Hi. I have a choice between 14" m1 max 64ram/2tb or 16" m1 max 32ram/1tb(they are both at the same price). I've got m1 14" 16ram/512gb on which i am using Mainstqge3 . It looks like 16ram is not enough for me. It is 5gb project (with many vsts n plugins), and was wondering ,if 64ram will make that much of a difference over the 32ram? Cheers
Hey man, I'm a professional pianist/composer/producer in France. I've just bought the 14'' M1 pro thanks to your very pro/wise video, and for now one week, I can't describe the reborn feeling coming from a 2013 MacBook pro, it's amazing, and no more waiting/problems/black-screen, it just freed me of thinking about technique, and just focus on composition. Thank you very much for your knowledge, and all you work. Longlife to your channel.
People like you are the reason why I love creating informative videos here. I'm so happy and humbled to know that my video helped you with your purchase! I totally get the feeling when the computer no longer holds you back-I had the exact same experience after getting my M1 Max. It's so liberating. Good luck with your work!
Wow I didn't know you could mix and match Intel-based and M1-native plugins inside a native Logic Pro session. You simply need to scan the plugins in Rosetta mode first and Bob's your uncle! For that info alone, this video deserves a big thumbs up.
🔥NEW M2 MACBOOK AIR REVIEW VIDEO FOR MUSIC PRODUCTION: ruclips.net/video/i8NnPmK2MZo/видео.html 🔥 My Apple Silicon Mac Buying Guide: Comparing M1, M1 Pro, M1 Max and M1 Ultra for music production: ruclips.net/video/BCZplL8ov0k/видео.html
Makes a lot of sense to get a refurbished m1 max macbook, it is very cheap than m3 one, you get way more performance cores, and it is still damn powerful
Great stuff James, I subscribed. There has been a dearth of proper music-oriented reviews of the M1 MacBooks and M1 iPads in general, you are shining a light on the aspects that are pretty important - and of course amazing! - about the new Apple silicon devices. I saw one guy, he literally had hundreds of tracks of empty midi. The test, is to populate the midi tracks, because unpopulated, nothing is happening of note, processing is not comparable. I liked your geeky style, and absence of irritating ‘I just read a book on how to exaggerate findings with hyperbolae’ type of talk. Hey, most important: any idea when Apple will bring out a Cologne based on that ‘new technology scent’ you drew attention to?! It used to be Hewlett Packard calculators had that smell, amazing back in the 1970’s. I think we should try and get submissions for a name for an Apple-new-tech-scented Cologne. Here’s mine…’Silicon SunFlower’ - oh hang on, that’d be the girlie one…’Eau de Circuit’? Take care, keep safe and well. And, the camera work was good too. I especially love the classic female statement along the lines of ‘Hmm that new expensive thing you bought looks exactly like the old expensive thing you already have…!’
Thanks man, Im also coming from a (used) late 2014 macbook pro 16" and want to switch to a new laptop for ableton. The most value for buck would be the M1 max 16" 32gb, 1TB which I can buy new for around 2500 euros. The 16" macbook pro M2 pro (12 core) with 16gb and 512gb (late 2023) however costs around 2600 euros. I tend because of the specs to the m1 max. The problem is that the M2 pro is newer. Since I have an old macbook pro (late 2014) it is now not supported anymore. So exactly around 10 years. The m1 max. is already 2,5 years older, means that I could used another 7,5 years while the M2 pro almost 10 years. What you recommend?
I watched so many videos before buying my Maxbook and now that I’ve had it for three months I’m still watching these videos for some reason. Wish I would have come across this first. Good job.
This is the video with the only relatable testing for these machines, amp sims, Superior drummer 3, these are the thing we want to know about. Thanks so much man!
Thank you for causing me to terrify the dog sir. 0:57 Sniffing the laptop caused me to burst with laughter and the dog was thoroughly shocked and confused 🤣
Another thing that's worth mentioning is the amazing backward compatibility support on the new M1 macs. I am using an RME Fireface 400 interface which runs flawlessly on my M1 mac mini. Kudos to both Apple and RME for providing support.
@@theopentoybox6084 At the moment, I’m using an Apple Cinema display which has a FireWire port. I also have a Belkin TB2 dock which works. Or, you could use a thunderbolt 3 to thunderbolt 2 dongle, then plug a FireWire dongle into the thunderbolt two. Every combination I’ve tried seems to work, so long as the plugs fit. I haven’t tried third-party dongle is though.
nice review! ..it would be really cool to see a performance video with high intensity sample instruments, like those from Cinesamples, Orchestral Tools, Cinematic Studios, Spitfire audio, etc. ..so musicians who use primarily sample based instruments in their production can understand the efficiency combo of the CPU/RAM for those specific productions.
Most sample libraries are not really heavy on the CPU. I have many libraries from Cinesamples and Spitfire, and they are mostly just heavy on the RAM depending on how many samples you are loading.
@@JamesZhan Would 16gb Ram be sufficient to run something like this? I purchased from Best Buy so my only option would be take it back for a Max to get the 32GB ram
You are awesome, and a little crazy lol. That's quite a comprehensive set of tests and benchmarks. Great info here. I'm running a 2015 Macbook Pro and am feeling its age. It's still an excellent machine, but I'm curious about this M1 stuff to. Might by one when I've got some money burning a hole in my pocket. And love the unboxing at the end. Nothing like that new electronics smell haha. Cheers :)
Hi James, thank you for these videos. I'm confused in this video as Logic is outperforming Reaper whereas in your newer video you show that Reaper utilises all efficiency and performance cores and Logic does not. Do you know why Logic might have had better results in this video? Thank you!
