New Mac Pro

calaverasgrandes · Post by **calaverasgrandes** » Mon Jan 27, 2014 3:44 pm

Anyone buying one of these for their DAW?
I'm dumping my 2010 15" Mac Book Pro for cheap and moving up to a bigger, faster MAC.
I've been off of PC based DAWs for several years now and am liking it.
Still haven't hit any walls in Logic.
Just wish the damned computer would ARRIVE.

Nick Sevilla · Post by **Nick Sevilla** » Tue Jan 28, 2014 8:56 am

No one I know of yet has bought the new cylindrical Mac Pro.

Mainly because you need to run a lot of peripherals, would be my guess.
Thunderbolt is the main way to run big external stuff like Magma chassis for PCIe cards etc. since you can no longer fit anything inside this new version.

As an example, I have ProTools HD not the latest version, so I would have to shell out at least 10K to update the new system, without including the computer.

The good news is, ProTools HD systems are a steal now.

Cheers

apropos of nothing · Post by **apropos of nothing** » Tue Jan 28, 2014 9:02 am

MacPro is great if you're doing video rendering or cryptography. Massively overpowered for anything else. DAWs don't actually need that much power. A MBP should do if one absolutely needs that logo on one's DAW.

calaverasgrandes · Post by **calaverasgrandes** » Tue Jan 28, 2014 11:08 am

I use a MacBookPro currently for my DAW. It works but there are drawbacks.
First off, the monitor sucks. It is great for sitting in front of, not for standing up and running around.
I've got an external display but it is awkward.
2nd, it get uncomfortably hot.

As far as the expandability. There are cheaper solutions than 10k.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/9 ... _slot.html
will net you 4 drive bays and a couple PCIe slots.

Yes the new Mac Pro is overkill. But I like headroom.
I also anticipate moving away from firewire (sppptpp#$%$!!!!) to thunderbolt for IO and DSP.
With a TB attached raid, TB attached interface and TB attached DSP, what do I need a big workstation sized box for?

Oh yeah, and it will be doing some video work on the side.

kslight · Post by **kslight** » Tue Jan 28, 2014 4:29 pm

I bought my Mac Pro a few years ago for the expandability. I don't agree with the decision to throw that away with the new ones. I will pass. My next computer will probably not be a Mac Pro. But honestly, my current system runs everything just dandy, and I have expanded it nicely to fit my needs, so I see no reason to throw it out for a new one.

WillMorgan · Post by **WillMorgan** » Wed Jan 29, 2014 2:59 pm

I am envious, I was tracking the new Mac Pro announcements obsessively... It just isn't the right time for me.

I recently maxed out RAM and my three year old or so Mac Pro is running Logic with my old Mackie Onyx 1640 firewire mixer / interface like a champ.. It is fine for working with video and a few filters in Final Cut just fine, and rendering HD video out like a.. like a... well, when I sleep.

I am thinking in a couple years I'll be able to justify recycling ye olde mac pro and by then there should be a large selection of thunderbolt 2 peripherals, RAM upgrades at least will be cheaper, and the disks will be large enough that I don't have to do much file cleanup.

Have fun, and please report back!

alexdingley · Post by **alexdingley** » Tue Feb 04, 2014 7:00 pm

apropos of nothing wrote:MacPro is great if you're doing video rendering or cryptography. Massively overpowered for anything else. DAWs don't actually need that much power. A MBP should do if one absolutely needs that logo on one's DAW.

I feel like the statement above oversimplifies a bit. DAW's often do need shit-tons of horsepower, when you're talking about running lots of virtual instruments and/or CPU intensive processors. I run a 2009 8-core mac pro, and depending on certain synths that might run inside my DAW session, or how many Steven Slate plug-ins I'm running (and the buffer setting) the system can be brought to its knees.

So, if anyone reading this is a huge soft-synth fanatic, or if you're trying to run tons of channels through a virtual bus modeler / virtual tape machine modeler... or just trying to run a bunch of channel strip FX in real-time, the more cores, the better.

If you're just multi-tracking 24-bit, 44.1khz audio... sure, you can track on a beige Mac G3 (for real... i have a friend running a PowerMac 7600 still, and it's a workhorse) but so much work is happening in-the-box... that these machines will definitely get traction.

Bro Shark · Post by **Bro Shark** » Wed Feb 05, 2014 12:34 pm

Seems like the opportune time to be buying the previous-gen Mac Pro. Has all the horsepower/peripherals you'd need to run a DAW, and the price should drop.

2leftears · Post by **2leftears** » Thu Feb 06, 2014 2:18 pm

Received new 6 core,32 gig ram, TB display, 3TB hard drive yesterday. Ordered 4 custom made DB25 cables, patch bay, 252gig SSD to connect with brand new Apollo 16w/TBcard. Turns out UAD has yet to write firmware allowing the Apollo 16 to work with the new Mac Pro through Thunderbolt. I'm thinking everything you are imagining.

WillMorgan · Post by **WillMorgan** » Fri Feb 07, 2014 5:05 pm

2leftears wrote:I'm thinking everything you are imagining.

Ouch! All dressed up... Can you get a thunderbolt to firewire adapter, and ask them to loan you a firewire card until they get their driver together?

mrc · Post by **mrc** » Fri Feb 07, 2014 10:35 pm

That's called "Bleeding Edge" ... BTDT...no thanks...never again

2leftears · Post by **2leftears** » Tue Feb 11, 2014 4:29 pm

I did acquire a TB to FireWire and plan to give it a try as soon as I have some time.

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