What's the best Mac deal for DAW?

[Kapo_Polenton]

So here is another question, what are the most basic driving factors behind a powerful and reliable daw? I am assuming first a DAW that doesn't crash and freeze ( like mixbus which did this a lot ) and then what? 16 gb ram ( atleast ) an SSD drive and a capable chip? I think for the price the Mac mini latest generation is definitely reasonable when out up against its PC competition but having to also then buy a monitor drives the price up. Right now I am running an older gaming PC that has 16 gb of ram and an i7 chip and it seems to do ok though admittedly I have not really pushed it. Apple sort of got me thinking though seeing my wife's imac.

 

[Monkey Man]

All I know for-sure on the RAM thing is that the new SoC designs of Apple apparently deliver way more than you'd expect from a given amount of RAM.

Partly the SoC design, I'm guessing, and partly due to the insanely-fast onboard SSD's.

 

[Greazygeo]

So here is another question, what are the most basic driving factors behind a powerful and reliable daw? I am assuming first a DAW that doesn't crash and freeze ( like mixbus which did this a lot ) and then what? 16 gb ram ( atleast ) an SSD drive and a capable chip? I think for the price the Mac mini latest generation is definitely reasonable when out up against its PC competition but having to also then buy a monitor drives the price up. Right now I am running an older gaming PC that has 16 gb of ram and an i7 chip and it seems to do ok though admittedly I have not really pushed it. Apple sort of got me thinking though seeing my wife's imac.

Ive been using Logic Pro X. I really like it. Lots of plugins, pretty good built in drummer and pretty easy to use. Many others out there that are also good.

 

[VESmedic]

So here is another question, what are the most basic driving factors behind a powerful and reliable daw? I am assuming first a DAW that doesn't crash and freeze ( like mixbus which did this a lot ) and then what? 16 gb ram ( atleast ) an SSD drive and a capable chip? I think for the price the Mac mini latest generation is definitely reasonable when out up against its PC competition but having to also then buy a monitor drives the price up. Right now I am running an older gaming PC that has 16 gb of ram and an i7 chip and it seems to do ok though admittedly I have not really pushed it. Apple sort of got me thinking though seeing my wife's imac.

You’re on the right track. Most DAW’s today are “reliable”, most of the time the issues people have are related to their computer I think personally. I am using Logic Pro, but mostly because of the new Mac bought, and the really slick integration between it and my apogee ensemble interface. I can run apogee plugins on the interface (DSP, like the Apollo stuff) as well as control just about every major parameter of the ensemble ON logic: THAT is slick. I don’t know why more companies aren’t doing this. It’s just a workflow thing really, but it IS nice for sure to not have to be going back and forth on different screens etc. apogee doesn’t have as many plugins for sure, but it’s a killer workflow none the less.

 

[Kapo_Polenton]

You’re on the right track. Most DAW’s today are “reliable”, most of the time the issues people have are related to their computer I think personally. I am using Logic Pro, but mostly because of the new Mac bought, and the really slick integration between it and my apogee ensemble interface. I can run apogee plugins on the interface (DSP, like the Apollo stuff) as well as control just about every major parameter of the ensemble ON logic: THAT is slick. I don’t know why more companies aren’t doing this. It’s just a workflow thing really, but it IS nice for sure to not have to be going back and forth on different screens etc. apogee doesn’t have as many plugins for sure, but it’s a killer workflow none the less.

I'm back to Reaper now as it does what I need to do and i didn't want built in console emulation because I run it through my console. But testing out some plugins on a 6 track drum track and the CPU usage is barely registering so I'm assuming unless I would be doing massive mixes with tons of plugs, it probably is fine. I've got my console also doing a lot of EQ and some external hardware comps as well so i might be better off throwing my cash at more outboard hardware than a new imac now that I think of it. using the inserts on the board, I've got zero latency or issues, it has all turned out really smooth. Learning my old board has been a bit of a bitch but hey, covid project.

 

[Monkey Man]

As for the stability question:

By far the thing most-responsible for instability in DAW's is the mix of plugins one uses.

There may be conflicts between one and another, but most-often it's just a single or small handful of plugins that doesn't like to play nice with your DAW.

In such cases, the best method to track the culprits down IMHO, assuming you don't have sophisticated telemetry of some sort, is to disable half of them (physically move them from their folders into "Disabled" ones). Problem still there? Move the current half and restore the previous half. Problem gone? Culprit's in the other half. Restore that half, and halve it. Problem there? You get it.

Bit of a PITA 'cause to do it properly you really want to reboot your DAW each time.

On the workflow thing:

One of the main reasons I've loved Digital Performer since the '90s is that it's super-flexible in this regard, allowing you to take your workflow into it, rather than be dictated to to the extent of any other DAW.

 

[nigelpkay]

I went Mac years ago after fumbling around with Pro Tools on a PC when I started.

Logic is just perfect and is optimized for the Mac. I have rarely had driver/plug-in issues since I switched, especially with the Apogee Duet which was also designed for the Mac. I spend all my time creating and not fighting with the hardware/software.

So my new setup when I get it will be a 14” M1 MacBook Pro, Apogee Duet 3, and an external recording drive.