This was a very good review thank you! I have to tell you that the end of the video when you were on boxing with your fiancé was priceless! I think you should go out as a team I’m sure people will be very entertained by the back-and-forth you do you have!
thank you! 2 questions: 1. where/how do you decide to run a given plug-in in ARM mode or intel mode? 2. i understand if you run logic in rosetta, only intel plug-ins will run, is that right or wrong?
1. Most of the time, you cannot decide which mode to run a plugin in, aside from changing the mode of the DAW. For example, Fabfilter's Pro-L 2 has official M1 support, but if you launch a DAW in Rosetta mode and load Pro-L 2, it will run as an Intel plugin under Rosetta. Some plugins have separate versions for M1 compatible plugin and Intel only plugin, though, like TH-U, but I don't think there are many of them like that.
I watched a lot of videos about using those new ARM-Macs regarding music production. This one of yours is probably the best one I came across. Thanks a lot, you've got one more subscriber. :)
James thank you for your videos! These are so helpful. I am a Logic User currently on ( M1Pro, 6 Performance & 2 Efficiency Cores, 16Gb Ram). I usually work with a lot of Sample Libraries and Mix using UAD Spark, Waves in the box. I also run a lot Superior Drummer 3 instances to play in real time. In 2023, I am considering buying an M1 Max (8Performance Cores, 2 Efficiency Cores), 64GB Ram, 2TB SSD at a very good discount. After watching your video this makes more sense than buying M2 or M3 especially as a Logic user running a lot of libraries and mixing. Please share what you think? Should I go ahead? I'd be very grateful :)
@@shookmusic I bought the above mentioned specifications. The only thing I would do differently is to get a Mac Studio instead of the M1 Max Laptop. I had to buy a bunch of HUBs (Belkin TB4 and More) to increase the I/O and with my current UAD Apollo x8p setup I really don't require portability. I also don't prefer traveling with a super expensive studio machine. It's very stressful even with regular time-machine backups. If portability is your primary need the M1 Max Setup has enough headroom on some fairly heavy projects and should suffice. Get 14" if wanna use it on flights. 16" on the go was a fail because I couldn't open it at a lot of places like a flight. My activity monitor on my 14" M1 Max has enough headroom. Logic is capped to take full advantage of such machines anyway. If you can do without portability, I'd recommend Mac Studio instead. You can get more for less. If you need limited portability I would recommend a Mac Studio that matches your purpose and a used M1 Pro 16GB for the road. I would encourage you define your need and I'd be happy to type in more. Best! -S
Thank you for the in depth review James ! Received my 14" M1 Pro a few days ago with 10Core and 16Gb and everything is smooth, but I'm often reaching 14Gb of Ram in intensive sessions, but I will upgrade to 16" inch for better thermal and 32Gb. I'm not sure than taking an extra step for the M1 Max 64Gb would be a good return on invest in my case :)
With Macs, don’t look at the RAM used. Instead, you should look at memory pressure to gauge whether or not you need more RAM. If you are constantly getting red, then you need more RAM, but if you are always in the green or yellow, you are good! This is according to apple’s official documentation. Glad you liked the video!
@@heythere6983 I can get RAM pressure into the red if I really push it with my film scoring projects…lots of very detailed sample library use (e.g. Spitfire BBC Symphony Pro) plus multiple Omnisphere instances…but even in the red it will play, and in practical use I rarely get past the beginning of yellow (and that’s on a 10 core M1 Pro 16” with 16gig of RAM). I do offload heavy plugins to my UAD DSPs though. To hit red I need to basically load all instruments and all articulations on separate tracks.
Excellent information! These sort of tests are really hard to find as reviewers usually don't benchmark audio applications. As a long-time PC power user, my takeaways were: 1. The time window 13:54-14:30 shows the precise use case that is usually the true bottleneck in my workflow: simultaneous load on both individual channels and the master. This ends up coming down to performance of the core processing the master channel while all cores are under load, a situation in which x86 chips have tended to suffer. The M1 Max appears to have a 4x advantage in this case. This is far greater than the advantage of upcoming Alder Lake and Rembrandt laptops over the tested 6700k, even in their loftiest estimates and accounting for additional cores. 2. Running plugins via Rosetta only appears to incur a few percent performance loss, so we don't need to wait for all plugins to migrate to get near-peak performance. Between these two I'm safe to pull the trigger on an M1 Pro and it will likely still be the fastest audio production machine until a future revision of Apple Silicon is released.
Thank you, this is exactly the kind of video that I've been looking for! That's extremely useful data about the effectiveness of third-party plugins in Rosetta vs native. It's good to know that plugins when used in Rosetta Logic are almost as efficient as plugins which are native.
I’m happy to hear that you found the data helpful! And yeah, running Intel plugins via Rosetta is definitely not too big of a problem in terms of performance-they will just be presumably much less power efficient (battery won’t last as long)
This video helped me alot to decide to order the mac studio m1 max with 32gb ram, I just have a home hobby/project studio but at least I will not have to worry and stress about the computer "not" mixing a song I load into Pro Tools, gonna try out Logic Pro X when I get my mac studio. Thank You James!
Trying to decide on Mac or PC for a new laptop. Would love to see the new Apple Silicon using AU compared to a similar speced Windows machine using VST3.
I have a 16” M1 Pro w/ 16GB RAM and having a ton of 100% spikes and clicks with Live 11.1 and the latest version of Logic with just a few plugins… Kontakt, Superior Drummer and Easy Bass.
