NEW VIDEO ➡ The Problem with M3 Pro MacBook Pro for Music Production | M3 Pro vs M2 Pro vs M1 Pro th-cam.com/video/FSqX4bt9to4/w-d-xo.htmlsi=ZCU8BG-toWwNcJLu
Definitely confirms what I suspected all along. Our challenge as musicians is that most of the Mac reviews are created by video-oriented creators who focus on rendering tests. Usually the only way they acknowledge audio is by saying the total number of tracks that can run, without really qualifying what’s on those tracks. This is a great explanation of how a DAW needs computing resources and does away with the hype about M2 being “better” than M1 for our use. The way I understand it, M2 focused on more significantly improving power efficiency with some performance gain. Particularly for desktop users, that’s pretty much a non-issue regardless of using M1 or M2. James, thank you so much for making this video and putting a few false perceptions to rest.
Glad you like the video! For tech review channels, it makes sense to do video-oriented tests because video tasks are (generally speaking) much more CPU-intensive than audio tasks. Video tasks allow reviewers to test not only the CPU performance but also the GPU performance, the media engines, and the SSD speed. And these Apple Silicon chips are pretty video-focused in general. These audio tests I've been doing on my channel wouldn't be a good way to give people a *general* idea of what these chips can do, but they have proven to be very helpful to people who work with audio a lot. That's why very few people do audio tests on YT and that's why I do them!
@@JamesZhan Where can I find/purchase a Macbook Pro 14in with the M1 or M2 and 16GB RAM? I can only find refurbished... They dont have them new... :(. What do you recommend? The only option seems to buy the latest but dont want to over pay. THANKS
That was awesome ! I’m an Apple employee and talk about stuff like this often and you did a great job helping me break stuff down better and going to share this video with my team so they understand what the chips are all about for musicians vs video editors
TH-cam is full of redundant videos about the m1 and m2 comparisons and recommendations, but THIS video is actually super informative and really eye opening. Excellent job, my man. You have a new subscriber. 👍👍
Really appreciate your kind words! I think it’s good to have many people reviewing the same products, as everyone’s perspective and experience are different ☺️
Can you please explain…. I have hackintosh pc i5 7th gen 16gb ram and it handles 100+ tracks with 32 buffer size very smoothly no crackling of sound or lag…. Even when production it handles 50-70 tracks with kontakt and stock logic Vst’s and 10-20 tracks of audio tracks…. I’m confused….. and the computer is 5 yrs old already….
Great video, however I(and many more users like me) would highly appreciate if you made an expanded version of the analysis including cpu heavy instruments like Omnisphere and something RAM heavy as well ,maybe Kontakt with some orchestral library(something from spitfire or audio empire ) , also I feel like DAWs like FL Studio and Studio One were unfairly left out
why would you change your DAW to accommodate sample libraries? just get as much RAM as you can afford. if you are using VSL Synchron pianos or other large libraries like Superior drummer at low buffer settings, you will want 64 gigs of memory or even 96 gigs. The current Apple SSD’s in their macbooks, MBP’s and mini (aside from the base model) are incredibly fast and an m2 12 core chip should provide enough processing power to run most projects with ease. Logic Pro is an affordable DAW that will continue to be optimized for their ARM chips.
@@christopherpederson1021 well the video features different daws according to how they are optimized for apple silicon and the video indicates as well that their usage of cores is different , i wanted to know what core usage would be for my daw as well
@@christopherpederson1021 @user-mu9gh3go7p interesting discussion, here. DAWs are very similar in between themselves, but yes one tends to pick one and stay with it, because it is kind of frustrating, having to relearn the same processes in different DAWs. Sometimes, I believe, one might change DAW, because a new machine might be too expensive, specially a specked out Mac. Personally I'm very hesitant in stretching to a Mac Studio Ultra, as I believe it might be a bit overkill. But yes, I really need enough RAM in order to being able to work with multiple heavy hitters like the companies mentioned here ,in this discussion. Having said this...I tried a M1 Pro last year, after with Ableton 11 (optimized to Arm CPUs) and it handled a lot of libraries with just the 16Gb of RAM. I concluded that 32Gb would be mandatory, but i dont know if going with 64Gb wouldn't be a waste of money. I Here in Portugal, that upgrade is almost 500€(!). Leaves me wondering if I might as well stretch for the Ultra..and benefit from that CPU upgrade too, for my low latency Live Looping on stage.
This is the kind of review we musicians and producers need! Thank you so very much for investing a lot of time into making this possible. As a Pro Tools user it’s kinda saddening to see how poorly optimized the platform is and how it’s not using the CPU cores to its entirety. I haven’t had any issues with Pro Tools on my M1 Max MacBook Pro but I must say that it can be much better optimized for sure! Subscribed to the channel already! 🙌🏻🎉
If you dont mind me asking, why use Pro Tools? I had to use Pro Tools for a bit in audio engineering school and i just couldnt stand it. What i can do in Ableton Live 11 today is so much more than Pro Tools. I know Pro Tools was always the standard in studios because for a while it was the only DAW (Multitrack recorder software really) that ran in 32-bit float....but all DAWs run in 32-bit float now. Just curious to know your reasoning as i love always asking why someone uses 1 DAW over another
@@Kaotix_music I’m not the person you directed your question at, but just wanna chime in and say that I agree Pro Tools sucks. I feel like the only reason it’s still around is mostly because it used to be the industry standard. Give it another 10 or 20 years, and I feel like ProTools will be one of the least used DAW in the music industry (if it continues to lag behind other DAWs the way it is currently). Given how much Avid charges for it and how big of a company Avid is, Pro Tools should have been way better. (Note that my criticism is aimed at Avid, not PT users. I believe people should use whatever DAW they want.)
@@JamesZhanoh i 1000000% agree with you and the reasons i mentioned above was why it was the industry standard for a while. Atleast, thats what we were told in audio engineering school and that we should expect and studio we work in...their main workstation was gonna be ProTools. But more and more i book studios if i want to work in one rather than my home studio, im seeing more and more they just have every DAW now (minus FL, bigger engineers cannot stand FL Studio)
@@Kaotix_music Not only that, with the rise of home studios/remote services studios, there's basically no need to learn this "industry standard" DAW anymore unless you plan to work in someone else's studio. I for one have been doing professional mixing and mastering work out of my own studio for the past 8 years without knowing a hint of Pro Tools. Even recording studios don't all use PT nowadays. A band I'm working with is recording drums in a sizable studio in my city and that studio uses Logic!
@@Kaotix_music Don’t worry, I love the question! Honestly it’s all about familiarity for me. When I first started recording, producing and mixing I did so using Pro Tools without an academy involved and willingly. You may wonder why and it is because it got stuck in my head since the first time I went to a studio and saw its GUI. It just clicked with me. Now, I’ve used other DAWs such as Reaper, Studio One and Logic Pro and all three have increíble feature sets and are really well optimized in certain areas when compared to Pro Tools hand on hand, still I use Pro Tools to this day only because I have a workflow I like in it and a workflow I feel comfortable too. I am proficient at it and efficient so, it’s already built into my muscle memory to an extent. This doesn’t mean that if I have to use another DAW I won’t, I can use any other platform if the work needs it to. Would it be better if it was Pro Tools in my case? Of course! But it’s not a dealbreaker. On the other hand, I’ve studied the possibility of leaving Pro Tools behind and choose another DAW to work with but I honestly think of the hassle it would be to re-learn everything and I just want to be creative and make a living.
Ableton 11 is just a joke on CPU...10 was fine can you do an Ableton test, Reaper is just so amazing on cpu load. I notice you have 9:02 Mark for Ableton
I use a 256gb m1 air with 16gb of ram into a Kensington Thunderbolt docking station that runs my interface, a 27” 1440 monitor, audio monitor controller, ssl uc1, ssl uf1, and some external drives. I use Logic Pro x, a bunch of toontrack and neural DSP plugins and it works perfectly
As a die-hard Apple user and mixing engineer, I have held out on upgrading my 2015 MacBook Pro with 16 GB RAM. Mainly because of the ports that were not included throughout the reign of the M1 chip. I can finally say that the Mac mini would be a substantial upgrade. And this video really helped thank you.
