As a Film Score composer, I Just bought the Mac Mini M4 Pro 64Go with 2 To and still can’t believe that I’m gonna work on a Mac Mini but this is such an absolute beast… what a time to be alive
@ hahaha. I’d like not to have to buy ANYTHING lol. But I am evaluating right now. I don’t much care for all the fame or giant expensive SSDs, I DO care about the maximum number of P cores. If I can’t run Hornet SamP on every channel, it’s not worth buying (not that I use SamP much but it’s just the heaviest plugin I own)
What a time to be alive, indeed! I remember recording midi tracks on my 386, running Cakewalk with my Turtle Beach "crystal" soundcard, hahahaha I couldn't record digital audio if I wanted to, the DIGI001 wasn't even out yet.... Now, look at the options! I love it ~
I’m still rocking my m1 Mac mini with 16gb of ram. As my main recording system with uad. I do this professionally and haven’t had any issues. Wasn’t thinking about upgrading. But what the heck. Maybe I’ll consider it!
Im getting the base model delivered today and am gonna run a ton of vst and see if it works. there's a 2 month return policy right now so if it's not good enough I will switch out for the 24 gb of ram unless someone tells me that won't make a huge difference but I'm hopeful 16 gb ram will be enough
Even the base level Mac Mini at $599 can easily get you into professional territory in terms of running the DAW, recording, mixing, and even with a decent amount of virtual instruments.
I think a big factor is the sample rate one is recording at... at 24/96, my Mac mini M1 16GB RAM crawls with just 10 tracks or virtual instruments. Regarding drive size, I have 1TB and even after offloading everything that I can such as sound libraries, etc... only using the drive for MacOS and applications (Cubase, Adobe, video, etc) & plugins, I only have around 150GB left. So I would never limit myself to anything lower than 1TB.
Well I was about to get the Mac Studio M2 Max with 1tb storage upgrade for $2200... Now I'm considering the Mac Mini M4 Pro with the processor upgrade, 1tb storage upgrade and a ram upgrade to 48gb for again $2200...
I have a M1 Mac Studio with 32 gigs ram and 512 gig hd and it's like plugging into a rock, It's cold to the touch, Silent and just works. I can only imagine what these are like.
I got a Mac Studio last year and it's amazing. Totally silent, all the ports I could need and it's light enough that I've got it mounted to the side of a studio rack. That way I can easily get to all the ports and rearrange things if need be.
I work in the video/film world and dabble with music and have used an M1 max MBP for about 2-3 years and an M3 max for the last couple months. One thing to consider when choosing between pro and max for MacBooks is if you're planning on running multiple external displays. I believe the pro is limited to 2 external displays where the max is good for 4. In terms of performance, I agree that probably 99% of people will never touch the threshold of performance the max chips offer, but I somehow have found myself needing a bit more in some instances (editing UHD low compression raw files) and have considered getting a Mac Studio with the ultra chip for that reason. I definitely did not choose a cheap profession. 😅
Those New Computers are Insanely Powerful. I would be nice to upgrade the studio computer but I'll wait for now, my MBP M1 16gb working fine, but Geeze still amazed on the power of those computers. Thank for the Video Colt.
First of all, thanks so much for the incredibly straight forward, straight to the point breakdown/video, this is exactly the kind of video I was searching for, much appreciated! Anyway, just wanted to clarify something. So you mentioned if you're someone who's running a bunch of virtual instruments, this model with the minimum storage probably isn't the best choice. So my question is, in your opinion, what do you consider to be "a bunch" of virtual instruments? My situation is, I'm a musician/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist and would be tracking mostly 'real' guitars, bass, drums, keys, percussion, etc.. Specifically, mic'd up acoustic drums, keys using internal sounds (i.e. Nord presets) and some plugins.. Bass guitar: direct & mic'd speaker cab. Guitars: mainly using my tube amps with UA OX speaker and mic sims, but also, occasionally using amp sims and real mic'd up cabs. So in your opinion, do you think the Mini ($599) would suffice? And of course, like you said, using external drives is a must. Anyway, thanks again for the excellent video! Peace.. DC
M3 Pro MBP was a 70W charger last year as well. I was jumping up from a 2018 MBP and it was crazy how much better it was, not to mention machine fan almost never on or heating up. Fiance got an M2 Mini at the same time, just the baseline, but yeah no way we need to upgrade for years. If I had stupid money I'd definitely max something out for myself, then give one of my kids my current machine heh.
I am a pro music producer. Mainly audio so no massive amount of sound libraries or soft instruments. But I often have 30 tracks of audio running simultaneously with masses of plugins. I use a M1 MacBook Air. Very rarely does the computer run out of power. The new MacBook M4 air would do me no worries. The Air’s are 100% silent so perfect for recording audio. I My M1 Air does have a 1TB hard drive but I’d be fine with 256GB. I store finished projects on external harddrives. I also run everything from within the AirM1. So easy.
before watching the video, i started uni recently and im probably going to be upgrading my intel macbook pro to one of these mac mini's. looking forward to the vid edit: the non pro chip in the mac mini has 3 thunderbolt 4 ports on the back, not thunderbolt 5. Not a huge difference for most people but just thought id mention it just so you know.
@@ColtCapperrune Yeah, I figured I would be. I bought my macbook that last year of the intel chips and when they announced they were making there own i was NOT happy haha. I THINK im going to get the m4 pro mac mini as the extra performance cores will future proof me for a long while. Great video, Colt!
This is super helpful. I was just thinking about trying out the Mac OS compared to Windows....this is finally at a price point where I can do that. Thanks for this video and helping me figure that out.
I’m hesitant to agree on some points because the metrics haven’t been tested much by consumers yet, but it surely seems like a good buy. I think that people must consider external expansion in the pricing when looking at Macs to get a proper look at what they’ll need but that could just be my opinion.
I think at this point Apple has a pretty solid track record with these new Apple Silicon chips and the fact that every generation is around 30% more powerful than the last generation. That’s the main reason why this is the first video I’ve made suggesting what computer someone should buy without actually having it in my studio to test. As I’ve had the first three generations of these chips already. Thanks for watching!
