Absolutely agree with you. I've been ploughing through a pile of videos on Macs trying to find the right one for music production and James has laid it out in a such a straight forward way that I now know exactly what to purchase. Thank you James. Now subscribed.
Thank you so much for this video!! This is a great start to helping me make a buying decision. I have a 16yo autisitc son who plays guitar and drums, and he shocked us all when he played for us a multi track Beatles cover that he recorded on Garage Band using nothig but his iPhone. His drum teacher, after seeing/hearing the project, recommended we get him a Mac, a mic, and Logic if we want to encourage his interest and development in this area (which of course we do!). He would mainly be recording live instruments (guitar, bass, both acoustic & electric). I had no idea how to even begin to figure out what specs I should be looking into for a Mac for him. But your video has given me a lot of information that I didn't know before. I can't thank you enough. Your information and advice are going to help me and my wife make a young, musically talented autistic boy very happy come his birthday later this year.
Wow, this is incredible and I'm humbled to hear that my video helped you choose a birthday gift for your son! Please feel free to reach out to me via social media or email if you guys ever need any help on the audio production part for your son. I wish you guys all the best and I hope one day he will become a successful musician (if that's what he wants to do)!
This was the most uplifting and wonderful little glimpse of humanity I have read and seen in a loooong time. Your son is a lucky little man👏 My heart bursts with joy and pride for you. As a son, I thank you. You make all the difference!
This is the video i needed to watch!!!! You've just talked me out of a M1 Max 32GB 1TB and I've now settled on the idea of a M1 Pro with 32GB and 1TB for music production... Many thanks from myself (and my bank manager 😂😂)...
I purchased the M1 Studio Max (base model) as soon as the Studios were announced so I've had it since late March. It's overkill for a lot of what I do but I like having the extra overhead. So far it has been stable as a rock and I'm very pleased with it.
People such as myself reported severe latency problems that are not fixable at this time. Are you not having latency issues with the Mac Studio like the rest of us?
@@JamesRoneyMusic I'm not but it's likely I'm not running the same apps as you. Which application are you experiencing latency issues with? BTW, I just looked at some of your videos. Very nice.
I wish I could share your sentiment... I got a Mac Studio M1 Max 64gb ram, and I've been getting nothing but CPU% spikes. I did migrate my whole system from a Mac with Mojave, but that shouldn't give me performance issues, right? I can't use Synthogy Ivory II without getting audio crackles and pops. Also Logic's native Drum Kit Designer plugin causes my CPU% to spike to 100% when I use it!!
@@SeanRainey _ I'm having the same issues, but worse. The Mac Studio is simply not built for have workloads. I'm running into all kinds of issues. Lot's of spinning balls, crashes, locking up, video play back often stutters during transitions. I wrote down everything as it happened. It's a very long list. ☹ And making 10 hour sleep videos on the Mac Studio with three or four effects layers cause the Mac Studio to operate at a crawl. I as well have 64gigs. The issues are so bad, that two chips would not have solved this. It's okay for the average user, but not for large video productions. It sucks.
M1 Mac mini user here. I do a ton of mixing and mastering and it’s very very fast and plenty for my needs. Best to use M1 native plugins if you don’t want bottlenecks
i have to say i love how you DON"T spend the first few min begging for like subscribe blah blah blah. you're right to the point. that gets my subscribe bro!
Hi James! Can't thank you enough for the review. I am a professional drummer that records at home and almost got caught up in the hype of purchasing more computer than needed. Thank you for explaining the tech of Mac. It allows me to purchase what I need versus overreaching. I could probably afford to spend more but why if its not needed. Thanks again, James.
Glad to hear my video helped! You are totally right about not spending more money to buy a computer with specs that you don't need. It's probably better to spend that extra cash on drum gear!
I have owned my M1 Pro 14-inch MacBook Pro with 10-core CPU, 16-core GPU and neural engine, 16 GB of unified RAM and 1 TB of SSD for 11 months now, and I love it. I use Logic Pro as my trusted DAW and VoiceOver to run the whole computer as I am a blind self-producing musician. I had to wait a while for my Waves Audio Grand Rhapsody piano to be updated, and I know that Native Instruments needed some time to upgrade Komplete Kontrol to the ARM chip set. (but that had already happened by the time I purchased the machine. I have not had issues with my M-Track interface more my blue Yeti USB condenser microphone. All is good in my working environment. :)
RAM TESTED/REVIEW // So I got my MBP M2pro 16inch a few days ago. Got the 16gb/1TB version at a discount for 2780€s, while the 32gb version would cost 3550€ (to all non EU people yeah our prices are this ridiculous). I did not think blindly spending 800€ more for RAM that I might or might not need is worth it so I got the 16GB version to test it out: First, I mostly mix and master and dont really produce much anymore. For my fellow engineers, I can assure you now you will probably never need more than 16gb on your Mac. 16gb on my previous windows laptop was not really much, since basically already 8gb of the 16 were occupied by win/other programs. Not sure if permanently or not, as I did not have the memory pressure graph on there. Loading up some of my newest projects that had my Alienware m17 r5 running on 100% CPU (and 80% occupied RAM) in Ableton run on my new mac with 25-30%. I had to duplicate all tracks and all plugins 4 times in order to fill up the CPU. At this point, the ram pressure graph was still around 25% (which makes sense as I only duplicated tracks and didnt add new ones). Still, adding other tracks with 60mb per wav would still allow 100 more tracks, filling up 6GB more. Even then, we would hardly fill up 10GB of the 16. So I guess, engineers definetely can stick with 16, unless you mix 250+ track projects on the regular. I dont think you will ever exceed that (and even if you would once in like 200 projects, the hotswap ability could still handle a lot by loading samples from the SSD directly and the CPU would still struggle before that - as I said, I was able to run 160 tracks with lots of plugins until it struggled). This is also why I would recommend the M2pro with 16gb over the M1max with 32gb if youre not using tons of sample libraries. For producers, I think it is still tough to fill up the ram. Did not test this yet as I dont have omnisphere kontakt etc on my mac, but I think you should definetly be able to have a few instances running, even in full mixing projects as I explained above. I recon if you really need more than a few instances of Kontakt running every project (maybe 7-10+? just a guess tho) you can opt for 32gb (or more if youre making film music), but still, with a price difference this significant Id still recommend you to test if you really need to spend the money, as it saved me 800€ that I would have never used on my mac. At most stores, you can give your device back for 30 days anyway, so if you notice you really need more RAM, you can justify the expense and buy more.
Thanks for the tips mate! I’m working on a lot of cinematic Bass stuff with loads of sidechain and comfesssors, noise gates etc. i have the m2 8gb ram. But I’m thinking i made a mistake and should buy the 16gb. Still not sure like you said have about 14 days to decide before I’m forced to make decision. My projects run 130 tracks with 4-5 plug-ins on each track, with occasional busses and what not. Nothings worse than working on a track and the CPU overload pop up comes on.
@@TheoreticalRobot considering your lots of plugins cpu should be the prio nr 1 but still make sure to check out if your RAM is enough. Maybe leave your test results here as I am only able to judge 16gb
As an orchestral amateur composer, this video was exactly what I needed to think about my future purchases, thanks a lot for this comprehensive summary. You just have a new subscriber ! Hope Apple will soon release computers with configurable RAM without having to pay for a super expensive chip...
@Carlos Roque Hey Carlos ! I haven't bought a new Mac since I last saw this video. I still own the same 2020 13-inch M1 MacBook Pro with 16 Go RAM and it still runs perfectly. Logic runs flawlessly on those M1 machines even the first series and I seriously don't regret this purchase. For your usage, I think a simple M2 MacBook Pro is more than ok ! The reason I might upgrade in the future is because I want at least 32 Go of RAM since I produce orchestral music and it requires a whole lot of RAM. But honestly I'm totally satisfied with my current mac 🙃
Wow! What a clear, comprehensive and competent presentation! Looking for those reviews for quite a while this is a objective and rational reflection in contrast to many “Reviewers” which are too much excited about everything in the case of monetarization their channels. Thanks a lot, James!
