# Those using a laptop frequently, how big are your projects?



## thevisi0nary (Aug 5, 2020)

Because of some environmental factors I am considering again the idea of getting a powerful laptop as a primary rig.

It’s easy to look at specs of the best available options, but I would rather ask what kind of experiences and project sizes people have with their mobile rig.

The largest project I have probably has about 30-40 kontakt instances and a few vsti synths.


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## Nate Johnson (Aug 5, 2020)

I’ve been using the macbook in my sig for a few years now.

With my specs, I get about 25-30 instruments, mixed kontakt and third party (Labs). I can fully mix those sessions (stock LPX plugins). I definitely top out my 8gb of ram pretty quick when I run Spitfire stuff, but I’ve trained myself to be as clever and efficient as possible while composing. Definitely looking to upgrade soon, though!

Lately I’ve been running audio tracks only and my last session was 60 tracks, plus 8 busses fully mixed. Audio is obviously nothing compared to virtual stuff!


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## gsilbers (Aug 5, 2020)

thevisi0nary said:


> Because of some environmental factors I am considering again the idea of getting a powerful laptop as a primary rig.
> 
> It’s easy to look at specs of the best available options, but I would rather ask what kind of experiences and project sizes people have with their mobile rig.
> 
> The largest project I have probably has about 30-40 kontakt instances and a few vsti synths.



i thought the same and got a macbook pro 16 inch i9 w 64gb ram... the benchmarkes where crazy good.
but all these i9 and even some i7 have some heat fan issues it got me by surprise.
if i open just a few tabs of safari, youtube video and mail i start to get heat and fan noise.
yet i can open tons of tracks in logic with diva etc. but also eventually get loud fan noise.
so i think you will def get the track count and performance you want and even more... its how much of an issue fan and heat will be for you. and a big hint as to why apple decided to move away fro intel.
but im guessing most i9 are the same on any laptop.

on the other hand my 2012 macbook pro can handle way less tracks but can open a lot more of everything and run all those tracks and still not get heat fan issues.
and this is common among all macbooks w i7 and i9. just google macbook pro fan noise. 
some poeple dont get bother by it. but i coudnt imagine trying to record a vocal or anything and not pick up those fans.


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## thevisi0nary (Aug 6, 2020)

gsilbers said:


> i thought the same and got a macbook pro 16 inch i9 w 64gb ram... the benchmarkes where crazy good.
> but all these i9 and even some i7 have some heat fan issues it got me by surprise.
> if i open just a few tabs of safari, youtube video and mail i start to get heat and fan noise.
> yet i can open tons of tracks in logic with diva etc. but also eventually get loud fan noise.
> ...



It’s good to know that it’s feasible to run larger projects, I would definitely be going for a maxed out spec but I use windows. The best candidate I can see at the moment is either the Asus g14 or Xps 15/17. I’m still trying to settle on how much the convenience is worth it, but when I have to be away from home and my desktop for days at a time I feel like I lose a lot of time I could spend working on projects.

I’m not sure how much the fans would bother me, a concern I do have though is both dpc latency and if I need to have an interface to manage large projects for the Asio when I’m on the road.


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## thevisi0nary (Dec 8, 2020)

gsilbers said:


> i thought the same and got a macbook pro 16 inch i9 w 64gb ram... the benchmarkes where crazy good.
> but all these i9 and even some i7 have some heat fan issues it got me by surprise.
> if i open just a few tabs of safari, youtube video and mail i start to get heat and fan noise.
> yet i can open tons of tracks in logic with diva etc. but also eventually get loud fan noise.
> ...



Hey sorry to necro this old thread. Have you tried using turbo boost switcher on the MacBook to see how much it helps with fan noise? I am reading around that it helps a lot but I obviously do not have a MacBook to test this. 









The Sounds of Silence with Turbo Boost Switcher - Podfeet Podcasts


This article is a story of how my fans are going bananas on my new 16″ MacBook Pro. But we can’t start with the amazing solution I found in the app Turbo Boost Switcher until we back up and learn a little bit about computer processors. Not too deep, because we get in over my […]




www.podfeet.com


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## gsilbers (Dec 9, 2020)

thevisi0nary said:


> Hey sorry to necro this old thread. Have you tried using turbo boost switcher on the MacBook to see how much it helps with fan noise? I am reading around that it helps a lot but I obviously do not have a MacBook to test this.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Yes, I tried every little piece of workaround that’s in every corner of the web. Page 245 of random threads in Reddit or Apple etc. 
Apps, code, etc. 
it’s just over heats and has fan noise.
That’s basically this huge whole deal with Apple going arm cpu, plus Intel dropping the ball w delivery times.

What I’ve learned is that this issue is not new. Since 2017 a lot of these have similar issue. But w the i9 it’s a lot more prominent.
Even worse, it happens with just. A few web tabs and small apps opened. Not even a big load.
For editing video maybe it’s not a big deal. But rev up fans while working on music is such an issue. Can’t even record unless u stick the MacBook in a closet.

and now almost every m1 mac review is reallly all about no fan noise and heat issues. It might sound random or not that important but basing it on the history of MacBooks it makes sense.


I posted more on the other threads.
I ended up selling the i9 and happy I did. And I’m waiting on a 32gb ram m1 MacBook. 
In the interim I got a Mac mini intel and it’s been fine. That cooling system seems to work better. But for the i9 MacBook it seems it was too ambitious for the form factor.


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## thevisi0nary (Jan 12, 2021)

gsilbers said:


> Yes, I tried every little piece of workaround that’s in every corner of the web. Page 245 of random threads in Reddit or Apple etc.
> Apps, code, etc.
> it’s just over heats and has fan noise.
> That’s basically this huge whole deal with Apple going arm cpu, plus Intel dropping the ball w delivery times.
> ...



Damn that’s nuts. The m1 is so appealing but I just don’t want to rearrange my life to an arm OS just yet. Even from the previous post I’m looking now to just stick with windows at this point, hopefully the new amd/intel mobile chips coming out will be as good as they look.


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## gzapper (Jan 12, 2021)

thevisi0nary said:


> Damn that’s nuts. The m1 is so appealing but I just don’t want to rearrange my life to an arm OS just yet. Even from the previous post I’m looking now to just stick with windows at this point, hopefully the new amd/intel mobile chips coming out will be as good as they look.


I work in theatre primarily so have to be portable. Still on a 16 gig i7 macbook pro and the fans are on most of the time when I work with it. That sucks. Can max out about 20-30 kontakt/omnisphere/synth tracks and have worked that way for years but am so looking forward to an M1X macbook pro. I've been considering a pc rig for home work, but would prefer one, mobile rig.


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## Jeremy Spencer (Jan 12, 2021)

gzapper said:


> I work in theatre primarily so have to be portable. Still on a 16 gig i7 macbook pro and the fans are on most of the time when I work with it. That sucks. Can max out about 20-30 kontakt/omnisphere/synth tracks and have worked that way for years but am so looking forward to an M1X macbook pro. I've been considering a pc rig for home work, but would prefer one, mobile rig.


Same setup here, have you tried hosting VI’s in VEPro? Works wonders, especially with Logic.


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## Trash Panda (Jan 12, 2021)

I have a well specced PC, but do most work on a Surface Book 2. Can easily get up to around 25-30 Kontakt VIs with mixed mics or synths without effects loaded before the system starts to sweat. Maybe around 20 with Spitfire libraries on mixed mics.

I load multiple articulations into single instances of Kontakt/Spitfire and switch between them by MIDI channel, so multiply that by 5-6 if you’re a one art per track person.

Once effects start going in for mixing, things start to fall apart, so there’s usually an export required for mixing and mastering.


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## jcrosby (Jan 12, 2021)

Depends on the DAW... I have a 16 inch i9 MBP - In Logic I've had over 300 instruments loaded since Logic only loads selected tracks, or tracks with clips.... Instruments ranged from Kontakt to Omnisphere, Zebra to Massive X, Absynth to Iris, all in the same project... Even had a bunch of Logic plugins inserted all over the place...

In Live way less since it leaves lots of resources in use even if things are disbaled... So far I've managed to run some sound design projects, 1 had 45-ish Zebra 2/Zbera HZ's, Probably had about 30 playing simultaneously in one section. Playback was totally fine but I tend to run sound design projects with a high buffer since MIDI perfromance isn't the priority... Once I started adding plugins to each track I eventually had to freeze but it kept up when frozen, and was still able to leave some as MIDI. Kontakt varied... The more instances I had the less I could play back. That said I managed to load 150-175 Kontakts in Live. Simultaneous playback? No idea but it was on the lower side, may be 30 or so?

Basically DAW design can make a big difference depending on how it handles deactivated instruments... If I dont start with a bloated template I can get around 40-50 Kontakts playing smoothly if they're not trying to play fast passages, rolls, etc... After that upping the buffer starts to become pretty much a given at some point. The library obviously has a huge impact as well... Some run lean others don't so it's kind of hard to get a consistent number to go by...

Mind you MBP's are famously horribly cooled so a PC laptop should perform noticeably better...


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## gzapper (Jan 12, 2021)

Jeremy Spencer said:


> Same setup here, have you tried hosting VI’s in VEPro? Works wonders, especially with Logic.



I haven't used VEPpro. I use DP and use its virtual rack function for the same idea. Probably I should buy a license and try it out. Thought about grabbing an M1 mac mini to run VEPpro, depending on how it does with memory swaps.


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## Jeremy Spencer (Jan 13, 2021)

gzapper said:


> I haven't used VEPpro. I use DP and use its virtual rack function for the same idea. Probably I should buy a license and try it out. Thought about grabbing an M1 mac mini to run VEPpro, depending on how it does with memory swaps.


You can get a keyless demo for VEPro, I’d definitely check it out.


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