Would you mind sharing how you store your sample libraries on a separate drive? Organization wise and making sure they actually sync up with their plugins. I've done it a couple of times, and always run into a sync issue at some point.
I have a Mac Mini Pro M2 and Macbook Air M2 (1TB HD). The Macbook Air is incredible in that I run all my plugins, it doesn’t get hot, and it doesn’t even contain a fan within it! Might upgrade to an M4 at a discount when the M5 starts being released.
Could you tell me what USB hub you purchased if you recommend it? I purchased a M3 MacBook Pro myself not too long ago and need to get one myself also.
I'm still running the 27 inch i mac. 4 Ghz Quad core i7 with 32 GB. I'm guessing it's going to be a real eye opener when i make the jump to a new Mac mini.
I would argue that the greatest difference you would notice on reasonable sized projects, is fan noise. I have non on my Mac mini m2 pro. Fan noise just does not exist, and my projects are typically 15 to 25 tracks.
I have the 2017 machine already outdated so I would suggest upgrading. That’s what I intend. There are limitations with the Intel chip that no longer utilize the updates offered. They will be discontinuing support soon I hear.
Been a mac mini user for 12 years now for music production. Always was the best bang for the buck. With apple, you do pay a price, but you damn well get the performance you paid for
Couple things. 1. The M4 base is as powerful as the M3 Max according to benchmarks. 2. The write speeds are quite a bit faster around 1500 MB/s faster upgrading from 256 to 512. 3. The cores on the GPU are just marketing BS, doesn't really mean anything. 4. Remember that cores on an M-chip do not work the same as on regular processors. Some of your cores are "efficiency" cores, hence upgrading to the M4 pro is a good choice for future proofing (though with Mac planned obsolescence business model, well you never know). 5. Remember, once you have that RAM, you have that RAM! 24GB is a no brainer even for a hobbyist. I just opened up a Cubase project with like 15 tracks, 2 instances of Opera browser open and some file explorers open and I was using 11GB of RAM already. Future proof. The best choice for a hobbyist is 800 dollars for the M4 / 24GB / 256GB. In my humble opinion after researching for weeks now and being a computer nerd since my dad brought home a Tandy from Radio Shack back in 1994.
Glad you made this video. I like to buy the Mac Mini but wonder what the the difference between it and the Mac Studio. You mentioned it some in your video. I just want to make sure I am making the right choice between the 2. I have been thinking about it for weeks when I knew they were coming out. I like how small they are. Hard to believe it is any good at that size.
Beware the CPU number includes both Performance and Efficiency cores. Efficiency cores are useless in music production (they are simply idle). Look for the processor with the highest ratio of Performance cores. The M4 Pro is the most suitable for musicians. M4 Max is only slightly better than Pro, but can’t really be justified by the price difference.
it all depends on what DAW your using. I have a M3 Max with 16 cores, 12 performance and 4 efficiency and it blows my M1 Max out the water. NOT EVEN CLOSE! Pro tools, Reaper and Cubase all use all of cores for processing power. I would stay away from the M4 because of Sequoia. No music software is supported yet.
@ yes since March this year, Pro Tools can now utilize efficiency cores. And no wonder your M3 Max blows M1 Max out of the water, it also has 50% more performance cores (and twice the number of efficiency cores). Logic doesn’t really use the E-cores and Ableton have (as of now) no plans on utilizing E-cores at all
I had used PC for years with Cakewalk etc. The problem with Windows is the many patches to get it to integrate and registry that gets corrupted. When I was convinced to go Mac it was like night and day. No longer have to fight to produce music or mix. It is setup for that sort of production. You won’t regret the inexpensive Logic Pro if that’s what you would use.
My old iMac in the studio just crash (I think beyond rescuing this time) Appreciate the video a lot cause I was just about to preorder the Mac mini. Thank you kindly for the tips and breakdown!
I am considering getting the M4 Pro chip in the Mac Mini, but I have the tendency to upgrade my technology purchases to max specs, so I feel like I might be better off waiting for the updated Mac Studio possibly, if it releases sometime soon?
Thanks for doing this video for us Colt! If you store most of your session on external hard drives, what do you use/recommend? Anybody else have thoughts on external hard drives?
External drives make a lot of sense. It’s what I use on my iMac, then if you upgrade computers later on all your stuff is on external ready to go. I’d probably go with the base model but with the ram upgrade personally for £799. Seems like the sweet spot to me unless you do heavy video editing as well
i use a symbolic link to an external where i keep all my vst's. I have the 256 M2. i still have 78gb available on the internal after Ableton Suite, Studio One and various other software. Having my vst's on external gave me so much internal mileage. But I want that M4 Pro.
Thanks for the practical rundown, @Colt! I’m in the prosumer camp and my 2016 MBP just can’t keep up anymore. Was definitely considering a Studio, until I saw the new Mini. Maybe it should be called a Mini-Studio? Optioned-up like you suggested, that seems like a killer upgrade for the price. I think I’m about ready to call my guy at Sweetwater for the next Mac upgrade 😎. Cheers
Colt, could you please tell me about your diffuser, I assume you made it because cuz you DIY. But I'm often wrong. It's awesome. I LOVE IT! I would love some info on it.
You need to point out the advantages of Performance cores versus efficiency cores... Thats where the pro up makes a huge difference.... Its all hidden in the details...
I’m still using a late 2013 iMac with 16gb ram. The only issues I have now are that I can’t upgrade past Catalina. So slowly all my software is dropping off. Thinking of upgrading to this Mac mini m4. Would I see an improvement?
Great video Colt! May be worth mentioning that Apple are planning to phase out support for using Dropbox on external SSDs, so if you use Dropbox and don’t want to switch to something else, then it’s worth getting more internal SSD storage than you might first have thought… or just switch cloud provider of course!
