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Forum: VirtualDJ Technical Support

Topic: Mac M2 and Stems - Page: 2
djsh69PRO InfinityMember since 2018
djles.co.uk wrote :

Venbee, Goddard - Messy In Heaven (Official Video).mp4
Music video, length 3:00 minutes, stems completed = 15 seconds


For this test I ripped the version from YouTube, which is the 3 minute one.
On my MacBook Air M2, 16GB, 512 SSD it took 20 seconds
This value is hand stopped and represents the time between clicking save stems and seeing the progress display disappear.
I can compared it with a remixed version from ProVideos that is 4 mins and took 27 seconds, which is the same ratio.

I have no problem that a MacBook Pro model is faster than a MacBook Air, but there are some things I find at least interesting

M1, M1 Pro, M1 Max share the same Neural Engine
M2, M2 Pro share the same Neural Engine
The Neural Engine of M2 Generation is about 40% percent faster (according to Apple)

So also VDJ relies on Neural Engine for stems creation, some other factors like memory bandwidth still have impact.
Another interesting question is, if the number of GPU cores will have an impact on these numbers …
 
Posted Fri 20 Jan 23 @ 5:29 pm
OK, received the M2 Macbook Pro 14 today (M2 Pro 12 core CPU / 19 core GPU) and the stems calculate at 23.7%

Very impressive .... 10 seconds for a track. Well happy with that.
 
Posted Tue 24 Jan 23 @ 1:27 pm
I guess you mean at 23.7x (faster than realtime) not 23.7% (slower than realtime) :P
 
Posted Tue 24 Jan 23 @ 1:56 pm
Pardon my ignorance, are we saying all new M2 macs with a 16 core neutral engine will generate stems at roughly the same speed?

Will RAM or GPU cores factor into stem separation speed times? Will max vs pro chips show a difference in speed?
 
Posted Tue 24 Jan 23 @ 6:10 pm
Don't think there's been a definitive answer on this one. Will probably fnd out if anyone gets the M2 Max and tests it I guess.

Saying that the performance of the M2 Pro is well good enough.
 
Posted Tue 24 Jan 23 @ 6:13 pm
Thanks for the reply!

I'm sure others will start getting their pre-orders today and we'll get some more data.

Any issues running VDJ with the new Macbook?
 
Posted Tue 24 Jan 23 @ 7:45 pm
Only issue I had was when the video is output to an external monitor on full screen, it hides the taskbar and dock on the main display. It's a Mac OS thing but my son figured it out. On the video output double click to make it windowed then drag to fill the screen.

Had issues getting my MCX8000 and ShowXpress interface connected as it was ignoring the USB A ports on my hub, turns out if I disconnect the power passthrough then plug it in again it works. Another weird Mac thing no doubt. I can use my Lenovo 65w adapter for it through the hub and it keeps the 100% charge which is great.

The machine runs smooth as anything, very cool (28 deg vs 75 deg on my C940) with around 10% CPU. It's a whole different world to Windows.

I couldn't use a Mac for my day to day stuff, but for DJ use it will be the better option I think.
 
Posted Tue 24 Jan 23 @ 8:00 pm
kradcliffe wrote :
Only issue I had was when the video is output to an external monitor on full screen, it hides the taskbar and dock on the main display. It's a Mac OS thing but my son figured it out. On the video output double click to make it windowed then drag to fill the screen.

Had issues getting my MCX8000 and ShowXpress interface connected as it was ignoring the USB A ports on my hub, turns out if I disconnect the power passthrough then plug it in again it works. Another weird Mac thing no doubt. I can use my Lenovo 65w adapter for it through the hub and it keeps the 100% charge which is great.

The machine runs smooth as anything, very cool (28 deg vs 75 deg on my C940) with around 10% CPU. It's a whole different world to Windows.

I couldn't use a Mac for my day to day stuff, but for DJ use it will be the better option I think.



Haha!! Welcome to the dark side Keith!! The only other thing is the lack of fx's and Dons Telly apps which i so wish I could use :-(

If he would just create I'd pay for it!! But he just wont do it..............
 
Posted Tue 24 Jan 23 @ 8:15 pm
What is it about TV/TM you use the most? I tried it several years ago but never got in to it.
 
Posted Tue 24 Jan 23 @ 8:42 pm
I like to use it for promo vids like these





Comes in handy at certain venues as well because I can customize to screen (shoutouts, drinks, etc etc).
 
