I'm thinking of doing a big upgrade soon. Anybody else using Digital Perfomer 8, VE Pro, a ton of VIs, soft synths, plugs etc with the NEW Mac Pro? If so how is it behaving, and what Mac Pro specs are you on? I obviously want the most powerful Mac possible, but don't want to overkill it if DP can't utilize the extra juice.
I'm working in DP8, running video off program drive, running samples of 2 or 3 external drives. In DP on the Mac Pro I'll be running my samples in Kontakt, also multiple VIs / plugs - Spectrasonics, Ozone, Waves, Altiverb etc. I also plan to run templates in VE Pro Server on the same machine (various Kontakt libraries, and all my drums / perc sounds - Cinesamples, Truestrike etc). Loops also - in Kontakt, Stylus, Stormdum.
With this is mind, would a 12-Core, 2.7Ghz machine be better than the 6-Core 3.5Ghz machine ? (I.e. apart from DP, does the other software I used benefit better from more (slower) cores, or fewer (faster) cores?
Also, there's a rumor that a new MAC PRO might be out by end of this year / early 2015 with the new Xeon processors, so I'm wondering if I should wait till then…. Problem is I'm still on OS10.6.8 (an old 2007 Mac Pro), so I'm not able to upgrade my OS to Mavericks until I get the new machine, which is now becoming problematic.
Any thoughts would be most appreciated!
Gracias!
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New Mac Pro with VE Pro 5
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Hey there! I just saw your message because I was doing an upgrade to Mavericks with DP 8.07 and ran into a snag... Guess what? VE Pro 5 version 5.3.13333 does not work and creates a very annoying error message that requires a force quit. Yuck. -------------------------------------------------- Mas,0 error reported by Mas Audio Unit Support Failure: Base::New 160 -50 [-50] -------------------------------------------------- As it turns out, we need to downgrade to the previous version of VE Pro 5, which is 5.3.13240 Available here: http://www.vsl.co.at/en/68/428/2022/1709.htm Current version of Kontakt runs fine, no problems with Omnisphere and MachFive (these are the only virtual instruments I use). I've found Mavericks to be a smidge faster for most processes, with this VE Pro problem being the only issue thus far. Hope this helps!
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Go for the cores. I use 2 iMacs: a Core 2 Duo that runs DP & Omnisphere, and a 3.4 gHz Quad core i7 that runs 2 VE Pro servers with 16 Kontakt instances each for 256 instruments. It never seems to complain (compared to when I was using the Core 2 only) so I have to assume the cores are the way to go.
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Ya definitely more cores are better. Having a faster speed with less cores will bottleneck the processing if things start to build up. I have a Mac Pro 12 core with DP 8.07 and VEPro 5.3.13333 and everything runs smoothly for me with a huge template.
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@Chris T said:
I also posted on Mac Rumors, and it seems like there's a consensus AGAINST getting a 12-core nMP for DAW use since most audio software cannot really utilize that many cores, and so the individual processor speed is the crucial factor. Any more opinions on this?..I can tell you it is not true with Logic and VSL
MacBook Pro M3 MAX 128 GB 8TB - 2 x 48" screen --- Logic Pro --- Mir Pro 3D --- Most of the VI libs, a few Synch... libs --- Quite a few Kontakt libs --- CS80 fanatic -
@Chris T said:
I also posted on Mac Rumors, and it seems like there's a consensus AGAINST getting a 12-core nMP for DAW use since most audio software cannot really utilize that many cores, and so the individual processor speed is the crucial factor. Any more opinions on this?..I can tell you it is not true with Logic and VSL
Not true with Cubase or Nuendo either. It used to be that they were locked to a maximum of 32 cores (in the days when 8 was normal) but that restriction has now been lifted, so both programs will use whatever you have.
DG