So in my current computer i often use about 36gb of ram with big sessions. Many of those sessions have a lot of instruments too (including a mini orchestra, sample based synths, and superior drummer). While it does sometimes go above 40GB i currently have 64GB in my MacBook Pro (a 2020 intel). I thought I’d be using more down the road but things have gotten more efficient i feel. Unfortunately my CPU is almost ALWAYS maxed out in these bigger sessions, and i can forget about recording at any sample rate higher than 44.1khz too. Rendering takes a bit too. On top of that the ram is now shared with the GPU and with multiple monitors I’d like there to have at least 12GB free for the GPU. So that probably means I’m using at least 48GB of ram on a regular basis and sometimes more. So 64GB is what i should probably go for again. Storage wise i have 2TB now and it’s almost filled (100gb left). I hate running samples off of a slower external drive and would like some room to grow. As such i’m saving for a 4TB 64GB m4 pro Mac mini for the studio and use my old MacBook Pro for the road (since i do a good chunk of mobile/remote work). Also the M4 pro chip is more powerful than an M2 Ultra chip. It’s insane that they haven’t upgraded the Mac Studio yet. And the M4 max is almost as powerful as the M4 pro cpu wise, but the GPU is insane by comparison. I can’t wait to see the benchmarks for the GPU though.
That’s where I’m at with it. Even my M1 max here in studio a is chugging along just fine. I don’t feel any reason to update. But if I was on an Intel machine, I would update immediately.
I ordered/received a M2 Mac studio, 32 gb of ram and 2 T storage this past September... Am I set for a long while even though M4 chips are available in other Macs but not in Mac studio?
M2 Max Studio here too. For music production I can’t imagine even coming close to making it even break a sweat. Total overkill, but I wanted the video editing capability.
Hi! Thank you for this great video. I saw you skipped the 48gb RAM option, why is that? You think it is overkill for most music and audio producers? Is 24 gigs enough? Thank you
Base M4 Mac Mini gets TB4 ports. Also, it would be better to get a 512GB configuration for $799 as 256GB would make the Mini slow down if swap memory is used. Also 256GB SSD will be a slower drive.
If anybody using the SSD on the computer to do work, you are wasting time. Always go with external. You can even load the OS on a separate drive. I would get that base Mac Mini just for light editing on the go. Cheaper than a MacBook and I have an iPad Pro so it's an easy setup anywhere
More of a hobbyist here. I was browsing the Apple Store just last night. Unfortunately, most of my hardware (interface, MIDI devices, external drives) requires good old USB A connections.
I hear that, but my current Windows computer has 10 USB total, and I still need a hub. Maybe I need to revisit what devices I really "need" and what I "want."
I am a hobbyist arranger who arranges music for String Orchestra and Full Orchestra. The instrumentation I usually use for Full Orchestra is: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, string section, but I occasionally add a piccolo, contrabassoon, two additional horns, two tenor trombones, a bass trombone, and a tuba. I currently use Dorico Pro 5 and Noteperformer (I also have NPPE, but it's unusable on my 8GB Surface Pro). When I upgrade to a Mac Mini, I plan to purchase either Musio or BBC SO Core (I plan to use NPPE with the one I choose). What RAM would you recommend?
As a composer, sample libraries require lots of RAM unfortunately which is where it gets pretty expensive with apple... Absolute bare minimum would be 16gb, but looking at what you're wanting with beefy sound libraries, I'd recommend 24-32GB. Personally I'm looking at 64GB, but I'm doing huge productions with 100+ instruments. Also side note, most music software will only utilise the "performance cores" of the chip. Maybe look around for 2nd hand M2 Pro or M3 Pro, with 24-32gb ram. It'll be enough to do what you want for a decade or more if you look after it :)
@@JordzDazza Given that arranging is only a hobby for me, I don't feel it's worth it for me to go for the Pro versions. Due to budgetary constraints, I've been debating between the 24GB and 32GB versions, as I would like to spend about $1000 total (including monitor, keyboard, mouse, and external hard drive). On the other hand, I feel that it may be worth it for me to go over budget and get the 32GB to have some future-proofing.
Remember these benchmarks only make sense how the daw uses the cores. These will be fast, but I find an M2 Pro works fine for logic due to the performance cores. I agree though that it could be that the Mac minis could be really up to the task. It might be worth waiting.
The M4 Pro with upgraded chip = 10 performance cores, sounds enticing for sure. If you're one of the few that also work with demanding video projects, may be good to wait for M4 max in the Mac Studio, much better graphic performance. Mouth is starting to water 😂 I now realize I just repeated what Colt said 🙂
Best to wait for DAWBench results on the M4 for a more realstic benchmark for audio. M2 and 3 have fallen quite short of Intel and AMD for audio work usually. My M2 Ultra drops about 40% dsp ceiling over the i9 13600
THANK YOU!!!! PLEASE DO A VIDEO ON BEST EXTERNAL HARD DRIVES YOU USE FOR MAC (kontakt libraires / real time use etc!!!) (all caps bc of the struggle finding the right info for these macs haha) Love the channel! Thanks
Glad I waited for the M4 mini to get a audio computer... will be going with a pro and a high spec to do video also, but that is not costing much at all... £800 less than before for better specs
So I got the M4 Pro now what to do? I’d like the same programs/apps/plugins and settings I had on the old machine. Do I migrate them over and risk carrying over obsolete files or do a fresh install and tediously search for all the programs/apps/plugins and reset settings?
You don't need to, I have a Macbook M2 and it can run large live DAW sessions and Resolume ( for live motion graphics ) at the same time. It's pretty damn powerful.
I was looking at the benchmarks today and the 12 core has 8 performance core and the 14 core had 10 performances and is the only mac mini that is more powerful the the top spec mac studio is the M4 Pro 14 core
For those of us who with some older firewire gear in the mix, will Core Audio still let us use a firewire to thunderbolt over usb-c connector with these new M4 models like I can with my 2018 intel based model? I also have a Quantum 2626. Will that work as well?
The base Mac mini is tempting, but the performance vs efficiency core breakdown leads to a misleading and tantalizing “10 cores” when in reality it’s 4p6e, which could be better. Still great for regular consumers, but I’d put it out of the convo for ‘prosumers’ and hobbyists.
