I have always preferred MacOS ever since I was introduced to it. I spent most of my college career learning audio production tools within MacOS. It was not until after I graduated that my aging MacBook Pro caused me to dive into discovering other options. I went through a “laptop saga” a few years ago that included five different laptops from various non-Apple brands in one year due to my own ignorance as well as two cracked screens. Ultimately I ended up returning to an Apple laptop. To this day I love MacOS and Apple hardware. If I could only have one machine, it would probably be a Mac of sorts. However, as I have gotten further into the world of computer processing and networking as it pertains to audio, I have found some reasons to veer off the Apple path.
A bit of qualification: I have spent the last 2 years trying to come up with the best way to record 128 channels of audio over MADI at 96kHz. Why? Because that would be the general maximum channel count I would most likely need to record a high channel count band running at 96k in addition to tracking their mixes. Still to this day, the most common and arguably, most portable option would be two Digigrid MGBs. These are accessible, common, and relatively easy to set up.
The problem came when Apple moved to Apple Silicon. To my understanding, because of how MacOS handles network packets in combination with how the protocol of Soundgrid works, there has not yet been a streamlined way for Waves to be able to properly support Soundgrid recording and playback on an Apple Silicon machine.
This lead me on a long journey to find an alternate solution. I quickly stumbled on the Metric Halo MkIV hardware series where they support a 4x Copper MADI card. Long story short, there are a lot of pros to this device but ended up not being the right fit for me. Once I got things set up and the drivers installed, I didn’t even have to open the MIOConsole3d software. Unlike SoundGrid devices, it has on-board memory to be able to hold its routing. Therefore, each day I only had to open up REAPER and I was good to go. I never once had a recording issue. However, sadly this is a 16” deep rack unit; not carry-on compatible.
Having spent, a good portion of 2024 learning about networking, I was quickly introduced to the idea of local remote control of Mac minis. My friend Stephen Bailey has constantly pushed the boundaries of what is possible in the audio realm and has opened my eyes to the possibility of multiple computers all centrally controlled by one laptop.
In June of 2024, RME started to post about a PCIe card called the HDSPe AoX-M and AoX-D (AVB and Dante versions respectively). Both of these cards have the capability to add up to two MADI expansion cards for up to 128ch at 96k. Even though at the time of writing, this device has not yet been released, it shifted my mindset on the potential of recording solutions via a PCIe card. RME already has a number of PCIe interfaces people use in either a Thunderbolt 3 chassis or in PC workstations. Neither seemed super practical for a travel recording solution.
Enter the Minisforum MS-01. A “Mac mini-sized” PC with a spec sheet that checks almost every box I need including: up to an Intel i9-13900H, up to 96GB of RAM, dual 10Gb SFP+ ports, dual 2.5Gbe NICs, dual USB4 USB-C ports, three M.2 NVMe SSD slots, and to top it off half-height single PCIe 4.0 slot. If all of that is meaningless jargon to you, essentially it is a tiny powerhouse PC with robust network capabilities for remote PC control and more, substantial storage capabilities to avoid having to carry multiple external hard drives on the road. Since it is an Intel-based machine, it also is not subject to the same soundgrid recording issues Apple silicon is still facing.
Currently, I have set up my MS-01 in combination with a UniFi Express router and a stream deck for it to double as a Bitfocus Companion host. This allows me to have a central computer, remote controlled wirelessly by my MacBook, dedicated to recording to 6TB of internal storage, hosting Companion to control DiGiCo macros, monitor Shure RF devices, control recording and playback over OSC, and much more as things expand. This features of Companion are enough to warrant a separate post about just that, but I wanted to give context for how versatile this little machine is.
Like I mentioned before, I still prefer macOS, but the flexibility/portability-to-cost ratio of this machine meant I needed to make an exception. This fits nicely in my pelican even with an external power supply. It boots directly into my account which means, past getting everything installed, I only have to connect power and a single network cable. I have always been hesitant to want to use my laptop for show because I don’t want it to be tied down since it can be risky to unplug any machine in use between soundcheck and show. If I had something else to do, I did not want my personal laptop to be tied up. This is the best of both worlds; I can access the PC from my personal laptop and after sound check, I just close the remote control window. At showtime, I reopen and it’s exactly as I left it; all with very acceptable visual latency.
MSRP - $589 (i5-12600H with 32GB RAM + 1TB SSD)
If you have any other specific questions, feel free to email me at josh@spacebearaudio.com