M1 Mac mini base model user. I’m completely new to MacOS, and the M1 seemed to be the perfect intro to the platform. I wasn’t expecting much, but damn I’m impressed! I’m running superior Drummer 3 at just 32 buffers. It runs my UAD Apollo thunderbolt 3 perfectly! When I had it hooked up to my very powerful windows box(i7 9800x, 64 GB RAM, etc) it dropped out constantly even at 128 buffers.
Great and thorough video! I went with the M1 max chip with 64Gb ram on a Mac Studio considering future need over the next 5 years of audio and video requirements and possible changes to them. Today my mac studio is a beast and overkill, but could be insufficient within a few years. Technology is moving so fast these days.
@@mandable look I’m no tech guy by any stretch. But my m1 Mac mini was struggling with audio production, constant system overloads etc. and I was running it fully with Logic Pro settings maxed out using all CPU cores etc. and 1024 sample rates etc. it was choking constantly for the productions I was tasking it with daily. So I needed an upgrade. I also do video production and wanted to ensure I’m good for the next 5 years at least before even thinking about buying another computer. if I’m wrong so be it. My Mac studio is rock solid now with absolutely zero issues with CPU or RAM and I focus on making music and videos without any concern.
I am using M1 Macmini with 16 GB RAM and 256 GB space since 2020 for Audio Production professionally. It works very smoothly because of following optimised work flow for Audio Production. I had a MacBook Pro 13" 2011 version with i5 dual core, 4 GB RAM and 320 GB HDD, later upgraded with 16 GB RAM and added 256 GB SSD using a caddy case by replacing built in dvd drive. Please note that LG V20 has a built in audio converter chip featuring higher resolution of audio that Apple Computers could adapt so that we don't need to purchase an external audio converter/sound card for Audio Production purpose. No body has explained yet about audio converters used in Apple Computers
James thank you very much indeed for your video. I believe it is the most professional buying guide that I have seen. Excellent analysis. I subscribed to your channel. I'll follow your videos closely bro!
I have a M1 Studio Max in the "stock configuration" with 32GB RAM. I added an OWC expansion dock for the storage and port expansion. I'm able to livestream and track my entire 5pc band at once, as well as leave Photoshop open by accident. It never chokes and runs like a champ.
As of today (10.2022) M2 MacBook Air is an absolute beast and for most people it will provide more performance than they will ever need for a really good price. Even M1 MacBook Air is still extremely good today and for even lower price. Light, no fans, long battery life. Truly great times
Fantastic video, just found you while looking for proper reviews of the M1 Macs for audio. The best video on the subject bar none! Very user centric and focused on what you would ACTUALLY need. Great stuff, instant subscribe. Looking forward to see what more videos you have 😁
Thanks a lot for the kind words! I've always thought there was a lack of emphasis on what you actually need when it comes to tech stuff, but I think it's important especially if you want to optimize the return on investment, which is why I included it! Thanks for the sub :)
My name i Jimmy K. I had a imac for ten years loved it. After researching I landed on the base model Mac Studio. My usual work load is 60 tracks 200 plugins or more, I have yet to slow this thing down. I usually run at between 18 to 30 percent. It may occur to you that I over purchase, not so. I had my iMac for a little over a decade. I plan to keep the Mac Studio about the same time . 250 dollars a year is cheap. When you purchase make sure you have room to grow. The Mac Studio is beyond a power house. If you take one for a ride hang on.
Overall a very great and informative video, and here's a summary of my experience. I have been using the M1 Max and the M1 ultra for some time now and I can say that both have worked very well for what I do. I use logic pro at a 64 buffer size (for ideal latency when recording guitar and other live instruments), and both machines have been really good. Both have the binned chip as I have no need for graphics, and I decided on the Max over the Pro largely because of the double memory bandwidth. I can agree that it's definitely overkill as I usually track largish rock and create pretty large electronic pieces, but I wanted to future proof it, hopefully I won't have to buy another studio computer for the next 10 years, or until the support drops. I also do light gaming with compatible games, or via steam remote play at is has worked very well. In all of these tasks, I have notice that I still need to monitor the CPU on the M1 max as it still peaks sometimes, but on the M1 ultra, the thought of never needing to check it is great and I would say psychologically it has improved my music production. There are negatives though which are to be expected. A lot of plugins that I used to use haven't been updated yet, and some will never be. I contacted novation about how long it would take them to update novation B-station (which I had religiously used), to which they responded they wouldn't. There have also been problems due to migration assistant and transitioning with a time machine backup. Sometimes Logic did very weird stuff which was largely fixed by reinstalling it, but there are still a few bugs here and there. Not sure if it's compatability, migration, or just monterey, but they're there nonetheless. Overall all the M1 chips have been great IMO, though only get the ultra if you do GPU intensive stuff or plan to not upgrade for a long while. I would rather pay extra for something I might not take advantage of, than be stuck with something not powerful enough.
Thank you for sharing your experience! Based on what I've heard from people, if you are migrating from an intel Mac to an M1 Mac, the migration assistant can cause a lot of issues, which was why I didn't bother with it, and just set up the computer from scratch (it was a good opportunity to purge junk, anyways). I totally understand the desire to future-proof, but I still believe the M1 Max and M1 Ultra would not be cost effective for music production needs for a couple of reasons. 1) Apple is still in active development of Apple Silicon Macs, so I suspect new Apple Silicon Macs will come out every year. One might be able to find a Mac with great CPU power but not crazy GPU power in the future; 2) These M1 Max and M1 Ultra Macs are very expensive. For the same amount of money, one could most likely build a PC where most of the money is dedicated to the CPU, and not buy a dedicated GPU. This way, your money is spent to exactly address your needs, and I would argue that you could future-proof even further this way. Of course, one major downside of this approach is that you would need to switch to Windows, which is a no-go for many. But still, it's something to be aware of as a buyer, imo!
@@JamesZhan Yea exactly. I know people that get what they need and do incremental upgrades every year, but in a decades time, they will have ended up spending more than to just get something overkill that would last 10 years. For my current workflow it’s definitely overkill, but I soon plan to some sort of kontakt string and orchestral library for uni, for use in tandem with movie editing in premiere. I would think that should be able to somewhat saturate the performance offered in the M1 ultra, and if not, I guess that’s just even more peace of mind haha. Keep up the good vids James!
@SGEGbub so with the ultra the cpu spikes haven't been an issue anymore? I do the same type of rock and metal recording. On the M1 I get spikes or clipping using a buffer of 128 some master buss processing Superior and a few nureal dsp plugins active. It's a lot of money to upgrade, so really want to make sure it can Handle basic audio stuff like that. Thanks for any feedback
@@Plastidon well in my experience, the cpu does spike sometimes but the sheer headroom in performance of the ultra makes it unnoticeable. I’d say make sure all the plugins are native and support M1, and also keep your eye on activity monitor
Are you thinking of getting an Apple Silicon computer for your studio? If you've already bought one, let me know which one you got and what your experience have been with it so far! It will be helpful for other who are on the fence of getting into the Apple ARM ecosystem. Thank you for stopping by!
If I'm running several instances of Omnisphere, Keyscape, lots of virtual instruments and sample libraries which machine and configuration would you suggest ?
Just ordered a M1 Max with 4TB of Storage. Enjoyed the video. Very interesting. I decided to invest in future proofing my system in aim of longevity from my computer
This is so precise and helpful. I was using a M1 Pro w/ 16GB and 512GB SSD because costco had it on sale for $350 off but returned it because it didn’t make sense for the long term. Was considering the M1 Max chip but now I think I’ll stick with Pro and go for more memory and SSD, because I don’t do complex video editing. Excellent video.
I'm working with an M1, 32gb, 512 gb ssd and experiencing buyer's remorse. It was fine at first but now my daw crashes using a favorite de-noise plugin. Not even in real time during render if I don't dial it back. Learned my lesson though always go a little overkill. I'll naturally advance in skill and that involves a powerful computer that can handle the workload.
