KVR Audio

keyman_sam · Post by **keyman_sam** » Wed Jul 01, 2026 1:31 am

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# · Post by **BBFG#** » Wed Jul 01, 2026 2:15 am

keyman_sam · Post by **keyman_sam** » Wed Jul 01, 2026 4:34 am

BBFG# wrote: Wed Jul 01, 2026 2:15 am

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 · Post by **sandandpaint** » Wed Jul 01, 2026 6:29 am

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 · Post by **DrGonzo** » Wed Jul 01, 2026 7:54 am

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 · Post by **legendCNCD** » Wed Jul 01, 2026 8:03 am

Have R7950X. No need to herd anything.

keyman_sam · Post by **keyman_sam** » Wed Jul 01, 2026 1:53 pm

sandandpaint wrote: Wed Jul 01, 2026 6:29 am 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.

My DAW has finally become invisible