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Performance reports for M1 Macbook Pro or Air and Logic Pro ?

pfschim

pfschim

Just a Skeleton with a Jazz bass
Supporting Member
Apr 26, 2006
9,359
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SF Bay Area
#1
hey, just curious if anyone has had a chance to put one of the new(ish) M1 Macbook Pro or Air through its paces with Logic Pro ? any issues ? do the limited ports pose any problems ? does the M1 Air choke at all under more than moderate load ?

Reason I ask is that I have been considering the move from Windows 10 based home recording (which has been fine for me) to Mac and Logic. I have a few friends who use Logic and are very happy with some of the things that are built into it.

Thanks for your input.
 
#3
yeah, I had found some pretty glowing reports on the web, even specifically about Logic, but I was also interested to hear from TB members too.
It would be kind of a vanity purchase as I don't really need another comp or another DAW to learn, but still ... it has my attention.
 
#5
pfschim said:
hey, just curious if anyone has had a chance to put one of the new(ish) M1 Macbook Pro or Air through its paces with Logic Pro ? any issues ? do the limited ports pose any problems ? does the M1 Air choke at all under more than moderate load ?

Reason I ask is that I have been considering the move from Windows 10 based home recording (which has been fine for me) to Mac and Logic. I have a few friends who use Logic and are very happy with some of the things that are built into it.

Thanks for your input.
Click to expand...

Ports (or the lack of ports, more accurately) shouldn't be any more of an issue than they already are on the most recent machines. Lots of docks are available to add ports.

Personally, I am a little iffy on getting one of these latest M1 machines for music work, but with Logic. being M1-ready, it's bound to work great. In spite of my feelings, I'm hearing great things about the M1 machines and these machines appear as entry-level machines, but boy, they are turning out hot performance numbers, no doubt.

You will probably be limited on 3rd-part plug-ins for a while, but I gotta say, even leaving Logic and going with Studio One (which is NOT M1-ready), the native plug-ins and instruments in Logic are so good, that might not be an issue for you.

Back in August, I needed a new MacBook and I didn't hesitate to order a new fully loaded ($$$$!) 16" Intel machine. I knew there would be a good while for vendors to catch up to the M1 machines and the Intel machines will be viable for few years still and/or hold a good value if I were to sell it. I don't know if new Intel machines are available from Apple at this point, but there's a whole bunch of used Intel Macs out there right now.

With your intentions to go with Logic, an M1 machine might be a good fit for you.

(If you get an M1 machine, look up "M1 Screensaver Bug" or something to that effect. It has to do with Fast User Switching. It may be related to Big Sur. Just get familiar with it up front so you can avoid it)
 
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#7
bwildt said:
I saw a Youtube review complaining that a lot of software vendors don't have M1 versions of their software released yet. Before buying an M1, I would verify that any software you require can run on M1 chipped Macs.
Click to expand...
This is true even for the latest Mac OS, regardless of processor type. I’ve held off upgrading my 2018 Mac due to a few third party companies still not bring Big Sur compatible.
 
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#10
bwildt said:
I saw a Youtube review complaining that a lot of software vendors don't have M1 versions of their software released yet. Before buying an M1, I would verify that any software you require can run on M1 chipped Macs.
Click to expand...

Yeah, developers were hit with a double-whammy. A new MacOS AND a new processor system. I imagine the developers will be working on the compatibility on all of this for quite a while.

I’m still on Catalina, several of the plug-in vendors I use haven’t caught up to Big Sur just yet.
 
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#12
I thought I would come back 10 months later to this thread and ask about how M1 equipped Macbooks and Airs are working for audio production.

I'm interested in any experienced feedback on this question, but personally, I don't expect to run huge projects with tons of simultaneous tracks and many VST's and or virtual instruments.

So, anyone had additional experience using the latest M1 Macbooks or Macbook Air for audio production work ?
 
#13
pfschim said:
I thought I would come back 10 months later to this thread and ask about how M1 equipped Macbooks and Airs are working for audio production.