Great video with information and details I've been looking for some time! Thanks :) It's the 1st video I've watched from you and you sir just earned a subscription ;)
Lots of plug in instances. Powerful processor. I want the latency results of 5 MIDI controllers, a MIDI drum kit and 4 MIDI keyboards all playing different high quality software instruments like Toontrack drum kit and a realistic organ fender Rhodes, piano and synth on the 4 MIDI keyboards. And a real guitar and bass guitar monitored through the software and studio monitors. I just bought an M2 Pro 32GB 1TBB MacBook. How much latency for a multitimbral MIDI band live jam? My last computer was a 2012 MacBook. Frustrating I can't find test like the scenario I described.
great video. Thank you for your efforts. Many of us have been wondering about transitioning to M1 and there really hasn't been good content addressing this.
This is great info. The one test I haven’t seen done though is a really dense mix session with lots of plugins from multiple manufacturers. High track count, dense edits and automation. Lots of routing and over sampling with some of the heavy hitter plugins like ozone, acustica, cla mix hub, ik tapes, ect. The known cpu crushers. It’s easy to run hundreds of instances of the same plugin on duplicated audio tracks.
Thanks for your comment! I actually purposely did not do a test like you described because I believe it would be too scenario-specific, and therefore the results would be too hard for the viewers to extrapolate to their own scenarios. There would be way too many variables. For example, some people might use 40% M1 native plugins and 60% non-native plugins, while some might use only 10% M1 native plugins and 90% non-native plugins. Some people may have a very complicated routing setup, while other may not. How am I supposed to create a scenario that can be somewhat extrapolated? With the tests I did, they give you a general idea of the multi-core performance, single-core performance, multi-core + single-core performance, and native plugins vs Rosetta plugins performance. I believe the results give people a good reference point as to how the computer might perform in their own circumstances.
@@JamesZhan Ya I get it, it wasnt necesssarily feedback for you, just a comment, your review was very nice. I'm on the fence between waiting for the m1 mini pro or the m1 mbp
Thanks for an informative video. Very helpful for me as a music producer, since I'm considering replacing my ancient, stationary iMac with the new MacBook Pro.
I use a computer monitor! I can give you a piece of advice-if you care about having crispy looking text, you shouldn't get anything below 4K in terms of resolution. Monitors with resolutions below 4K don't do well with MacBooks.
i use the m1 mac mini for all video editing and music , i have the 16 gig of ram and 512 ssd and it wroks perfect and no need for me to even need an external ssd for either , iam not producing music for other people just for my own stuff so all good there but i would never sudjest a laptop tho for production on a professional level they just are not made for these you need a more powerful desk top for that stuff same for hi end video editing you need an even far better then my m1 mini for that stuff.
I think you just convinced me to pull the trigger. Have you tried the headphones port? Like I know its not going to replace my Arturia Audiofuse Studio audio interface, but I am super curious if you’ve tried the headphone jack with IEM’s or reference headphones. The headphone port is supposed to have a higher quality dac. While it wont replace my current I/O setup, I want to know if its pretty capable. The dream of being able to do most of my music editing from the couch just sounds like its closer than ever to being a reality.
The headphone jack can power my Sennheiser HD600 no problem. That being said, I very rarely use headphones so I'm not sure how much my experience can help.
Hey James, for just audio/recording/mixing no video, do you think the M1 Pro is a big improvement from the already fast M1 mini for example or are they a bit overkill? I was excited for the new mac studios coming out, but they are much pricier and possibly a bit overkill if you're not doing video.
Thank you for all your explanations it means a lot to me!!! i am an audio engineer/producer with lot of hardware gears ( effects and synths/mpc and converters) So my guess would be getting the same as yours at least just not to experience any latency issues when all is connected ... Would you agree with that ??? Also could you recomend any hub and external ssd products to kind of make it all going flawlessly !!!??? Thanks in advance man, i m loving your videso wich are by far the most detailed and very well explained too iii So thanks a Million times!!!!!!!!!!! Keep on the good job please !!!!
Hi James, I stumbled upon your video while researching an updated Mac. My brother talked me out of the new Mac Studio as he feels it is primarily for video. So I was looking at the M1 Mac Mini's. Very sad I can only have 2TB of storage. Am I right in assuming that your testing also applies to Mac Minis? I don't need or want a laptop. I am old and need LARGE screen space (I have a 49" Ultrawide display with a 22" by the side). Thanks for the video, I will subscribe as I want to support Logic users. Cheers. P.S> my Mac Pro turns 12 in April. I'm stuck at LPX 10.5.1 Aaah, towards the end you said you will review other M1 Macs for music production. I will look for that right now. Glad I found your channel.
My testing also applies to the M1 Mac Mini, you will obviously have to scale down the results to match, since the M1 chip is less powerful than the M1 Max.
Going from M1 Pro to M1 Max, you are really just getting two major features: 1) the ability to have 64GB of RAM and 2) more GPU cores. If you don't need either of those, you don't need to get the M1 Max since you can configure the M1 Pro to have the same CPU core as the M1 Max.
Fantastic and awesome video. Just what I wanted to find. However, why you say this laptop is no the best if all you do is music production? I work on music, that's my job, and I don't do any of video or photo content.
The reason is that the M1 Max also comes with a ton of GPU power, which won't be utilized at all if you don't do any video/graphic work. If music production is all you do, buying an M1 Max means that you are wasting a lot of the money on flagship features that you will never use.
