Linux Veteran - Mac Studio - Please Help
Posted: Sat Feb 20, 2021 7:59 pm
Hi All,
Brand new to the forum. Super excited to meet new people with similar interests. I warn you in advance, this is lengthy, read on at your own risk.
About Me: I'm a veteran *nix administrator, developer, architect, etc... I work for a very large (4 letter) gaming company since 2010. I have a number of passions, linux and freebsd being among them. I'm also a veteran amateur multi-instrumentalist musician with 20+ years under my belt being in bands, recording, mixing, mastering, producing, etc... Feel free to peruse my work - https://j03l.com - I'm a glutton for honest feedback if you care to share it.
My Studio
I started off on Windows in 2000 running Cubase and then shortly thereafter migrated to Nuendo 1.0 as it was FAR more stable on Windows 98/XP. I learned everything about DAWs from Nuendo, which was developed by Steinberg.
Like many over the years, I gravitated towards a Mac based studio. Mac OS is a BSD derivative, I had mac ports to use for utilitarian things, I had lovely software to work with for music things.
In late 2010, I bought a Mac Pro for a pretty penny. I'm happy to report that this piece of hardware was worth every one. I've upgraded internals over the years so that it's running a 1TB SSD, with a 2TB ssd cached 7200 RPM drive and a couple of internal Time Machine target volumes to boot. I've used it for audio, video and even 3d development for over a decade now. I have done everything I can to wreck this thing, including an unfortunate drowning incident in my basement that saw it submerged in 7" of dirty rain water (which it miraculously survived.) I had it paired with 2 MOTU 2408 DI units, which I bought in 1999 if I remember correctly. Also, fantastic workhorse performance from those units. I bought my pricey Nuendo license for my shiny new mac and was off to the races.
In 2014, I converted my basement to a dedicated studio, complete with a drum booth. It's small, but I built every stitch with my own hands and I'm quite proud of it. http://blog.j03l.com/2015/08/hand-made-studio.html
In my studio I have keyboards, guitars, drums, mics, etc... see the photos above for a very dated version. It's taken me many years of spousal negotiations to amass this room, but it's all been worthwhile. Also my eldest son is a drummer so we co-hab this space when he drops in.
In 2016 I discovered Presonus Studio One. As a number of their principal developers had defected from Steinberg and had originally authored Nuendo, I found all the new features right inline with a workflow I was very familiar with at a price I could live with. To put it lightly, I freakin LOVE Studio One and you can tell that the people who write it, love it too. That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it.
To accentuate my fandom, I replaced my faithful MOTUs with a Presonus RM32AI - https://www.presonus.com/products/StudioLive-RM32AI. I'll admit, this was a rather rash decision and maybe from a 10-15 year perspective, a mistake. That said, it's only because of the treachery of (rotten) Apple that all of this has come crashing down on my head.
My Current Predicament:
My 2010 Mac is now 11 years old and still trucking along. It holds up for the most part given its specs of 2xQuad Core Xeons with 12GB of RAM. It's even running a modern Mac OS version. That said, this fellow is on the last OS upgrade its going to make, Mac OS continues to bloat, and it's past time to look forward to the next phase for my studio.
So in 2019, because I have no self-control, I custom built an AMD Threadripper 24-core (48 thread) 64GB, 3xNVME(1TB), 3x(7200RPM)6TB, 1xAMD 6800Xt, 1xNvidia-2080ti (11GB)... beast... - https://pcpartpicker.com/user/joeldjohn ... iew=R3v7TW - It's now running Pop OS (which I also LOVE) and Windows 10 (dual booted for PC gaming only.)
My initial intention was to get all fancy and para-virtualize both windows (for gaming) and Mac (for studio) on the three separate nvme's using KVM hw passthrough. Also on the linux side, I'm learning (slowly) machine (deep) learning with python, hence the GPUs. I was successful up until a point, but given the past year and a MUCH heavier demand from my fellow gaming industry friends, I've had NO time to work through the considerable heft that this configuration requires on the R&D side.
Then (of course) Apple Fs everyone and moves to an ARM architecture, which culdesac's my entire Mac rig including the RMAI32. At work, I dropped Apple like the hot turd they've become and am happily 100% linux (ubuntu-variants on desktop, and I can't talk about the servers.)
At home however, I've got an expensive DI, a long-term investment in Studio One, and nowhere to go for future OS management as all of this is currently incompatible with M1. I found this out today, because I was ACTUALLY going to cave in and swap out the Mac Pro for a decked out Mac Mini M1. Turns out however that the RM32AI will not work (nor will Presonus develop drivers for) the m1 architecture. As an aside I also purchased BitWig, and while it's also obviously written by talented people, it looks to require a considerable time investment on learning-curve.
So, there is my elaborate, convoluted situation. As always, I appreciate more eyes/brains that might be able to guide me towards a solution that's preferably native linux, VST compatible, won't cost me more than 4 figures to rectify the DI side of the equation and works at a level of performance/output that I have now.