I have a M1Pro 16” MacBook Pro with 32 gig ram and 4TB storage. Phenomenal computer. I would buy a Mac mini for a desktop but I would go with the pro chip and 32 gig ram and a minimum 512 storage with the expectation of using external storage…which you would need to be priced in over a internal storage upgrade. I would not buy a max or ultra chip , it’s just not needed. For a MacBook Pro it’s different. I went with the 4TB upgrade 3 years ago which cost £1000 on its own but it’s a laptop, you don’t want to leave things behind. I have 1TB free after a reinstall earlier this year to free up some space. The memory in these machines is unified which means it’s share between the cpu and GPU and that’s why I would always recommend 32 minimum because it’s the second brick wall your going to hit , the first being Storage and the 3rd being Heat….before you hit the CPU ceiling.
The base model is not the best option for most. The SSD is too small. I’ve been using an M1 and M2 mini and some plugins, tend to eat up the SSD a lot. It soon mounts up and I’ve always run out of space quickly, even with the external SSD I have. I’ve ordered the M4 Pro 14 CPU/20GPU. I use LUNA a lot and PT, with some quite intensive plugins both UA and others. Found the M1/M2 base were OK (ish) with running those, but soon ran into issues with the SSD and CPU struggling. The new M4’s really will allow less stress of having to figure out what I can and can’t use, and just use what I want instead. Happy days!
Goodness, gracious… I’m on the M1 Max 64 2 Tb and I feel like at the end of everyone of my projects when I’m mastering. I’m just skating by like the house is gonna explode. I’m doing everything on Ableton. But my CPU starts riding at about 50%. Want to get one of those 192 M2’s four guys.. the studio stick a fork in it
Plus, I’m more of an artist than engineer. I mean, I’m getting better… I try really hard. I run it hybrid. I’ve got some nice outboard. I mean, I’m sure I’m doing something wrong though in my internal routing. 🙄 but if I get an M2 192 who gives a care! I’ve been in this game a long time too! Crashing and burning at the end of every project😂
I still have mine but I locked it away ever since I got my M2. I retired it. It gave me a long run. It still runs. Macs last almost forever. I love them
Having been interested in the market of upgrading (still in iMac 2017 model with 16gb ram as my entry) I have been waiting to see what new model is offered. I would consider the M4 pro but only need 512gb. Even doing video, data is stored on the external, would I really need 1 tb for small video productions I may do? Also wondering your recommendation on display monitor. Would I need a 4k for mostly audio production or could you use something general?
I'm still wary of upgrading the further into the silicon chips. I saw a guy do testing of the M chips in different DAWs. Each generation of M chips has a certain number of primary cores and a certain number of efficiency cores. And certain DAWs can only use efficiency cores. From my understanding they've moved further and further away from primaries meaning that you may actually be getting less performance in your session
I think Apple have managed to normalise in our minds that 256GB internal SSD and 16GB RAM is a good buy. Yes, the chip is an absolute powerhouse, but SSD NAND Flash is super-cheap nowadays. 256GB system drive is the kind of storage you'd see 5-10 years ago. I think more people need to complain to Apple and make themselves vocal, rather than just working around it by using larger external storage. Maybe they want everyone to use Cloud storage instead so they can scan all our files? Something to think about! But yeah, I'm still considering one of these M4s, so long as I can work around the storage/RAM limitations. Thanks for the video review! Much appreciated. :)
im asking because i need a new comp/. your sure the 24 gig of ram is enough.....i know they have a shared memory thing going on i wanna go mac for my new machine
Hey what is your thoughts on the 2022 Mac Studio m1 ultra maxed out because I bought this computer a while ago for mixing audio and video editing however at times it feels sluggish, what advice can u give me in order to keep me from losing my mind, considering all the money that was spent on this computer, and every few months or so here comes here comes a newer Mac
Hello friend! I'm not Colt but maybe my answer helps. I truly believe that the Mac you have is a beast! Computer tech advances like crazy and every 6 months the new "greatest thing" is released. I have an M2 Ultra, and it completely crushed my older Intel setup. There are some minor bugs I've encountered (which everything I've owned has had, because perfection doesn't exist), but most of the bugs occur when the installed software isn't fully M1 native. Rosetta has worked great and I've been able to run many instances of libraries and plugins through this translator without issues, but to get the best results, I really spent a lot of time replacing as much old software as possible with M1 native versions. After I completed my setup, I managed to run an unreal amount of processing and virtual libraries on Logic Pro X that I had no idea was even possible. Anyways, your computer is awesome! Marketing in tech can make us think that the new computer is the greatest and that our old setup isn't good enough, but for music production, I am convinced that many years will pass until I hit 100 percent of CPU usage in a session with my Mac Studio. Hope this answer helps you out. Have a great weekend!
Even if you're using the mini as a professional studio user, why still bump it up to 1TB? why not host vst's and everything else onto an external drive like the samsung t7 or t9? I'm not sure why pay apple for the extra internal storage.
People have always made fun of Apple for how expensive their computers are. I think ever since the introduction of the M series processors, those arguments aren't as valid anymore. Super cool how much performance you can get for the price!
Great review. My only comment is about the elephant in the room which is AI. If you want to take advantage of all of the new AI capabilities coming down the pike then I definitely recommend going for the higher chips and maxing out the RAM.
The YT channel James Zhan has some great videos on this topic. He shows how different DAWs use and wont use particular CPU cores and how extra GUP cores don't help with audio prod. I found he's findings eye opening and saved money selecting the right chip for my needs. I also like the M4 Mac mini amazing to fit so much into such a small chassis.
