Hello! I’m ready to try a new M4 Pro Mac mini and since I use SD3 I’d like to know the preferred core settings( processor/efficiency cores) for SD3 to work best within DAWs like Pro Tools and LUNA.
This will depend on your workflow. I’m an e-drummer with occasional recording (but not heavy production) and the processor usage is fairly low, regardless of whether SD3 is stand-alone or in a DAW. I’ve watched the activity monitor while playing as aggressively as I can, and the workload fit within a single core. What limits me (and why I’m looking at M4 minis) is memory capacity. I routinely bump up against my current 16GB memory limit. Some SDXs can have large memory footprints (eg 10GB for a Legacy preset, although most are 3-5GB), and if you use multiple SD3 tracks in your DAW, you can really eat into the machine memory capacity.
If you are mainly producing and often use more processor-intensive tasks like bouncing, then the core config might matter more for you. I’d suggest this decision is one of speed not limitation (in contrast to the memory limitation mentioned above). More cores will mean faster bounces, but I have no specific data on how much impact they’d have other than the standard processor benchmarks that are becoming available for the M4.
In short: with my M1 mini base processor config, I’ve never had a case (as an e-drummer) where I thought the cores were holding me back or causing issues. Memory limits do impact my workflow, though.
Superior Drummer 3 version: 3.3.7 Operating system: macOS Sequoia (15)
As a long time PT user I think it will be up to PT’s usage of multiple cores as I don’t know if they ever took care of that. It’s always been loading up one core and not spreading things out.
Superior Drummer 3 version: 3.3.7 Operating system: macOS High Sierra (10.13)
Jack
aka musicman691 on other forums
Superior Drummer 3.4.0
Area 33 1.0.0
Death and Darkness 1.0.1
PT 2021.6
OSX 10.13.6
3.46 GHz hex core 2012 MacPro 48 gig ram