Posted Tue 24 Jan 23 @ 8:49 pm
In summary the M2 Mac works great. Couple of issues more related to my workflow rather than the machine itself.

I'm going to have it compute the stems first time then save which makes the most sense as it has a large HDD.

Would definitely recommend over a Windows machine for DJ work, the efficiency of the hardware is just so much better.
 
Posted Wed 25 Jan 23 @ 11:14 am
kradcliffe wrote :
In summary the M2 Mac works great. Couple of issues more related to my workflow rather than the machine itself.

Would definitely recommend over a Windows machine for DJ work, the efficiency of the hardware is just so much better.


OMG!@ What have I done!!! 🤣

Welcome to the darkside as they say, If you can't get on with macOS, it's fine for just DJing.

My first recommendation would be to get CleanMyMac X from MacPaw for £29.95 per year. I've used it for 5 years on my 15" Touchbar Mac and took out another subscription for the 14" M1 Mac last summer. I run it as the first program every day, I always run it just before a gig to make sure everything is running sweetly. Best thing since sliced bread for Macs. 😁

One other thing I would recommend, disable the Stage Manager when using VDJ. I have found that when using Stage Manager, running VDJ and minimizing it to the left side of the screen to bring another program to the Centre Stage, VDJ freezes! Restoring VDJ to the Centre Stage the VDJ interface will still be frozen (the music continues), to unfreeze it change VDJ to Full Screen or Windowed Screen then to your desired display ( I use Windowed because of the notch hiding the beat counter on Full Screen). Other programs continue running when they are parked. I prefer not to use Stage Manager when DJing with VDJ to stop any confusion.

VDJ skins. I know it's personal preference and you like the Blocks skin, I have used it for a few years gigging myself. I am now favouring Dan's Project X Slider Pro skin, it's worth a look.

P.S. I don't care for Apple's Safari browser, I prefer Opera (it has a VPN built-in).

Anything I can help you with let me know.

Cheers
Les
 
Posted Wed 25 Jan 23 @ 12:41 pm
djles.co.uk wrote :

OMG!@ What have I done!!!


Not all your fault, Huey had a word in too!
 
Posted Wed 25 Jan 23 @ 2:11 pm
It so crazy to me how everything just WORKS!! Like it really just WORKS!!

Glad its working out for you tho!!
 
Posted Wed 25 Jan 23 @ 3:10 pm
Done some more testing today and it seems I'm going back to my old setup. The calculation of stems is quick and seamless but that's the only real advantage. The machine itself is superb but MacOS is definitely missing a lot of features compared to Windows.

Had various issues with the video side .... how MacOS handles external displays is not nearly as good as Windows, and if you have anything fullscreen enabled it instantly hides the task bar and dock which isn't ideal. There's no way round that at all. You have to enforce fullscreen output in VDJ otherways if you click anywhere outside VDJ the video output goes off.

Also had issues with the VDJ UI freezing and jerking at times for up to 10 seconds (although the video output was fine). No idea why as the CPU, GPU and RAM use were all low. I see other people have reported this too.

Another issue I had is that I prep all my stuff on the Windows side then transfer the DB to the mac side (both D Drive and it's read on the mac with all files there). For some reason the VDJ history is giving tracks different file paths (some on the Windows path and some on the Mac path) and I can't figure out why. No reason for this to happen at all as they're all played from exactly the same folder.

I guess using a combination of both Windows and Mac isn't a good idea.
 
Posted Thu 26 Jan 23 @ 6:20 pm
I'm assuming your old setup is a PC?

These seem like inherent Mac issues and nothing related to VDJ 2023 or compatibility with your new M2 MacBook?

Just curious as I have an Asus ROG from 2016 and was looking to upgrade. Would love to move to a M2 Max MacBook but seems like VDJ is just better suited for a PC...
 
Posted Fri 27 Jan 23 @ 12:59 am
Yes, my testing and prep machine is an Intel Macbook bootcamped with Windows 10. So basically I prepare all my videos on it, file them in the relevant folders and update VDJ and use it as the "master". I then sync the folders and VDJ settings over to my work machine and backup which takes seconds. Once I've done a gig I copy the history and DB back to the "master"

It's flawless from Windows to Windows but I think because Mac has a different file structure there are issues.

The main issue was the freezing in MacOS but I'm not the only person to be experiencing this it seems.

Still stand by the reasoning that VDJ is better on Windows than Mac.
 
Posted Fri 27 Jan 23 @ 8:07 am