Hi would a better Mac get me to 64 buffer size :)

[threaders]

Hi, so ive been running midi guitar 3 for a while and its fantastic. I used it on a gig last week and the tracking was very good. Im using a 2017 MacBook Air. Im just wondering if its worth upgrading my Mac im only using three synths and just lead sounds but if it will make a difference ill get a better Mac. cheers and many thanks

[Vaultnaemsae]

You might want to check out this thread:

CPU % - buffer size

I just installed the new 3.0.51 version on my old ‘music’ Macbook (2014 , Intel I7 2.2 GHz, 16 GB RAM, Big Sur OSX). Tracking seems to work quite well, and I noticed a couple of things: 1) some synth use only 1 CPU, some other 2 CPU (as indicated in the upper right corner), and the ones with 1 CPU tend to cracle a lot, even thoug the CPU% seems not paricularly high. When using 2 CPU I have not any problem. 2) My audio card is a Steinberg UR12 and I can use a 64 byte buffer size. 16 bytes is…

I’m not convinced that a newer device will make a noticeable difference in the case of simply driving a single synth. You will more likely notice a difference (for your use case) with the devices’ overall ability to handle multiple tasks simultaneously.

For example, on my older mid-2015 MacBook Pro Retina, I can’t run a DAW session, video conference and screen recording at the same time with a low buffer…maybe it would work at 512 with very little performance headroom and some latency where it compromises playability. But that wouldn’t be a problem on my 2020 M1 MacBook Air even at 256 and maybe even at 128.

That said, the older laptop runs MG2/3 fine and I don’t think I could pick which machine I was running through in a blind test of MG2/3 and a lead synth only. (I mean based on playing/physical sensation.)

But that’s just my take based on playing with the software a lot and trying to break it

[kimyo]

i’m on windows, but in my experience mg3 itself really doesn’t consume that much cpu power.

i run mg3hex at 64 samples and there is very little cpu usage, say perhaps 10 - 25% when viewed in the task manager, mostly closer to 10%.

it’s only when i try to incorporate instruments that 64 samples becomes a problem.

i believe most of these instruments were not designed or tested to be used at the sample rates we’d prefer. maybe there is a magic set we will arrive upon in time, but at the moment the limitation isn’t mg3 or the cpu you’re using, it is the instruments.

[ElectroFuzz]

Computer power and audio interface (what are you using?) have a big impact on latency.
Laptops have lots of “power saving” features that needs to be optimized to achieve low latency.
I have a very beefy PC and I can go down to 16 samples without any problems.