I feel all these M1 M2 M3 releases and their Max Pro Ultra whatnot are basically like choosing a BigMac, BigCheeseWhooper or the Maxxed out BiggestrippleMacFettBurger. I guess good biz model and offers the consumer the apparent choice levelled to their economic possibilities, whilst upgrading by very small increments (since the M1 tech jump). Thanks for the vids, ive seen like 4 of them to get a good perspective on the M lineage.
Thanks for this. I have a Mac Studio with the max chip and 64 gig of ram . So glad I didn’t get the ultra! Def have huge sample library templates I load for my work but now I will check that memory pressure graph!
Thank you for this video! This is THE MOST HELPFUL review I have come across. I'm still composing on a 2012 MB Pro 15" with 8gb ram and have been wishy-washy about upgrading (with all this M2 Mini talk that seems to be just that...talk). However, the way you break it all down and the detail you provide has definitely helped me figure out what I actually need vs what would be overdoing it and ultimately overpaying. I appreciate you and this video. Cheers!
This is a really well thought out video. Thanks for the real world advice without all the hype so many other reviewers can't seem to do without. I ended up getting the 14" MBP with the 10/16/16 core M1Pro chip, 16BB RAM, and 1 1TB SSD. I was going to get the base model, but once you bump up the SSD from 515GB to 1TB, the bigger chip became a better deal. Besides, Costco had it for $200 off, so I jumped at it. I run Logic and DaVinci Resolve, and so far everything is amazingly fast compared to my old MBP and my 2019 iMac. I don't run 90 tracks of audio, or 8K/RAW video, so this should work out fine for all of my needs.
It’s been so hard to find a good video on this, thank you for making one! It’s annoying that Apple don’t offer the M1 Pro in the iMac or Mac mini, seems like a really big gap in their lineup.
Great video, very component level breakdown of the builds on these, and good context on where certain limits of specs will start to effect specific types of audio production workflow.
I have a 2019 16 Inch MacBook Pro with 64gb ram using int. And I have not run in any problems at all. I mixed, master, produce, edit videos, use heavy effects. I never have to be cautious of how many plugins I’m using or anything of the sort. I will keep this MacBook Pro (that costed over $7k) until it can’t attend to my needs anymore. The only itch I have is I feel like I’m missing out on faster export time that the new macs have to offer along with the longer battery life. I’m a fan of the Touch Bar too. The only complaint I have is sometimes the fan is a bit loud
Thank you loads for this video. I was considering buying a Studio for my music production, and really didn't want to spend the big bucks! This really helped put it all into perspective. Much appreciated.
I just ordered the MBP 14”. 10/16 with 16gb and 1tb drive. My old and still amazing 2014 MBP 15” is getting on in the years. Seeing how amazing my wife’s MB Air M2 is i decided it’s time. Should be here tomorrow/Friday. Exciting! I do medium session of 40-60 tracks with a mic of audio files and VSTs in Logic and Reason
@@JamesZhan I got no doubt I will. My wife’s M2 is mental already! Shipping delayed until Monday. But it’s ok. Been thinking about upgrading fro 2 years so another few days matter little.
My base MacBook Air m1 runs all my native daws (Cubase, Live, Logic, Studio One, Reaper, FL Studio, Bitwig) flawlessly. Nothing else needed for audio work.
I’ve had 3 Apple silicone Macs. A MacBook Air, A Mac Mini and a 14’ PowerBook pro. I don’t need any of these. I still have a 2013 MacBook Pro i5. I’m a professional electronic musician and it comes down to optimizing your setups. But this is just me. Everyone is different.
As someone who owns the base model M1 Pro, i can say it as been the best laptop I have ever got my hands on. 16GBs of memory works great for my videos, the media engine works great for 4K videos, now the only thing is that is hard is having good Wi-Fi! I will say, thanks James for the help with this video.
love the video! One thing to potentially add (if you don't already have a video on it) when talking about form factor is the difference in peripheral connectivity since air, pro, mini, and studio have vastly different port options.
This is by far the best review! I just watched other so-called experts give reviews, and they were saying that these machines are perfect for music. They were basically saying the exact opposite, but without no substance. This review explain why these machines are overkill for someone who is just doing normal music. But all of these other UA-camrs who are commenting on the Mac studio, is saying that it is perfect for music.
However, these reviews and most comments, are not from real world heavy users running big projects on them. I’ve run into serious slowdowns and extreme latency on both Logic Pro and Final Cut Pro on the Mac Studio resulting in endless spinning balls. If your video projects are small you should be ok. But for audio productions serious latency anywhere from a quarter of a second to a full two seconds. Others running into the same latency problems as well.
@@JamesRoneyMusic so you are saying you have the Mac studio and you do above what a normal music hobbyist would do? You do large scale music producing and it's a bit slow? So for everyone but someone doing big time music production on a large scale it would be ok?
Bought a Mac Studio 32gb 1tb Max. Love it. Knew going in it had to be a clean break from the past (Mac Pro 1,1). New audio interface and only plugins I kept were M1-compatible. Audio Damage, Sound Toys, Eventide, Valhalla. Ditched UAD. Have not missed them, at all.
What this video does not address is very serious flaw in the architectural design of the Mac Studio when it comes to using it for a digital audio workstation. There is severe latency issues that continue to go unresolved.
Best M1 comparison on UA-cam by far! Was just about to buy a Mac studio before watching this and you really helped me understand that I don't need Max or Ultra. Looking forward to getting my hands on my first ever MacBook 🎉
Great video, except for the RAM discussion. I am running Superior Drummer 3 with Studio One, IzoTope, Native Instruments, Waves, EastWest Composer Cloud, Neural DSP & ML Sound Labs. My RAM pressure exceeds 32 GB in a normal mix with synth guitar vocals drums bass, for normal day-to-day usage. Yes, a user might be able to get away with memory swapping. But you didn’t mention the negative effects of throttling the SSD bus, or the consequences of thrashing the SSD, on its MTBF. Tom’s hardware showed 64% less disk I/O when RAM bumped from 4 to 16GB for instance, for common use cases. In my case, I would be using about 0.5TB/day of memory swap if I had a 16GB RAM model. That’s about 182TB/year of memory swap. And SSDs die from 700-1000 TB writes. Is that a five-year lifespan on my expensive mac? The internal SSD that it uses to swap is not replaceable. Why would I want to thrash it with memory swap?
This is an excellent and well thought out video. You make some great suggestions and logic around what features matter the most for music and audio. Thank you ❤️👍🏻👏🏻
Thanks so much for making such a clear, logical and easily understood video. I'm a full time guitar player using Logic Pro and a pretty old MBP (2013) which is dying. Apple tech is far from my forte and this video completely took all the heartache out of it. The cost of most things in Australia is prohibitively expensive so you really do need to know what you're paying for and what you do and don't need. Even my ailing old 2013 MBP with 16GB Ram stayed green on the memory pressure test using Logic Pro. Tracking, using mastering software and bouncing a project. All same result. Thanks again.
Might be in the minority here, but why isn't a streaming/recording use case considered within these reviews? So many UA-camrs showcase their music production tips and tricks, which are probably recorded on something like OBS. And a lot of others are streaming as well. For those music production content creators, I cannot seem to find a video that addresses this.
I was thinking of buying a refurbished MacBook Pro M1, but the price everywhere for the M1 Pro, 16 GB, 512 GB is 1500€-1600€. And a new MacBook Air with the same configuration is around 1700€. So, I´m serious about buying the 2023 MacBook Pro M3 Pro, with the new Space Black which is on sale for 2149€, because it´s newer, not that more expensive than the others, and the resale value will be higher. This would be my first M chip MacBook Pro. My current MacBook Pro is a 2011 that died. In my studio I have one of the last 2020 iMac 27" 3,6 GHz, 10 Core-i9, 40GB, 1TB. It´s a beast, but I´m needing a MacBook Pro for my new solo project, and for doing work on the road.
