Reason 12 is almost here!

[valis]

I'm sure there are plenty of tasks/things that can be allocated to efficiency cores.

[Bud Weiser]

I was under the impression a properly optimised DAW is optimised exactly because it is NOT using the efficiency cores, and not the other way around.

Why ?



Bud

[LunaMan]

Fake news ?

Anyhoo ... https://youtu.be/FSqX4bt9to4?si=2aselgd3sKfIzBJ9

UA Luna wasn’t mentioned, but looks like I’ll be sticking to my M1 for the time being.

[Sounddesigner]

I'm sure there are plenty of tasks/things that can be allocated to efficiency cores.

Not using E-Cores on Windows O/S DAWs would be a utter disaster since most of the i7 and i9 Cores are E-Cores. Only 8 Cores out of 24 Cores are P-Cores on the intel i9.

I don't know much of anything about MAC M2 E-Cores but on Windows the Intel E-Cores do much more than just run the O/S, Antiviris, etc but handle anything that is Lite duty. Plugins in your DAW that are lite on CPU load qualify for E-Cores. Anything that is low in power demmand can run on E-Cores. Atleast that's how i understand it.

Logic not using E-Cores plus many software programs not running on M2 yet means that 'the grass is'nt greener on the otherside'. For Laptops M2's are by far superior in power but for Desktops intel competes just fine, and the i5/i7/i9 are more than enough power for Audio. If for some strange reason the intel CPUs were not enough CPU Muscle just tack on a Waves Soundgrid Server and you'll have enough to power a small planet. I have a XITE-1 and a i5 12600k and don't know how i'll ever need half of the power of this rig, and i work at 96khz project samplerate with some high demmanding plugins.

The M2's are a thing of beauty and true Juggernauts, but Apple's constant changing of O/S and Processors scares me off. Plus some of my Music gear such as Sonar and SCOPE are Windows only, add that fact with Intels Desktops are Alien-Technology wich has no problem taking us into the future. SCOPE XITE-1, UAD Apollo, Waves Soundgrid, etc can make up where Computers have weak points creating a Music-Power-system that's strong on all fronts!


EDITED

[LunaMan]

Sounds good @Sounddesigner. Now also UA Luna 1.6 is here and it will run on Windows ! Luna for Windows after all these years (public beta) ! That will make it easier to use with Xite on same machine, will be interesting to test whether Luna can use Scope driver directly or only by ADAT. Either way, having the x6, octocore PCI, 4 core Sattelite and Xite 1d on the same i9 machine should be enough power . Sessions will be cross compatible, so projects I’ve started on the Mac can be worked on the Wintel box and vice versa.

Too many options these days …

[valis]

UAD touts the "tight integration with Apollo" interfaces as a big part of Luna, would be interesting to see if it simply works with any ASIO hardware. Since there is a free tier of Luna for download, that seems possible but I would wonder if it defaults to a lower set of features in that case (non-Luna ASIO).

[LunaMan]

UAD touts the "tight integration with Apollo" interfaces as a big part of Luna, would be interesting to see if it simply works with any ASIO hardware. Since there is a free tier of Luna for download, that seems possible but I would wonder if it defaults to a lower set of features in that case (non-Luna ASIO).

I think Luna can work without an Apollo already on Mac (it has Core Audio and ASIO modes https://help.uaudio.com/hc/en-us/articl ... ntegration ) e.g. for the Volt range of interfaces. At the moment I'm not in any rush to get it going on Windows, other than for Xite integration, so will await a more stable release post beta. Maybe in a few months time.

Also from release notes :

"Do Apollo Thunderbolt features work on Windows?
All but one feature of the advanced LUNA integration with Apollo works identically between macOS and Windows. The missing feature on Windows is ARM (Accelerated Realtime Monitoring) mode for virtual instruments. On macOS, virtual instruments automatically run at a lower buffer size in ARM mode. On Windows, this may be possible but is not as easily achieved, so this feature is not currently cross-compatible. To achieve low latency with virtual instruments in ARM mode under Windows, manually reduce the ASIO buffer size."

[valis]

So it looks like they have also long since fixed the 512 buffer fixed size. Good to know, it might be useful to use the free version for some tape sim processing and light mastering at some point.

Between this, Reaper & Resolve free, things look fairly good for simple home uses.

[LunaMan]

Well, I rarely use ARM since I do 99% of sequencing in Reason still, I’ll usually just test that new VI’s work in Luna and use ARM just to audition them. Test driving so to speak. Tape sims I have on buses only, I remove them from tracks when Luna put them there by default.