Apple Silicon Macs and music production

[k2k koos]

The Music production industry is one that has big investments in hardware, but this also includes many 'bedroom musicians'. I still have an audio interface for example with Firewire connections, instead of 'Thunderbolt' / USB 3.x etc. But hardware aside, many of us have multiple 3rd party Audio Unit plugins / processing/software instruments running in our DAW's such as Logic. Has anyone tested what happens to those Audio units when trying to run it all on an M1 device? Are they all working, do several cause instabilities or other compatibility problems? This is something I'd be really keen to know. Thanks!

 

[Sunshower]

Keen to hear about this too!

 

[grrrz]

there are multiple reviews in the form of youtube videos
check out those channels:
https://www.youtube.com/c/Jonsine/videos
https://www.youtube.com/c/LogicEDM/videos
https://www.youtube.com/c/PresentDayProduction/videos

this site makes a list of what works and how well
https://music-prod.com/apple-m1-silicon-what-plugins-software-sound-interface-works/

The gist of it is "it kinda works"; if you use logic you're gonna be better off because not only is it native but it also has a special "intel layer" that allows 3rd party AU/VST intel plug-in to run in a separate instance so logic is still running native. So intel plug-in performance are better with logic. For other softwares the performance will be a lot less impressive since it's emulated; and there are some glitches and bugs to be expected; some plug-ins don't work at all. All of it would also be improved once the devellopers make at least their software compatible with Big Sur.
Everything moves pretty slowly in the audio world; so the best bet for someone who uses their machine for serious production or for live gigs is to wait (it could take a while); or buy intel (I'd go second-hand if it were me). If you're just starting music and just want to fiddle or if you only use logic then it's probably a safe bet to go M1.
In the long run the cool thing is a macbook air or mac mini m1 will probably be a good enough machine for composition (if you don't use gianormous sound banks).
keep in mind most software editors don't officialy support their product with the M1 chip; so it might work or it might not.
Until now I find than you don't need the latest and greatest to compose (I use ableton live which is quite light); and I'm happy with a quad-core mac mini from 2012; or a 15" laptop from 2015.

It's also a good question to know wether firewire is supported by thunderbolt; I have motu mk3 that I wouldn't want to throw away. I already found out that my perfectly functioning UM3-EX midi interface was not supported by mac OS 10.11 and above; and that's kind of infuriating to have to spend money because manufacturers are to lazy to update their drivers or provide a class-compliant mode.

 

[Fishrrman]

If I was in pro music production, I'd "steer clear" of the m1 Macs for at least a year or two.
Until it was "known" that EVERYTHING I used would work without problems on the new Mac...

 

[grrrz]

If I was in pro music production, I'd "steer clear" of the m1 Macs for at least a year or two.
Until it was "known" that EVERYTHING I used would work without problems on the new Mac...

basically yes.

 

[Luposian]

I compose MIDIs on my Power Macintosh G4 QuickSilver, running MacOS X 10.3.9 and iPiano (Cider Software) and edit them (for an iOS game of mine being released eventually) in OcenAudio (was using Windows 10 version, now using the latest Mac version on my M1 Mac Mini). Listen to a clip (loop) I just worked on.

 

[petterihiisila]

If I was in pro music production, I'd "steer clear" of the m1 Macs for at least a year or two.
Until it was "known" that EVERYTHING I used would work without problems on the new Mac...

Another approach is to take full benefit of the return period, if one's credit card limit allows for that. I've used the return option once or twice, and it's a no-questions-asked sequence of buttons in Apple Store app. The money came back too, before the credit card company managed to send an invoice for it. That means no cost, not even interest/fees to test it out. Just time.

Right now returns are allowed until Jan 8 and that's plenty of time to test, whether a migrated system works or not.

I kept the M1 btw. The performance is so sweet that you might find it hard to return it even if it doesn't work with an important plugin or audio interface... you might end up changing the song instead. 😂

 

[grrrz]

also this

Waves and native instruments not supported as well.