I'm exhausted from writing all my (VERY 1st world) woes. I'm sorry if I come off as that problem person who you just met and dumped all their issues on you, but everybody needs a shoulder to cry on every once in awhile
Best,
Joel
Brand new to the forum. Super excited to meet new people with similar interests. I warn you in advance, this is lengthy, read on at your own risk.
About Me: I'm a veteran *nix administrator, developer, architect, etc... I work for a very large (4 letter) gaming company since 2010. I have a number of passions, linux and freebsd being among them. I'm also a veteran amateur multi-instrumentalist musician with 20+ years under my belt being in bands, recording, mixing, mastering, producing, etc... Feel free to peruse my work - https://j03l.com - I'm a glutton for honest feedback if you care to share it.
My Studio
I started off on Windows in 2000 running Cubase and then shortly thereafter migrated to Nuendo 1.0 as it was FAR more stable on Windows 98/XP. I learned everything about DAWs from Nuendo, which was developed by Steinberg.
Like many over the years, I gravitated towards a Mac based studio. Mac OS is a BSD derivative, I had mac ports to use for utilitarian things, I had lovely software to work with for music things.
In late 2010, I bought a Mac Pro for a pretty penny. I'm happy to report that this piece of hardware was worth every one. I've upgraded internals over the years so that it's running a 1TB SSD, with a 2TB ssd cached 7200 RPM drive and a couple of internal Time Machine target volumes to boot. I've used it for audio, video and even 3d development for over a decade now. I have done everything I can to wreck this thing, including an unfortunate drowning incident in my basement that saw it submerged in 7" of dirty rain water (which it miraculously survived.) I had it paired with 2 MOTU 2408 DI units, which I bought in 1999 if I remember correctly. Also, fantastic workhorse performance from those units. I bought my pricey Nuendo license for my shiny new mac and was off to the races.
In 2014, I converted my basement to a dedicated studio, complete with a drum booth. It's small, but I built every stitch with my own hands and I'm quite proud of it. http://blog.j03l.com/2015/08/hand-made-studio.html
In my studio I have keyboards, guitars, drums, mics, etc... see the photos above for a very dated version. It's taken me many years of spousal negotiations to amass this room, but it's all been worthwhile. Also my eldest son is a drummer so we co-hab this space when he drops in.
In 2016 I discovered Presonus Studio One. As a number of their principal developers had defected from Steinberg and had originally authored Nuendo, I found all the new features right inline with a workflow I was very familiar with at a price I could live with. To put it lightly, I freakin LOVE Studio One and you can tell that the people who write it, love it too. That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it.
To accentuate my fandom, I replaced my faithful MOTUs with a Presonus RM32AI - https://www.presonus.com/products/StudioLive-RM32AI. I'll admit, this was a rather rash decision and maybe from a 10-15 year perspective, a mistake. That said, it's only because of the treachery of (rotten) Apple that all of this has come crashing down on my head.
My Current Predicament:
My 2010 Mac is now 11 years old and still trucking along. It holds up for the most part given its specs of 2xQuad Core Xeons with 12GB of RAM. It's even running a modern Mac OS version. That said, this fellow is on the last OS upgrade its going to make, Mac OS continues to bloat, and it's past time to look forward to the next phase for my studio.
So in 2019, because I have no self-control, I custom built an AMD Threadripper 24-core (48 thread) 64GB, 3xNVME(1TB), 3x(7200RPM)6TB, 1xAMD 6800Xt, 1xNvidia-2080ti (11GB)... beast... - https://pcpartpicker.com/user/joeldjohn ... iew=R3v7TW - It's now running Pop OS (which I also LOVE) and Windows 10 (dual booted for PC gaming only.)
My initial intention was to get all fancy and para-virtualize both windows (for gaming) and Mac (for studio) on the three separate nvme's using KVM hw passthrough. Also on the linux side, I'm learning (slowly) machine (deep) learning with python, hence the GPUs. I was successful up until a point, but given the past year and a MUCH heavier demand from my fellow gaming industry friends, I've had NO time to work through the considerable heft that this configuration requires on the R&D side.
Then (of course) Apple Fs everyone and moves to an ARM architecture, which culdesac's my entire Mac rig including the RMAI32. At work, I dropped Apple like the hot turd they've become and am happily 100% linux (ubuntu-variants on desktop, and I can't talk about the servers.)
At home however, I've got an expensive DI, a long-term investment in Studio One, and nowhere to go for future OS management as all of this is currently incompatible with M1. I found this out today, because I was ACTUALLY going to cave in and swap out the Mac Pro for a decked out Mac Mini M1. Turns out however that the RM32AI will not work (nor will Presonus develop drivers for) the m1 architecture. As an aside I also purchased BitWig, and while it's also obviously written by talented people, it looks to require a considerable time investment on learning-curve.
So, there is my elaborate, convoluted situation. As always, I appreciate more eyes/brains that might be able to guide me towards a solution that's preferably native linux, VST compatible, won't cost me more than 4 figures to rectify the DI side of the equation and works at a level of performance/output that I have now.
I'm exhausted from writing all my (VERY 1st world) woes. I'm sorry if I come off as that problem person who you just met and dumped all their issues on you, but everybody needs a shoulder to cry on every once in awhile
Best,
Joel
