Mac Mini + a nice 27" screen? That’s where I’d go…
Not on my knees where it spends 95% of its time 
No, that wouldn’t work too well.
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That’s what I got. Works well!
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Allright, so i been using the new computer for about 2 weeks now.
Firstly i should say this is my first Mac ever. I been using PC/Windows for about 30 years. So have always been biased in favour of Windows and building custom PC’s/Laptop by myself.
Though i have been fond of how well the Mac had a leap ahead in technical architecture within its OS for audio applications. And how audio hardware usually works very well with Mac OS. Especially this last decade, and the development of audio applications on IOS.
That said, i am very much enjoying this quiet little Mac mini! So far i am having no problems running my hardware with it which is a RME Babyface Pro fs & RME Digiface. It took a little system diving to get it to work , but RME is great at giving advice and directions on how to get their stuff to work well…
Currently i am testing out VCV Rack / Ableton 11 & Reason 11
Haven’t encountered any crash from Rack by itself for no reason, and it is performing very well so far on this Mac Mini.
I do sometimes feel a slight system instability, which to me is more related to Big Sur. And the newness of this whole ARM thing? So i would not recommend this as a daily driver for professional production, if your business was relying on it. I still have my beefy laptop nearby incase i would need it.
But to be honest i am very surprised and happy with the results so far with VCV Rack by itself! I can imagine how an optimised version will be like.
I have been able to route through ADAT / Blackhole virtual driver or RME virtual routing. All seem to work well, with minor occasional glitches from Big Sur, most of the time all is running steady in sync no fuss. 
I have been able to overload the CPU once, but that was a ridiculous large patch with tons of modulation, and would not make sense in a normal creative process. As mostly i would be splitting parts of the creative process over several of devices/external gear.
Here is a little something that i was noodling with, that is absolutely no sweat for this Mac and remains at least 75% of idle time on the system. While recording the screen with VCV Recorder compressing to mp4 video, and VCV framerate set to max.
edit:
(And for historical reasons and archiving of it hehe, i still manage to get fantastic sync lock with the bridge vst & and Expert Sleepers SW Sync plugin combo, not present in the patch above though)
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About that Bridge VST & Expert Sleepers SW Sync plugin combo…
And the computer didn’t even flinch, while capturing the whole screen. (My WIndows laptop would be taking off by now with all fans at max 
)
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Thanks for sharing your initial results Latif, and congratulations with your new machine! I’m sure you’ll come to enjoy the diminished amount of pain with drivers and audio, and other system stuff. You’re welcome to PM me if you have any general Mac headscratcher problems or questions.
Could you briefly describe what you’ve experienced? I think it goes without saying but you should definately upgrade to the latest version of Big Sur right away. They fix bugs you know
Nice example of a real-life/real-size patch, great to see! If you are using VCV Recorder to record MP4 video, at some point you should try and record screen+audio with QuickTime Player instead, virtually routing the audio to it. In that way you’ll steal no CPU from your patch, and spread the load nicely over your other cores, and Quicktime really is very easy to use and produces great results for e.g. uploading straight to YouTube.
Nice, fluid graphics there! I’m happy for you.
Hi Lars! Thanks And will sure drop you a pm when i need to know something, thanks for the offer!
Actually i can’t exactly, since this is a both a new system for me and for them who created it. For example i see some artefacts when i use background image on the desktop. That are only there when i use a background image. It could be because of the HDMI output that i am using.
I seen some other glitches when using graphics software, that randomly happened. I noticed slight instabilities when running more than one audio application, that i have not been able to reproduce. Needs more investigation .
But most of these little things were not bothering me that much to actually need to spend time on them.
Yes certainly, i am always on top of that 
Yes, my point was to stress the cpu that is why i used the vcv recorder with mp4 compression in the first video.
The second video was recorded with Quicktime, notice the stop button up in the taskbar
I will update my findings here, if i encounter any serious problems regarding VCV Rack on this system. Until then, have fun making music!
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I just happened to see this video now, and that issue sounds like what he’s demonstrating at 10:30 :
has there been any news on official support for apple silicon/arm ? will it be supported in 2.0?
Its running pretty well for me under Rosetta, a performance boost from native support would be welcome!
I know I can build it myself, but the reason I want native support is, Ive started ‘investing’ in some of the ‘premium’ modules, so want those to be native (which of course won’t happen until an official release). … if thats unlikely to happen, then I guess, as much as I like vcv, I’ll go use something else.
(not really an issue at the moment since others are not yet native either 
)
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11.2 fixed some HDMI issues i was seeing, and enabled my attached screen to go full res.
(And side-loading apps from the iPad through iMazing is still possible!)
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unfortunately, Im still seeing the same issue with (some) scaled resolutions - its still pretty much unusable. on the positive side, if I switch to the full resolution its fine (albeit the module browser is very hard to read as everything is too small)
Stoermelder MB will help with the graphics, but not the text, in the module browser ?
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cool, perhaps that may help - but really its the text that is the issue.
I was kind of waiting for vcvrack 2.0 which i believe is scheduled to have a better browser - but there doesn’t seem to be any info on when that might be available.
im a little confused about what gets supported by vcvrack, as had issues on all platforms. on mac - seems like no scheduled arm support. on windows - vcvrack wont support touchscreens. on linux - vcvrack does not interface directly with jack (unlike bitwig)
always seems to be ‘close’ but lacking, and I dont think any of this is planned to be changed in 2.0
I get that its free, but honestly, id prefer to pay for it, and have it support these things.
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don’t some of the obscure settings help this problem? I know on linux I always need to turn off mouse capture (or something like that).
Wonder how long it will take for people to ask for, or actually modify this version iPad to run Big Sur Arm.
VCV on an M1 Ipad Pro 12.9 would be a dream…
Brain goes Brrrrrrrrr: You love your iPad Pro 11 from 2018 - it is running like a dream - You don’t need a new one - you have drambo, which is good replacement for VCV - do not buy it - DO NOT BUY IT !!!
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Brain goes Brrrrrrrrr: You love your iPad Pro 11 from 2018 - it is running like a dream - You don’t need a new one - you have drambo, which is good replacement for VCV - do not buy it - DO NOT BUY IT !!!
If it helps ward of the temptation, just have the rational side of your brain tell the other side that you definitely don’t need a new iPad until there is an iOS version of VCV.
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That’s what I’m telling myself …