My M2 Max Mac Studio is so awesome I can literately Run Studio One on the lowest latency with over 30 plugins including instruments as plugins without even changing it. 32 ms buffer. This thing is a Beast!!!
Sorry, but I disagree. I bought myself an M1 ULTRA Mac Studio. I expected a SPACE difference between my 2020 Mac mini: /i7/32RAM/1TB ssd. But I'm incredibly disappointed in the real tests of my projects. My Mac mini is almost as good to my M1 ULTRA. This is complete Nonsense and Crash! Daw Studio ONE version 6 did not work any better at all. Some plugins began to consume 1-2% less on my M1 - this is all good news. Daw instantly loads ONE core out of 16 productive ones!! !Other Daws also show practically the same results (perhaps RIPER is a little better than all the others). If you do not work with Large sessions, then you will not understand me. I am completely disappointed with M1 and Studio ONE! Out of 16 cores + 4 effective - only ONE is used 100%, and 3-4 other cores. All the other 12-14 cores are simply NOT used. I’m just in SHOCK. I paid that kind of money and got NOTHING in performance and Power( which I dreamed and hoped for so much)
@@sergeyleps8492 what are you talking about? This is my experience from having a macbook with a i9 chip and now also having a M2 mac studio. My M2 mac studio FOR ME works better, and I can run it at a low buffer setting and it works great. Im sorry yours is not working like mine is. But we can easily debunk this and I can do a live stream showing my Studio One running well on 32 buffer for the audio drivers and running great while also having 30 plugins on as well.
I probably watched 100 videos on TH-cam on performance tests of a 16" MacBook pro M3 Max 36 GB RAM and I still don't know if it's enough for Logic Pro :-/ will this equipment support 50 audio tracks with Logic effects?
Thank you for such a great video. I had no idea how the DAWs utilize the silicon chips, and the differences between power vs. efficiency. I’m surprised that Logic, of all the DAWs, doesn’t fully utilize the silicon chips. Any thoughts on that?
Thank you so much for this great Video! Are you planning doing a comparison to the new M3 series? Whould be interesting to see if the improvement in the perf/eff cores changes something since we're less p-cores every year (like the 11c M3 Pro with only 5!)
Thank you for the helpful video. I wait for the M3 Pro and go back to MAC. I want to use Logic again because I like it much more than Reaper and S1. But I wonder why the performance of Logic is not that good.
Hi James, First of all, thank you for all your precious informations about Mac M series ! I'm a musician too with on stage Ivory American Steinway from Synthogy (pretty big samples library), EP-88 from Scarbee and I'm planning to buy Omnisphere from Spectrasonics. I would like to know what is your advice about RAM choice for new MacBooks M series : 16, 32 or 64 Go in my situation. I have an old Macbook Pro from 2011 with 1 To SSD and 16 Go but I have some bugs on stage with it ! Thanks in advance for your answer. Best Regards from France ! Olivier Jalet
Thank you very much James for this great video, I learned a lot thanks to you, a superb source of information!!! I acquired a Mac mini 3.2Ghz i7 64 Gb RAM and 1Tera SSD 2.5 years ago and my CPU is quickly in the red in my mixing or even production sessions (especially a latency problem when recording songs). that there are a lot of avenues...) in short, I am more enlightened on the type of processor (although I wonder if the graphics card does not also have a role to play on all the spectrum visualization plugins ( Flux Analyzer, ADPTR audio etc....) but according to your advice I don't really fit into the boxes announced, but rather as an (almost) advanced producer AND Mixer (production is my job but I mix my productions before send them to the master then...) and switch back to windows I admit that makes me very very afraid 😅
Ahhhh mannn, this is an awesome video. I know it’s a lot of work. But I’d be REALLY interested to see a comparison added to this, with Studio One and Luna. Mainly because they are the best alternatives to pro tools, but also because both of them are doing some interesting work. Plus, to my Knowlege Luna is one of the only other Mac exclusive DAW’s, other than Logic.
I went through a Stage where I was overly wrapped up in high spec options wanting only the top performing m2 and nothing less... Then it hit me, for the past 4 years I've been doing all my video photo and audio editing on a laptop that had a base level ryzen processor with integrated graphics. Obviously my use case doesn't require a whole hell of a lot lmao
They stuck to their base level ryzen processor with integrated graphics But nah, I get the feeling, lol A computer is nothing but a tool, of the tool works for you, just stick with it
This is a great to hear! I have been doing some light mixing and recording, and I was wondering if upgrading beyond the basic M1 would be helpful. For my situation, it seems like the answer is “no”, and that’s reassuring. Thanks!
Very well presented! I guess then it would be fair to assume that the 8core M1 Pro will have the same performance in Logic/Pro Tools as the M2 Pro 10core, due to the same 6 performance cores.
Buy intel you can get some great buys and great compatbity with intel macs and many are actually upgradeable in ram storage and gpu. And you dont really need the media engine chips or gpu for audio work
James thanks for your video I don’t have a big budget I find one Mac note book Apple Laptop MacBook Pro Retina 13-inch Pro Touch Bar A1706 / Core i5-7267U (3.1GHz), 16GB Memory, SSD512GB, 13 inch (2560 x 1600), Japanese Keyboard Included, MAC OS, Type-C, Wireless LAN, Built-in Camera (BAN BAN PC STORE) (Refurbished) is the is still available for update ? Thanks for your reply
Thanks James, good video. I bought an M1 MAC mini in 2021 (8 GB RAM and 256 GB SSD) This has served me well in my (relatively small) Audio recording projects on GarageBand. Good to hear the M2 wouldn't buy me anything for Audio. 8 GB shared Memory is enough. I also concur with your recommendation to go with a 1TB SSD, as I have had to move most of the stuff on my Boot SSD to one of my External 1TB NVMe SSDs to free up space for larger projects.
Hi James, hope you read and respond to this. there is a flaw in methodology of your test here. Your test accounts of performance ACROSS multiple cores utilized, which would of course yiled better results for more performance cores, like the M1 chip over the M2 chip. however, you neglected the fact that sometimes single core CPU speed and performance is king in audio. This is because audio following a single downstream channel path will always be processed on the same core. This is a massive reason why projects can crash and display the infamous "cpu too slow" or those famous logic errors we all love so much. I myself have some pretty heavy hitters on most of my mixbusses. Furthermore, my session's tracks are often bussed to "Percussion Bus" or "Midrange Bus" -- where i do processing there as well. It should be noted that just the processing on that ONE BUS, or the mixbus ONLY, can overload your cpu. That is because, again, single core performance is what matters here, since audio and DAW tech has not progressed enough to be able to split the processing of one single channel of audio onto multiple cores. So in that regard, your video could have used something like "If you find yourself applying many CPU intensive plugins on one channel, one bus, or your mixbus, then the M3 chip is best for you" -- since all geekbench scores definitively prove the M3 chip has the best single core performance out of all the chips. I still very, very much appreciate your video. Please correct me if i'm wrong in my thinking here -- i would love to purchase the cheaper M2 or M1 models anyways. But i dont think my thinking is flawed. Single core performance matters much more in audio than just two heavy plugins on 50-100 tracks, since often one needs to heavily process one channel of audio. I've never needed 100 guitar amp sim tracks. But i've needed compressors, saturators, multiband processors, de-esser, an amp sim, and izotope RX on one single vocal track before!
*If I MOSTLY use my Mac for music production, which one of these two would provide the most optimal stability for Logic Pro: (APPLE MAX STUDIO with M2 Max Chip-30 Core GPU, 8 Performance/4 Efficiency, 32GB, 2TB SSD) or (APPLE MAC MINI M2 Pro Chip-19 Core GPU, 8 Performance/4 Efficiency, 32GB, 2TB SSD)? Both are the same price.*
excellent content. Thank you for this, James. I went with the M1 MAX at 64gb Unified and 4tbSSD. Should be more than enough for my needs as a professional producer and hobbyist film composer.
Thank you for the video! Wanted to buy M2 Pro instead of my MB Pro 2018, but after your analysis made a choice for M1 Pro 10 cores. One Question - what software do you use to see cores loading?
Really helpful. I’m just fed up with PC moving to Mac and this video helps me to look to which Mac to move to. I have a 49” Dell curved monitor. Just wondering which mac book would be able to drive it without over heating.