Wow. If I can’t open any of my 250+ unfinished projects made on my old intel iMac, I might as well just not upgrade. Maybe after another year or so that may be fixed?
Hi man, thank you a lot for this very informative and professional review. It has been very helpful. I had ordered the same M1 Max as the one you reviewed and was not sure what to expect in terms of performance, now I can't wait to receive it. Hope your channel grows fast. Pat.
As usual, you make amazing content. Is there any chance you would be willing to test out the performance using Studio One Pro or other Daws, or do you know of another RUclipsr that has or will make a video about it?
I don’t have license for other DAWs besides REAPER and Logic unfortunately! I have yet to see another video like this for other DAW Thanks for watching and I’m glad you liked it!
Very informative and well documented. Kudos to you 👏🏾. I am looking upgrade from a PC to Mac. My budget as of now is for a MacBook Air M1. Maybe you can do video on the Air for us who home record.
huge thanks for this video man. im a music producer / singer songwriter and i originally wanted the m1pro 16' with 32 gig of ram, but might want to get the m1max 16' with 64gig of ram instead to future proof myself. my ONLY concern with m1max is that i read it has more fan noise than m1pro. what are your thoughts on this? is the fan noise bad on the m1max? will it get even worse over time as the laptop ages and dust builds up in it etc?
Yay, finally someone did a single core test. This is the biggest issue of my Mac Pro (2019) 16core machine. The 16core ”cheese grater” performs just ugly when it comes to mastering chains and busses. Not able to run a decent number of cpu hungry mastering plugins in high quality /oversampling mode in row, since only 1 core gets addressed and these intel single cores can't handle anything like this. Now switching from this 12k cheese grater to a 3,5k 14inch Mac Book Pro (Pro) and hope things get better in mastering scenario. Thanks for this video !
Hi James, thanks again for such a wonderful and informative video. I am a music producer and I plan to do some music spectrum videos like trap nation using After Effects. I prefer a 16inch model but can’t decide on the rest of the specs, especially the RAM. I plan to use my laptop for a long time, hopefully 7 years or above. Can you please give me some advice?
![FNAF vs TF2 - Episode 2 [SFM]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/z5b3V2-VLb0/mqdefault.jpg)
🔥JUST PUBLISHED! ➡The Ultimate M1/M2 Mac Buying Guide for Music Production (2023):
ruclips.net/video/VFpCbT3Rx4Y/видео.html
Hi. I have a choice between 14" m1 max 64ram/2tb or 16" m1 max 32ram/1tb(they are both at the same price). I've got m1 14" 16ram/512gb on which i am using Mainstqge3 . It looks like 16ram is not enough for me. It is 5gb project (with many vsts n plugins), and was wondering ,if 64ram will make that much of a difference over the 32ram?
Cheers
Hey man, I'm a professional pianist/composer/producer in France. I've just bought the 14'' M1 pro thanks to your very pro/wise video, and for now one week, I can't describe the reborn feeling coming from a 2013 MacBook pro, it's amazing, and no more waiting/problems/black-screen, it just freed me of thinking about technique, and just focus on composition. Thank you very much for your knowledge, and all you work. Longlife to your channel.
People like you are the reason why I love creating informative videos here. I'm so happy and humbled to know that my video helped you with your purchase! I totally get the feeling when the computer no longer holds you back-I had the exact same experience after getting my M1 Max. It's so liberating. Good luck with your work!
no clue why you aren't more well-known, this is exactly the video i wanted to see back when these computers came out.
Reputation takes time to build! I don’t mind being a small channel-I just enjoy putting out good content 😁
@@JamesZhan That's the way, stay humble and excel. Reputation takes time to build! That is refreshing to hear in the age "instant gratification"
Wow I didn't know you could mix and match Intel-based and M1-native plugins inside a native Logic Pro session. You simply need to scan the plugins in Rosetta mode first and Bob's your uncle! For that info alone, this video deserves a big thumbs up.
🔥NEW M2 MACBOOK AIR REVIEW VIDEO FOR MUSIC PRODUCTION: ruclips.net/video/i8NnPmK2MZo/видео.html
🔥 My Apple Silicon Mac Buying Guide: Comparing M1, M1 Pro, M1 Max and M1 Ultra for music production: ruclips.net/video/BCZplL8ov0k/видео.html
Slate announced ARM support in May. Yay!
YOU HAVE TO SMELL NEW ANYTHING!!!
YESSS!!!!
The best part of this video is seeing how excited you are unboxing it at the end 💙
for real super cuteeeee
Thanks so much man! Your support means a lot ❤️ And yeah I was sooooo excited when I first got it haha!
Makes a lot of sense to get a refurbished m1 max macbook, it is very cheap than m3 one, you get way more performance cores, and it is still damn powerful
Great stuff James, I subscribed. There has been a dearth of proper music-oriented reviews of the M1 MacBooks and M1 iPads in general, you are shining a light on the aspects that are pretty important - and of course amazing! - about the new Apple silicon devices. I saw one guy, he literally had hundreds of tracks of empty midi. The test, is to populate the midi tracks, because unpopulated, nothing is happening of note, processing is not comparable. I liked your geeky style, and absence of irritating ‘I just read a book on how to exaggerate findings with hyperbolae’ type of talk. Hey, most important: any idea when Apple will bring out a Cologne based on that ‘new technology scent’ you drew attention to?! It used to be Hewlett Packard calculators had that smell, amazing back in the 1970’s. I think we should try and get submissions for a name for an Apple-new-tech-scented Cologne. Here’s mine…’Silicon SunFlower’ - oh hang on, that’d be the girlie one…’Eau de Circuit’? Take care, keep safe and well. And, the camera work was good too. I especially love the classic female statement along the lines of ‘Hmm that new expensive thing you bought looks exactly like the old expensive thing you already have…!’