Oh yeah, thanks for all of this as a music producer a mixing engineer and recording engineer who does a lot of drum tracks and records in the studio doing country music and also rock 'n' roll music nothing else because all the other styles just don't sit with me, especially electronic and all that stuff but anything that uses live recording I will be doing that I had my first Mac, which was a Mac 20 inch and late well not late 2007 it was like early 2007 and this was a really good computer but then I upgraded to the Mac Pro for 2.8 GHz and eight core CPU and plus the stuff I could do with my Mac Pro was great then I went and bought the first GEN 4K iMac, which was really good that i purchase and then I had a little bit of a problem with Apple because you know USB-C not all my stuff was USB-C compatible so I said hell with it. I'm going for windowpavilion laptop, which served me well but it was a really bad thing then when Apple introduced the M1 chips when it first was announced I said oh my God it is all my plug-ins by the way all my plug-ins are $80,000 plus and having a huge Protools set up means that now I have to go and buy a PC which I had to because I was upset with Apple at least they should've given us a timeframe when all these chips would be compatible with my plug-ins but you know Apple they don't do that so I had a huge problem. I bought a Lenovo ideal Center five PC with a AMD ryzon five processor. The worst thing I did in my life now I have an M1 MacBook Air and at the moment there is no way am I going back to PC with my protools I could not use it at all so that was it I am going to go and buy myself a Mac mini with the m four pro chip. The only thing I am gonna do is keep the 512 SSD I have a 14 TB western digital drive, which is plenty for me I will be upgrading the RAM to 64 GB so that I have a lot more room when I'm doing my drum track sessions and recording the fiddle of the banjo banjos and all that stuff and you know this is what we use in our recording session. I use in my recording sessions when I mix I always get tracks in a 90 tracks plus and use the effects to my ability so all my $80,000 plug-inthat's why I'm going for the MacBook Pro as my base model that's gonna be my laptop right that's not gonna be for my studio that's gonna replace my MacBook Air that's just for when I'm on holidays and stuff like that then my Mac mini with the M4 Pro and 64 GB of RAM is gonna be enough since I have an external drive I won't need anything else, but by the way check out my channel. I have some very good videos that are from different companies like Yamaha and all that stuff but you may be interested in and let's see how my Mac mini works integrate into my studio. I'd love to see that so have a nice day and keep up the good work. Oh yeah, on a sidenote, we don't use graphics the more power of the processor and ram the better
Would not recommend 256gb of Storage for the fact of SWAP RAM to where the computer offloads the RAM to the SSD for better performance. This is the case with all current OS on the market. I have a 256gb M1 Mac Mini w/ 16GB RAM and when my SSD gets full my computer crashes because of the SWAP RAM that caches to the SSD. Get at least 512GB SSD or 1TB.
What about TWO Mac minis? Upgrades are insanely overpriced and for the cost of doubling ram and ssd, why not get an entire second mini! ? but then, how to use them? Most software isn’t designed for distributed computation. Strawman: 1x mmm4 base model role as studio master, driver, controller… A. connectivity to drives, B. Remote display to run the second mmm4, C. Ability to continue working on other tasks while workhorse second mmm4 crunches big rendering or mix bounces Second mini, workhorse: 1x mmm4 with more modest upgrades
As a Film Score composer, I Just bought the Mac Mini M4 Pro 64Go with 2 To and still can’t believe that I’m gonna work on a Mac Mini but this is such an absolute beast… what a time to be alive
I just ordered a M4 Mac Mini today. Upgraded to 32GB ram & 1TB HD. Add logic. Pretty pumped for it.
So what I’m hearing you say is, get the 16 core M4 Max MBP with 128GB ram and the 8TB SSD. Got it. 😏😂
You are welcome to tell your significant other that’s what I suggested if that’s what you’d like to purchase. 😜😜😂😂
@ hahaha. I’d like not to have to buy ANYTHING lol. But I am evaluating right now. I don’t much care for all the fame or giant expensive SSDs, I DO care about the maximum number of P cores. If I can’t run Hornet SamP on every channel, it’s not worth buying (not that I use SamP much but it’s just the heaviest plugin I own)
😂 I heard the same thing ☠️
😂😂😂
Talk about an overpriced hunk of trash
What a time to be alive, indeed! I remember recording midi tracks on my 386, running Cakewalk with my Turtle Beach "crystal" soundcard, hahahaha I couldn't record digital audio if I wanted to, the DIGI001 wasn't even out yet.... Now, look at the options! I love it ~
I can’t even remember how I got that copy of cakewalk, it ran my Nord Rack 2 and I recorded live to tape.
not much people knows what you talking about
Haha ! I love it ! I used cakewalk with a sound blaster live card that could record at a whopping 16 bit ,44.1 khz !! I was"da man" !! 😛
@LukeSchneiderEWI Nice! That brings back some memories, 16bit 44.1khz, no headroom at all!
my 1st Mac had 4 meg of ram and 40meg storage, cost me US$1800 back in the 1990's, I used logic, no audio recording back then
I’m still rocking my m1 Mac mini with 16gb of ram. As my main recording system with uad. I do this professionally and haven’t had any issues. Wasn’t thinking about upgrading. But what the heck. Maybe I’ll consider it!
Im getting the base model delivered today and am gonna run a ton of vst and see if it works. there's a 2 month return policy right now so if it's not good enough I will switch out for the 24 gb of ram unless someone tells me that won't make a huge difference but I'm hopeful 16 gb ram will be enough
Please let me know how it run 😭 I'm thinking about getting base model too.
@medicinal_soul How did it go for you ? Please let us know
Appreciate the breakdown of who should be getting what. As a hobbyist, I have no business spending or complaining about the tricked out machines.
Thanks for watching!
Even the base level Mac Mini at $599 can easily get you into professional territory in terms of running the DAW, recording, mixing, and even with a decent amount of virtual instruments.
I think a big factor is the sample rate one is recording at... at 24/96, my Mac mini M1 16GB RAM crawls with just 10 tracks or virtual instruments. Regarding drive size, I have 1TB and even after offloading everything that I can such as sound libraries, etc... only using the drive for MacOS and applications (Cubase, Adobe, video, etc) & plugins, I only have around 150GB left. So I would never limit myself to anything lower than 1TB.
Well I was about to get the Mac Studio M2 Max with 1tb storage upgrade for $2200...
Now I'm considering the Mac Mini M4 Pro with the processor upgrade, 1tb storage upgrade and a ram upgrade to 48gb for again $2200...