I was excited about Apple silicon but I think it sucks for music production. Slower SSD speeds, still not compatible with my favorite plug-ins and hardware and a massive 40% decrease in performance in Rosetta. It crashed Logic constantly and the CPU overloads made it impossible to use. It's all well and good showing off how many tracks it can play but when it comes to live recordings with guitar plugins it folds. Ultimately, all it did was make me appreciate my intel system, which kicks its ass at music production. Silicon loads faster but performs slower. Intel loads slower but performs better. That's my opinion
Considering the Mac Studio M1 Ultra 64GB/1TB can now be purchased for $2500 (open box), is it still "overkill" for Pro Tools? My needs are for plugin power and VI's for the CPU. Audio is handled by an Avid HDX card. There are 20 cores in M1 Ultra... that's 16 performance cores that can be fully utilized by PT. An M2 Ultra (same spec) has no additional performance cores but only adds 2 more efficiency cores (total of 4) so given the price point there is no significant advantage of an M2 Ultra over M1 Ultra. Correct? Moreover, is not the 16 performance cores available in M1 Ultra a huge boost over the M1 Max which "only" has 8 performance cores? At at $2500 price does it make more sense to invest in the extra 8 cores the M1 Ultra provides? Thanks for your very well done research and review.
A UA Sound City Studios plug in for example: Is it CPU heavy or RAM heavy? Is it heavy audio processing to have thes on all my tracks? I am trying to decide between An M2 Pro mini with 12 cores and 16Gb (or 32Gb) vs a 15 in Macbook Air with 8 cores and 24Gb. I have ruled out the M3Pro MBP with 18 because of performance cores. Apple is bugging me because of the built in contradictions and subliminal upselling game they are playing. My M1 with 8 and 8Gb is starting to overload with too many plugins, and I am wondering if it is CPU or RAM
Hey James - Great Vdeo. Im a guitarist with a home home studio. Currently using Mac 5,1 2 3.46G 6 Cores, 96G 1.3 Mhz DDR3, AMD vega 64 8G graphics (modded power supply) running Monterey and using Logic Pro. Im able to record just fine using a simplie Scarlett 6i6 and getting guitar tones via Ox Box SPDIF. Was trying to just maybe a platform upgrade to the New Mac architecture and possible a new interface, just wondering when its worth moving to the Modern era. With my system I can open alot (more than I would probably need) of plugins per track and not really com close to the 96G or memory pressure indicator. Always a tough choice to deice when to upgrade, my old Pro cheese grater has run fine. I'm not a pro studio but like to produce high quality recordings (which with the gear I have isnt bad..)...any advice?
Brilliant, thanks. I keep getting told at Gearspace that an ARM Mac will crush my 14900K/64GB/8TB/Win 11 Pro/Asus Pro Art/4080s/Kraken elite system in audio projects. And I have been telling them they are dreaming. I bet you the gap will be even bigger at low latency. Can't find ANY benchmarks with ARM Macs running multiple tracks at actual low latency. I bet you anything I would even crush the Mac Pro with 24 core which costs literally twice what I paid. My P cores are at 5.9ghz all core and E cores at 4.5. I bet you in fact that even if I disable ALL my P cores and just use the 16 E cores, that even then it will at least be as fast as a 24 core ARM Mac.
Thanks for the information. My projects always have at least 100-150 tracks, each one with big channel strips. One thing you didn’t cover. I notice that pluggins that use AI such as ozone, izotope’s, etc consume a lot of resources. Someone should test M processors on those.
Got a M2 Pro Mac Mini 10 core (32GB ram) that I use Logic Pro X on professionally every day (96/24) but it does struggle especially given a) my samplerate and b) amount of third party soft synths/libraries. Is there any meaningful upgrade I can make? I'm a bit confused right now! For example, would a M1 Max Mac Studio be better? Any help would be greatly appreciated!
you are the best!!! I am so grateful for your channel! this video totally helped me make my decision in which one to buy for my music production! Thank you!!
I'm looking at getting a Mac Mini but do not see an M1 Pro or M1 10-Core for Mac Mini. Did Apple not make these? If not, what is the recommendation for which Mac Mini to get?
What specs will be the best for rendering individual tracks or stems, before mixing? I use tons of virtual instruments, and maybe 5-6 sample libary instruments + a lot of samples for FX and perc, in my tracks. Also, if some mixing is done before rendering (compression, and other plugins), would that influence a lot of time spent rendering individual tracks? On my previous computer, (Intel 9 12900H, 32GB ram ddr5 4800Mhz) renderig all tracks often could be a 2 hours long task. Maybe my sample rate was to low? I think it was pretty low.
Your music career will pay you slow af! It might not be even a music making career. Quit watching these clickbaity videos and get the machine you can afford rn. Keep Bouncing off them plugins and learn to commit asap , Produce/Record at 256, Mix at 1024 buffer. Share Reverbs. Invest in SSD that's it. Also stop wasting time on which mac to get, Its build to fool you into buying the costlier one. and also videos like how to Make money from music production... There only revenue of music is these videos. scammmmm!
Thanks for the video! What about the Studio M1 Ultra vs. Studio M2 Max for Logic Pro X with loads of plug-ins. Intrigued who gets the edge for that specific application.
Hi James. Wanted to start off by saying thank you for making this video! You are saving me about $1000! I had initially planned on purchasing a new MacBook Pro with an M3 Pro chip. But after watching your video? No way. Now I am thinking the best MacBook Pro for me is the M1 Pro chip. Please let me know if I’m correct here. I use primarily Pro Tools, Logic and Reason for music production. I also mix and master. With that said, based on what you said in the video, doesn’t the M1 Pro chip for these DAW’s make the most sense? It has the most performance cores, correct? And you can create more tracks in both Pro Tools and in Logic with the M1 Pro chip. Correct? Please let me know if I heard you right in this video. And thanks again James!
I dunno... I have Mac Studio w/ M1 Max and 32 GB RAM and have maxed out the CPU (according to DP's performance bar) on a daily basis. Bounce to disk isn't as fast as I would have assumed as well. My friend has the Mac Studio w/ M2 Ultra and it does a lot better using DP.
Dude your videos are so helpful! Thanks man. I've got a 2019 intel bankbook pro that's starting to struggle - Is it worth holding out for the M4 ? Or just go for a refurbished M2 pro? Cheers, Andy
I have been looking for this channel for years. Great vid! Thank you so much! Crazy that Logic won’t utilize all the cores…that makes no sense on Apples part
Very helpful analysis James. One question: Clean My Mac keeps telling me to shut down other apps to retrieve RAM; however I’m only using core apps like Safari, etc. What’s going on here?
Great video, thank you so much. Should I take it that having 16 performance cores on the M2 Ultra will result in roughly 240 tracks in ProTools as you loaded the channels up, or does the M2 Ultra not scale in a linear fashion? Would I benefit from 128 gigs of Ram, or is 32 or 64 gigs enough and any more is money wasted and cannot provide benefit in audio work?
Very good approach. But what about the limited connectivity, limited RAM and limited SSD space on the more affordable (= attractive) Mac mini base models?
I struggle to make a decision: MacBook M1 Max 32GB 1TB or MacBook M2 Pro 12CPU/19GPU 16GB 1TB. Both are 16” and almost the same price. I’ll use it for DJ-ing but I’ll start to look into music production as well. I know M2pro it’s new but somehow the 32 GB from M1 Max gives more “peace” to my soul 😁 I still can’t decide, is the 16 GB from M2 pro enough?
Please help as I’m not that computer savvy .. I’m using logic X , Komplete 14 standard and various other plugins as a hobby.. could anyone recommend which 32gb ram Mac to get . Mac mini or Mac Studio m1 or m2 and how much core ? Thanks in advance
I've watched all your videos a few times now and have landed on this: I want the best performance for my DAW which is Logic Pro, while also having a machine that has Wifi6e and Hdmi 2.1. Would that mean the best middle ground is the apple Mac Studio M2 Max?
I don't get it. I'm a film composer regularly running 130+ tracks with plugins in logic on my 2009 macpro. How can M chips only 'run' less than 100? The metric is unclear.
@ 11:01 - I'm a Noob's padawan's Youngling, clouded by the Darkside. What are examples of Audio Processing, Mixing & Mastering? Why are those tasks CPU intensive?
