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I am a professional sound designer/composer. Do I need the 64gb M1 Max?

A

audioturtle

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 21, 2021
3
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I’m a sound designer and composer for radio and theatre, and occasionally a live musician. I’m early in my career, and it’s been my full time job for about 18 months now, so my workflow and software I’m using will undoubtedly change and develop over the next few years. At the moment, I’m mainly using Ableton Live, Logic Pro X and plenty and virtual instruments and plugins.

I‘ve been saving money and waiting to upgrade my 2013 15” MacBook Pro for ages now, so obviously going to get the new 16” and assumed I’d just spec it out, as this is my career now. But I’m wondering if I’ll actually need 64gb of RAM, or if that’s a waste? I can technically afford it, but saving £400 by opting for the 32gb model will mean £400 on some new plugins or something. Just because I have the money, doesn’t mean I want to waste it RAM I don’t need.

So 64gb- is it worth it for audio professionals? Or is it really just aimed at games developers and people working with 4K video? I’d like to futureproof my MacBook, but not sure how ‘futureproof‘ a RAM upgrade really is.
 
Work for film and making heavy use of large orchestral sample libraries tend to be two of the things that lead to audio pros recommending large amounts of RAM. The extent to which thats actually true is going to vary based on a bunch of factors, and previous M1 systems seem to do a rather good job of making efficient use of RAM, or at least not slowing down too much when they have to swap a lot of stuff in and out of RAM.

The amount of RAM you have in your current system with your current use of apps and plugins may also give you some clues, a starting point to help you figure this out. I'd say that the chances are 32GB may be more than enough for you in practice, but since it cannot be upgraded later you'll have to weigh up how much the RAM decision weighs on your mind and affects your sense of how future-proof your purchase is.
 
I want to max everything out. I use it for music and my plugins are over 2tb on external drive and my current Mac has almost 2tb of the internal drive used up. I hate dragging an external drive with me and seriously considering the 8tb since I am close to 4 now. At that point may as well get the 64 gb RAM and the max.
 
audioturtle said:
Thanks folks. Food for thought. I think I may get 32gb.
Click to expand...
You point out your work career is developing therefore things are likely to change as your work experience and work load increases. You do not know what is going to happen with work in the next few months or a year from now. There could be a work project that comes your way very quickly and unexpectedly and as such you need to be prepared. In my opinion 32GB will not be enough. You need the 64GB.
 
TLDR. Start by doubling what’s in your old MacBook.

How much is in your 2013 MacBook Pro?

If you are doing ok with the ram you have, then I would double it for a new MacBook. You don’t just want a MacBook that can handle what you do today, you want one that can handle what you want to do in 3 years or maybe 5.

If things are slow on your current MacBook because you are running low on free memory, then maybe consider 4x as much.

I ordered 64GB because my 2012 MacBook has 16GB and I’ve been wishing for more memory for maybe 3 years already. I’m a software developer.
 
audioturtle said:
I’m a sound designer and composer for radio and theatre, and occasionally a live musician. I’m early in my career, and it’s been my full time job for about 18 months now, so my workflow and software I’m using will undoubtedly change and develop over the next few years. At the moment, I’m mainly using Ableton Live, Logic Pro X and plenty and virtual instruments and plugins.

I‘ve been saving money and waiting to upgrade my 2013 15” MacBook Pro for ages now, so obviously going to get the new 16” and assumed I’d just spec it out, as this is my career now. But I’m wondering if I’ll actually need 64gb of RAM, or if that’s a waste? I can technically afford it, but saving £400 by opting for the 32gb model will mean £400 on some new plugins or something. Just because I have the money, doesn’t mean I want to waste it RAM I don’t need.

So 64gb- is it worth it for audio professionals? Or is it really just aimed at games developers and people working with 4K video? I’d like to futureproof my MacBook, but not sure how ‘futureproof‘ a RAM upgrade really is.
Click to expand...
I would say 32gb would be fine, but 64gb couldn't hurt. Especially if you use Qlab for performances and if you start to dabble in video as well. Programs like Qlab or other playback software is often non-destructive, that is, the edits you make to audio or video clips is happening live, and not actually changing the source file, thus requiring a lot of memory. You probably know more about all this then me, but just trying to point out some points to think about :)

All that said, even the base model's are very very capable machines.
 
I didn’t see this mentioned but may have missed it: How long do you plan on keeping the machine? You have a 2013 right now so I’m guessing it could be a while. You’re also a pro user. Since you can afford it and have a pro career in front of you I’d go with 64. (And this is coming from someone who has an 8GB MBA—I’m not one of those ‘more RAM! guys.’) The thing with RAM on these machines is that it’s forever; it would stink if in 2 years you realize you could use that extra 32.
 
It's not like you can't sell it and get one with better specs down the road. The upgrade prices are considerable for RAM and SSD.
 
I reckon that 32gb will be fine for audio.

BUT... BE SURE that your apps and plugins WILL WORK with the new CPU and OS before you take the leap. Or else you might have brand-new hardware in your hands, but software that won't run on it.

This can be a particularly sticky wicket for those in audio production...
 
audioturtle said:
I’m a sound designer and composer for radio and theatre, and occasionally a live musician. I’m early in my career, and it’s been my full time job for about 18 months now, so my workflow and software I’m using will undoubtedly change and develop over the next few years. At the moment, I’m mainly using Ableton Live, Logic Pro X and plenty and virtual instruments and plugins.

I‘ve been saving money and waiting to upgrade my 2013 15” MacBook Pro for ages now, so obviously going to get the new 16” and assumed I’d just spec it out, as this is my career now. But I’m wondering if I’ll actually need 64gb of RAM, or if that’s a waste? I can technically afford it, but saving £400 by opting for the 32gb model will mean £400 on some new plugins or something. Just because I have the money, doesn’t mean I want to waste it RAM I don’t need.

So 64gb- is it worth it for audio professionals? Or is it really just aimed at games developers and people working with 4K video? I’d like to futureproof my MacBook, but not sure how ‘futureproof‘ a RAM upgrade really is.
Click to expand...
You are probably fine with 16gb. If the upgrade is inconsequential nothing wrong with getting more. I no longer believe in 'future proofing'. I know next year, or the following year I will resell my current machine for the newer version.
 
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It is very likely that the stronger processor will be hotter and have louder "hair dryer" performance (not ideal for music production etc.). That's why I better order M1 Pro. Even 32 GB RAM is rather overkill for "music production" :) But it is good
 
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