I currently use a mid-2012 MacBook Pro with 16GB DDR3 RAM and a 2TB SSD. I do multitrack production on it with GarageBand. Sometimes, when I have a lot of tracks and a lot of effects running at the same time, it exceeds the CPU capacity. Certain VSTs are more CPU-intensive than others, of course. There are times when I do feel somewhat limited by my current setup. Eventually I hope to take professional recording training, and upgrade to a silicon model, Logic Pro, and a full-sized keyboard. I’m not making any commitments or counting anything out just yet. I want 32 gigs of RAM at minimum. I will likely still be using my current laptop on the side for other things. I want my new SSD to be either 2 or 4 terabytes. Thank you for the detailed discussion of various aspects of the M1 chips. I like to do my research well in advance.
Hi there, thinking of purchasing a MacBook M1. I use an iMac with 32 gigs of Ram now. The MacBook I want to have when I’m on the road or have to go somewhere and do music for someone else. I use Logic and I have a few orchestral libraries, but for sure if I purchase a MacBook it would be the Pro. Even though I’m not a full time professional, I do like orchestrating and experimenting in writing with libraries and doing whatever is requested from someone who wants to work with me. Do, my question is would it be better to have the 8 core or 10 core and what about the 1 or2tbs? Hope I hear from you. I will go over your video again. And learn more. Thank you.
Fantastic video. I bought a Mac Studio M1 Max 64GB RAM, and use it for high end video and music composing. You helped assure me that I got the right one for my needs. I paired it with a HP Z Series widescreen monitor to replace my old cinema displays. Very happy so far and glad Rosetta is there to help bridge my software that isn’t M1 native yet. Subscribed! Love your presentation. You’re a smart and talented guy, James. Thanks for the video.
Sounds like you got the right machine for your needs! I barely have any plugins that need to run on Rosetta 2 now (thank god). Thank you for your kind words; really appreciate it :)
INCREDIBLE video, just what I was looking for... was about to pull the trigger on an M1 Max, and now I'm definitely backing off to M1 Pro. Thanks for saving me bucks!!
so I got an m1 max with 64 gig ram, 2 tb I use a lot of plugins always and virtual instruments, but also am editing 4k and 6k video, I have found that its been more than enough, I can load a pro tools session or Ableton session and still have tons of cpu and ram available. this being said this machine is future proof!!!
You know man, you make really grate benchmarks for music production but please, considers, if you wanna step up the game to make even benchmarks comparing macs to gaming laptops and even desktops, that way I think that your Channel could become the most complete and influencial in matter of benchmarks for music production and maybe finally the internet can be able to compare Apples to apples all the different computer choices there are for music production and the "horsepower" of everyone. Please considers this🙏🏻🙏🏻 Keep up your good work!💪🏻💪🏻
I switch, with a mac mini and a studio this year. I use parrallele for windows software. I uses them for industrial drawing, films editing and so fort.
I plan to buy the 16" Macbook pro with M1 Max, 64 GB of memory and 4TB of storage because the M1 Max Memory offers twice the memory bandwidth (400GB/s vs 200GB/s) of the M1 Pro. I use tons of CPU intensive plugins and samples via a Native Instruments Maschine which is integrated into N.I.'s Traktor DJ software for live performance with many attached controllers and Ableton Live is also sometimes running live along side them simultaneously. I also use Maschine as a plugin inside of Ableton Live and Logic Pro for music production along with many other plugins and sample libraries. I'll be using the performance set up live on Twitch and other platforms as well. I obviously need the portability of the laptop but if I purchased the Mac Studio M1 Ultra and a portable monitor along with keyboard and mouse I could probably play outside of my house with that as well (no battery). It would be kind of a hassle though. And maybe risky if I'm playing powered by a generator in the desert! I'll probably wait until after the June Apple event to see what they do but I doubt there will be better options. What do you think?
I have that exact M1 MBP you plan to buy! It's a freaking beast I will tell you that. If you need portability I think one of the MacBook Pros would be the perfect choice. Get the M1 Pro if you can do with 32GB of RAM. If not, you would have to shell out for the M1 Max. Having to take a mouse, a keyboard, a power generator on top of the Mac Studio sounds like an unnecessarily huge hassle!
@@JamesZhan LOL oh no the generator is usually part of the promoter's responsibility. Unless I'm using my own PA. I'll get the M1 Max because it's memory is two times faster than the M1 Pro.
Thx 4 this helpful in-depth review. I'm planning to get the base model 14inch (8 core)....That's what I can afford as of now. I mainly mix in the box and I coming from a mid-2012 mbp (12gb ram)
Exactly….I got mine yesterday and I can assure: IT WILL BLOW UR MIND. The screen is amazing, speakers unreal compare to my old MBP. I haven’t tested the performance yet as I’m transferring my data into the new machine.
🔥UPDATED 2023 VERSION IS OUT! ➡The Ultimate M1/M2 Mac Buying Guide for Music Production:
ua-cam.com/video/VFpCbT3Rx4Y/v-deo.html
You are the only UA-camr who explained it in simple and straight to the point. Others just talk and talk and never tell you what you really need.
Absolutely agree with you. I've been ploughing through a pile of videos on Macs trying to find the right one for music production and James has laid it out in a such a straight forward way that I now know exactly what to purchase. Thank you James. Now subscribed.
Thank you so much for this video!! This is a great start to helping me make a buying decision. I have a 16yo autisitc son who plays guitar and drums, and he shocked us all when he played for us a multi track Beatles cover that he recorded on Garage Band using nothig but his iPhone. His drum teacher, after seeing/hearing the project, recommended we get him a Mac, a mic, and Logic if we want to encourage his interest and development in this area (which of course we do!). He would mainly be recording live instruments (guitar, bass, both acoustic & electric). I had no idea how to even begin to figure out what specs I should be looking into for a Mac for him. But your video has given me a lot of information that I didn't know before. I can't thank you enough. Your information and advice are going to help me and my wife make a young, musically talented autistic boy very happy come his birthday later this year.
Wow, this is incredible and I'm humbled to hear that my video helped you choose a birthday gift for your son! Please feel free to reach out to me via social media or email if you guys ever need any help on the audio production part for your son. I wish you guys all the best and I hope one day he will become a successful musician (if that's what he wants to do)!
You're a very proud father of your son who supports him in his interests.
i wish every parent would support their child...
This lights me up hearing this! I love that , I hope that he makes incredible music on his journey using a new Mac!
this is beautiful
This was the most uplifting and wonderful little glimpse of humanity I have read and seen in a loooong time. Your son is a lucky little man👏 My heart bursts with joy and pride for you. As a son, I thank you. You make all the difference!
This is the video i needed to watch!!!! You've just talked me out of a M1 Max 32GB 1TB and I've now settled on the idea of a M1 Pro with 32GB and 1TB for music production... Many thanks from myself (and my bank manager 😂😂)...
I purchased the M1 Studio Max (base model) as soon as the Studios were announced so I've had it since late March. It's overkill for a lot of what I do but I like having the extra overhead. So far it has been stable as a rock and I'm very pleased with it.
People such as myself reported severe latency problems that are not fixable at this time. Are you not having latency issues with the Mac Studio like the rest of us?
@@JamesRoneyMusic I'm not but it's likely I'm not running the same apps as you. Which application are you experiencing latency issues with?
BTW, I just looked at some of your videos. Very nice.
I wish I could share your sentiment... I got a Mac Studio M1 Max 64gb ram, and I've been getting nothing but CPU% spikes. I did migrate my whole system from a Mac with Mojave, but that shouldn't give me performance issues, right? I can't use Synthogy Ivory II without getting audio crackles and pops. Also Logic's native Drum Kit Designer plugin causes my CPU% to spike to 100% when I use it!!
@@SeanRainey _ I'm having the same issues, but worse. The Mac Studio is simply not built for have workloads. I'm running into all kinds of issues. Lot's of spinning balls, crashes, locking up, video play back often stutters during transitions. I wrote down everything as it happened. It's a very long list. ☹ And making 10 hour sleep videos on the Mac Studio with three or four effects layers cause the Mac Studio to operate at a crawl. I as well have 64gigs. The issues are so bad, that two chips would not have solved this. It's okay for the average user, but not for large video productions. It sucks.