Just reminding.. It is propably said here in video, but just to looking at the charts wont tell you the whole truth. M2 pro 16-inch has 12 cores and 8 performance cores.. So these comparisons are not valid if you change from 14-to 16inch. (As you should always, if doing anything related music and such) Also the singlecore performance is very crusial. The overload comes usually from one channel witch is packed with plugins - not the track count. And that is series processed, not paralled. So multicore performance cannot be used as it is single core process. Therefore in real life scenario the M2 is faster. Also not to mention M3 which can most definately be faster if you choose Max version!
Thumbs up please guys if you want to see another breakdown of m3 pro/max models compared also to the m2 variants. I myself am considering between getting m2 pro and m3 pro. M3 Pro seems to be costing me few hundreds more for very similar and in some places actually worse specs. I just wonder if despite less performance cores and less memory bandwidth it can somehow be faster than m2 pro, or if its very similar and i'm better off buying m2 pro
Im planning to purchase A m1 or m2 mac mini 10 core 1T 32GB for music production mixing and mastering. I use Protools and Native instruments DAW and sample libraries. Just need a computer tat can handle a tone of Universal Audio plug -ins for mixing and mastering and also perform well while in production with Native instrument software.
Thanks for the information, much appreciated. I just bought the Mac mini, m2 pro, 1 tb, 32 g..love it. I use Studio One as my DAW. When recording or mixing, everything is snappy, no spinning beach balls. I upgraded from a 2018 Mac mini, 256 tb, 16g. I used a lot of external ssd's. Sometimes, depending on my mix, I would be maxing out the Mac mini, I'd see beachballs spinning, a couple of times I had a freeze. I thought about going with the Mac Studio, but I really like the mini, it's footprint, just works for me. Thanks again for sharing your thoughts.
This video has been perfect to help with my needs for a Macbook for music production. Does anybody know if there is anything similar to help buy a Macbook for graphic design/photoshop? I'd love to know how well Photoshop/Illustrator utilise the cores
Would you possibly be willing to see how universal audio performs against the other daws? im in love with the LUNA system but i suspect they dont take as much advantage of the cpu capacity as the other ones since their rather new
I’m a beginner producer/engineer for Logic Pro. Which m1 should I get that I can grow into and will last me a while as I advance? Specs? Also, where can I find it used ? Thanks!
James - I believe Avid released changes with its March 2024 Pro Tools release (v. 2024.3) that were designed to use the efficiency cores of the M chips. A more recent June release carried that forward. Please update your information with at least a comment, or even better, update the video test with an epilogue or onscreen comment. Thanks
Wow thank you so much for putting together such an informative and concisely explained video! Only bought my latest mac a year and a half ago and now as im levelling up my production with both more plugins and sample libraries, its really starting to struggle. Im an ableton user so sad to learn its not as favorable for the newer chips, though i recall seeing in the reddit thread where this vid was recommended that Ableton are discussing rectifying this for future updates 🤞
it seems like there is no real reason to get the m2 or m3 max for audio production since the m1 max studio already is overkill as you say! I use Logic and Ableton Live and nover go above 25 tracks and in my second studio now I use a m1 mac mini with 16gb ram and 512 ssd combined with and seperate samsung ssd and it works perfekt! So I I upgrade i will go fot the m1 max with same specs! Makes sence ?
I bought the M1 Max. I'm not rich but it was affordable (I don;t have big bills anymore) and I am an amateur. It's probably overkill but I like to think its futire proof for awhile. Previous Mac was a 2010 MP that was starting to struggle. Disappointing Logic doesn't perform as well even though it is made by Apple. Luckily I rarely need close to 100 tracks. But I might? I did get 64GB of memory because I think it helps. Previos Macs didn't always have enough memory and it hindered me at times. Shame I didn't see your earlier video before purchase. But that's life.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the choice of an M1 Max for music production, given that a similar respect device, using the pro would also be similarly priced, yet you get the benefits of double the memory, bandwidth, additional GPU cores, for similar price to the pro. Also, it gives you the ability to select more RAM than with the pro.
i have a macbook pro 2015 i did the upgrade to 8 gb ram and 1 TB i run all my plugins fab filter universal audio ableton 11 waves i’m runing 15 to 20 tracks no problems macs before used to be better than now
I'm planning to buy mac with the base m1 chip, a lot of older mac users recommend me to get the macbook pro always, but recently i watch a lot of music producer said that the macbook air m1 is really good for music production also. So is it worth it to pay more for the macbook pro m1 (2020) or the macbook air m1 is good enough?
I’m just missing the esistense of the Mac mini M1 Pro, I’d prefer that chip but since the Mac mini doesn’t have it I think I’ll buy the Mac mini M2 pro chip
And Apple just released M3 chips. I need a comparison between M2 Pro 12-core (8P core and 4E core) versus the new M3 Pro 12-core (6P core and 6E core). Does worth the price to get the new M3 Pro with some downgrade on performance core rather the old M2 Pro?
Great video man! Saw this too late though.. bought an M2 Pro Mac Mini 16Gb RAM.. would have been better to get an M1 Pro Mac Mini refurbished with 32Gb ram
Thanks for the video, found it very useful! Currently trying to decide between a MacBook Pro 16" M1 Pro and an ASUS Vivobook Pro (i9-13980HX, 32 GB RAM, RTX 4060, 16 inch OLED screen). Primary use is for live performance using Ableton Live 11 with guitar, bass, mic and synth running into audio interface/mixer. Live itself will be running between 8 and 12 tracks (synths + samples). I am a Windows user, so need a good reason if I’m going to move. Relative unit cost where I’m from is Mac = $3600, Asus = $3450. What would you suggest?
NEW VIDEO ➡ The Problem with M3 Pro MacBook Pro for Music Production | M3 Pro vs M2 Pro vs M1 Pro th-cam.com/video/FSqX4bt9to4/w-d-xo.htmlsi=ZCU8BG-toWwNcJLu
Thanks James, these have been very helpful I'm about to check this one out. Have you made one for the Mchip with Ableton 12?
Definitely confirms what I suspected all along. Our challenge as musicians is that most of the Mac reviews are created by video-oriented creators who focus on rendering tests. Usually the only way they acknowledge audio is by saying the total number of tracks that can run, without really qualifying what’s on those tracks. This is a great explanation of how a DAW needs computing resources and does away with the hype about M2 being “better” than M1 for our use. The way I understand it, M2 focused on more significantly improving power efficiency with some performance gain. Particularly for desktop users, that’s pretty much a non-issue regardless of using M1 or M2. James, thank you so much for making this video and putting a few false perceptions to rest.
Glad you like the video!
For tech review channels, it makes sense to do video-oriented tests because video tasks are (generally speaking) much more CPU-intensive than audio tasks.
Video tasks allow reviewers to test not only the CPU performance but also the GPU performance, the media engines, and the SSD speed. And these Apple Silicon chips are pretty video-focused in general.
These audio tests I've been doing on my channel wouldn't be a good way to give people a *general* idea of what these chips can do, but they have proven to be very helpful to people who work with audio a lot. That's why very few people do audio tests on YT and that's why I do them!
@@JamesZhan Where can I find/purchase a Macbook Pro 14in with the M1 or M2 and 16GB RAM? I can only find refurbished... They dont have them new... :(. What do you recommend? The only option seems to buy the latest but dont want to over pay. THANKS
@@rob_fabreeBay. Do thorough research and make sure you buy from a REPUTABLE seller, meaning 99% or higher positive reviews.
@@rob_fabre well yea obviously they aren't made new anymore. They are 2 generations old. We're on m3/m4 now
thank you again for this video. I wanted to ask if a Mac Mini M2 8 core is as good as or better than a MacBook pro M1 20 core for logic pro x...
You deserve an award for your presentation. The amount of information, with excellent articulation is worthy of great admiration & appreciation.
Wow, thank you so much for your kind words!
That was awesome ! I’m an Apple employee and talk about stuff like this often and you did a great job helping me break stuff down better and going to share this video with my team so they understand what the chips are all about for musicians vs video editors
This is excellent. Your buying guides for musicians/producers/engineers are the best I've seen on youtube. Great attention to detail. Thank you.