Thanks man, Im also coming from a (used) late 2014 macbook pro 16" and want to switch to a new laptop for ableton. The most value for buck would be the M1 max 16" 32gb, 1TB which I can buy new for around 2500 euros. The 16" macbook pro M2 pro (12 core) with 16gb and 512gb (late 2023) however costs around 2600 euros. I tend because of the specs to the m1 max. The problem is that the M2 pro is newer. Since I have an old macbook pro (late 2014) it is now not supported anymore. So exactly around 10 years. The m1 max. is already 2,5 years older, means that I could used another 7,5 years while the M2 pro almost 10 years. What you recommend?
I watched so many videos before buying my Maxbook and now that I’ve had it for three months I’m still watching these videos for some reason. Wish I would have come across this first. Good job.
This is the video with the only relatable testing for these machines, amp sims, Superior drummer 3, these are the thing we want to know about. Thanks so much man!
Thank you for causing me to terrify the dog sir.
0:57 Sniffing the laptop caused me to burst with laughter and the dog was thoroughly shocked and confused 🤣
Hahaha im glad you found that so funny 😂
What were the specs on your custom PC? Awesome vid btw!
Nevermind you explained it 😂
It ain't often someone gets a sub from the first video I see from them but you got it. I get mine Friday except I got 14". I can hardly sleep.
Another thing that's worth mentioning is the amazing backward compatibility support on the new M1 macs. I am using an RME Fireface 400 interface which runs flawlessly on my M1 mac mini. Kudos to both Apple and RME for providing support.
I use an RME interface and was definitely super happy that RME already has native M1 support!
How did you hook up the FireWire to the Mac mini?
@@theopentoybox6084 At the moment, I’m using an Apple Cinema display which has a FireWire port. I also have a Belkin TB2 dock which works. Or, you could use a thunderbolt 3 to thunderbolt 2 dongle, then plug a FireWire dongle into the thunderbolt two. Every combination I’ve tried seems to work, so long as the plugs fit. I haven’t tried third-party dongle is though.
nice review! ..it would be really cool to see a performance video with high intensity sample instruments, like those from Cinesamples, Orchestral Tools, Cinematic Studios, Spitfire audio, etc. ..so musicians who use primarily sample based instruments in their production can understand the efficiency combo of the CPU/RAM for those specific productions.
Most sample libraries are not really heavy on the CPU. I have many libraries from Cinesamples and Spitfire, and they are mostly just heavy on the RAM depending on how many samples you are loading.
@@JamesZhan Would 16gb Ram be sufficient to run something like this? I purchased from Best Buy so my only option would be take it back for a Max to get the 32GB ram
"You have to smell new technology" - the great philosopher James Zhan
Thanks for the detail, especially about RAM usage with Kontakt etc, very useful info!
first! Was waiting for this for a long long time, thanks james!
Thank you for watching Ruben!! Happy to hear it's helpful to you 😃
Me too 👍🏻
Excellent video!
Not needing to move from the studio I wait (hope) for the Mini M1 Pro and Max
This REALLY deserves a huge thumbs up! Thanks a lot for this presentation, you did really well.
Thanks a lot man! Glad you liked it!!
I was also looking for that kind of video….thank you so much for doing it ! Really great video✌️
Thanks! Glad you liked it :)
" Excellent James , Thank You for your Hard work, Most Helpful ! "
„You have to smell new Technology“ … „oh god“ ..😂❤️
Need a test as good as this for Ableton.
how it goes?
One of the rare moments I subscribe after the first 20 seconds
Wow, thanks a lot!
Good luck with your channel. Unlike a lot of channels you get straight to the point, and it’s all good info. 👍🏻👍🏻 🎹
you always have to smell new tech. He knows what's up.
Hey friend I'm thinking about the Apple Mac mimi M1 for my music production . 🔥
Finally...This is the review I have been looking for. Thank you.
You are awesome, and a little crazy lol. That's quite a comprehensive set of tests and benchmarks. Great info here.
I'm running a 2015 Macbook Pro and am feeling its age. It's still an excellent machine, but I'm curious about this M1 stuff to. Might by one when I've got some money burning a hole in my pocket.
And love the unboxing at the end. Nothing like that new electronics smell haha.
Cheers :)
Another great video. Thanks.
This is exactly the video I was looking for before pulling the trigger on the new MacBook Pros, super high quality and detailed stuff! Subscribed! 🙏
Glad I could help!
This was a great set of tests, thank u for doing it like this
Just ordered my M1 16" Macbook Pro - Can't wait to get it!
Love your energy James. You're a great individual.
Thanks a lot! Really appreciate your kind words.
What are your recommendations with intel chips for music production....Great video and content...💯👍
Hi James, thank you for these videos. I'm confused in this video as Logic is outperforming Reaper whereas in your newer video you show that Reaper utilises all efficiency and performance cores and Logic does not. Do you know why Logic might have had better results in this video? Thank you!
This was a very good review thank you! I have to tell you that the end of the video when you were on boxing with your fiancé was priceless! I think you should go out as a team I’m sure people will be very entertained by the back-and-forth you do you have!
Best video I have seen for audio engineers.
