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  • MIR on the Mac Pro 8-core

    Dietz,

    When MIR is released for the Intel Mac, based on your gut feelings, will an individual be able to run MIR and a sequencer (Cubase 5) on the same machine?  If so, how many instruments do you think will be able to be used?  Planning for the future......  I appreciate any input you can provide.

    Thanks


  • Found this within 2 minutes of reading the MIR Thread....

    Dietz, my pleasure:

    Folks, one of my test systems was an early 2008 Mac Pro octocore 3.2 ghz with 32 gigs of ram, running Windows 7 and an RME Fireface 800, cubase 5.0.1 is running on the same computer.  This system is certainly no slouch, but is a generation old.

    My findings were as follows:

    Buffer 128 is not really a viable option for more than a hanful of instruments.  At buffer 512, I can run roughly 15-18 instruments at approximately 75% cpu consumption before clicks and pops begin (all perf-legato patches for these testing purposes).  I can basically double that at 1024.  Buffer set at x2.  Keep in mind, however, that at 1024 w/ x2 buffer, there is some latencty.  It's actually a fairly viable MIR solution for smallish-medium orchestrations, but don't expect to mockup Mahler ;-). Also, MIR's buffer should be set at x2 or above.

    If someone were planning to use this kind of rig for MIR, I would definitely recommend having the Sequencer on another computer.

    I'm happy to answer any questions about this kind of setup.

    Best,

    -Ron


  • last edited
    last edited

    Thanks for you answer, Ron!

    @Chuck Green said:

    Dietz,

    When MIR is released for the Intel Mac, based on your gut feelings, will an individual be able to run MIR and a sequencer (Cubase 5) on the same machine?  If so, how many instruments do you think will be able to be used?  Planning for the future......  I appreciate any input you can provide.

    Thanks

    Chuck - I have no serious estimation about Vienna MIR for Mac. It is safe to say that we won't release it before the end of this year. As mentioned before, we have some hurdles to overcome on this OS, so I can't give you real-world performance numbers (others than the ones we got from using BootCamp on Macs).

    HTH,


    /Dietz - Vienna Symphonic Library
  • Thanks Ron & Dietz for the reply,

    Understand there is much still to learn on the Mac performance side.  Was hoping to stay with one machine but my gut is telling me that I'll probably have to go with two.  Thanks agains for the reply.....


  • Chuck,

    Being realistic, you probably will need two machines.  The thing is your sequencer machine won't need to be all that powerful.  Any standard machine can run the DAW perfectly IF you are offloading all the work to a MIR machine.

    I have been demoing MIR for almost a week now (purchased it full version today).  It definitely takes one hell of a powerful machine to run it.  Even if you think your machine is super powerful, MIR will change your mind really fast.  I was able to successfully run hundreds of programs on this machine at full resolution/specs.  The second I put MIR on it, MIR had it begging for mercy.  There is simply no way my machine could handle both the DAW and MIR one the same machine unless I was doing maybe a piano solo.

    You will be able to use Bootcamp with Windows 7 and get decent results as stated above in the post I pasted from Ron (who actually isn't me, i just posted his original post from the MIR thread).  But don't expect a full orchestra.  If you're thinking a full orchestra, I can almost with certainty tell you that you won't get it.  It's not about processor speed as much as RAM specs.  My machine runs 96 instruments in VE Pro at 10-15% CPU.  My machine could play world of warcraft, record a live concert, and playback a full 100 instrument VE Pro session and still be at less then 50% CPU.  But my memory controller is getting crushed.  The memory controllers of the newest machines are the ones that are finally coming with enough to house MIR comfortably (I said comfortably lol).

    If all you're looking for is 1-15 instruments, you just might be able to run it on that one box.  But if you use Logic, you're screwed because you can't run Logic on Windows 7.  In the end it will be cheaper to get a new machine to run Windows 7 and MIR and pipe it back to Logic.  Because as Dietz and the team keeps telling me OS X version is a ways off (and let's face the reality here.  Microsoft Windows 7 is actually far more stable so far then OS X anyway).  MAC has always had a "crown" for being better, it's simply not true anymore I am sorry to say.  They are falling to the wayside.  Hope Snow Leopard can pull them out, as well as some nice updates to Logic (not FEATURES, stability updates).  I'd take stability updates over features any day right now.

    Lastly, knowing you have a nice machine now, maybe it will be more cost effective for you to put windows 7 on that mac pro and then get something like an IMac to run Logic since you will offload all the power onto the MIR machine.  I know it will work because I still use a 3-4 year MacBook Pro with 2GB of RAM for Logic and all my plugs and then send my midi out MOL to a Windows 7 machine running MIR.  Just another thought for you.

    edit 1 - I just noticed you run Cubase.  Therefore you're not stuck on one set platform.  You should create a partition on your Mac Pro, and then install windows 7 on it, then cubase and then run your MIR demo.  You'd have all your answers right there.

    Maestro2be


  • i dont know if that helps... 

    i run MIR on a mac pro 2.26 8core 24gb ram with the special edition +  instruments   and a complete symphobia and the east west choirs sopran alt tenors bass  in vsl ensemble pro on one machine. 

    and it works, every instrument plays back at hw buffer 512 not the best buffer size but its possible to work... and if i need to play some instruments by my keyboard i use buffer size 256 ... and set it back to 512 to hear everything... 

    greetings 


  • forgot to say... it runs on windows 7


  • Thanks for the real-world figures, Ralf!


    /Dietz - Vienna Symphonic Library
  • Certainly the best way for him to find out is to demo it, however my curiousity is struck because you talk about a large orchestral layout, yet say it's split up between VE Pro (which is absolutely nowhere near the resource hog that MIR is) and numerous other ones inserted into VE Pro.  100 instruments in VE Pro equals the same CPU and system struggle as 5-10 in MIR for me.

    What would be awesome is if you did a quick setup of as many instruments as you possibly could in MIR before your system goes to its knees.  Having them all playing at the same time.  I am in the process of doing that for my machine to see what it can take.  It definitely helps to raise the buffer setting for playback that's for sure.

    Maestro2be