I wondered if you guys could give me advice on buying a high-end computer for a professional recording studio, running Pro Tools, dealing with large projects of around 100-150 tracks (with a large amount of plugins, effects etc). I want something that will handle the job easily, not overheat doing it, and be at least a 4-5 year machine.
Could you recommend a spec in the iMac or iMac Pro that would handle that with ease?
If the recording takes sound from the same room / open air space as the computer, then I’d skip the iMac.
If there are no live Microphones in the same room, then use anything you like.
I haven’t used the iMac Pro. So I can’t comment beyond theory on it specifically.
But I have used previous iMacs for audio production. And I can tell you it was a disaster.
As you work the computer harder, it heats up. And in my case, it would literally cook the current screen image permanently into the screen. Such that even when the computer was off, that you could still see the crisp clear outlines of every window and button and even read the screen. Etched permanently in crisp white etching. Baked literally into the surface / screen (not the glass, but the actual screen).
Apple thought I was joking. But they couldn’t get it to go away.
I had them replace the screen. Then I killed the next one in front of them within 5 minutes. Loaded up my multitrack production. CPU’s heated up. Screen permanently etched.
We reached a compromise. They put another screen in it. And I sold the computer (because it obviously couldn’t handle my workload).
If you have a track load that can stress the computer, I’d encourage any solution that has the computer and monitor as separate pieces.
If you have a live microphone in the same room that you record, then I’d do the same, and put the computer in a different area and feed the video and keyboard/mouse into your studio. You don’t want Fan noise, etc. in your recordings.