Thank you for the info and for running the tests!
Any time!
thank you! 2 questions: 1. where/how do you decide to run a given plug-in in ARM mode or intel mode? 2. i understand if you run logic in rosetta, only intel plug-ins will run, is that right or wrong?
1. Most of the time, you cannot decide which mode to run a plugin in, aside from changing the mode of the DAW. For example, Fabfilter's Pro-L 2 has official M1 support, but if you launch a DAW in Rosetta mode and load Pro-L 2, it will run as an Intel plugin under Rosetta. Some plugins have separate versions for M1 compatible plugin and Intel only plugin, though, like TH-U, but I don't think there are many of them like that.
Great video! 👏🏻 Compact and yet comprehensively explained. Many Thanks. I discovered it by accident and immediately subscribed to the channel. 👍🏻
I watched a lot of videos about using those new ARM-Macs regarding music production. This one of yours is probably the best one I came across. Thanks a lot, you've got one more subscriber. :)
Thank you! Glad you think so :)
James thank you for your videos! These are so helpful. I am a Logic User currently on ( M1Pro, 6 Performance & 2 Efficiency Cores, 16Gb Ram). I usually work with a lot of Sample Libraries and Mix using UAD Spark, Waves in the box. I also run a lot Superior Drummer 3 instances to play in real time.
In 2023, I am considering buying an M1 Max (8Performance Cores, 2 Efficiency Cores), 64GB Ram, 2TB SSD at a very good discount. After watching your video this makes more sense than buying M2 or M3 especially as a Logic user running a lot of libraries and mixing.
Please share what you think? Should I go ahead? I'd be very grateful :)
did you do it? i am in the same boat.
@@shookmusic I bought the above mentioned specifications. The only thing I would do differently is to get a Mac Studio instead of the M1 Max Laptop. I had to buy a bunch of HUBs (Belkin TB4 and More) to increase the I/O and with my current UAD Apollo x8p setup I really don't require portability. I also don't prefer traveling with a super expensive studio machine. It's very stressful even with regular time-machine backups.
If portability is your primary need the M1 Max Setup has enough headroom on some fairly heavy projects and should suffice. Get 14" if wanna use it on flights. 16" on the go was a fail because I couldn't open it at a lot of places like a flight. My activity monitor on my 14" M1 Max has enough headroom. Logic is capped to take full advantage of such machines anyway.
If you can do without portability, I'd recommend Mac Studio instead. You can get more for less.
If you need limited portability I would recommend a Mac Studio that matches your purpose and a used M1 Pro 16GB for the road.
I would encourage you define your need and I'd be happy to type in more. Best! -S
@@sarinsahil man congrats! i just got myself an M1 MAX 64gb ram and 1tb ssd for my live tour, music production and on the go video editing..!
Great video. Waiting for next release of Mac Mini before finally ditching my 2013 trashcan Mac Pro. Apple is killing it!!!!
Great video man! How did you transfer your old Mac to the new one? Did all the plugins move over well?
Thank you for the in depth review James ! Received my 14" M1 Pro a few days ago with 10Core and 16Gb and everything is smooth, but I'm often reaching 14Gb of Ram in intensive sessions, but I will upgrade to 16" inch for better thermal and 32Gb. I'm not sure than taking an extra step for the M1 Max 64Gb would be a good return on invest in my case :)
With Macs, don’t look at the RAM used. Instead, you should look at memory pressure to gauge whether or not you need more RAM. If you are constantly getting red, then you need more RAM, but if you are always in the green or yellow, you are good! This is according to apple’s official documentation.
Glad you liked the video!
What are you doing to get that ram usage to that level?
@@heythere6983 I have the same question as well
@@heythere6983 I can get RAM pressure into the red if I really push it with my film scoring projects…lots of very detailed sample library use (e.g. Spitfire BBC Symphony Pro) plus multiple Omnisphere instances…but even in the red it will play, and in practical use I rarely get past the beginning of yellow (and that’s on a 10 core M1 Pro 16” with 16gig of RAM). I do offload heavy plugins to my UAD DSPs though. To hit red I need to basically load all instruments and all articulations on separate tracks.
Excellent information! These sort of tests are really hard to find as reviewers usually don't benchmark audio applications. As a long-time PC power user, my takeaways were:
1. The time window 13:54-14:30 shows the precise use case that is usually the true bottleneck in my workflow: simultaneous load on both individual channels and the master. This ends up coming down to performance of the core processing the master channel while all cores are under load, a situation in which x86 chips have tended to suffer. The M1 Max appears to have a 4x advantage in this case. This is far greater than the advantage of upcoming Alder Lake and Rembrandt laptops over the tested 6700k, even in their loftiest estimates and accounting for additional cores.
2. Running plugins via Rosetta only appears to incur a few percent performance loss, so we don't need to wait for all plugins to migrate to get near-peak performance.
Between these two I'm safe to pull the trigger on an M1 Pro and it will likely still be the fastest audio production machine until a future revision of Apple Silicon is released.
Very nicely summarised.
Glad you liked the video! I was also a long time PC user, and switching fully Mac has been amazing for my professional work.
THANK YOU FOR THIS 🔥🔥🔥
You are very welcome! Glad you liked it!
Thank you, this is exactly the kind of video that I've been looking for! That's extremely useful data about the effectiveness of third-party plugins in Rosetta vs native. It's good to know that plugins when used in Rosetta Logic are almost as efficient as plugins which are native.