I'm interested in any experienced feedback on this question, but personally, I don't expect to run huge projects with tons of simultaneous tracks and many VST's and or virtual instruments.

So, anyone had additional experience using the latest M1 Macbooks or Macbook Air for audio production work ?
Click to expand...

I changed from a 2018 Macbook Pro with 16 GB that was way over 2.000,- to a refurbished Mac Mini M1 with only 8 GB and a 500gb ssd for 600,-. I was a die hard as-much-RAM-as-possible, esp. when you can't upgrade the memory later guy... But the M1 simply handles memory much better than previous generations of processors. Not to say that more memory wouldn't make sense at all.
I use mainly Logic for music.
The M1 is much much faster.

For your use-case ("I don't expect to run huge projects with tons of simultaneous tracks and many VST's and or virtual instruments.") even years old macs with sufficient memory (>=8gb)and a SSD or external ssd would be sufficient, but fast never gets in the way.
I didn't take much notice before, but it is very relaxing to sit in front of a computer that is completely silent like the Mini Mac or the Macbook Air, esp. when you're listening to music.
 
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#16
So, while it does not really deal with the M1 mac performance question, I got the situation kind of handled for the moment. My future SiL is a pretty serious software developer/entrepreneur/start-up guy. ... as well as being a very nice kid. He is also has multiples of pretty much everything. Had dinner with him and my daughter earlier this week and we got to talking about this situation. He said he had at least 3 "spare" Macbooks laying around and he sent me one of his "spares" (2020 Macbook Pro 13, i7, 32gb ram, 1Ttb ssd ... nice specs!) to use as long as I need. I spent some time today downloading MainStage3, Garage Band and a bunch of instrument and sound libraries. Should hold me for a while.

Now I just have to reintoduce myself to the whole mac work flow thing and dig into these tools to see if they will work for me.

FWIW, my SiL is really positive on the M1 Macs and says they really crush pretty much any other comps as far as raw power, battery life and no fan noise. He is in the enviable position of being to afford pretty much anything he really wants for his development work and was kind of lamenting that the first gen M1 Macbooks are such great performers he can't really justify getting one of the new M1 Pro or Max Macbooks ... at least for performance reasons.
 
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#18
My twin brother and I are waiting for a new M1 Pro or Max to come out in a Mac Mini, with 64GB of RAM to buy for his younger son (38) who is composing with Logic for TV shows, movies and trailers on a MacPro trashcan. We've been learning from reviews and YouTube videos how powerful an M1 is with 16GB, so we know the new M1 will cook.
 
#20
To move more towards the original question, vs. M1book air:

pfschim said:
hey, just curious if anyone has had a chance to put one of the new(ish) M1 Macbook Pro or Air through its paces
Click to expand...
Me, here really coming from watching YT reviews ( Mactech), and from adapting in my brain to what *really* happens if you run a M1air into throttling:
they run graphic processing in these tests, using the CPU AND the RAM AND the SSD to 100% .
That won´t ever happen in normal music making conditions,
So my guess is, that we would not run sayed AirM1 into power throttling, based on the airM1 not having an active cooling system. The CPU load alone should not make it run hot.


i use a macminiM1,....and have also sayed macbook AirM1. both with just 8Gb RAM.
just: i don´t do production work as such on either of them, and i have not used my airbookM1 that much. And: I do NOT work anything with sample lybraries.*
* No clue how much this could add up to the whole load of the M1Air, in case one would do.
I use both as a FX unit, to send audio roundtrip thru it, and thru FX.
and the M1mini also as a VST based "Synthesizer play-workstation".
I do very heavy FX processing in my patches.

I bought the M1air under the impression that it should deliver 100% same power as my M1mini. and if it would be less, then very marginal.

the audio latency handling is btw. different on the M1macs.
i´d say, you can run smaller latencys, but in tunraround, won´t gain as much CPU power back if you change to big buffer settings, ......vs. how it is on a intel mac.
128 samples of buffer seems the sweetspot area. Well, 64-128 samples.
with a TB3 audio interface are very small latencys doable (roundtrip) !! (presonus in my case)
 

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