@@SeanRainey In hindsight, would 128gb ram have been a better choice? I’m considering a Mac Studio for both music and video production
M1 Mac mini user here. I do a ton of mixing and mastering and it’s very very fast and plenty for my needs. Best to use M1 native plugins if you don’t want bottlenecks
Do you have any issues with RAM usage? Probably the biggest negative of the mini is the 16GB limit.
@@alanrogers989 As a M1 Mac mini user myself, nope. I have 16gb, which is more than enough for me
@@samjaush6309 so do yóu record music.with plugins etc and you find it's good
how big are your sessions though?
cause Ive heard that sessions with 70 tracks even using this m1 ultrachips can crap out???
So running ableton 11 with 8-12 tracks (my average) with a handful of VST plug ins, should run smooth with little to no cpu overload??
i have to say i love how you DON"T spend the first few min begging for like subscribe blah blah blah. you're right to the point. that gets my subscribe bro!
Hi James! Can't thank you enough for the review. I am a professional drummer that records at home and almost got caught up in the hype of purchasing more computer than needed. Thank you for explaining the tech of Mac. It allows me to purchase what I need versus overreaching. I could probably afford to spend more but why if its not needed. Thanks again, James.
Glad to hear my video helped! You are totally right about not spending more money to buy a computer with specs that you don't need. It's probably better to spend that extra cash on drum gear!
I have owned my M1 Pro 14-inch MacBook Pro with 10-core CPU, 16-core GPU and neural engine, 16 GB of unified RAM and 1 TB of SSD for 11 months now, and I love it.
I use Logic Pro as my trusted DAW and VoiceOver to run the whole computer as I am a blind self-producing musician. I had to wait a while for my Waves Audio Grand Rhapsody piano to be updated, and I know that Native Instruments needed some time to upgrade Komplete Kontrol to the ARM chip set. (but that had already happened by the time I purchased the machine.
I have not had issues with my M-Track interface more my blue Yeti USB condenser microphone. All is good in my working environment. :)
That's amazing to hear!
Great comparaison! I’ll just add that the M1 air and M1 13“ MBP support only one external display, which may be important for some of us…
That's a good reminder!
They can support 2 with display link. Which has a tonnnn of latency here and there. I don’t recommend it !
RAM TESTED/REVIEW // So I got my MBP M2pro 16inch a few days ago. Got the 16gb/1TB version at a discount for 2780€s, while the 32gb version would cost 3550€ (to all non EU people yeah our prices are this ridiculous). I did not think blindly spending 800€ more for RAM that I might or might not need is worth it so I got the 16GB version to test it out:
First, I mostly mix and master and dont really produce much anymore. For my fellow engineers, I can assure you now you will probably never need more than 16gb on your Mac. 16gb on my previous windows laptop was not really much, since basically already 8gb of the 16 were occupied by win/other programs. Not sure if permanently or not, as I did not have the memory pressure graph on there.
Loading up some of my newest projects that had my Alienware m17 r5 running on 100% CPU (and 80% occupied RAM) in Ableton run on my new mac with 25-30%. I had to duplicate all tracks and all plugins 4 times in order to fill up the CPU. At this point, the ram pressure graph was still around 25% (which makes sense as I only duplicated tracks and didnt add new ones). Still, adding other tracks with 60mb per wav would still allow 100 more tracks, filling up 6GB more. Even then, we would hardly fill up 10GB of the 16. So I guess, engineers definetely can stick with 16, unless you mix 250+ track projects on the regular. I dont think you will ever exceed that (and even if you would once in like 200 projects, the hotswap ability could still handle a lot by loading samples from the SSD directly and the CPU would still struggle before that - as I said, I was able to run 160 tracks with lots of plugins until it struggled). This is also why I would recommend the M2pro with 16gb over the M1max with 32gb if youre not using tons of sample libraries.
For producers, I think it is still tough to fill up the ram. Did not test this yet as I dont have omnisphere kontakt etc on my mac, but I think you should definetly be able to have a few instances running, even in full mixing projects as I explained above. I recon if you really need more than a few instances of Kontakt running every project (maybe 7-10+? just a guess tho) you can opt for 32gb (or more if youre making film music), but still, with a price difference this significant Id still recommend you to test if you really need to spend the money, as it saved me 800€ that I would have never used on my mac. At most stores, you can give your device back for 30 days anyway, so if you notice you really need more RAM, you can justify the expense and buy more.
Thanks so much for the information! I'm pinning your comment for now so other people can see it :)
@@JamesZhan Thank YOU James, you helped me out a lot, just tring to give back something to the community 🙏
Tt
Thanks for the tips mate! I’m working on a lot of cinematic Bass stuff with loads of sidechain and comfesssors, noise gates etc. i have the m2 8gb ram. But I’m thinking i made a mistake and should buy the 16gb. Still not sure like you said have about 14 days to decide before I’m forced to make decision. My projects run 130 tracks with 4-5 plug-ins on each track, with occasional busses and what not. Nothings worse than working on a track and the CPU overload pop up comes on.
@@TheoreticalRobot considering your lots of plugins cpu should be the prio nr 1 but still make sure to check out if your RAM is enough. Maybe leave your test results here as I am only able to judge 16gb
As an orchestral amateur composer, this video was exactly what I needed to think about my future purchases, thanks a lot for this comprehensive summary. You just have a new subscriber ! Hope Apple will soon release computers with configurable RAM without having to pay for a super expensive chip...
@Carlos Roque Hey Carlos ! I haven't bought a new Mac since I last saw this video. I still own the same 2020 13-inch M1 MacBook Pro with 16 Go RAM and it still runs perfectly. Logic runs flawlessly on those M1 machines even the first series and I seriously don't regret this purchase. For your usage, I think a simple M2 MacBook Pro is more than ok !
The reason I might upgrade in the future is because I want at least 32 Go of RAM since I produce orchestral music and it requires a whole lot of RAM. But honestly I'm totally satisfied with my current mac 🙃
Wow!
What a clear, comprehensive and competent presentation!
Looking for those reviews for quite a while this is a objective and rational reflection in contrast to many “Reviewers”
which are too much excited about everything in the case of monetarization their channels.
Thanks a lot, James!
M1 Mac mini base model user.
I’m completely new to MacOS, and the M1 seemed to be the perfect intro to the platform. I wasn’t expecting much, but damn I’m impressed! I’m running superior Drummer 3 at just 32 buffers. It runs my UAD Apollo thunderbolt 3 perfectly! When I had it hooked up to my very powerful windows box(i7 9800x, 64 GB RAM, etc) it dropped out constantly even at 128 buffers.
Great and thorough video! I went with the M1 max chip with 64Gb ram on a Mac Studio considering future need over the next 5 years of audio and video requirements and possible changes to them. Today my mac studio is a beast and overkill, but could be insufficient within a few years. Technology is moving so fast these days.
How come your Mac Studio is not suffering from severe latency like the rest of us?
@@JamesRoneyMusic not sure, it runs perfectly so far and I don’t want to jinx it!
@@mandable look I’m no tech guy by any stretch. But my m1 Mac mini was struggling with audio production, constant system overloads etc. and I was running it fully with Logic Pro settings maxed out using all CPU cores etc. and 1024 sample rates etc. it was choking constantly for the productions I was tasking it with daily. So I needed an upgrade. I also do video production and wanted to ensure I’m good for the next 5 years at least before even thinking about buying another computer. if I’m wrong so be it. My Mac studio is rock solid now with absolutely zero issues with CPU or RAM and I focus on making music and videos without any concern.
I am using M1 Macmini with 16 GB RAM and 256 GB space since 2020 for Audio Production professionally. It works very smoothly because of following optimised work flow for Audio Production. I had a MacBook Pro 13" 2011 version with i5 dual core, 4 GB RAM and 320 GB HDD, later upgraded with 16 GB RAM and added 256 GB SSD using a caddy case by replacing built in dvd drive.
Please note that LG V20 has a built in audio converter chip featuring higher resolution of audio that Apple Computers could adapt so that we don't need to purchase an external audio converter/sound card for Audio Production purpose. No body has explained yet about audio converters used in Apple Computers
you're the man James.