TH-cam is full of redundant videos about the m1 and m2 comparisons and recommendations, but THIS video is actually super informative and really eye opening. Excellent job, my man. You have a new subscriber. 👍👍
Really appreciate your kind words! I think it’s good to have many people reviewing the same products, as everyone’s perspective and experience are different ☺️
I had no idea about the E and P core utilisation differences in each DAW. you sir are a gentleman and a scholar! Very helpful.
It’s a setting in Logic.
Can you please explain…. I have hackintosh pc i5 7th gen 16gb ram and it handles 100+ tracks with 32 buffer size very smoothly no crackling of sound or lag….
Even when production it handles 50-70 tracks with kontakt and stock logic Vst’s and 10-20 tracks of audio tracks…. I’m confused….. and the computer is 5 yrs old already….
Great video, however I(and many more users like me) would highly appreciate if you made an expanded version of the analysis including cpu heavy instruments like Omnisphere and something RAM heavy as well ,maybe Kontakt with some orchestral library(something from spitfire or audio empire ) , also I feel like DAWs like FL Studio and Studio One were unfairly left out
why would you change your DAW to accommodate sample libraries? just get as much RAM as you can afford. if you are using VSL Synchron pianos or other large libraries like Superior drummer at low buffer settings, you will want 64 gigs of memory or even 96 gigs. The current Apple SSD’s in their macbooks, MBP’s and mini (aside from the base model) are incredibly fast and an m2 12 core chip should provide enough processing power to run most projects with ease. Logic Pro is an affordable DAW that will continue to be optimized for their ARM chips.
@@christopherpederson1021 well the video features different daws according to how they are optimized for apple silicon and the video indicates as well that their usage of cores is different , i wanted to know what core usage would be for my daw as well
@@christopherpederson1021 @user-mu9gh3go7p interesting discussion, here. DAWs are very similar in between themselves, but yes one tends to pick one and stay with it, because it is kind of frustrating, having to relearn the same processes in different DAWs.
Sometimes, I believe, one might change DAW, because a new machine might be too expensive, specially a specked out Mac.
Personally I'm very hesitant in stretching to a Mac Studio Ultra, as I believe it might be a bit overkill.
But yes, I really need enough RAM in order to being able to work with multiple heavy hitters like the companies mentioned here ,in this discussion.
Having said this...I tried a M1 Pro last year, after with Ableton 11 (optimized to Arm CPUs) and it handled a lot of libraries with just the 16Gb of RAM.
I concluded that 32Gb would be mandatory, but i dont know if going with 64Gb wouldn't be a waste of money. I
Here in Portugal, that upgrade is almost 500€(!).
Leaves me wondering if I might as well stretch for the Ultra..and benefit from that CPU upgrade too, for my low latency Live Looping on stage.
This is the kind of review we musicians and producers need!
Thank you so very much for investing a lot of time into making this possible.
As a Pro Tools user it’s kinda saddening to see how poorly optimized the platform is and how it’s not using the CPU cores to its entirety.
I haven’t had any issues with Pro Tools on my M1 Max MacBook Pro but I must say that it can be much better optimized for sure!
Subscribed to the channel already!
🙌🏻🎉
If you dont mind me asking, why use Pro Tools? I had to use Pro Tools for a bit in audio engineering school and i just couldnt stand it. What i can do in Ableton Live 11 today is so much more than Pro Tools. I know Pro Tools was always the standard in studios because for a while it was the only DAW (Multitrack recorder software really) that ran in 32-bit float....but all DAWs run in 32-bit float now. Just curious to know your reasoning as i love always asking why someone uses 1 DAW over another
@@Kaotix_music I’m not the person you directed your question at, but just wanna chime in and say that I agree Pro Tools sucks. I feel like the only reason it’s still around is mostly because it used to be the industry standard. Give it another 10 or 20 years, and I feel like ProTools will be one of the least used DAW in the music industry (if it continues to lag behind other DAWs the way it is currently). Given how much Avid charges for it and how big of a company Avid is, Pro Tools should have been way better.
(Note that my criticism is aimed at Avid, not PT users. I believe people should use whatever DAW they want.)
@@JamesZhanoh i 1000000% agree with you and the reasons i mentioned above was why it was the industry standard for a while. Atleast, thats what we were told in audio engineering school and that we should expect and studio we work in...their main workstation was gonna be ProTools. But more and more i book studios if i want to work in one rather than my home studio, im seeing more and more they just have every DAW now (minus FL, bigger engineers cannot stand FL Studio)
@@Kaotix_music Not only that, with the rise of home studios/remote services studios, there's basically no need to learn this "industry standard" DAW anymore unless you plan to work in someone else's studio. I for one have been doing professional mixing and mastering work out of my own studio for the past 8 years without knowing a hint of Pro Tools.
Even recording studios don't all use PT nowadays. A band I'm working with is recording drums in a sizable studio in my city and that studio uses Logic!
@@Kaotix_music
Don’t worry, I love the question!
Honestly it’s all about familiarity for me.
When I first started recording, producing and mixing I did so using Pro Tools without an academy involved and willingly.
You may wonder why and it is because it got stuck in my head since the first time I went to a studio and saw its GUI.
It just clicked with me.
Now, I’ve used other DAWs such as Reaper, Studio One and Logic Pro and all three have increíble feature sets and are really well optimized in certain areas when compared to Pro Tools hand on hand, still I use Pro Tools to this day only because I have a workflow I like in it and a workflow I feel comfortable too.
I am proficient at it and efficient so, it’s already built into my muscle memory to an extent.
This doesn’t mean that if I have to use another DAW I won’t, I can use any other platform if the work needs it to.
Would it be better if it was Pro Tools in my case? Of course! But it’s not a dealbreaker.
On the other hand, I’ve studied the possibility of leaving Pro Tools behind and choose another DAW to work with but I honestly think of the hassle it would be to re-learn everything and I just want to be creative and make a living.
Ableton 11 is just a joke on CPU...10 was fine can you do an Ableton test, Reaper is just so amazing on cpu load.
I notice you have 9:02 Mark for Ableton
I use a 256gb m1 air with 16gb of ram into a Kensington Thunderbolt docking station that runs my interface, a 27” 1440 monitor, audio monitor controller, ssl uc1, ssl uf1, and some external drives. I use Logic Pro x, a bunch of toontrack and neural DSP plugins and it works perfectly
As a die-hard Apple user and mixing engineer, I have held out on upgrading my 2015 MacBook Pro with 16 GB RAM. Mainly because of the ports that were not included throughout the reign of the M1 chip. I can finally say that the Mac mini would be a substantial upgrade. And this video really helped thank you.
Never change a running system. What did you end up doing?
My M2 Max Mac Studio is so awesome I can literately Run Studio One on the lowest latency with over 30 plugins including instruments as plugins without even changing it.
32 ms buffer. This thing is a Beast!!!
Sorry, but I disagree. I bought myself an M1 ULTRA Mac Studio. I expected a SPACE difference between my 2020 Mac mini: /i7/32RAM/1TB ssd. But I'm incredibly disappointed in the real tests of my projects. My Mac mini is almost as good to my M1 ULTRA. This is complete Nonsense and Crash! Daw Studio ONE version 6 did not work any better at all. Some plugins began to consume 1-2% less on my M1 - this is all good news. Daw instantly loads ONE core out of 16 productive ones!! !Other Daws also show practically the same results (perhaps RIPER is a little better than all the others). If you do not work with Large sessions, then you will not understand me. I am completely disappointed with M1 and Studio ONE! Out of 16 cores + 4 effective - only ONE is used 100%, and 3-4 other cores. All the other 12-14 cores are simply NOT used. I’m just in SHOCK. I paid that kind of money and got NOTHING in performance and Power( which I dreamed and hoped for so much)
@@sergeyleps8492 what are you talking about? This is my experience from having a macbook with a i9 chip and now also having a M2 mac studio. My M2 mac studio FOR ME works better, and I can run it at a low buffer setting and it works great. Im sorry yours is not working like mine is. But we can easily debunk this and I can do a live stream showing my Studio One running well on 32 buffer for the audio drivers and running great while also having 30 plugins on as well.
@@sergeyleps8492 theres no settings at all to make it use the other cores?
