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Sounds like a macmini is a terrible choice for that job. Is there a hard osx requirement? It's not like they are really cheap.

by consp 6y ago

arvinsim 6y ago
Yup, I am also not understanding the need for it to be a mac mini. The new Apple Silicon chips might be a lot faster. But I am pretty sure that audio plugins take a long time to update.
- Applejinx 6y ago
  I'm a MacOSX plugin developer, and in touch with others also facing this situation. I develop on a VERY old machine in order to support backward compatibility way way farther back than Apple will allow: my current plugins will run on PPC machines because those can be used as music DAWs. As such, the machine I'm compiling on is not producing 64-bit AUs that will work, directly, on MI Macs. They work on literally everything up to that point, but Apple finally shanked me, at least w.r.t that compile target. Until then I was able to support PPC to present day with one three-target fat binary :) Another dev, Sean Costello, told me that older builds of his stuff (pre-2017?) weren't running on M1, but everything built past a certain point (a new version of XCode, that had long abandoned things like PPC and possibly 32-bit support) was automatically working on M1 through the Rosetta layer. So, depending on the build environment, Apple arranged that the audio plugins don't even have to be updated. Depending on the libraries the plugins rely on (a vulnerability for some of the big names that use bespoke but OLD libraries to do things), some of the plugins might need only a recompile to be native to M1 architecture. And some might be really intractable.
cik 6y ago
It's not that there's a hard OSX requirement, but Mainstage (for live mixing) dominates this field. It's incredibly low latency, and there's really nothing as good for this specific use case. Combine Mainstage with on-demand sequencers like Doggiebox, and Apple really owns this market.
- blymd 6y ago
  Yeah, this is the main reason. We use MainStage for all shows. Also, Mac minis are quickly replaceable. If we’re in a city and a computer breaks, we can grab a new computer from the Apple Store right away.
Reason077 6y ago
Besides software and familiarity, I'm sure the Mini's form factor has a lot to do with it. Also, if you need to replace or duplicate a unit with an identical one, you know you can always run out and easily find replacement Mac Minis. If you used some random ultra-SFF PC, can you be sure you can get another identical one easily if you need to? What about 3 years from now? Changing out hardware always introduces a possibility that something might go wrong - exactly what you don't want on a broadway show, a few hours before a performance!
- blymd 6y ago
  Yup. Form factor plays a huge role. All our machines are racked and space is precious. Being able to fit two Mac minis in a 1U rack space is great.
lukeh 6y ago
The 2018 Mac mini is, from all reports, a pretty decent machine for DAW usage. Many replaced their 2010 Mac Pro rigs with 2018 Mac minis + Thunderbolt chassis.

Sounds like a macmini is a terrible choice for that job. Is there a hard osx requirement? It's not like they are really cheap.

by consp 6y ago

Sounds like a macmini is a terrible choice for that job. Is there a hard osx requirement? It's not like they are really cheap.

arvinsim 6y ago

Yup, I am also not understanding the need for it to be a mac mini. The new Apple Silicon chips might be a lot faster. But I am pretty sure that audio plugins take a long time to update.

Applejinx 6y ago
I'm a MacOSX plugin developer, and in touch with others also facing this situation. I develop on a VERY old machine in order to support backward compatibility way way farther back than Apple will allow: my current plugins will run on PPC machines because those can be used as music DAWs. As such, the machine I'm compiling on is not producing 64-bit AUs that will work, directly, on MI Macs. They work on literally everything up to that point, but Apple finally shanked me, at least w.r.t that compile target. Until then I was able to support PPC to present day with one three-target fat binary :) Another dev, Sean Costello, told me that older builds of his stuff (pre-2017?) weren't running on M1, but everything built past a certain point (a new version of XCode, that had long abandoned things like PPC and possibly 32-bit support) was automatically working on M1 through the Rosetta layer. So, depending on the build environment, Apple arranged that the audio plugins don't even have to be updated. Depending on the libraries the plugins rely on (a vulnerability for some of the big names that use bespoke but OLD libraries to do things), some of the plugins might need only a recompile to be native to M1 architecture. And some might be really intractable.

cik 6y ago

It's not that there's a hard OSX requirement, but Mainstage (for live mixing) dominates this field. It's incredibly low latency, and there's really nothing as good for this specific use case. Combine Mainstage with on-demand sequencers like Doggiebox, and Apple really owns this market.

blymd 6y ago
Yeah, this is the main reason. We use MainStage for all shows. Also, Mac minis are quickly replaceable. If we’re in a city and a computer breaks, we can grab a new computer from the Apple Store right away.

Reason077 6y ago

Besides software and familiarity, I'm sure the Mini's form factor has a lot to do with it. Also, if you need to replace or duplicate a unit with an identical one, you know you can always run out and easily find replacement Mac Minis. If you used some random ultra-SFF PC, can you be sure you can get another identical one easily if you need to? What about 3 years from now? Changing out hardware always introduces a possibility that something might go wrong - exactly what you don't want on a broadway show, a few hours before a performance!

blymd 6y ago
Yup. Form factor plays a huge role. All our machines are racked and space is precious. Being able to fit two Mac minis in a 1U rack space is great.

lukeh 6y ago

The 2018 Mac mini is, from all reports, a pretty decent machine for DAW usage. Many replaced their 2010 Mac Pro rigs with 2018 Mac minis + Thunderbolt chassis.