James thank you very much indeed for your video. I believe it is the most professional buying guide that I have seen. Excellent analysis. I subscribed to your channel. I'll follow your videos closely bro!
I have a M1 Studio Max in the "stock configuration" with 32GB RAM. I added an OWC expansion dock for the storage and port expansion. I'm able to livestream and track my entire 5pc band at once, as well as leave Photoshop open by accident. It never chokes and runs like a champ.
As of today (10.2022) M2 MacBook Air is an absolute beast and for most people it will provide more performance than they will ever need for a really good price. Even M1 MacBook Air is still extremely good today and for even lower price. Light, no fans, long battery life. Truly great times
This has been a super helpful video , I’ve finally narrowed down on a 16” - 1Tb/ 10core/32gb - All thanks to you !
Dang, so happy to hear my video helped you out!
the best buying guide i saw on internet ! cost efficiency on point !
Fantastic video, just found you while looking for proper reviews of the M1 Macs for audio. The best video on the subject bar none! Very user centric and focused on what you would ACTUALLY need. Great stuff, instant subscribe. Looking forward to see what more videos you have 😁
Thanks a lot for the kind words! I've always thought there was a lack of emphasis on what you actually need when it comes to tech stuff, but I think it's important especially if you want to optimize the return on investment, which is why I included it!
Thanks for the sub :)
Had to come back and send you a little thank you gift to show my appreciation after I left my last comment. Thanks again!
You are too kind! But thank you very much!
I want to switch from a windows to a mac for numerous reasons and this video has helped me more than any video ever! Thank you!
Great to hear! 😊
My name i Jimmy K. I had a imac for ten years loved it. After researching I landed on the base model Mac Studio. My usual work load is 60 tracks 200 plugins or more, I have yet to slow this thing down. I usually run at between 18 to 30 percent. It may occur to you that I over purchase, not so. I had my iMac for a little over a decade. I plan to keep the Mac Studio about the same time . 250 dollars a year is cheap. When you purchase make sure you have room to grow. The Mac Studio is beyond a power house. If you take one for a ride hang on.
Overall a very great and informative video, and here's a summary of my experience.
I have been using the M1 Max and the M1 ultra for some time now and I can say that both have worked very well for what I do. I use logic pro at a 64 buffer size (for ideal latency when recording guitar and other live instruments), and both machines have been really good. Both have the binned chip as I have no need for graphics, and I decided on the Max over the Pro largely because of the double memory bandwidth.
I can agree that it's definitely overkill as I usually track largish rock and create pretty large electronic pieces, but I wanted to future proof it, hopefully I won't have to buy another studio computer for the next 10 years, or until the support drops. I also do light gaming with compatible games, or via steam remote play at is has worked very well. In all of these tasks, I have notice that I still need to monitor the CPU on the M1 max as it still peaks sometimes, but on the M1 ultra, the thought of never needing to check it is great and I would say psychologically it has improved my music production.
There are negatives though which are to be expected. A lot of plugins that I used to use haven't been updated yet, and some will never be. I contacted novation about how long it would take them to update novation B-station (which I had religiously used), to which they responded they wouldn't. There have also been problems due to migration assistant and transitioning with a time machine backup. Sometimes Logic did very weird stuff which was largely fixed by reinstalling it, but there are still a few bugs here and there. Not sure if it's compatability, migration, or just monterey, but they're there nonetheless.
Overall all the M1 chips have been great IMO, though only get the ultra if you do GPU intensive stuff or plan to not upgrade for a long while. I would rather pay extra for something I might not take advantage of, than be stuck with something not powerful enough.
Thank you for sharing your experience! Based on what I've heard from people, if you are migrating from an intel Mac to an M1 Mac, the migration assistant can cause a lot of issues, which was why I didn't bother with it, and just set up the computer from scratch (it was a good opportunity to purge junk, anyways).
I totally understand the desire to future-proof, but I still believe the M1 Max and M1 Ultra would not be cost effective for music production needs for a couple of reasons. 1) Apple is still in active development of Apple Silicon Macs, so I suspect new Apple Silicon Macs will come out every year. One might be able to find a Mac with great CPU power but not crazy GPU power in the future; 2) These M1 Max and M1 Ultra Macs are very expensive. For the same amount of money, one could most likely build a PC where most of the money is dedicated to the CPU, and not buy a dedicated GPU. This way, your money is spent to exactly address your needs, and I would argue that you could future-proof even further this way. Of course, one major downside of this approach is that you would need to switch to Windows, which is a no-go for many. But still, it's something to be aware of as a buyer, imo!
@@JamesZhan Yea exactly. I know people that get what they need and do incremental upgrades every year, but in a decades time, they will have ended up spending more than to just get something overkill that would last 10 years. For my current workflow it’s definitely overkill, but I soon plan to some sort of kontakt string and orchestral library for uni, for use in tandem with movie editing in premiere. I would think that should be able to somewhat saturate the performance offered in the M1 ultra, and if not, I guess that’s just even more peace of mind haha. Keep up the good vids James!
@SGEGbub so with the ultra the cpu spikes haven't been an issue anymore?
I do the same type of rock and metal recording.
On the M1 I get spikes or clipping using a buffer of 128 some master buss processing
Superior and a few nureal dsp plugins active.
It's a lot of money to upgrade, so really want to make sure it can Handle basic audio stuff like that.
Thanks for any feedback
Me too. I don't need the graphics (now) but I want to future proof.
@@Plastidon well in my experience, the cpu does spike sometimes but the sheer headroom in performance of the ultra makes it unnoticeable. I’d say make sure all the plugins are native and support M1, and also keep your eye on activity monitor
It’s hard to find a video like this, great info!! Very informative. 👌👌
That's the video I'm searching for such a long time!!
Thank you man!
Now I know I don't need the 10Core M1 Pro and the 8core is enough :)
Thank you for your kind words!
@@JamesZhan After watching this video, I bought m1pro 8 core 32gb 1tb😂
Are you thinking of getting an Apple Silicon computer for your studio? If you've already bought one, let me know which one you got and what your experience have been with it so far! It will be helpful for other who are on the fence of getting into the Apple ARM ecosystem.
Thank you for stopping by!
If I'm running several instances of Omnisphere, Keyscape, lots of virtual instruments and sample libraries which machine and configuration would you suggest ?
Just ordered a M1 Max with 4TB of Storage. Enjoyed the video. Very interesting. I decided to invest in future proofing my system in aim of longevity from my computer
It seems The Macbok pro14 2tbssd 10 core 32 ram is the one to aim for. Maybe wait for M2 though. Hope they bring it out this year.
This is the best video I’ve came across, I’m on the market for a new Mac, I’m a audio engineer, producer.
I'm flattered to hear that! Good luck with your hunt for the right computer!
I just ordered the Macbook Pro Max with full specs! Looking forward to receiving it in a few weeks. Thanks for the review.
Awesome choice! Hope you have fun with it!
Nicely done, James. Good job in breaking down all the component related pros and cons. Thanks!
This is so precise and helpful. I was using a M1 Pro w/ 16GB and 512GB SSD because costco had it on sale for $350 off but returned it because it didn’t make sense for the long term. Was considering the M1 Max chip but now I think I’ll stick with Pro and go for more memory and SSD, because I don’t do complex video editing. Excellent video.
What did you go with?
I'm working with an M1, 32gb, 512 gb ssd and experiencing buyer's remorse. It was fine at first but now my daw crashes using a favorite de-noise plugin. Not even in real time during render if I don't dial it back.
Learned my lesson though always go a little overkill. I'll naturally advance in skill and that involves a powerful computer that can handle the workload.
I feel all these M1 M2 M3 releases and their Max Pro Ultra whatnot are basically like choosing a BigMac, BigCheeseWhooper or the Maxxed out BiggestrippleMacFettBurger. I guess good biz model and offers the consumer the apparent choice levelled to their economic possibilities, whilst upgrading by very small increments (since the M1 tech jump). Thanks for the vids, ive seen like 4 of them to get a good perspective on the M lineage.
Thanks for this. I have a Mac Studio with the max chip and 64 gig of ram . So glad I didn’t get the ultra! Def have huge sample library templates I load for my work but now I will check that memory pressure graph!