I have a M1 Mac Studio with 32 gigs ram and 512 gig hd and it's like plugging into a rock, It's cold to the touch, Silent and just works. I can only imagine what these are like.
I have the same, and it's still a beast. I love my M1
That's what I'm interested in. Not only performance, but silence and cold to the touch. If the new m4 becomes loud and hot, it defeats its purpose.
Ditto. Love mine.
I got a Mac Studio last year and it's amazing. Totally silent, all the ports I could need and it's light enough that I've got it mounted to the side of a studio rack. That way I can easily get to all the ports and rearrange things if need be.
A video on using external drives for music production would be great.
I work in the video/film world and dabble with music and have used an M1 max MBP for about 2-3 years and an M3 max for the last couple months. One thing to consider when choosing between pro and max for MacBooks is if you're planning on running multiple external displays. I believe the pro is limited to 2 external displays where the max is good for 4. In terms of performance, I agree that probably 99% of people will never touch the threshold of performance the max chips offer, but I somehow have found myself needing a bit more in some instances (editing UHD low compression raw files) and have considered getting a Mac Studio with the ultra chip for that reason. I definitely did not choose a cheap profession. 😅
Not anymore the new pro runs 4 screens
Those New Computers are Insanely Powerful. I would be nice to upgrade the studio computer but I'll wait for now, my MBP M1 16gb working fine, but Geeze still amazed on the power of those computers. Thank for the Video Colt.
New GeekBench 6 tests show the Mac Mini M4 Pro blows the Mac Studio M2 Ultra chip out the water! For just a fraction of the price!
First of all, thanks so much for the incredibly straight forward, straight to the point breakdown/video, this is exactly the kind of video I was searching for, much appreciated! Anyway, just wanted to clarify something. So you mentioned if you're someone who's running a bunch of virtual instruments, this model with the minimum storage probably isn't the best choice. So my question is, in your opinion, what do you consider to be "a bunch" of virtual instruments?
My situation is, I'm a musician/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist and would be tracking mostly 'real' guitars, bass, drums, keys, percussion, etc.. Specifically, mic'd up acoustic drums, keys using internal sounds (i.e. Nord presets) and some plugins.. Bass guitar: direct & mic'd speaker cab. Guitars: mainly using my tube amps with UA OX speaker and mic sims, but also, occasionally using amp sims and real mic'd up cabs.
So in your opinion, do you think the Mini ($599) would suffice? And of course, like you said, using external drives is a must. Anyway, thanks again for the excellent video! Peace.. DC
I’m still on my 2020 M1 Mac Mini with 16 gigs of ram, I can’t imagine going to M4 anytime soon
M3 Pro MBP was a 70W charger last year as well. I was jumping up from a 2018 MBP and it was crazy how much better it was, not to mention machine fan almost never on or heating up. Fiance got an M2 Mini at the same time, just the baseline, but yeah no way we need to upgrade for years. If I had stupid money I'd definitely max something out for myself, then give one of my kids my current machine heh.
I am a pro music producer.
Mainly audio so no massive amount of sound libraries or soft instruments.
But I often have 30 tracks of audio running simultaneously with masses of plugins.
I use a M1 MacBook Air.
Very rarely does the computer run out of power.
The new MacBook M4 air would do me no worries.
The Air’s are 100% silent so perfect for recording audio.
I
My M1 Air does have a 1TB hard drive but I’d be fine with 256GB.
I store finished projects on external harddrives.
I also run everything from within the AirM1.
So easy.
before watching the video, i started uni recently and im probably going to be upgrading my intel macbook pro to one of these mac mini's. looking forward to the vid
edit: the non pro chip in the mac mini has 3 thunderbolt 4 ports on the back, not thunderbolt 5. Not a huge difference for most people but just thought id mention it just so you know.
If you are coming from an Intel Mac, you will be blown away by the power of any of these new ones
@@ColtCapperrune Yeah, I figured I would be. I bought my macbook that last year of the intel chips and when they announced they were making there own i was NOT happy haha. I THINK im going to get the m4 pro mac mini as the extra performance cores will future proof me for a long while. Great video, Colt!
This is super helpful. I was just thinking about trying out the Mac OS compared to Windows....this is finally at a price point where I can do that. Thanks for this video and helping me figure that out.
Absolutely! Hope it goes well for you!
We came to pretty similar conclusions as well, the M4Pro is a flat out beast but, we are waiting for the Mac Studio M4 Max.
I’m hesitant to agree on some points because the metrics haven’t been tested much by consumers yet, but it surely seems like a good buy.
I think that people must consider external expansion in the pricing when looking at Macs to get a proper look at what they’ll need but that could just be my opinion.
I think at this point Apple has a pretty solid track record with these new Apple Silicon chips and the fact that every generation is around 30% more powerful than the last generation. That’s the main reason why this is the first video I’ve made suggesting what computer someone should buy without actually having it in my studio to test. As I’ve had the first three generations of these chips already. Thanks for watching!
@ That’s fair. Thank you for continuing to produce informative and educational content!
Would you mind sharing how you store your sample libraries on a separate drive? Organization wise and making sure they actually sync up with their plugins. I've done it a couple of times, and always run into a sync issue at some point.
I have a Mac Mini Pro M2 and Macbook Air M2 (1TB HD). The Macbook Air is incredible in that I run all my plugins, it doesn’t get hot, and it doesn’t even contain a fan within it! Might upgrade to an M4 at a discount when the M5 starts being released.
I just went with a M3 MacBook Pro a while ago, I had to get a USB hub for my stuff that still uses USB 2.0, but it works just fine.
Could you tell me what USB hub you purchased if you recommend it? I purchased a M3 MacBook Pro myself not too long ago and need to get one myself also.
I'm still running the 27 inch i mac. 4 Ghz Quad core i7 with 32 GB. I'm guessing it's going to be a real eye opener when i make the jump to a new Mac mini.
The performance difference between the Intel machines and any of these Apple Silicon machines is jaw-dropping
I would argue that the greatest difference you would notice on reasonable sized projects, is fan noise. I have non on my Mac mini m2 pro. Fan noise just does not exist, and my projects are typically 15 to 25 tracks.
