RANT (mostly fixed by PH)

[normen]

Still, I'm confident that with minimal effort on ebay used PC's are still cheaper than their Apple equivalents. I'm comparing my Dell e6520 (2.9GHZ i7 which runs Reason 8 and Arturia and inside of which I have two SSDs) to a similar Macbook pro A1425 which is going for $419 on up (way up). The e6520 starts at $159 with free shipping. I don't have all day to compare, but I'm not surprised by my initial findings.

Thats all fine and dandy. It would be stupid to buy a macbook if you simply want to buy horsepower and its great that with Windows and Linux (actually Windows less so lately) theres flexible, open systems where the user can combine and configure hard- and software as he likes, choosing prices, performance, configuration etc.

However theres another way to look at it and thats "I want the services these devices can provide". Like with a smartphone or a gaming console. For both you can go and build them yourself as well. You can buy a GPU and storage and display for a phone as well - you can also build your own gaming console. But nobody does that because paying the price for the existing services (Galaxy Phone, iPhone, XBox, Playstation) are fine and you get the working service. But these are restricted so they can work fine. Theres only specific hardware which makes supporting it in the software easier and more bug free etc.

The Mac is somewhere in between consoles and PCs in that regard, a lot is not configurable, theres only several hardware configurations. But with that you get relatively hassle-free software and - heres the main thing about price - very inexpensive professional software directly from the hardware manufacturer! Look at the price of Final Cut Pro or Logic and compare it to the available software for PC like Cubase or Premiere, then look again what you have to pay for the additional software that comes with it (i.e. Motion, Logics instruments, effects and sound banks!).

So you say you'd be stupid to buy a CPU and a hard disk from Apple but I say you'd be stupid to buy your first music making computer from any other company - you will definitely pay more if you buy a PC (and don't crack software-aherm)

What I like in my professional work is that I get the Mac, I unpack it, I install the software, connect the interface and go. With a PC I spend at least one day to configure it properly, I guess thats what Selig also alluded to. But thats personal experience, I am sure with the right PC supplier and time spent beforehand investigating the options and preparing the installation that could be cut as well.

[CephaloPod]

Dogs are better than cats.

[Biolumin3sc3nt]

Dogs are better than cats.

I'm more of a Kitty person myself lol

[Oquasec]

One of the guys who work for native instruments sound designs with Reason.
I'm not making this shit up.

[Biolumin3sc3nt]

One of the guys who work for native instruments sound designs with Reason.
I'm not making this shit up.

For sure, why the heck not - Reason Rocks!!

[Last Alternative]

That's curious.

[syrokitty]

How come we need to re-check "Open in Low Resolution mode" after each boot?

I haven't noticed a big change in CPU usage, but it is nice to not have such a severe lag when scrolling around the program.

Additionally, I'm really quite surprised we still haven't gotten an update since the official launch.

[tronam]

Like I've said in my other posts, I'm running 44.1 @ 1024 buffer and STILL getting slow graphics on the spectrum EQ as well as occasional high DSP. That's like 30ms of delay! This is killing my work. Anything lower than 1024 and forget it: constant high DSP and audio issues.
Happens with or without my interface connected. PH asked for a System Report, which I sent on Tuesday so "R & D" (Research & Development, I'm guessing) can investigate but come on.. leaving me hanging all week into next week now? This waiting game is unacceptable.
And I don't see how the Retina screen is to blame when it's made for ultra high graphics. I also have the top choice GPU. I just don't understand how a brand new killer machine is having problems struggling to do basic stuff on Reason. There's no way my computer is to blame. I have zero problems playing games, watching 4K videos, or doing anything else.

What pisses me off the most is there are many peeps having many different problems (apparently for a very long time now) with Reason on Apple computers and PH hasn't said a word about it. Don't you want your customers to rest assured you are working on the issues? Why the fuck would you leave them guessing and begging for help and waiting forever? I'm about to switch DAWs if they don't get it together with all this bad noise. And instead of fixing bugs, they'd rather make A-list bullsh*t and hang out on Facebook.

I remembered this post and wanted to chime in about the performance problems you were having on your iMac because my configuration very closely mirrored yours. I probably don't push Reason as hard as many folks, but I was also seeing audio dropouts and strangely poor performance even with large buffers at medium DSP usage. This was especially true if the mixer and rack windows were on screen during playback. I tolerated it because most of my Reason projects didn't stress the CPU much and performance everywhere else in macOS runs extremely well.

You may have moved on at this point, but I don't think your communication with the Props was for naught. They must have clearly heard yours and others' feedback on this issue because v9.5.1 has resolved all of those problems for me. I'm seeing a 2x to 3x performance increase, even at 64 sample buffers, without any audio glitching at all unless the DSP bars are legitimately in the red. It sounds different too, like a proper maxed out CPU audio dropout unlike the unstable pops and clicks I used to get in the past. Hopefully any others in this thread on macOS/i7 systems are seeing similar performance improvements.

[Oquasec]

For me the load stayed the same, but with hyperthreading enabled.
On a windows machine and can use bout 6 instances of expanse on a 1/4 setclocked amd cpu at the 128 samples buffer :]

[EnochLight]

The performance increases that were brought with 9.5.1 won't be really noticeable if all you're doing is running a few instances of normally CPU intense plugins. It's mostly noticeable if you're running a full song project that is utilizing multiple mixer channels with Instruments and effects spread over the mixer channels.

If you were only running a few tracks with most of your instruments or effects in a series (such as large Combi patches), it won't be very noticeable or helpful at all.

For me, it helped with my large song projects a lot. It's very noticeable.

[etyrnal]

Propellerhead needs 64bitdepth.

This doesn't even make any sense. You can't even discern all the dynamic range in 32 bit...

Anyway, why stop there??

Why not 5MHz 1bit audio throughout?

Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk

[Gorgon]

This doesn't even make any sense. You can't even discern all the dynamic range in 32 bit...

He never does.

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=7502224&p=342692#p342692

See?

[etyrnal]

This doesn't even make any sense. You can't even discern all the dynamic range in 32 bit...

He never does.

We need 4096bit audio now... at x-ray frequency sampling rates...

Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk

[Oquasec]

I'm just saying. It would make sense having an export limit being the same as the actual rate used in the daw lmfao.

[semomat]

Even if this is some days ago already, any updates on your issues, OP ?
One thing that came to my mind when skipping through this thread is (reading that you have an additional graphics card in your mac) is really the option somewhere in the mac settings (I am nowhere near my mac, so cannot tell exactly where this is ...) to always use the dedicated card instead of the onboard graphics adapter. Try to find this and make sure it always uses your dedicated card.
In a different forum (of facebook group even), I got aware that this takes away quite some load from the CPU, so that it does not need to additionally handle graphics stuff.
Just trying to help, I usually run my Reason on a nicely specced PC (latest i7, 32 GB Ram, SSDs ...), runs smooth as hell ... Good Luck!!

[jappe]

Even if this is some days ago already, any updates on your issues, OP ?
One thing that came to my mind when skipping through this thread is (reading that you have an additional graphics card in your mac) is really the option somewhere in the mac settings (I am nowhere near my mac, so cannot tell exactly where this is ...) to always use the dedicated card instead of the onboard graphics adapter. Try to find this and make sure it always uses your dedicated card.
In a different forum (of facebook group even), I got aware that this takes away quite some load from the CPU, so that it does not need to additionally handle graphics stuff.
Just trying to help, I usually run my Reason on a nicely specced PC (latest i7, 32 GB Ram, SSDs ...), runs smooth as hell ... Good Luck!!

partly solved it seems
viewtopic.php?p=344458#top