Thank you so much for the creativity and thought you've put into this buying guide - I solute you!
Thank you for this video! This is THE MOST HELPFUL review I have come across. I'm still composing on a 2012 MB Pro 15" with 8gb ram and have been wishy-washy about upgrading (with all this M2 Mini talk that seems to be just that...talk). However, the way you break it all down and the detail you provide has definitely helped me figure out what I actually need vs what would be overdoing it and ultimately overpaying. I appreciate you and this video. Cheers!
Came here for this one video and love your vibe, man. Subscribed.
I’ve been watching countless hours of videos on this subject and this was easily the best one. Easy sub. :)
Good advice money is hard to come by those days 👍👍👍
Thank You for the outstanding education!!
In my opinion, You have the perfect personality for You Tube Videos.
Thank You again!
Thanks! Nice of you to say that :)
Just bought the Mac Studio…Will be returning it & waiting for the studio M2 …hope it will be released soon 🤞
Thanks for such a great video! It helped me a lot :)
This is a really well thought out video. Thanks for the real world advice without all the hype so many other reviewers can't seem to do without. I ended up getting the 14" MBP with the 10/16/16 core M1Pro chip, 16BB RAM, and 1 1TB SSD. I was going to get the base model, but once you bump up the SSD from 515GB to 1TB, the bigger chip became a better deal. Besides, Costco had it for $200 off, so I jumped at it. I run Logic and DaVinci Resolve, and so far everything is amazingly fast compared to my old MBP and my 2019 iMac. I don't run 90 tracks of audio, or 8K/RAW video, so this should work out fine for all of my needs.
I was pretty torn between that config and the M2 Air with 1tb with 16gb ram. Ended up going for the air, hoping it will be enough for my needs.
@@Funkbutterfly So how is it ?? i've got the same dilemma :(
It’s been so hard to find a good video on this, thank you for making one! It’s annoying that Apple don’t offer the M1 Pro in the iMac or Mac mini, seems like a really big gap in their lineup.
Definitely!
Great video, very component level breakdown of the builds on these, and good context on where certain limits of specs will start to effect specific types of audio production workflow.
Thanks James,I found you accidentally ,and I enjoyed your explaining,discussing,and teaching system.
Thanks very much.
Dude this video is extremely helpful! And well made too. Thank you!
I have a 2019 16 Inch MacBook Pro with 64gb ram using int. And I have not run in any problems at all. I mixed, master, produce, edit videos, use heavy effects. I never have to be cautious of how many plugins I’m using or anything of the sort. I will keep this MacBook Pro (that costed over $7k) until it can’t attend to my needs anymore. The only itch I have is I feel like I’m missing out on faster export time that the new macs have to offer along with the longer battery life. I’m a fan of the Touch Bar too. The only complaint I have is sometimes the fan is a bit loud
Finally!!!! first time ever understanding 100% everything we need to know. Infinite thanks
Saying about Memory pressure graph ...👍 to check
Thanks bro, I needed this video, my last by few years back was a big regret
Brilliant video, so helpful as I'm trying to decide what to upgrade to. Thank you!
Thank you loads for this video. I was considering buying a Studio for my music production, and really didn't want to spend the big bucks! This really helped put it all into perspective. Much appreciated.
No problem! Glad it helped 😊 Now you can invest the money you saved into something that matters more for your music production!
I just ordered the MBP 14”. 10/16 with 16gb and 1tb drive. My old and still amazing 2014 MBP 15” is getting on in the years. Seeing how amazing my wife’s MB Air M2 is i decided it’s time. Should be here tomorrow/Friday. Exciting!
I do medium session of 40-60 tracks with a mic of audio files and VSTs in Logic and Reason
That's super exciting! Hope you enjoy your new machine!
@@JamesZhan I got no doubt I will. My wife’s M2 is mental already! Shipping delayed until Monday. But it’s ok. Been thinking about upgrading fro 2 years so another few days matter little.
@@bruunm1975 And how have you been liking your new MBP? I assume you already got it?
@@JamesZhan It is pretty epic and battery life is also crazy. I had some logic projects that needed track freeze to run and now it barely gets to 20%.
My base MacBook Air m1 runs all my native daws (Cubase, Live, Logic, Studio One, Reaper, FL Studio, Bitwig) flawlessly. Nothing else needed for audio work.
The most helpful video I’ve seen recently, thanks for this
Great review👏🏼👏🏼I WISH I WATCHED THIS BEFORE I BOUGH MY MAC😥
I’ve had 3 Apple silicone Macs. A MacBook Air, A Mac Mini and a 14’ PowerBook pro. I don’t need any of these. I still have a 2013 MacBook Pro i5. I’m a professional electronic musician and it comes down to optimizing your setups. But this is just me. Everyone is different.
As someone who owns the base model M1 Pro, i can say it as been the best laptop I have ever got my hands on. 16GBs of memory works great for my videos, the media engine works great for 4K videos, now the only thing is that is hard is having good Wi-Fi! I will say, thanks James for the help with this video.
Glad to hear that! What happened with the wifi? Wifi is very fast on my M1 Max computer!
@@JamesZhan, where I live in Georgia (US). A lot of the suburbs have trash connections to Wi-Fi, although it has gotten better.
Thank You For Sharing Your Knowledge To US Uninformed or Misinformed Music Producers. GREAT JOB EXPLAINING It ALL.
love the video! One thing to potentially add (if you don't already have a video on it) when talking about form factor is the difference in peripheral connectivity since air, pro, mini, and studio have vastly different port options.
Perfect video, this was exactly what I was looking for, many many thanks!
This is by far the best review! I just watched other so-called experts give reviews, and they were saying that these machines are perfect for music. They were basically saying the exact opposite, but without no substance. This review explain why these machines are overkill for someone who is just doing normal music. But all of these other UA-camrs who are commenting on the Mac studio, is saying that it is perfect for music.
However, these reviews and most comments, are not from real world heavy users running big projects on them. I’ve run into serious slowdowns and extreme latency on both Logic Pro and Final Cut Pro on the Mac Studio resulting in endless spinning balls. If your video projects are small you should be ok. But for audio productions serious latency anywhere from a quarter of a second to a full two seconds. Others running into the same latency problems as well.
@@JamesRoneyMusic so you are saying you have the Mac studio and you do above what a normal music hobbyist would do? You do large scale music producing and it's a bit slow?
So for everyone but someone doing big time music production on a large scale it would be ok?
Bought a Mac Studio 32gb 1tb Max. Love it. Knew going in it had to be a clean break from the past (Mac Pro 1,1). New audio interface and only plugins I kept were M1-compatible. Audio Damage, Sound Toys, Eventide, Valhalla. Ditched UAD. Have not missed them, at all.
What screen are you using? Does it make a difference if I’m just using pro tools?
@@bigbaby9189 Doesn't matter. I just got a LG 4k 26" monitor
@@BlackMan614 thank you
What audio interface did you go with? Don't miss latency free tracking through UAD plugins?
Great solid M1 buying guide and excellent video production! Thank you!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Really useful comparison, very clear and totally focussed on the area of value v cost. Thank you!
What this video does not address is very serious flaw in the architectural design of the Mac Studio when it comes to using it for a digital audio workstation. There is severe latency issues that continue to go unresolved.
Best M1 comparison on UA-cam by far! Was just about to buy a Mac studio before watching this and you really helped me understand that I don't need Max or Ultra. Looking forward to getting my hands on my first ever MacBook 🎉
Agreed. It seems The Macbok pro14 2tbssd 10 core 32 ram is the one to aim for. I might wait for m2 though.
Great video, except for the RAM discussion. I am running Superior Drummer 3 with Studio One, IzoTope, Native Instruments, Waves, EastWest Composer Cloud, Neural DSP & ML Sound Labs. My RAM pressure exceeds 32 GB in a normal mix with synth guitar vocals drums bass, for normal day-to-day usage. Yes, a user might be able to get away with memory swapping. But you didn’t mention the negative effects of throttling the SSD bus, or the consequences of thrashing the SSD, on its MTBF. Tom’s hardware showed 64% less disk I/O when RAM bumped from 4 to 16GB for instance, for common use cases. In my case, I would be using about 0.5TB/day of memory swap if I had a 16GB RAM model. That’s about 182TB/year of memory swap. And SSDs die from 700-1000 TB writes. Is that a five-year lifespan on my expensive mac? The internal SSD that it uses to swap is not replaceable. Why would I want to thrash it with memory swap?