@@agorkyep. Simply starting chrome makes an Intel mac go into takeoff mode.
I have the 2017 machine already outdated so I would suggest upgrading. That’s what I intend. There are limitations with the Intel chip that no longer utilize the updates offered. They will be discontinuing support soon I hear.
Been a mac mini user for 12 years now for music production. Always was the best bang for the buck. With apple, you do pay a price, but you damn well get the performance you paid for
Couple things.
1. The M4 base is as powerful as the M3 Max according to benchmarks.
2. The write speeds are quite a bit faster around 1500 MB/s faster upgrading from 256 to 512.
3. The cores on the GPU are just marketing BS, doesn't really mean anything.
4. Remember that cores on an M-chip do not work the same as on regular processors. Some of your cores are "efficiency" cores, hence upgrading to the M4 pro is a good choice for future proofing (though with Mac planned obsolescence business model, well you never know).
5. Remember, once you have that RAM, you have that RAM! 24GB is a no brainer even for a hobbyist. I just opened up a Cubase project with like 15 tracks, 2 instances of Opera browser open and some file explorers open and I was using 11GB of RAM already. Future proof.
The best choice for a hobbyist is 800 dollars for the M4 / 24GB / 256GB. In my humble opinion after researching for weeks now and being a computer nerd since my dad brought home a Tandy from Radio Shack back in 1994.
Glad you made this video. I like to buy the Mac Mini but wonder what the the difference between it and the Mac Studio. You mentioned it some in your video. I just want to make sure I am making the right choice between the 2. I have been thinking about it for weeks when I knew they were coming out. I like how small they are. Hard to believe it is any good at that size.
Beware the CPU number includes both Performance and Efficiency cores. Efficiency cores are useless in music production (they are simply idle). Look for the processor with the highest ratio of Performance cores.
The M4 Pro is the most suitable for musicians. M4 Max is only slightly better than Pro, but can’t really be justified by the price difference.
it all depends on what DAW your using. I have a M3 Max with 16 cores, 12 performance and 4 efficiency and it blows my M1 Max out the water. NOT EVEN CLOSE! Pro tools, Reaper and Cubase all use all of cores for processing power. I would stay away from the M4 because of Sequoia. No music software is supported yet.
@ yes since March this year, Pro Tools can now utilize efficiency cores. And no wonder your M3 Max blows M1 Max out of the water, it also has 50% more performance cores (and twice the number of efficiency cores).
Logic doesn’t really use the E-cores and Ableton have (as of now) no plans on utilizing E-cores at all
This is exactly what I was looking for and then this video just magically appeared a minute ago hahah Thanks broo 🙏
Hope it helps!!
I just do songwriting demos on a PC laptop but if I was to get serious into music production, I would definitely go the Mac route.
I remember the curse of DPC latency 😅
I had used PC for years with Cakewalk etc. The problem with Windows is the many patches to get it to integrate and registry that gets corrupted. When I was convinced to go Mac it was like night and day. No longer have to fight to produce music or mix. It is setup for that sort of production. You won’t regret the inexpensive Logic Pro if that’s what you would use.
@@jimdukeproject Yes true. I currently use Cakewalk but thinking of going to Reaper or Studio One since the old version is no longer being supported.
My old iMac in the studio just crash (I think beyond rescuing this time) Appreciate the video a lot cause I was just about to preorder the Mac mini. Thank you kindly for the tips and breakdown!
I am considering getting the M4 Pro chip in the Mac Mini, but I have the tendency to upgrade my technology purchases to max specs, so I feel like I might be better off waiting for the updated Mac Studio possibly, if it releases sometime soon?
Thanks for doing this video for us Colt! If you store most of your session on external hard drives, what do you use/recommend? Anybody else have thoughts on external hard drives?
External drives make a lot of sense. It’s what I use on my iMac, then if you upgrade computers later on all your stuff is on external ready to go.
I’d probably go with the base model but with the ram upgrade personally for £799. Seems like the sweet spot to me unless you do heavy video editing as well
i use a symbolic link to an external where i keep all my vst's. I have the 256 M2. i still have 78gb available on the internal after Ableton Suite, Studio One and various other software. Having my vst's on external gave me so much internal mileage. But I want that M4 Pro.
there are two groups of DAWs, those who support efficiency cores and those who don't. That's a big factor buying an Apple Silicon
Thanks for the practical rundown, @Colt! I’m in the prosumer camp and my 2016 MBP just can’t keep up anymore. Was definitely considering a Studio, until I saw the new Mini.
Maybe it should be called a Mini-Studio?
Optioned-up like you suggested, that seems like a killer upgrade for the price. I think I’m about ready to call my guy at Sweetwater for the next Mac upgrade 😎.
Cheers
Colt, could you please tell me about your diffuser, I assume you made it because cuz you DIY. But I'm often wrong. It's awesome.
I LOVE IT!
I would love some info on it.
You need to point out the advantages of Performance cores versus efficiency cores... Thats where the pro up makes a huge difference....
Its all hidden in the details...
This video isn’t for robust analysis it’s for getting views based on the M4 release.
I’m still using a late 2013 iMac with 16gb ram. The only issues I have now are that I can’t upgrade past Catalina. So slowly all my software is dropping off. Thinking of upgrading to this Mac mini m4. Would I see an improvement?
Great video Colt! May be worth mentioning that Apple are planning to phase out support for using Dropbox on external SSDs, so if you use Dropbox and don’t want to switch to something else, then it’s worth getting more internal SSD storage than you might first have thought… or just switch cloud provider of course!
