Tweaking Mac for Music

[ratafia50]

Isn't your problem related to speedstepping?
This customer seems to experience the same thing:
http://www.gearslutz.com/board/music-co ... table.html
The solution would be to try the last beta version, if they fixed that problem.

[bartend7]

I'm trying to keep the costs down at the moment so Ram will have to wait

ram (if you install it yourself, not in apple store) is dead cheap. i paid 42euro for 8GB

+1

i just went from 2 to 4 gigs for 23 dollars.

[ratafia50]

I think it is useless to install more than 4GB for the 32bit version.

[fishmonkey]

I think it is useless to install more than 4GB for the 32bit version.

this is a common misconception.

whilst each 32 bit process can only address 4GB of RAM, Live will not be the only process running on your machine. if you only have 4GB of RAM, then Live will never be able to get its full allocation, because the operating system, and any other stuff you have running, will also be sharing that 4GB.

more RAM is better.

[manofra]

whilst each 32 bit process can only address 4GB of RAM, Live will not be the only process running on your machine. if you only have 4GB of RAM, then Live will never be able to get its full allocation, because the operating system, and any other stuff you have running, will also be sharing that 4GB.

more RAM is better.

Absolutely right.

But most importantly: have at least 35-40% free space on your hard drive. This is a known Mac OS X issue.

A SSD drive can also help, but your controller has to be 3Mgb/sec at least -- some Macbooks have a 1.5 controller, then adding a SSD drive makes little difference in terms of performance.

[masterblasterofdisaster]

whilst each 32 bit process can only address 4GB of RAM, Live will not be the only process running on your machine. if you only have 4GB of RAM, then Live will never be able to get its full allocation, because the operating system, and any other stuff you have running, will also be sharing that 4GB.

more RAM is better.

Absolutely right.

But most importantly: have at least 35-40% free space on your hard drive. This is a known Mac OS X issue.

A SSD drive can also help, but your controller has to be 3Mgb/sec at least -- some Macbooks have a 1.5 controller, then adding a SSD drive makes little difference in terms of performance.

I don't get the 35-40% free space recommendation. In dealing with swap to disk, the amount of free space required is going to depend on how big the drive is and how much free memory you have (ie more free memory in RAM, less swap space will be required - the less you hit swap, the higher your performance - if you do hit swap, an SSD will help, as you point out.)
Otherwise, you need enough free space for writing misc temp files and burning discs. Any additional free hard drive space should amount to squat.

So, the real answer is "it depends".

[fishmonkey]

whilst each 32 bit process can only address 4GB of RAM, Live will not be the only process running on your machine. if you only have 4GB of RAM, then Live will never be able to get its full allocation, because the operating system, and any other stuff you have running, will also be sharing that 4GB.

more RAM is better.

Absolutely right.

But most importantly: have at least 35-40% free space on your hard drive. This is a known Mac OS X issue.

A SSD drive can also help, but your controller has to be 3Mgb/sec at least -- some Macbooks have a 1.5 controller, then adding a SSD drive makes little difference in terms of performance.

I don't get the 35-40% free space recommendation. In dealing with swap to disk, the amount of free space required is going to depend on how big the drive is and how much free memory you have (ie more free memory in RAM, less swap space will be required - the less you hit swap, the higher your performance - if you do hit swap, an SSD will help, as you point out.)
Otherwise, you need enough free space for writing misc temp files and burning discs. Any additional free hard drive space should amount to squat.

So, the real answer is "it depends".

the percentage figures for free hard drive space don't make that much sense given the big range of hard drive sizes these days.

at an absolute minimum it is definitely good to keep at least 20-30GB free to help minimise fragmentation when working with larger files. more free space is better though.

it is also true that data on roughly the first half of a hard drive (the outer sections of the platters) can be accessed faster, so for best performance keeping hard drives relatively empty is a good thing. this applies to all operating systems, not just to Mac OS X.

[masterblasterofdisaster]

the percentage figures for free hard drive space don't make that much sense given the big range of hard drive sizes these days.

at an absolute minimum it is definitely good to keep at least 20-30GB free to help minimise fragmentation when working with larger files. more free space is better though.

it is also true that data on roughly the first half of a hard drive (the outer sections of the platters) can be accessed faster, so for best performance keeping hard drives relatively empty is a good thing. this applies to all operating systems, not just to Mac OS X.

Interesting point about access time on the outer sections - I just disagree, as you do, with the idea that a fixed percentage of free space is a useful guideline.

I tend to not put loads of data on my system drive and keep a fast raid level 0 array for samples and stuff (stuff that can be easily replaced should the array crap out - level 0 ain't so safe...). Might go with an SSD next time.

[pencilrocket]

Get Win7 if you can. You'll get more room to run VSTs.
http://www.dawbench.com/win7-v-osx-6.htm

[trevox]

Get Win7 if you can. You'll get more room to run VSTs.
http://www.dawbench.com/win7-v-osx-6.htm

Just thought I would save everybody the trouble of feeding this troll. See this post several weeks back....

http://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=172825

Answering a question I presume is directed at mac users when you have never touched one yourself says it all.

[pencilrocket]

Just ignore trevox as he is always crossing bridges before he come to them. Pathological macfag. He can't read "if you can" sentense as he can't understand the charts in the article.

[masterblasterofdisaster]

Just ignore trevox as he is always crossing bridges before he come to them. Pathological macfag. He can't read "if you can" sentense as he can't understand the charts in the article.

The study design is flawed. If you look and you're not a half-wit, you'll see why.

[pencilrocket]

The study design is flawed.

Then your understanding is flawed. If you look and you're not a half-wit, you'll see why.
Do you need more explanation for why I said so?

"1 + 1 = 2" "The original arithmetic design is flawed! Why should that be 2!"

[masterblasterofdisaster]

yawn.

[ratafia50]

Hi there,
Please, read the title!
We just want to tweak a new macbook pro that has dropout problems... If swapping can be an issue, I think the problem is more cpu related, since several person mentioned strange speed stepping gestion with those late I5/I7 mac.
Thank you