I probably watched 100 videos on TH-cam on performance tests of a 16" MacBook pro M3 Max 36 GB RAM and I still don't know if it's enough for Logic Pro :-/ will this equipment support 50 audio tracks with Logic effects?
wow, it's really surprising Logic performs worse than Reaper and Cubase considering it's pretty much made by and for Apple. Oh well!
Hey @JamesZhan, can we please get an m3 Pro vs m2 Pro breakdown for music production pretty please
Here ya go! Just posted a video on M3 Pro vs M2 Pro! th-cam.com/video/FSqX4bt9to4/w-d-xo.htmlsi=ZCU8BG-toWwNcJLu
How in the fuck is Logic not optimised, being an apple product?
Thank you for such a great video. I had no idea how the DAWs utilize the silicon chips, and the differences between power vs. efficiency. I’m surprised that Logic, of all the DAWs, doesn’t fully utilize the silicon chips. Any thoughts on that?
Thanks for keeping it plain , concise and simple! Great guide.
Thank you so much for this great Video!
Are you planning doing a comparison to the new M3 series? Whould be interesting to see if the improvement in the perf/eff cores changes something since we're less p-cores every year (like the 11c M3 Pro with only 5!)
Just posted a video on it! th-cam.com/video/FSqX4bt9to4/w-d-xo.htmlsi=ZCU8BG-toWwNcJLu
Yo @Ableton, I love you but maybe it's about time to stop blaming third party AU and VST3 plugins and deal with your efficiency issue! Kind Regards
Thank you for the helpful video. I wait for the M3 Pro and go back to MAC. I want to use Logic again because I like it much more than Reaper and S1. But I wonder why the performance of Logic is not that good.
Because Logic is not a high priority for Apple. it will eventually catch up
Hi James,
First of all, thank you for all your precious informations about Mac M series !
I'm a musician too with on stage Ivory American Steinway from Synthogy (pretty big samples library), EP-88 from Scarbee and I'm planning to buy Omnisphere from Spectrasonics.
I would like to know what is your advice about RAM choice for new MacBooks M series : 16, 32 or 64 Go in my situation.
I have an old Macbook Pro from 2011 with 1 To SSD and 16 Go but I have some bugs on stage with it !
Thanks in advance for your answer.
Best Regards from France !
Olivier Jalet
Btw you're claiming M2 ultra wouldn't make difference for music production but isn't M2 ultra multiplying the performance cores as well? 🤔
Thank you very much James for this great video, I learned a lot thanks to you, a superb source of information!!! I acquired a Mac mini 3.2Ghz i7 64 Gb RAM and 1Tera SSD 2.5 years ago and my CPU is quickly in the red in my mixing or even production sessions (especially a latency problem when recording songs). that there are a lot of avenues...) in short, I am more enlightened on the type of processor (although I wonder if the graphics card does not also have a role to play on all the spectrum visualization plugins ( Flux Analyzer, ADPTR audio etc....) but according to your advice I don't really fit into the boxes announced, but rather as an (almost) advanced producer AND Mixer (production is my job but I mix my productions before send them to the master then...) and switch back to windows I admit that makes me very very afraid 😅
Ahhhh mannn, this is an awesome video. I know it’s a lot of work. But I’d be REALLY interested to see a comparison added to this, with Studio One and Luna. Mainly because they are the best alternatives to pro tools, but also because both of them are doing some interesting work. Plus, to my Knowlege Luna is one of the only other Mac exclusive DAW’s, other than Logic.
I went through a Stage where I was overly wrapped up in high spec options wanting only the top performing m2 and nothing less... Then it hit me, for the past 4 years I've been doing all my video photo and audio editing on a laptop that had a base level ryzen processor with integrated graphics. Obviously my use case doesn't require a whole hell of a lot lmao
What did you end up going with I’m in the same boat
They stuck to their base level ryzen processor with integrated graphics
But nah, I get the feeling, lol
A computer is nothing but a tool, of the tool works for you, just stick with it
This is a great to hear! I have been doing some light mixing and recording, and I was wondering if upgrading beyond the basic M1 would be helpful. For my situation, it seems like the answer is “no”, and that’s reassuring. Thanks!
Very well presented!
I guess then it would be fair to assume that the 8core M1 Pro will have the same performance in Logic/Pro Tools as the M2 Pro 10core, due to the same 6 performance cores.
Yes, based on the tests I've done at least, that would be the logical assumption.
I have a MacBook with a 1tb SSD. What's a healthy amount of space to leave available? I am using about just under 800gb right now.
There's no hard rule, but I've seen people recommending between 10-30% free space.
@@JamesZhan Thanks
Buy intel you can get some great buys and great compatbity with intel macs and many are actually upgradeable in ram storage and gpu.
And you dont really need the media engine chips or gpu for audio work
James thanks for your video I don’t have a big budget I find one Mac note book Apple Laptop MacBook Pro Retina 13-inch Pro Touch Bar A1706 / Core i5-7267U (3.1GHz), 16GB Memory, SSD512GB, 13 inch (2560 x 1600), Japanese Keyboard Included, MAC OS, Type-C, Wireless LAN, Built-in Camera (BAN BAN PC STORE) (Refurbished) is the is still available for update ? Thanks for your reply
Thanks James, good video. I bought an M1 MAC mini in 2021 (8 GB RAM and 256 GB SSD) This has served me well in my (relatively small) Audio recording projects on GarageBand. Good to hear the M2 wouldn't buy me anything for Audio. 8 GB shared Memory is enough. I also concur with your recommendation to go with a 1TB SSD, as I have had to move most of the stuff on my Boot SSD to one of my External 1TB NVMe SSDs to free up space for larger projects.
Actually I got 512 GB SSD.
Hi James, hope you read and respond to this. there is a flaw in methodology of your test here. Your test accounts of performance ACROSS multiple cores utilized, which would of course yiled better results for more performance cores, like the M1 chip over the M2 chip.
however, you neglected the fact that sometimes single core CPU speed and performance is king in audio. This is because audio following a single downstream channel path will always be processed on the same core. This is a massive reason why projects can crash and display the infamous "cpu too slow" or those famous logic errors we all love so much.
I myself have some pretty heavy hitters on most of my mixbusses. Furthermore, my session's tracks are often bussed to "Percussion Bus" or "Midrange Bus" -- where i do processing there as well. It should be noted that just the processing on that ONE BUS, or the mixbus ONLY, can overload your cpu. That is because, again, single core performance is what matters here, since audio and DAW tech has not progressed enough to be able to split the processing of one single channel of audio onto multiple cores.
So in that regard, your video could have used something like "If you find yourself applying many CPU intensive plugins on one channel, one bus, or your mixbus, then the M3 chip is best for you" -- since all geekbench scores definitively prove the M3 chip has the best single core performance out of all the chips.
I still very, very much appreciate your video. Please correct me if i'm wrong in my thinking here -- i would love to purchase the cheaper M2 or M1 models anyways. But i dont think my thinking is flawed. Single core performance matters much more in audio than just two heavy plugins on 50-100 tracks, since often one needs to heavily process one channel of audio.
I've never needed 100 guitar amp sim tracks. But i've needed compressors, saturators, multiband processors, de-esser, an amp sim, and izotope RX on one single vocal track before!
@jamesZhan you definitely earned my subscription !!! Very informative !!! ✅💯
Probably an M2 Ultra w/ 128gb RAM and 2 TB... For mainly music AND Photography work... and watching youtube. xD
*If I MOSTLY use my Mac for music production, which one of these two would provide the most optimal stability for Logic Pro: (APPLE MAX STUDIO with M2 Max Chip-30 Core GPU, 8 Performance/4 Efficiency, 32GB, 2TB SSD) or (APPLE MAC MINI M2 Pro Chip-19 Core GPU, 8 Performance/4 Efficiency, 32GB, 2TB SSD)? Both are the same price.*
excellent content. Thank you for this, James. I went with the M1 MAX at 64gb Unified and 4tbSSD. Should be more than enough for my needs as a professional producer and hobbyist film composer.
Thank you for the video! Wanted to buy M2 Pro instead of my MB Pro 2018, but after your analysis made a choice for M1 Pro 10 cores. One Question - what software do you use to see cores loading?
