Ordered an M4 Mac mini

[HomespunEffects]

The new Macs are getting rave reviews online so I ordered an M4 mini. It’s still in China according to the tracking but it should be here by Friday.

I’m hoping to get it all set up to make an attempt at writing music again. I have an older Presonus AudioBox USB. It will only be used for hooking a microphone into the DAW so I’m hoping I won’t have to buy something super expensive. Everything else should be covered by the HX Stomp and Keyboard USB interfaces.

What am I missing? Any other tips are welcome. Except from “you know who”.

 

[MirrorProfiles]

On an m4 mini here. Nearly everything working nicely.

I had previously bought a few thunderbolt hubs for my old computer, and they're possibly the most annoying thing you MAY want to account for. The good ones aren't particularly cheap but IMO they are worth it just to have ample high speed connectivity across a range of formats without having to worry about things dropping out. Caldigit has been rock solid for me. If your needs are very basic you may be fine using USB adapters to plug in your Helix and Audiobox, but its kind of a waste of all the bandwidth available on those ports.

I also grabbed a few Samsung T7 Shield hard drives over Black Friday which seem nice and quick and greatly expand the built in storage.

Sonnox plugins have an issue at the moment, which they say should be resolved by February (!).

One other cool accessory: https://makerworld.com/en/models/756063#profileId-704491

 

[TheTrueZoltan!]

[…] One other cool accessory: https://makerworld.com/en/models/756063#profileId-704491

 

[HomespunEffects]

On an m4 mini here. Nearly everything working nicely.

I had previously bought a few thunderbolt hubs for my old computer, and they're possibly the most annoying thing you MAY want to account for. The good ones aren't particularly cheap but IMO they are worth it just to have ample high speed connectivity across a range of formats without having to worry about things dropping out. Caldigit has been rock solid for me. If your needs are very basic you may be fine using USB adapters to plug in your Helix and Audiobox, but its kind of a waste of all the bandwidth available on those ports.

I also grabbed a few Samsung T7 Shield hard drives over Black Friday which seem nice and quick and greatly expand the built in storage.

Sonnox plugins have an issue at the moment, which they say should be resolved by February (!).

One other cool accessory: https://makerworld.com/en/models/756063#profileId-704491

I’ve got all this stuff ready to plug in.

 

[AlbertA]

Same here, I just replaced my Windows Tower with the Mac mini M4 base model. I had a 1TB NVME stick lying around so there's where my drums go now. I recovered a bunch of space under my desk :)

 

[Jarick]

That's awesome! I'm still rocking my M1 MBA which is working really well aside from wishing I had a bit more memory and disk space.

M4 Mini seems like a great buy but I love having a screen because I use my Mac for fun stuff like forums on the side while using my work laptop hooked up to my big screen.

 

[HomespunEffects]

I got a KVM because I’ll still need to use the Winderz machine from time to time.

 

[HomespunEffects]

Oh, I forgot to figure all the HDMI cables that I’d need. The shipping wasn’t free so i added an under desk mount for the Mac.

Yeah, I spent $25 to save $7.

 

[Sascha Franck]

I also grabbed a few Samsung T7 Shield hard drives over Black Friday which seem nice and quick and greatly expand the built in storage.

Got a 2TB T7 as well, seems to be great.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Important: Make sure to get an external HDD the size of the internal one for a Time Machine backup.

 

[HomespunEffects]

Important: Make sure to get an external HDD the size of the internal one for a Time Machine backup.

I run a NAS.

 

[Alex Kenivel]

I run a NAS.

 

[paisleywookiee]

I run a NAS.

I run a NAS and an external SSD. and another NAS. Aaaand….

 

[Jambi]

I run a NAS and an external SSD. and another NAS. Aaaand….

Come to think of it,

I have Nas on my NAS.

And SSD on my SSD.

 

[Jambi]

What DAW do you plan on running? Logic paired with the M series chips is pretty cool! Throw in an iPad running Logic Remote

I really need to look into incorporating my NAS with music production. It would be cool to be able lean into it as the foundation between 3 Macs. What am I missing out on?

 

[HomespunEffects]

I just put Logic Pro on the order with the Mac. May as well take advantage of the 0% interest for that, too.

 

[EOengineer]

I can’t imagine what the m4 minis are capable of at this point. My m1 is still barely breaking a sweat with huge sessions, SD3, Helix Native and Tonex used all over the place…

Apple is killing it with their hardware.

 

[laxu]

I can’t imagine what the m4 minis are capable of at this point. My m1 is still barely breaking a sweat with huge sessions, SD3, Helix Native and Tonex used all over the place…

Apple is killing it with their hardware.

All they need to do is not charge 3-4x more for disk space and make their display scaling system better so it doesn't have this huge pile of weird limitations. Mostly apparent on high end displays like what I use.

For processing performance they are great.