The amount of stuff you absolutely have to do from cli is so limited. You already know how to structure commands and so on, so anything you run into for music will be a piece of cake via Terminal. You spend almost no time fixing broken things (that you didn't cause yourself).
You probably already know 50% or more, already.

It's like switching from Windows to Linux for music, just in the opposite direction. With an operating system built, and extensively tested; against only a few base model machines.

 

I don't think it's worthy for upgrade. Just the fact that you can't upgrade the mini with aftermarket parts, and 24GB of RAM isn't really much. I had 32GB pretty much 10 years ago, and today the lowest I'd go is 64GB, but the more the better (I have 64GB in laptop and 192GB in desktop). Same goes for internal storage.

As far as power consumption, even wasteful chiplet designs of AMD draw 50W at idle, not anywhere close to 150+W

 

In regards to Cubase this isn't correct as Cubase uses the efficiency cores.

 

Sorry, must have mixed it up. It's Logic Pro, Pro Tools, Ableton Live and Studio One that don't fully utilize the efficiency cores.

 

Kind of tangential, but because gaming was mentioned: I'm really interested in seeing how Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate and Civ 7 are gonna perform on M4. Those are literally the only (newish) games I'd care to play anyway. Apple, if nothing else, picked the right games to lead with (for people like me).

 

there was a 3 games I really enjoyed and still playing from time to time:
- Master of Orion 2
- Heroes of Might and Magic 3
- Transport Tycoon

EDIT: + Ninja Gaiden I & II on NES

you can call me a boomer

 

Their new pricing is crazy still, actually. You can buy an M4 Mini with 16gb RAM and smaller SSD at Bestbuy website today for $599. The version with 24gb RAM and a 500gb internal SSD is $1349.00.

The additional storage space doesn't matter, because it is not enough where you will not need to use an external drive for storage/backup/samples, etc etc. So for $750, the part that matters is 8gb RAM difference. They have been this way with prices of RAM upgrade versions since the M1. To get a whopping 8gb more doubles the price, but at least now the base model is 16gb RAM.

You can get by on 16gb RAM easily. My Macbook Pro has 16gb in it, and it is sufficient. I wouldn't go lower, but you can definitely get by with 16gb, for audio. Maybe it is important if you are doing video, but I do not.

 

Last edited: Nov 3, 2024

PC or Mac aside, if you're thinking about doing anything music related, get at least the 512GB SSD inside. I have just what I need installed on the system drive for the most part. All of my Halion libraries/samples/etc live elsewhere, even my big emulator/ebook/whatever collections. Mine's just about half full, and this is just the OS, applications and my user account folder.

 

Just read that Cyberpunk 2077 (although I didn't like it much) and other games are coming to macOS.

Let's see how the 1879 Euro M4 Pro Mini with 20 GPU cores does the job in comparison to an AMD 7800X3D / Nvidia RTX 4070 TI SUPER Win PC that can be built for a few hundred bucks less.

 

Power Consumption is of course important . Another aspect caused by that is heat . I do very much like the concept of the power efficient M1 to M4 apple Silikon architecture . I just find the pricing for additional storage / memory too obscene .Memory is probably OK now stock , but then I would end up with a tiny / airy/ slim computer with all those extra boxes connected . All those extra cables which might break. Maybe I will still get one but I hope the Windows on ARM gets more "mainstream" as soon as possible and additional storage will be at least slightly cheaper .

 

I 'll be happily surprised if it can pass 30 fps @ 1080p medium or mix of low/medium at something like Cyberpunk. And 9800X3D is out @ ~400dlrs and is killing everything in gaming, including the 7800X3D. Talking strictly about gaming, a same money mini pc so it's a bit more comparable size wise, will knock the M4 mini out of the park.
Cheers mate
PS: I just wonder what the 9950X3D will do...

 

It was just an example, the CPU is certainly a thing Apple is very efficient at, my main concern is Apples GPU compared to Nvidia or AMD. All I have seen so far is a comparison of a 4800 Euro Mac Studio running Games at medium settings that a 1200 Euro Win Laptop with an RTX3060 can run at full settings includin raytracing with more fps. But let's wait for the M4 and official game ports.

 

It does.
It lies. If we defining lying as not saying the truth
For instance, I have repeatedly received completely fictitious authors for certain (rare) books from GPT4. Sometime neither the books nor the authors existed at all.
The problem is that GPT4, for example, never admits to not knowing something. Then it just starts to fantasize.

It's not that GPT4 doesn't help. It can help a lot saving time and aggregate information fast.
But do not trust GPT4 without cross-checking.