Really helpful. I’m just fed up with PC moving to Mac and this video helps me to look to which Mac to move to. I have a 49” Dell curved monitor. Just wondering which mac book would be able to drive it without over heating.
I was excited about Apple silicon but I think it sucks for music production. Slower SSD speeds, still not compatible with my favorite plug-ins and hardware and a massive 40% decrease in performance in Rosetta. It crashed Logic constantly and the CPU overloads made it impossible to use. It's all well and good showing off how many tracks it can play but when it comes to live recordings with guitar plugins it folds. Ultimately, all it did was make me appreciate my intel system, which kicks its ass at music production. Silicon loads faster but performs slower. Intel loads slower but performs better. That's my opinion
Considering the Mac Studio M1 Ultra 64GB/1TB can now be purchased for $2500 (open box), is it still "overkill" for Pro Tools? My needs are for plugin power and VI's for the CPU. Audio is handled by an Avid HDX card.
There are 20 cores in M1 Ultra... that's 16 performance cores that can be fully utilized by PT. An M2 Ultra (same spec) has no additional performance cores but only adds 2 more efficiency cores (total of 4) so given the price point there is no significant advantage of an M2 Ultra over M1 Ultra. Correct?
Moreover, is not the 16 performance cores available in M1 Ultra a huge boost over the M1 Max which "only" has 8 performance cores? At at $2500 price does it make more sense to invest in the extra 8 cores the M1 Ultra provides?
Thanks for your very well done research and review.
A UA Sound City Studios plug in for example: Is it CPU heavy or RAM heavy? Is it heavy audio processing to have thes on all my tracks? I am trying to decide between An M2 Pro mini with 12 cores and 16Gb (or 32Gb) vs a 15 in Macbook Air with 8 cores and 24Gb. I have ruled out the M3Pro MBP with 18 because of performance cores. Apple is bugging me because of the built in contradictions and subliminal upselling game they are playing. My M1 with 8 and 8Gb is starting to overload with too many plugins, and I am wondering if it is CPU or RAM
Hey James - Great Vdeo. Im a guitarist with a home home studio. Currently using Mac 5,1 2 3.46G 6 Cores, 96G 1.3 Mhz DDR3, AMD vega 64 8G graphics (modded power supply) running Monterey and using Logic Pro. Im able to record just fine using a simplie Scarlett 6i6 and getting guitar tones via Ox Box SPDIF. Was trying to just maybe a platform upgrade to the New Mac architecture and possible a new interface, just wondering when its worth moving to the Modern era. With my system I can open alot (more than I would probably need) of plugins per track and not really com close to the 96G or memory pressure indicator. Always a tough choice to deice when to upgrade, my old Pro cheese grater has run fine. I'm not a pro studio but like to produce high quality recordings (which with the gear I have isnt bad..)...any advice?
Brilliant, thanks.
I keep getting told at Gearspace that an ARM Mac will crush my 14900K/64GB/8TB/Win 11 Pro/Asus Pro Art/4080s/Kraken elite system in audio projects. And I have been telling them they are dreaming. I bet you the gap will be even bigger at low latency. Can't find ANY benchmarks with ARM Macs running multiple tracks at actual low latency. I bet you anything I would even crush the Mac Pro with 24 core which costs literally twice what I paid.
My P cores are at 5.9ghz all core and E cores at 4.5. I bet you in fact that even if I disable ALL my P cores and just use the 16 E cores, that even then it will at least be as fast as a 24 core ARM Mac.
Thanks for the information. My projects always have at least 100-150 tracks, each one with big channel strips. One thing you didn’t cover. I notice that pluggins that use AI such as ozone, izotope’s, etc consume a lot of resources. Someone should test M processors on those.
Got a M2 Pro Mac Mini 10 core (32GB ram) that I use Logic Pro X on professionally every day (96/24) but it does struggle especially given a) my samplerate and b) amount of third party soft synths/libraries. Is there any meaningful upgrade I can make? I'm a bit confused right now! For example, would a M1 Max Mac Studio be better? Any help would be greatly appreciated!
you are the best!!! I am so grateful for your channel! this video totally helped me make my decision in which one to buy for my music production! Thank you!!
I'm looking at getting a Mac Mini but do not see an M1 Pro or M1 10-Core for Mac Mini. Did Apple not make these? If not, what is the recommendation for which Mac Mini to get?
Does Macbook M2 pro can handle with Native Instrument Komplete 14 and newest Friuty Loops Studio ? Anyone know ?
What specs will be the best for rendering individual tracks or stems, before mixing? I use tons of virtual instruments, and maybe 5-6 sample libary instruments + a lot of samples for FX and perc, in my tracks.
Also, if some mixing is done before rendering (compression, and other plugins), would that influence a lot of time spent rendering individual tracks? On my previous computer, (Intel 9 12900H, 32GB ram ddr5 4800Mhz) renderig all tracks often could be a 2 hours long task. Maybe my sample rate was to low? I think it was pretty low.
Your music career will pay you slow af! It might not be even a music making career. Quit watching these clickbaity videos and get the machine you can afford rn.
Keep Bouncing off them plugins and learn to commit asap , Produce/Record at 256, Mix at 1024 buffer. Share Reverbs. Invest in SSD that's it.
Also stop wasting time on which mac to get, Its build to fool you into buying the costlier one. and also videos like how to Make money from music production...
There only revenue of music is these videos.
scammmmm!
Thanks for the video! What about the Studio M1 Ultra vs. Studio M2 Max for Logic Pro X with loads of plug-ins. Intrigued who gets the edge for that specific application.
Hey James, excellent video, thank you. Have you any thoughts on the M3 chips?
Hi James. Wanted to start off by saying thank you for making this video! You are saving me about $1000! I had initially planned on purchasing a new MacBook Pro with an M3 Pro chip. But after watching your video? No way. Now I am thinking the best MacBook Pro for me is the M1 Pro chip. Please let me know if I’m correct here. I use primarily Pro Tools, Logic and Reason for music production. I also mix and master.
With that said, based on what you said in the video, doesn’t the M1 Pro chip for these DAW’s make the most sense? It has the most performance cores, correct? And you can create more tracks in both Pro Tools and in Logic with the M1 Pro chip. Correct?
Please let me know if I heard you right in this video. And thanks again James!
I dunno... I have Mac Studio w/ M1 Max and 32 GB RAM and have maxed out the CPU (according to DP's performance bar) on a daily basis. Bounce to disk isn't as fast as I would have assumed as well. My friend has the Mac Studio w/ M2 Ultra and it does a lot better using DP.
Can anybody explain why Reaper outperforms Logic in this video but not in James' previous M1 Max video?
M3 max 14 core has 10 performance cores. That's epic for Ableton.
Dude your videos are so helpful! Thanks man. I've got a 2019 intel bankbook pro that's starting to struggle - Is it worth holding out for the M4 ? Or just go for a refurbished M2 pro? Cheers,
Andy
I have been looking for this channel for years. Great vid! Thank you so much!
Crazy that Logic won’t utilize all the cores…that makes no sense on Apples part
Very helpful analysis James. One question: Clean My Mac keeps telling me to shut down other apps to retrieve RAM; however I’m only using core apps like Safari, etc. What’s going on here?
Great video, thank you so much. Should I take it that having 16 performance cores on the M2 Ultra will result in roughly 240 tracks in ProTools as you loaded the channels up, or does the M2 Ultra not scale in a linear fashion? Would I benefit from 128 gigs of Ram, or is 32 or 64 gigs enough and any more is money wasted and cannot provide benefit in audio work?
Please, M2 or m3 MacBook Air for music production? 16gb ram sufficient for hip hop beats and electronic soft synth music?
Very good approach. But what about the limited connectivity, limited RAM and limited SSD space on the more affordable (= attractive) Mac mini base models?
I struggle to make a decision: MacBook M1 Max 32GB 1TB or MacBook M2 Pro 12CPU/19GPU 16GB 1TB. Both are 16” and almost the same price.
I’ll use it for DJ-ing but I’ll start to look into music production as well.
I know M2pro it’s new but somehow the 32 GB from M1 Max gives more “peace” to my soul 😁
I still can’t decide, is the 16 GB from M2 pro enough?
I would say doubling the RAM would usually make more of a difference.
Please help as I’m not that computer savvy .. I’m using logic X , Komplete 14 standard and various other plugins as a hobby.. could anyone recommend which 32gb ram Mac to get . Mac mini or Mac Studio m1 or m2 and how much core ? Thanks in advance
With recent news, are you gonna do The Ultimate M1/M2/M3 Mac Buying Guide for Music Production anytime soon? :)
I've watched all your videos a few times now and have landed on this: I want the best performance for my DAW which is Logic Pro, while also having a machine that has Wifi6e and Hdmi 2.1. Would that mean the best middle ground is the apple Mac Studio M2 Max?
I don't get it. I'm a film composer regularly running 130+ tracks with plugins in logic on my 2009 macpro. How can M chips only 'run' less than 100? The metric is unclear.
@ 11:01 - I'm a Noob's padawan's Youngling, clouded by the Darkside. What are examples of Audio Processing, Mixing & Mastering? Why are those tasks CPU intensive?
Just reminding.. It is propably said here in video, but just to looking at the charts wont tell you the whole truth. M2 pro 16-inch has 12 cores and 8 performance cores.. So these comparisons are not valid if you change from 14-to 16inch. (As you should always, if doing anything related music and such) Also the singlecore performance is very crusial. The overload comes usually from one channel witch is packed with plugins - not the track count.
And that is series processed, not paralled. So multicore performance cannot be used as it is single core process. Therefore in real life scenario the M2 is faster. Also not to mention M3 which can most definately be faster if you choose Max version!
Thumbs up please guys if you want to see another breakdown of m3 pro/max models compared also to the m2 variants. I myself am considering between getting m2 pro and m3 pro. M3 Pro seems to be costing me few hundreds more for very similar and in some places actually worse specs. I just wonder if despite less performance cores and less memory bandwidth it can somehow be faster than m2 pro, or if its very similar and i'm better off buying m2 pro
Thank you for your efforts to test this and the result is very interesting... I don't wonder any more why Cubase projects run so efficiently on my M2.
Im planning to purchase A m1 or m2 mac mini 10 core 1T 32GB for music production mixing and mastering. I use Protools and Native instruments DAW and sample libraries. Just need a computer tat can handle a tone of Universal Audio plug -ins for mixing and mastering and also perform well while in production with Native instrument software.
Hello ! Amazing video ! But how about FL STUDIO ? Does it use all the cores ?
Thanks for the information, much appreciated. I just bought the Mac mini, m2 pro, 1 tb, 32 g..love it. I use Studio One as my DAW. When recording or mixing, everything is snappy, no spinning beach balls. I upgraded from a 2018 Mac mini, 256 tb, 16g. I used a lot of external ssd's. Sometimes, depending on my mix, I would be maxing out the Mac mini, I'd see beachballs spinning, a couple of times I had a freeze. I thought about going with the Mac Studio, but I really like the mini, it's footprint, just works for me. Thanks again for sharing your thoughts.
This video has been perfect to help with my needs for a Macbook for music production. Does anybody know if there is anything similar to help buy a Macbook for graphic design/photoshop? I'd love to know how well Photoshop/Illustrator utilise the cores
Would you possibly be willing to see how universal audio performs against the other daws? im in love with the LUNA system but i suspect they dont take as much advantage of the cpu capacity as the other ones since their rather new
Hey James you are literally a lifesaver! I hit like and almost instantly! Keep on keeping on dude! Any advice on Toontrack libraries and RAM?
I’m a beginner producer/engineer for Logic Pro. Which m1 should I get that I can grow into and will last me a while as I advance? Specs? Also, where can I find it used ? Thanks!
James - I believe Avid released changes with its March 2024 Pro Tools release (v. 2024.3) that were designed to use the efficiency cores of the M chips. A more recent June release carried that forward. Please update your information with at least a comment, or even better, update the video test with an epilogue or onscreen comment. Thanks
Wow thank you so much for putting together such an informative and concisely explained video! Only bought my latest mac a year and a half ago and now as im levelling up my production with both more plugins and sample libraries, its really starting to struggle. Im an ableton user so sad to learn its not as favorable for the newer chips, though i recall seeing in the reddit thread where this vid was recommended that Ableton are discussing rectifying this for future updates 🤞
Everything is clean about this man. Video quality on point. Comparisons 🔥 Well done sir well done.
it seems like there is no real reason to get the m2 or m3 max for audio production since the m1 max studio already is overkill as you say! I use Logic and Ableton Live and nover go above 25 tracks and in my second studio now I use a m1 mac mini with 16gb ram and 512 ssd combined with and seperate samsung ssd and it works perfekt! So I I upgrade i will go fot the m1 max with same specs! Makes sence ?
Any from MacBook Pro from 2015 and newer. I have a friend that recorded a lot on his through Logic Pro.
I bought the M1 Max. I'm not rich but it was affordable (I don;t have big bills anymore) and I am an amateur. It's probably overkill but I like to think its futire proof for awhile. Previous Mac was a 2010 MP that was starting to struggle. Disappointing Logic doesn't perform as well even though it is made by Apple. Luckily I rarely need close to 100 tracks. But I might? I did get 64GB of memory because I think it helps. Previos Macs didn't always have enough memory and it hindered me at times. Shame I didn't see your earlier video before purchase. But that's life.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the choice of an M1 Max for music production, given that a similar respect device, using the pro would also be similarly priced, yet you get the benefits of double the memory, bandwidth, additional GPU cores, for similar price to the pro. Also, it gives you the ability to select more RAM than with the pro.
Reason 12 is terrible on M1 Max. it crashes on me constantly. I'm gonna have to switch over to something else. And I dont want to. at all.
You forgot that a big role is played, for example, with an external expensive studio sound card, performance and stability increase very more.
i have a macbook pro 2015 i did the upgrade to 8 gb ram and 1 TB i run all my plugins fab filter universal audio ableton 11 waves i’m runing 15 to 20 tracks no problems macs before used to be better than now
I'm planning to buy mac with the base m1 chip, a lot of older mac users recommend me to get the macbook pro always, but recently i watch a lot of music producer said that the macbook air m1 is really good for music production also. So is it worth it to pay more for the macbook pro m1 (2020) or the macbook air m1 is good enough?
You my friend are bringing so much value to the world of musicians right now! Thank you :)
I’m just missing the esistense of the Mac mini M1 Pro, I’d prefer that chip but since the Mac mini doesn’t have it I think I’ll buy the Mac mini M2 pro chip
New Pro Tools now takes advantage of the efficiency cores . Big improvement
And Apple just released M3 chips. I need a comparison between M2 Pro 12-core (8P core and 4E core) versus the new M3 Pro 12-core (6P core and 6E core). Does worth the price to get the new M3 Pro with some downgrade on performance core rather the old M2 Pro?
This is also the comparison I am looking for - how the faster 6 performance cores of the M3 Pro compare to the 8 performance cores of the M2 Pro.
Just posted a video on it th-cam.com/video/FSqX4bt9to4/w-d-xo.htmlsi=ZCU8BG-toWwNcJLu
@@emil_fa hey, I just posted a video on it th-cam.com/video/FSqX4bt9to4/w-d-xo.htmlsi=ZCU8BG-toWwNcJLu
I have the iPad Air M1 with the Magic Keyboard it replaces a laptop or low budget PC.
really love your video! It helps me so much. Thank you!!!
Great video man! Saw this too late though.. bought an M2 Pro Mac Mini 16Gb RAM.. would have been better to get an M1 Pro Mac Mini refurbished with 32Gb ram
What you got is still an awesome machine! I'm sure it will serve you well :)
The Mac Mini never existed in an M1 Pro version, nor with a 32GB version prior to the M2 Pro.
Thanks for the video, found it very useful! Currently trying to decide between a MacBook Pro 16" M1 Pro and an ASUS Vivobook Pro (i9-13980HX, 32 GB RAM, RTX 4060, 16 inch OLED screen). Primary use is for live performance using Ableton Live 11 with guitar, bass, mic and synth running into audio interface/mixer. Live itself will be running between 8 and 12 tracks (synths + samples). I am a Windows user, so need a good reason if I’m going to move. Relative unit cost where I’m from is Mac = $3600, Asus = $3450. What would you suggest?
The EXACT video i was looking for! thank you James!!!