determining how to do a good testing in either PC or Mac. Regards

jdoo · Post by **jdoo** » Wed Feb 22, 2023 1:23 pm

Folks making the jump from Win to OS X can look at sites like https://www.mac-forums.com/forums/switc ... c.8/page-1 for help. There are threads on configurations, differences, shortcuts, etc.

Mac v. Windows.. really? Well - since Apple moved away from Intel inside, I suppose the argument was inevitable.

Apple has done some fantastic engineering around how the new processors do their thing. Intel .. still stuck, trying to serve multiple masters ( they have to generically support various manufacturers.. Apple does not). Because of the purpose-built nature of Apple’s new solutions, they are gobs more efficient and cost effective now.

There are lots of really good arguments and opinions on this thread.. but there is also muddy waters. So.. take what is being said with a grain of salt.. Until you hear someone lean in and say “pick what looks like it will give you the best experience with software and peripherals as the “Apple” silicon which is replacing 14 years of Intel-inside.. is going to come down to what you want to run on it (software).

Notable imo: Apple has switched back to Arm architecture. Way better power and thermal efficiency compared to Intel processors. Performance? Intel has multiple masters. Apple is purposefully squeezing performance geared towards their target systems. So.. an M1 Max is on par with the majority of the laptops on the market. Of note for me.. iOS, also based on Arm architecture… is already allowing cross-platform support for apps across Mac and iOS (iPhone/iPad). Except for the fact, that developers possibly could lose sales on one platform or the other… this was slam dunk initially last year. You could run your iPhone music apps on the M1 based Macs.. with little effort. Anyway - to this thread.. An Intel based laptop can be made to be on par with an Apple laptop. The Apple may be a little more expensive..

Joe

Jac459 · Post by **Jac459** » Wed Feb 22, 2023 1:53 pm

jdoo wrote: Wed Feb 22, 2023 1:23 pm
Apple has switched back to Arm architecture.

Well indeed I think the discussion has switched to ARM vs Intel as I don't think there is strong winner between Windows and MacOS. I don't love any of those, I am just generally more used to Windows flaws vs MacOS flaws

.

But I have a strong feeling about RISC vs CISC. In a time where we try to reduce our carbon footprint globally, I do think it is a shame that we still have so much CISC CPU (AMD/Intel). We know since the 90s (at least) that they are much less power efficient than RISC architecture (Motorola and nowadays snapdragon, Exynos, M1, M2, A-chips). Yet, Intel has continued to invest on them because of the Wintel supremacy (Windows + Intel CPU).

You may think that one computer doesn't make a big difference in carbon footprint but if you think about the huge datacenters we have all over the globe with Google, AWS, Azure, we are talking of a superb waste of energy.
If the market concentrated decades ago on RISC, we would have more efficient PCs and more efficient Data Centers with much better battery life for laptops and all.
So even if I don't like Apple, I am glad they did the move and now forcing the whole market to pivot.... It is about time.

Laptop or Macbook? Always been a Desktop user, apple scares me