# New but not newbie...



## John Claus (Oct 29, 2017)

Looking forward to learning and sharing here... Glad to have found this site as we try to figure out how best to put together a mobile film scoring rig. E.g., Can you really run a reasonable number of VIs and plugins on a new, maxed-out MacBook Pro with Kaby Lake 3.1 processing and SSDs, given the limitation of only 16G RAM?

We’ve been doing filmscore work for over 20 years, both features and documentaries. 

Thanks, be well and all best,
Jeff Claus
j2filmmusic


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## NoamL (Oct 29, 2017)

Welcome!

You're going to find that RAM is your biggest limiter with the MBPs. 16GB is good for a sketching rig but dependng on how deep you go with orchestral samples 32GB is a better lower limit for a mobile rig. I do lots of composing on a MBP and there's definitely times when I hit the cap on dense cues.


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## John Claus (Oct 29, 2017)

Thanks for the reply, NoamL! Much appreciated!

Yes, 32G RAM are better, as are 64, which is what we have in our home rigs (2012 Mac Pro 12 cores with 64 RAM, 3.33 processing, SSD’s and more). My question for you is, what constitutes a “dense cue” for you? Or, at what point do you start to have limitations? This morning I posted my first thread starter at VI-Control, on this mobile rig topic, and I included lots of detail there about what we’d like to be able to do on our MBP rigs. Here’s what I wrote...

“Can you really run a reasonable number of VIs and plugins on a new, maxed-out MacBook Pro i7 with Kaby Lake 3.1 processing, SSDs, and Pro Tools 12, given the limitation of only 16G RAM? “Reasonable” here would ideally be 12, or hopefully more, VIs, including, a mix of, say: some Kontakt sources (e.g., Spitfire strings and other stuff, REV loops and/or pads, Signal, Sonic Couture sources, Kontakt library stuff, etc.); a track or two of Ivory; maybe some tracks of RMX drums; Omnisphere; Absynth; BT Phobos; Lounge Lizard, Sampletron, odd synths, etc.... And, at least 1-2, or more, plugins on each track (e.g., EQ, comp, delay, chorus, imager, other) and 3-4 aux reverbs (1-2 Lexicon, 1 Altiverb, 1 Blackhole or other).”

This would let us do meaningful work while relocated somewhere, but with the understanding that we’d often want/need to add more later, on our home rigs where we have tons of headroom.

Whaddya think? No problem? Or, not too much trouble with proper adjustments and work arounds? Or, maybe but probably not all of this wishlist is doable?

Of course, we can freeze tracks and do other settings kinds of things to limit RAM use...

Thanks for any help you can give...


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## NoamL (Oct 29, 2017)

I have always found Kontakt RAM to be the limiter when working on the MB Pro - not processing power, busses, plugin effects etc. don’t worry about them. 

With 16gb I have enough room for the whole orchestra and lots of cinematic auxiliaries. But they are loaded as I need them. I don’t use templates (load every articulation etc) even on multi cue projects because it just takes up too much RAM. Instead I fork each new cue from a previously approved cue project file, and add instruments and effects as needed while working.


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## NoamL (Oct 29, 2017)

Also I’m curious why you’re writing in Pro Tools? I use Logic and had assumed you were looking at MBP because you’re tied to the Apple platform.


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## John Claus (Oct 29, 2017)

Thanks! Sounds great and similar to how I work as well (e.g., no big orchestral templates), even with lots of headroom on the home rig where I don't think about RAM limitations. I agree that RAM is in some ways the final frontier, or, at least, I know increasing RAM in our home rigs to 64 set us free (but so did having 12 cores). I do think faster, more efficient drives, chips, and thru-put can buy you a little less pressure on your RAM, but if you don't have enough RAM, you can't fix that with other elements, for sure. Like so many others, oh how I wish we could get 32G RAM in a MacBook. I'd even be happy to add an inch of thickness and a bunch of pounds to the rig for that... Instead, I think we'll max out an MBP, spending more money than we should, then we'll freeze tracks, purge/clear memory in Kontakt, manage buffers carefully, etc., sort of like we used to before we put together nice home rigs.  Going backwards to go forwards on this one, I think, but the ability to relocate for periods, in "working vacation" mode, definitely has its appeal.

As for why I work in Pro Tools... I started as a musician who also loved recording/engineering. Most of our early filmscores were primarily analog, with lots of real playing, a few synths and samples, and additional soundscapey stuff created from organic, live-played sources. For that, we worked initially on consoles with tape, then in Pro Tools. I worked and watched and learned in studios from others, then started doing more in our home studio, and one thing lead to another. I love Pro Tools, even though I know it has limitations for deep composing. Also, my wife and partner, a "trained musician" who does legit composing, works in Digital Performer (which still turns my head inside out), and then I mix her stuff in Pro Tools.

Thanks again!


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## J-M (Oct 30, 2017)

Welcome to the forum!


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## ThePrioryStudio (Nov 9, 2017)

Welcome to VI



John Claus said:


> I love Pro Tools, even though I know it has limitations for deep composing



I had to really re-train my pro tools muscle memory when I started using LogicX, but actually now a lot of the key commands are the same and you can re-map anything you like. I take stems out of logicX then into Pro Tools and it feels like an old friend, but I couldn't believe the difference between the 2 programs when I jumped, it's really astonishing.


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