My DAW has finally become invisible

[keyman_sam]

Don't know who to share this with, but after suffering for countless years constantly having to bounce, set up VEPro, or remove tracks to save CPU and avoid fan noise, I'm finally relieved that my M4 Max chomps whatever I throw at it. The computer has finally become invisible, thank heavens. Dead silent too. Dead as in I can't tell if this thing's on or not. No more watching the CPU meter cautiously. I can just cmd+D away as I please. Zero discipline. Don't like that one Serum pluck sound? Mute and move on. Not even worth deleting.

150+ tracks with various plugins, 20% CPU tops.

This is on Sequoia 15.7.7. Too afraid to update my OS and jinx my setup.

[BBFG#]

[keyman_sam]

one of my favs

But really though, this M4 Max is something else. No more upgrades...or until devs figure out a way to develop yet another dual-osc plugin that'll need 96 GPUs to play 2 notes in 128x oversampling mode.

[sandandpaint]

what were you on before? I am sorely tempted to get an m4 mini base model to replace my ever needing attention win11 box

[DrGonzo]

I bought an M4 something-something Macbook Pro 5-6 months ago and I agree. No effing discipline needed. Problem is that if you make sounds like I do, it's easy to turn everything on and then you get an email from a customer saying "you smoked my cpu brah"

[legendCNCD]

Have R7950X. No need to herd anything.

[keyman_sam]

what were you on before? I am sorely tempted to get an m4 mini base model to replace my ever needing attention win11 box

I was on an M1 air. The m4 base should just be fine as long as it’s the mini and not the air. Before the air I was on an Intel i7 mini. Both the M1 and i7 did perform similarly and I had to constantly bounce stuff. The wow moment was going from m1 to m4 max, not from Intel to m1.

I actually think I’d have been fine with m4 base and a shorter upgrade cycle when I truly need to, but I opted for the long term. This box should suffice for the next 5 years easily.

[dieterlaser]

150+ tracks with various plugins, 20% CPU tops.

This is on Sequoia 15.7.7. Too afraid to update my OS and jinx my setup.

What? How?

I use Ableton 12 on my new M5 Pro and can still make things crackle

But yeah, It came with Tahoe, since it's just 2 months old

[keyman_sam]

150+ tracks with various plugins, 20% CPU tops.

This is on Sequoia 15.7.7. Too afraid to update my OS and jinx my setup.

What? How?

I use Ableton 12 on my new M5 Pro and can still make things crackle

But yeah, It came with Tahoe, since it's just 2 months old

What is causing the crackling? I don’t have long chains. I just have many tracks with a couple plugins each so it’s a lot more multi core friendly.

[dieterlaser]

150+ tracks with various plugins, 20% CPU tops.

This is on Sequoia 15.7.7. Too afraid to update my OS and jinx my setup.

What? How?

I use Ableton 12 on my new M5 Pro and can still make things crackle

But yeah, It came with Tahoe, since it's just 2 months old

What is causing the crackling? I don’t have long chains. I just have many tracks with a couple plugins each so it’s a lot more multi core friendly.

Yup, that's the way. What DAW do you use?

I stepped up from a 2013 MacBook Pro just recently, so I have a little learning to do

Before I only did 2 channels of plugins So, I thought I can go haywire now. But strategy is king

[zerocrossing]

I’ve been basically doing the same with my i9 box, though I do switch to a high buffer for mixing and mastering.

[zerocrossing]

150+ tracks with various plugins, 20% CPU tops.

This is on Sequoia 15.7.7. Too afraid to update my OS and jinx my setup.

What? How?

I use Ableton 12 on my new M5 Pro and can still make things crackle

But yeah, It came with Tahoe, since it's just 2 months old

What is causing the crackling? I don’t have long chains. I just have many tracks with a couple plugins each so it’s a lot more multi core friendly.

Yup, that's the way. What DAW do you use?

I stepped up from a 2013 MacBook Pro just recently, so I have a little learning to do

Before I only did 2 channels of plugins So, I thought I can go haywire now. But strategy is king

I’m pretty old, so I developed habits that conserve resources. I also think it helps make my tracks better. There’s no better way to make a crap mix than to have each channel have its own effects.

[BBFG#]

My Win 7, double Xeon 16c has been this transparent for about fourteen years now. It's only the software that's introduced "poison-pils" to require a Win 10/11 minimum that have me looking at building a new system without MS and continue to run them in sync.
Apple to me has unfortunately become poster oligarchs of "bad billionaires" since '88 and to avoid no matter what they build.

[keyman_sam]

150+ tracks with various plugins, 20% CPU tops.

This is on Sequoia 15.7.7. Too afraid to update my OS and jinx my setup.

What? How?

I use Ableton 12 on my new M5 Pro and can still make things crackle

But yeah, It came with Tahoe, since it's just 2 months old

What is causing the crackling? I don’t have long chains. I just have many tracks with a couple plugins each so it’s a lot more multi core friendly.

Yup, that's the way. What DAW do you use?

I stepped up from a 2013 MacBook Pro just recently, so I have a little learning to do

Before I only did 2 channels of plugins So, I thought I can go haywire now. But strategy is king

I’m pretty old, so I developed habits that conserve resources. I also think it helps make my tracks better. There’s no better way to make a crap mix than to have each channel have its own effects.

I'm on Ableton Live as well. It's good to have the muscle memory for saving CPU and use it only when needed. I still bounce tracks to process the audio, but I no longer need to look at the CPU meter or worry about latency settings.