I’m happy to hear that you found the data helpful! And yeah, running Intel plugins via Rosetta is definitely not too big of a problem in terms of performance-they will just be presumably much less power efficient (battery won’t last as long)
Great video, full of information I needed. Thanks!
This video helped me alot to decide to order the mac studio m1 max with 32gb ram, I just have a home hobby/project studio but at least I will not have to worry and stress about the computer "not" mixing a song I load into Pro Tools, gonna try out Logic Pro X when I get my mac studio. Thank You James!
instant sub. gonna binge your content. thank you
Thank you 😃
Trying to decide on Mac or PC for a new laptop. Would love to see the new Apple Silicon using AU compared to a similar speced Windows machine using VST3.
Hey james..informative video! But can you share wether macbook M1Max able to handle atmos mixing on Pro Tools? Look forward to hear from you
Great video, thank you. Just subbed.
I have a 16” M1 Pro w/ 16GB RAM and having a ton of 100% spikes and clicks with Live 11.1 and the latest version of Logic with just a few plugins… Kontakt, Superior Drummer and Easy Bass.
Great video… I appreciate all of your effort on this. Very helpful in making a purchasing decisions.
Great video with information and details I've been looking for some time! Thanks :) It's the 1st video I've watched from you and you sir just earned a subscription ;)
Thank you! Glad you liked the video :)
the moire 😵💫
Excellent video James: just what the doctor ordered. Extra brownie point for using "bonkers"... :D
Good job with this review man! Cheers
Lots of plug in instances. Powerful processor.
I want the latency results of 5 MIDI controllers, a MIDI drum kit and 4 MIDI keyboards all playing different high quality software instruments like Toontrack drum kit and a realistic organ fender Rhodes, piano and synth on the 4 MIDI keyboards. And a real guitar and bass guitar monitored through the software and studio monitors.
I just bought an M2 Pro 32GB 1TBB MacBook. How much latency for a multitimbral MIDI band live jam? My last computer was a 2012 MacBook.
Frustrating I can't find test like the scenario I described.
Well done James! Thank you for your work, it's appreciated.
Thank you!
great video. Thank you for your efforts. Many of us have been wondering about transitioning to M1 and there really hasn't been good content addressing this.
Glad you like the video! Yeah, most videos are focused on photography and video editing; that's why I made this one :)
Is it worth to upgrade from M1 to M1 pro for Logic Pro? Especially for the plug ins ?
Super informative !! Thanks a lot :)
i use orchestral plugins quite a bit, how much ram should i get? 32gb or more?
This is great info. The one test I haven’t seen done though is a really dense mix session with lots of plugins from multiple manufacturers. High track count, dense edits and automation. Lots of routing and over sampling with some of the heavy hitter plugins like ozone, acustica, cla mix hub, ik tapes, ect. The known cpu crushers. It’s easy to run hundreds of instances of the same plugin on duplicated audio tracks.
Thanks for your comment!
I actually purposely did not do a test like you described because I believe it would be too scenario-specific, and therefore the results would be too hard for the viewers to extrapolate to their own scenarios. There would be way too many variables.
For example, some people might use 40% M1 native plugins and 60% non-native plugins, while some might use only 10% M1 native plugins and 90% non-native plugins. Some people may have a very complicated routing setup, while other may not. How am I supposed to create a scenario that can be somewhat extrapolated?
With the tests I did, they give you a general idea of the multi-core performance, single-core performance, multi-core + single-core performance, and native plugins vs Rosetta plugins performance. I believe the results give people a good reference point as to how the computer might perform in their own circumstances.
@@JamesZhan Ya I get it, it wasnt necesssarily feedback for you, just a comment, your review was very nice. I'm on the fence between waiting for the m1 mini pro or the m1 mbp
Have you ever thought about upgrading your studio monitors to 3 way monitors?
If I’m just recording music and mixing/mastering my own music is it a good buy. I’m not actually producing or making beats
Thanks for an informative video. Very helpful for me as a music producer, since I'm considering replacing my ancient, stationary iMac with the new MacBook Pro.
Glad you found the video helpful!
Great Video James! Thanks for answering my questions, regarding my studios name, i will send you a voicemail 😃
You are very welcome and I’m glad you liked the video! And yes please haha. Is it German?
Do you have a TV oder Computer Monitor for the MacBook? Can you recommend a good TV Screen that works great with the new MacBooks?
I use a computer monitor! I can give you a piece of advice-if you care about having crispy looking text, you shouldn't get anything below 4K in terms of resolution. Monitors with resolutions below 4K don't do well with MacBooks.
i use the m1 mac mini for all video editing and music , i have the 16 gig of ram and 512 ssd and it wroks perfect and no need for me to even need an external ssd for either , iam not producing music for other people just for my own stuff so all good there but i would never sudjest a laptop tho for production on a professional level they just are not made for these you need a more powerful desk top for that stuff same for hi end video editing you need an even far better then my m1 mini for that stuff.
Thank you very much for that video! Helped a lot! What USB C Hub are you using?
I’m using the one from Satechi!
VST 2 is long in the tooth as it is, AU is on par with VST3 if not better in terms of efficiency
I think you just convinced me to pull the trigger. Have you tried the headphones port? Like I know its not going to replace my Arturia Audiofuse Studio audio interface, but I am super curious if you’ve tried the headphone jack with IEM’s or reference headphones. The headphone port is supposed to have a higher quality dac. While it wont replace my current I/O setup, I want to know if its pretty capable. The dream of being able to do most of my music editing from the couch just sounds like its closer than ever to being a reality.