 

Last edited: Nov 8, 2024

This is no different than people who cannot read a graph, and would rather deflect and say someone's headphones are garbage because they can't read the difference between 2 graphs. Windows users trying to discuss Macs when they have never owned one or used one for more than a few hours. PC user comments about Logic DAW software they have never even used. PC users who have never even used ANY Linux, never mind UNIX! lol. Yet this happens every single day on here.

The real reason is of course because people are very, very insecure about AI at this point. They know it will become smarter than they are. Most people of average intelligence are already smarter than them! They don't even know how to input data correctly so that it can give relative and accurate answers. Half the questions and half-true information online start with people who still cannot figure out how to build and optimize search strings using GOOGLE. In 2024!

People can cry and worry about AI all they want. Point out tiny inconsistencies in it's outputs, while accepting BS from other human users. Like jealous Boomer co-workers who attack the quality of others' work; even as they wonder why they are the first ones out the door. It's here and people worry about it. In almost all cases, rightfully so.

 

True.
The problem is that most people no longer make any effort to acquire their own knowledge (in several areas). There is Google - and soon there will be AI agents. So why go to the trouble of struggling with specialist knowledge yourself?

The answer would be: Because then they (after thinking about the learnt lessons) can categorize things correctly and understand how they are connected. That combats the feeling of being faced with something unknown. And the unknown is scary.
The world has become very complex so that learninbg has to be seen as a lifelong process that does not end after school.

Nevertheless, the vast majority of people remain extremely uneducated. But they still want to have their say.
That doesn't work, of course, because when it comes to complex issues, a 5-minute-internet-search is unfortunately of no use. Learning is an exhausting process. People generally prefer to blather on and, in case of doubt, become aggressive.

 

Thank you @twoheart, on top of that, they never achieved anything themselves, everything was already there. Overprotective children where the parents solve the children's problems, later in adulthood they can't solve problems themselves.

Every day they see on the internet and on TV how great these stars are and what they can do, they see every perfectionism and wealth, they usually feel inferior, which leads to dissatisfaction and frustration and sometimes even crime.

Every day, the new consumers are wooed by manufacturers with the message: become a producer, you can do it too! The products of the FX manufacturers constantly advertise with the "Toniginneuer X" in front of his 48-channel mixer that helped these famous stars to success.
Nowhere does it say how long you have to spend on the subject and how high the learning curve is. In short, young people are being lied to and are being presented with a world that has nothing to do with reality.

In the forum you often read how the sound of this or that artist is recreated... Nobody comes up with the idea of inventing something themselves anymore, because where would that come from?

Actually, the music industry only wants to sell its products and the marketing manager is responsible for that, but he should actually be a music teacher, but then you don't sell enough products.

You can only tell young people the truth, which is painful but makes sense. Maybe you can work out their strengths and weaknesses together with them so that they can experience success and stick with it and promote what their talents are.

So we won't get anywhere with accusations... but with the truth about the reality of making music. Because music is really healing and good for the soul, and it's better to make music in front of the computer than to hang around aimlessly on the street.

 

Accurate Information can be very hard to find for those who do not already know where it is. Or what they should even been looking for.

That is what causes people to get "searched information". I think telling someone RTFM is a lot less productive.

 

To see if you need an upgrade, you should answer these questions:
- Can you record vocals or guitar live with a low latency (e.g. 256 or less)?
- Can you mix a full session with a large buffer (e.g. 2048 or more)?

If the answer is yes, you don't need to upgrade.

I do all my music stuff on a laptop with Ryzen 7 4000 series, and I can do all the above. I exclusively run everything at 96 KHz, 32 Bit.
When recording live, I selectively choose plugins that don't add latency themselves (e.g. Studio One Stock, Waves, etc.)
When recording a full session, I set the dropout protection of Studio One to max (increasing the buffer).

The Mac Mini M4 base model (10-core CPU) is almost 2-3 times faster than the Ryzen 5 5600G. But you should see if this makes any difference in your workflow. Start by answering the above questions.
Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. MS-7C95 vs Mac16,10 - Geekbench

I you're software developer that releases apps for Apple, you have no other choice to buy into their ecosystem. But if you write other types of software, a workstation with Linux/Windows works better IMO.

 

Last edited: Nov 9, 2024

Be careful with these Geekbench numbers! Logic Pro, Pro Tools, Ableton Live and Studio One don't utilize the efficiency cores for audio processing. Only Reaper, Cubase and FL Studio do.

The standard 10 core M4 has only 4 power but 6 efficiency cores. So it matters quite a lot which DAW you use.

 

Zhan's M4 MBP benchmarks for DAWs: