A question for carbon owners:
What would be the ideal Mac / OS version Ram spec for the carbon.
I imagine M1/Big Sur Macs are not compatible but I don’t really know .
Any advice on Mac specifics ?
Thanks !

Thats a really tough question there are so many variables involved that are tied to your specific situation needs and wants its probably not very accurate for recommending to someone else .

Since I got both a new computer and the Carbon in December I opted for the new iMac in my sig line. And while the iMac is more than capable of handling my needs for both audio and video, one thing I did not realize was how much heat the new Intel 10th gen. i7 and i9 chips generate. Which means the fans come only fairly quickly and are noticeable from both my mixing position at my desk (which is not an issue) and from the recording position 6' or 7' back from the desk . Now granted it does not come through as noticeable once I get a decent recording level signal going But it does raise the noise floor and is detectible in the PT meters at the very bottom. As far as function the Catalina 10.15.7 is working great.
I am told that the iMac Pro is much quieter (but do not know that 1st hand)

If I had it to over and I did not want to wait for Avid to support Big Sur ..I honestly would probably opt for a Mac mini intel version to tide me over until the the new Apple M1x chips come out in Apples line up

Great Advice.
Never even thought about fan noise. Definitely a no go for me.
So are you saying you’d opt for an intel Mac mini until M1 is in the full lineup and then upgrade to a different type of machine from Mac?
Thanks

Yes although the rumor is in any new upcoming Mac hardware the Apple chip will be an upgraded version of the M1. Current being called M1x then speculatively M2 after that ??????

And be aware the intel Mac mini is said to have SOME fan noise issues also (but I figure would be relatively easy to isolate in box if necessary ) where an iMac obviously would not be.

But yes then upgrade to an Apple silicon based iMac (or there are also Rumors of an additional scaled down and less expensive new Mac Pro coming ).

Great info. It never ends with the upgrade dilemma hahah. I guess it’s best to get the cpu that’s supported. But good advice regarding M1x , in sure the new mini is just the beginning...

Yes Apple is claiming/estimating as of last Jan. 2 years for entire line to be switched to Apple silicone

I don’t think the Mini has a fan.

The only M1 Mac without a fan is the MacBook Air. Mini certainly has a fan. Which is why it and the M1 MacBook Pro outperform the Air for long renders and processes.

So, are you saying you’d choose the Mac mini intel if you had to “do it over” because the mini is able to be placed away from the recording area thus baffling its fan noise?
I’m debating the mini/ MacBook Pro / IMac thing, and I definately don’t want fan noise in my little setup if I’m recording my acoustic guitars etc...

Back to Carbon, another question about fans:
I’ve been reading up on user feedback in the DUC.
It seems people are complaining about fan noise from bothe the carbon unit and their respective Mac when Carbon is plugged in. Something to do with “turbo boost”.
Does anyone have experience with this or solutions.
The only other issue I’ve read about it latency problems with hardware inserts and I believe headphone monitoring when used in a certain way- both issues that avid techs seem to be addressing .
But the fan / heat issue is a little worrisome, especially since I’m building a MacBook/ portable rig...
Any insight ?
Thanks !!!

Ah ok, I clearly haven’t seen any M1s in the flesh then! That’s a shame in a way - their quiet performance was what made them great studio computers.

Yes with the caveat , ONLY if I had to make a change a from my old system RIGHT NOW.
If it were me AND I did not have to change my current system (right now ) then I would probably just wait for two things #1 PT becomes Big Sur qualified And Apple starts shipping the Mac mini with the M1 -X chip (rumored to likely offer at lease twice the memory ). #2 Or even wait (probably longer ) for Apple to bring out the new iMac or Mac Pro

. In reverse order I am not noticing any latency issue with the two hardware units I have being used as inserts . For example if I am laying down a rhythm acoustic guitar part as my first track, I can have my hardware compressor going, and when I strum I notice no latency at all.. If I then go to dub an acoustic guitar lead part with the comp again no latency ... If I then dub a vocal with the comp and reverb going again I detect no latency.

As far as noise from the Carbon I think the complaint was from using a specific lap top . My experience using my iMac is that yes there is some minimal fan noise but I have to put my ear right down to face of the Carbon to hear it ( note be aware I am 71 years old and I do have some hearing loss issues specifically between 3k and 4k and above 14k ) But for example I can definitely hear the iMac fans when they get going thankfully the iMac fans are pretty minimal when recording audio ( its when processing video that they really kick in) which of corse is not really an issue.
Also note (my hearing aside) while the iMac noise does register slightly in the PT meters the Carbon does not

Has an updated M1X Mac Mini been rumored? Such a configuration would inspire me to upgrade my Mac 5,1 sooner than later, once everything is qualified.

Sky

Yes (Rumored) there have been a number of YouTube videos and some online articles. With the prediction to be 12 core and probably in the Mac mini first ............or possible with a smaller than 27 inch iMac maybe 24 inch


https://appleinsider.com/articles/21...benchmark-site

I like this guys Max Tech videos on Youtube (he uses a number of different geek bench test, albeit he seems more Graphics oriented than audio ) but seems to be pretty knowledgeable and relatively objective

After doing an exhaustive amount of research in regards to running a hybrid native PT system via using Carbon, I ended up getting a new Mac Pro (came installed with Catalina) 3.2 GHz 16-Core Intel Xeon W, 48 gigs of ram, AMD Radeon Pro 580X 8 GB.

The Pros.
Super fast, quiet on all fronts, loads of horsepower for running PT (that's really the crux of the question, not really Carbon. For the most part Carbon functions on its own internal power.) Whatever software requirements that run in the background to run Carbon is never an issue (when I turn my system on, Carbon registers at 1% cpu.)

The added benefit of HDX is pretty much self explanatory, and for the most part it's quite seamless. But It think some of the seamless aspects of what I'm talking about might be because I have a beast of a computer running all of this. I've worked on mixes that I would consider on the large to very large size, and my cpu registers between 14% - 20%.

Most plugins load up extremely fast (I instantiated 48 Avid channel strip plugs in 1 second, or less for all I know.) When I use a VI, the sample load nearly instantaneously.

The Cons.

It's an integrated system, so there are limitations in terms of how far you can go with routing for hardware inserts.

A few of the Sonnox plugins (which I often use) flake out PT and momentarily freezes the session, as though you're overloading the cpu. This is obviously a bug on Sonnox's end. It's not a deal breaker but it can be a momentary buzz kill. But once you load one of their plugins, it flakes out, and then from there on it's fine.

A few thoughts in regards to your quest for the right computer.

I'll use construction as an analogy. Do you go for the Marble counter tops now, or do you go with a cheaper option and save for marble. The cheaper option won't look as good, last as long, and are you putting good money after bad. Yes, the Mac was insanely expensive, I had a heart palpation when I hit the purchase button, seriously haha. Now that I have it, I see there was no other choice, and my clients are super impressed.

In regards to Carbon, I'm not sure it's for everyone. I mean, on a sonic front it's outstanding, the build quality is very high, it does not wreak of budget gear what so ever, it's a small footprint, and the 1 year subscription plus other free add-on's didn't suck. It really comes down to functionality and I/O's. Can you track a Foo Fighters record on this thing, no fkn way. Not enough ins and outs. Are you a hybrid studio where you're the only engineer, you use a lot of digital tools, then it's an extremely cool system. To me this is Avid directly competing with UAD Apollo. The Apollo has been famously successful, but after having talked to a few producer colleagues, there are workflow drawbacks that didn't sit with me, and you don't have the added ability to run HDX...that was a huge one.

I would say to anyone who is going to run PT natively, get the most horsepower you can afford.

Great info. Thanks for sharing!
I’m thinking of a 2019 16” MacBook Pro i9 8 core 2.4ghz with 32gb ram.
Do you have any idea how a machine like this would perform in your situation w a carbon?
Thanks

Happy to help.

The setup you're describing was on the short list of what I was considering. One of my colleagues has this exact computer, with a 1 tb drive. He's not running a lot of VI's per say, something to consider.

This was his feedback. The computer's fan gets quite loud when it revs up. Loud enough to be a potential issue when tracking vocals in the same room. It's definitely a very powerful laptop. Its biggest drawback, and this is what ultimately swayed me away from it. You cannot on any level upgrade this computer. And if you're running loads of VI's and samples, it could start getting thin. Because of this, what will the shelf life be on this computer? I was able to eek out 11 years on my old 4.1 Mac Pro. They're just that well made, and because I could do upgrades, it took me far. In the end, it comes down to finances.

Hmm. Fan noise would definitely be an issue for my compact setup.
I wonder if there is a quiet laptop that’s a capable cpu.
Any ideas ?

I'm currently on a MBP16 2.4 with 32gig of ram and the 5500 video card. The fan noise is for real. I always have turbo boost disabled (same for my 2014 MBP) which does keep the fans lower, but they still run a lot. I needed the portability, so in my current situation, the MBP was my only real option. This is what I'll be using carbon with for now, once I offload my Apollo setup.

Carbon owners:

I've never had to expand 16 I/O via ADAT before in a setup, it's always been a single ADAT interface with 8 I/O. I already have a Presonus DP88 for 8 I/O, is it possible to expand the second set of ADAT I/O with a second ADAT interface from another manufacturer? Can I grab an Audient ASP880 and slave the DP88 to it and then slave one of those to the Carbon? Can you daisy chain like that through ADAT expanders?

The obvious choice for expanding on the Carbon would be something like the Ferrofish ADAT unit. I'll consider that at some point, but right now I don't want to overly complicate things. I'm going to be selling my UA Apollo, so I'm going to loose 4 of the unison preamps. I don't want to drop money on 4 more nice preamps right now, so the Audient ASP880 would be a great "holder" for now. I owned one years ago and loved the preamps, it also lets you bypass preamps to go strait to the converters, so that will get my last 4 external preamps in as well.

Other question: If it is possible to combine two different ADAT expanders, is there going to be any latency between them even if I slave one to the other? That might be a stupid/no brainer questions, but I've never gotten this complicated with ADAT... I only need 16 channels, so I plan on doing all my recording inputs and outputs to my console via ADAT. I've HATED the fact for years that you can't mix/match ADAT and non ADAT channels on multi mic sources like drums without having some latency/phase issues. If there's going to be any latency problems with the two ADAT interfaces playing well together, I'll wait until I can do this properly with something like the Ferrofish unit that's all self contained.

I am super happy with my Carbon. I am using a 6 year old MacBook Air, and I’ve had zero fan noise problems or stability issues. I am running Big Sur and the newest pt ultimate.
So far it’s been great… but I have to say I don’t use a lot of plugins. I will upgrade soon to a newer Mac just not sure what or when.

Thanks !

Just installed PTU 2021.10 works great and the new Carbon Pre control in the GUI is really nice The only possible glitch is the Dynamic Plugin Processing apparently not working on stereo tracks As noted over on the DUC ..Fortunately my sessions are not large enough for this to be an issue for me....

I'm on the lookout for an API Console Strip plugin that's AAX-DSP compatible. I thought all the PluginAlliance stuff was like that, was a little bummed out to see that the Lindell 50 plugin was not DSP.

I've had the carbon for about a month now. I really like the unit. Fan noise is a non-issue with my unit. I can't hear it or notice it.