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[verloc]

Hi, I’ve just installed MC28 on an M1 MacBook Air, 16G memory.

Whilst using MC28 I noticed that the battery was depleting quite quickly and on checking Activity Monitor I can see that MC28 has an Energy Impact value of ~86 when playing music. When no music is playing it is down to ~0.5.

When I open Audirvana (used since getting the MacBook last year), it also has a similar idle value and the Energy Impact only goes up to 0.9 when playing music.

I’ve let MC28 play for a while but the value is consistent as is the value when not playing.

All my music is stored locally on the MacBook, none of it is compressed.

MC 28.0.64
M1 MacBook Air with Big Sur 11.6

Any ideas? It’s not really useable with this power draw - assuming the Energy Impact values are correct.

[LilyAarseth]

Not sure if this is the right solution, but left and right spectrum analyzers use a lot of cpu power when playing music, maybe if you disabled those two it would help a bit?

[verloc]

Thanks Lily, that has resolved a substantial part of the energy use, it’s now down to a relative value of ~10. However, this is still 10x higher than I get with Audirvana.

I can also see the battery time vary as I change between programs too.

Is this expected power use? Is there anything else to turn off to improve consumption? I’m already running it in Audio Only Mode.

[JimH]

There are several processes that occur in the beginning that will end.  Import, audio analysis, etc.

[verloc]

Thanks Jim.

I've been playing music with MC28 for over 3 hours now and it's still at ~10, if I activate the spectrum analyser the Energy Impact goes straight to 85 and stays there. There is no variation in these values and they are the same after this 3 hours plus of playing.

I doubt it's to do with import, audio analysis, et cetera unless these processes aren't closing down as expected.

[blgentry]

1.  Spectrum Analyzer on MC has used a lot of CPU for as long as I can remember.  I turned it off quite some time ago due to the CPU use.
2.  On my M1 13" Macbook, I see energy use of ~10 when MC is playing.  Just like yours.
3.  I've run this machine, on battery only, for about 1.5 full work days, without any charging in between.  I played MC most of this time.

So, while it's using more energy than another player, the overall on battery time I get on this laptop is phenomenal.  I've never had a laptop that would go this long on battery.  I don't know any other person that has ever had a laptop that lasted this long on battery.

I suspect that turning off MC would increase my battery life, but only by a small amount.  This is speculation.

Take care,
Brian.

[verloc]

Thanks Brian.

Seems the thing to do is turn off the SA as per Lily's suggestion.

So the value of ~10 seems normal for this software on an Apple Silicon machine, it would be interesting to see if the same values are given for an Intel MacBook on the same OS and MC28.

Agreed regarding battery life, it appears to be breaking a law of physics although I do keep the screen off when playing. Since my post it's had at least 6 hours of use and the battery is still showing 83%.

Mind you, the Energy Impact figure is relative and may not be truly representative but I clearly saw the power drain when the SA was on and that was what lead me to investigate.

[blgentry]

it would be interesting to see if the same values are given for an Intel MacBook on the same OS and MC28.

I just played a few songs on my 2014 iMac with 4 core i7 processor using MC28.  I'm seeing between 7 and 10 for energy impact.  So it seems similar-ish.

Glad you are enjoying your M1!

Brian.