This is an excellent and well thought out video. You make some great suggestions and logic around what features matter the most for music and audio. Thank you ❤️👍🏻👏🏻
Glad you think so. Much appreciated!
Thanks for the information. I like that your video is straight to the point not not trying to be forcefully funny. Keep up the good work!
Thanks a lot. Very good video👌
Mr. Zhan you deserve more subs
This is an amazing video. I’ve seen so many videos trying to find one with exactly this information. Keep it up!
This was extraordinarily helpful, and likely saved me a considerable amount of money. Thanks James!
Thank you this has helped narrow my choice for an M1 audio production system..Appreciate the time and work put in.
this is the best video in youtube about this topic, thank you so much!
This video has been incredibly helpful, thank you so much!! Also love the new cut!
This was the video I was looking for - thank you
great video, thank you. just the sort of comparison video i was looking for
Going strong with an M1 mac mini here since the december 2020!
On point video. So straightforward.
best video and explanation possible broholy, u nailed this thanks sm
Thanks so much for making such a clear, logical and easily understood video. I'm a full time guitar player using Logic Pro and a pretty old MBP (2013) which is dying. Apple tech is far from my forte and this video completely took all the heartache out of it. The cost of most things in Australia is prohibitively expensive so you really do need to know what you're paying for and what you do and don't need. Even my ailing old 2013 MBP with 16GB Ram stayed green on the memory pressure test using Logic Pro. Tracking, using mastering software and bouncing a project. All same result. Thanks again.
Hey Luke, glad to hear you found the video helpful! Hope you find a new mac that suits your needs :)
Wow ! Great video and info for music makers.
Might be in the minority here, but why isn't a streaming/recording use case considered within these reviews? So many UA-camrs showcase their music production tips and tricks, which are probably recorded on something like OBS. And a lot of others are streaming as well. For those music production content creators, I cannot seem to find a video that addresses this.
I was thinking of buying a refurbished MacBook Pro M1, but the price everywhere for the M1 Pro, 16 GB, 512 GB is 1500€-1600€. And a new MacBook Air with the same configuration is around 1700€. So, I´m serious about buying the 2023 MacBook Pro M3 Pro, with the new Space Black which is on sale for 2149€, because it´s newer, not that more expensive than the others, and the resale value will be higher. This would be my first M chip MacBook Pro. My current MacBook Pro is a 2011 that died. In my studio I have one of the last 2020 iMac 27" 3,6 GHz, 10 Core-i9, 40GB, 1TB. It´s a beast, but I´m needing a MacBook Pro for my new solo project, and for doing work on the road.
I currently use a mid-2012 MacBook Pro with 16GB DDR3 RAM and a 2TB SSD. I do multitrack production on it with GarageBand. Sometimes, when I have a lot of tracks and a lot of effects running at the same time, it exceeds the CPU capacity. Certain VSTs are more CPU-intensive than others, of course. There are times when I do feel somewhat limited by my current setup.
Eventually I hope to take professional recording training, and upgrade to a silicon model, Logic Pro, and a full-sized keyboard.
I’m not making any commitments or counting anything out just yet. I want 32 gigs of RAM at minimum. I will likely still be using my current laptop on the side for other things. I want my new SSD to be either 2 or 4 terabytes.
Thank you for the detailed discussion of various aspects of the M1 chips. I like to do my research well in advance.
Hi there, thinking of purchasing a MacBook M1. I use an iMac with 32 gigs of Ram now. The MacBook I want to have when I’m on the road or have to go somewhere and do music for someone else. I use Logic and I have a few orchestral libraries, but for sure if I purchase a MacBook it would be the Pro. Even though I’m not a full time professional, I do like orchestrating and experimenting in writing with libraries and doing whatever is requested from someone who wants to work with me. Do, my question is would it be better to have the 8 core or 10 core and what about the 1 or2tbs? Hope I hear from you. I will go over your video again. And learn more. Thank you.
Fantastic video. I bought a Mac Studio M1 Max 64GB RAM, and use it for high end video and music composing. You helped assure me that I got the right one for my needs. I paired it with a HP Z Series widescreen monitor to replace my old cinema displays. Very happy so far and glad Rosetta is there to help bridge my software that isn’t M1 native yet. Subscribed! Love your presentation. You’re a smart and talented guy, James. Thanks for the video.
Sounds like you got the right machine for your needs! I barely have any plugins that need to run on Rosetta 2 now (thank god). Thank you for your kind words; really appreciate it :)
INCREDIBLE video, just what I was looking for... was about to pull the trigger on an M1 Max, and now I'm definitely backing off to M1 Pro. Thanks for saving me bucks!!
Now you can put the money you saved into something else that gives you a better return on investment! :) And you are welcome 😃
very wisely explained man, thanks and many regards 🙌🏻
so I got an m1 max with 64 gig ram, 2 tb I use a lot of plugins always and virtual instruments, but also am editing 4k and 6k video, I have found that its been more than enough, I can load a pro tools session or Ableton session and still have tons of cpu and ram available. this being said this machine is future proof!!!
You know man, you make really grate benchmarks for music production but please, considers, if you wanna step up the game to make even benchmarks comparing macs to gaming laptops and even desktops, that way I think that your Channel could become the most complete and influencial in matter of benchmarks for music production and maybe finally the internet can be able to compare Apples to apples all the different computer choices there are for music production and the "horsepower" of everyone.
Please considers this🙏🏻🙏🏻 Keep up your good work!💪🏻💪🏻
I switch, with a mac mini and a studio this year. I use parrallele for windows software. I uses them for industrial drawing, films editing and so fort.
I plan to buy the 16" Macbook pro with M1 Max, 64 GB of memory and 4TB of storage because the M1 Max Memory offers twice the memory bandwidth (400GB/s vs 200GB/s) of the M1 Pro.
I use tons of CPU intensive plugins and samples via a Native Instruments Maschine which is integrated into N.I.'s Traktor DJ software for live performance with many attached controllers and Ableton Live is also sometimes running live along side them simultaneously.
I also use Maschine as a plugin inside of Ableton Live and Logic Pro for music production along with many other plugins and sample libraries.
I'll be using the performance set up live on Twitch and other platforms as well.
I obviously need the portability of the laptop but if I purchased the Mac Studio M1 Ultra and a portable monitor along with keyboard and mouse I could probably play outside of my house with that as well (no battery). It would be kind of a hassle though. And maybe risky if I'm playing powered by a generator in the desert!
I'll probably wait until after the June Apple event to see what they do but I doubt there will be better options.
What do you think?
I have that exact M1 MBP you plan to buy! It's a freaking beast I will tell you that.
If you need portability I think one of the MacBook Pros would be the perfect choice. Get the M1 Pro if you can do with 32GB of RAM. If not, you would have to shell out for the M1 Max. Having to take a mouse, a keyboard, a power generator on top of the Mac Studio sounds like an unnecessarily huge hassle!
@@JamesZhan LOL oh no the generator is usually part of the promoter's responsibility. Unless I'm using my own PA. I'll get the M1 Max because it's memory is two times faster than the M1 Pro.
Thx 4 this helpful in-depth review. I'm planning to get the base model 14inch (8 core)....That's what I can afford as of now.
I mainly mix in the box and I coming from a mid-2012 mbp (12gb ram)
2012 mbp! Same here :) I think our minds will be blown with the m1 chip.
Exactly….I got mine yesterday and I can assure: IT WILL BLOW UR MIND.
The screen is amazing, speakers unreal compare to my old MBP. I haven’t tested the performance yet as I’m transferring my data into the new machine.
Thank you so much.
those were really excellent tips in the field of audio work. now I feel more certain to look for the right gentleman.