The headphone jack can power my Sennheiser HD600 no problem. That being said, I very rarely use headphones so I'm not sure how much my experience can help.
@@JamesZhan It helps more than you might realize, the reference headphones I use are HD650’s. Haha, thanks for the reply.
this video is amazing thank you... I wish I could buy licenced plugins....
Astonishing review thank you !
Your gf is smart !
Hey James, for just audio/recording/mixing no video, do you think the M1 Pro is a big improvement from the already fast M1 mini for example or are they a bit overkill?
I was excited for the new mac studios coming out, but they are much pricier and possibly a bit overkill if you're not doing video.
Thank you for all your explanations it means a lot to me!!! i am an audio engineer/producer with lot of hardware gears ( effects and synths/mpc and converters) So my guess would be getting the same as yours at least just not to experience any latency issues when all is connected ...
Would you agree with that ???
Also could you recomend any hub and external ssd products to kind of make it all going flawlessly !!!???
Thanks in advance man, i m loving your videso wich are by far the most detailed and very well explained too iii
So thanks a Million times!!!!!!!!!!!
Keep on the good job please !!!!
Hi James, I stumbled upon your video while researching an updated Mac. My brother talked me out of the new Mac Studio as he feels it is primarily for video. So I was looking at the M1 Mac Mini's. Very sad I can only have 2TB of storage. Am I right in assuming that your testing also applies to Mac Minis? I don't need or want a laptop. I am old and need LARGE screen space (I have a 49" Ultrawide display with a 22" by the side). Thanks for the video, I will subscribe as I want to support Logic users. Cheers. P.S> my Mac Pro turns 12 in April. I'm stuck at LPX 10.5.1 Aaah, towards the end you said you will review other M1 Macs for music production. I will look for that right now. Glad I found your channel.
My testing also applies to the M1 Mac Mini, you will obviously have to scale down the results to match, since the M1 chip is less powerful than the M1 Max.
Phenomenal content. This was exactly what I was looking for, thank you!
Glad you liked it 😊
I was thinking about getting the first tier m1 max, but I also like the idea of saving money and getting the higher tier m1 pro. Thoughts?
Going from M1 Pro to M1 Max, you are really just getting two major features: 1) the ability to have 64GB of RAM and 2) more GPU cores. If you don't need either of those, you don't need to get the M1 Max since you can configure the M1 Pro to have the same CPU core as the M1 Max.
You do have to smell new technology though, it's basically mandatory at this stage
Hell yeah! It's an important part of the experience, haha!
Love the information ❤️
Fantastic and awesome video. Just what I wanted to find. However, why you say this laptop is no the best if all you do is music production? I work on music, that's my job, and I don't do any of video or photo content.
The reason is that the M1 Max also comes with a ton of GPU power, which won't be utilized at all if you don't do any video/graphic work. If music production is all you do, buying an M1 Max means that you are wasting a lot of the money on flagship features that you will never use.
Wow. If I can’t open any of my 250+ unfinished projects made on my old intel iMac, I might as well just not upgrade. Maybe after another year or so that may be fixed?
So informative - thank you so much!
Hi man, thank you a lot for this very informative and professional review. It has been very helpful. I had ordered the same M1 Max as the one you reviewed and was not sure what to expect in terms of performance, now I can't wait to receive it. Hope your channel grows fast. Pat.
Thanks a lot for the kind words! Hope you enjoy your new Mac!
As usual, you make amazing content. Is there any chance you would be willing to test out the performance using Studio One Pro or other Daws, or do you know of another RUclipsr that has or will make a video about it?
I don’t have license for other DAWs besides REAPER and Logic unfortunately! I have yet to see another video like this for other DAW
Thanks for watching and I’m glad you liked it!
Very informative and well documented. Kudos to you 👏🏾. I am looking upgrade from a PC to Mac. My budget as of now is for a MacBook Air M1. Maybe you can do video on the Air for us who home record.
huge thanks for this video man. im a music producer / singer songwriter and i originally wanted the m1pro 16' with 32 gig of ram, but might want to get the m1max 16' with 64gig of ram instead to future proof myself. my ONLY concern with m1max is that i read it has more fan noise than m1pro. what are your thoughts on this? is the fan noise bad on the m1max? will it get even worse over time as the laptop ages and dust builds up in it etc?
The fans RARELY come on because of how good the thermal efficiency is. I don't think fan noise would be a concern for you at all!
Yay, finally someone did a single core test. This is the biggest issue of my Mac Pro (2019) 16core machine. The 16core ”cheese grater” performs just ugly when it comes to mastering chains and busses. Not able to run a decent number of cpu hungry mastering plugins in high quality /oversampling mode in row, since only 1 core gets addressed and these intel single cores can't handle anything like this. Now switching from this 12k cheese grater to a 3,5k 14inch Mac Book Pro (Pro) and hope things get better in mastering scenario. Thanks for this video !
It will absolutely get better for you. I always mix into a (very complicated) mastering chain, and my M1 Max laptop handled it like a champ.
@@JamesZhan Thank you James, looking forward to replace the cheese grater disaster.
Are these new macbook pros mpc compatible??? .& if so how do you hook one up?.
Great video
Hi James, thanks again for such a wonderful and informative video. I am a music producer and I plan to do some music spectrum videos like trap nation using After Effects. I prefer a 16inch model but can’t decide on the rest of the specs, especially the RAM. I plan to use my laptop for a long time, hopefully 7 years or above. Can you please give me some advice?
great video, i own the same beast only with 2tb storage;) have fun working with it!