So in my current computer i often use about 36gb of ram with big sessions. Many of those sessions have a lot of instruments too (including a mini orchestra, sample based synths, and superior drummer). While it does sometimes go above 40GB i currently have 64GB in my MacBook Pro (a 2020 intel). I thought I’d be using more down the road but things have gotten more efficient i feel. Unfortunately my CPU is almost ALWAYS maxed out in these bigger sessions, and i can forget about recording at any sample rate higher than 44.1khz too. Rendering takes a bit too. On top of that the ram is now shared with the GPU and with multiple monitors I’d like there to have at least 12GB free for the GPU. So that probably means I’m using at least 48GB of ram on a regular basis and sometimes more. So 64GB is what i should probably go for again. Storage wise i have 2TB now and it’s almost filled (100gb left). I hate running samples off of a slower external drive and would like some room to grow. As such i’m saving for a 4TB 64GB m4 pro Mac mini for the studio and use my old MacBook Pro for the road (since i do a good chunk of mobile/remote work).
Also the M4 pro chip is more powerful than an M2 Ultra chip. It’s insane that they haven’t upgraded the Mac Studio yet. And the M4 max is almost as powerful as the M4 pro cpu wise, but the GPU is insane by comparison. I can’t wait to see the benchmarks for the GPU though.
I’ll wait for Mac STUDIO M4 when comes out. It’s coming
Depends if it gets here in time, things are getting scary in the Pacific.
@ yup! We all know they said LATE 2025. 😳I can’t wait & not buying anything else that can do the Job? Glad for me it’s just an expensive Hobby.
Me too. Looks like mid-2025 for the Studio and a year from now for the Pro.
@ yup!… sucks to have to wait. We need it not just yesterday but like a year ago! ( when M3 was talked about )
Mac mini M4 Pro geekbench6 test smashed Mac Studio M2 Ultra chip out the water and it’s a fraction of the price
I'm still diggin my Mac Studio M2 Max if I replace my old iMac 27" next year I'll probably go with one of the Mac Mini's
That’s where I’m at with it. Even my M1 max here in studio a is chugging along just fine. I don’t feel any reason to update. But if I was on an Intel machine, I would update immediately.
I ordered/received a M2 Mac studio, 32 gb of ram and 2 T storage this past September... Am I set for a long while even though M4 chips are available in other Macs but not in Mac studio?
M2 Max Studio here too. For music production I can’t imagine even coming close to making it even break a sweat. Total overkill, but I wanted the video editing capability.
Thanks for confirming the config I was thinking of for a More ‘Pro’ setup. Great review Colt!
Hi! Thank you for this great video.
I saw you skipped the 48gb RAM option, why is that?
You think it is overkill for most music and audio producers? Is 24 gigs enough?
Thank you
Base M4 Mac Mini gets TB4 ports. Also, it would be better to get a 512GB configuration for $799 as 256GB would make the Mini slow down if swap memory is used. Also 256GB SSD will be a slower drive.
Excellent points! Thank you for the comment!
If anybody using the SSD on the computer to do work, you are wasting time. Always go with external. You can even load the OS on a separate drive. I would get that base Mac Mini just for light editing on the go. Cheaper than a MacBook and I have an iPad Pro so it's an easy setup anywhere
More of a hobbyist here. I was browsing the Apple Store just last night.
Unfortunately, most of my hardware (interface, MIDI devices, external drives) requires good old USB A connections.
You should be able to get adapters, or just a simple USB hub and be good to go
I hear that, but my current Windows computer has 10 USB total, and I still need a hub.
Maybe I need to revisit what devices I really "need" and what I "want."
@@donrstewartYou can have multiple hubs. Also, TB5 power allows some gigantic hubs, but they maybe too niche for manufacturers to be interested.
I am a hobbyist arranger who arranges music for String Orchestra and Full Orchestra. The instrumentation I usually use for Full Orchestra is: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, string section, but I occasionally add a piccolo, contrabassoon, two additional horns, two tenor trombones, a bass trombone, and a tuba. I currently use Dorico Pro 5 and Noteperformer (I also have NPPE, but it's unusable on my 8GB Surface Pro). When I upgrade to a Mac Mini, I plan to purchase either Musio or BBC SO Core (I plan to use NPPE with the one I choose). What RAM would you recommend?
As a composer, sample libraries require lots of RAM unfortunately which is where it gets pretty expensive with apple... Absolute bare minimum would be 16gb, but looking at what you're wanting with beefy sound libraries, I'd recommend 24-32GB. Personally I'm looking at 64GB, but I'm doing huge productions with 100+ instruments. Also side note, most music software will only utilise the "performance cores" of the chip. Maybe look around for 2nd hand M2 Pro or M3 Pro, with 24-32gb ram. It'll be enough to do what you want for a decade or more if you look after it :)
@@JordzDazza Given that arranging is only a hobby for me, I don't feel it's worth it for me to go for the Pro versions. Due to budgetary constraints, I've been debating between the 24GB and 32GB versions, as I would like to spend about $1000 total (including monitor, keyboard, mouse, and external hard drive). On the other hand, I feel that it may be worth it for me to go over budget and get the 32GB to have some future-proofing.
Remember these benchmarks only make sense how the daw uses the cores. These will be fast, but I find an M2 Pro works fine for logic due to the performance cores. I agree though that it could be that the Mac minis could be really up to the task. It might be worth waiting.
Agreed
The M4 Pro with upgraded chip = 10 performance cores, sounds enticing for sure. If you're one of the few that also work with demanding video projects, may be good to wait for M4 max in the Mac Studio, much better graphic performance. Mouth is starting to water 😂 I now realize I just repeated what Colt said 🙂
Best to wait for DAWBench results on the M4 for a more realstic benchmark for audio. M2 and 3 have fallen quite short of Intel and AMD for audio work usually. My M2 Ultra drops about 40% dsp ceiling over the i9 13600
THANK YOU!!!! PLEASE DO A VIDEO ON BEST EXTERNAL HARD DRIVES YOU USE FOR MAC (kontakt libraires / real time use etc!!!) (all caps bc of the struggle finding the right info for these macs haha)
Love the channel! Thanks
Waiting on a potential M4 or M5 Mac Studio. 64 GB of Ram. That's going to be my last desktop for a long time
Best explanation on what to do. Thank you 🙏
"What a time to be alive". I hear this sentence often, and for a reason. But you have to find out on your own!
I would upgrade to more performance cores instead of to 1tb. You can get blazing fast 2tb external ssd for the same price of 256gb upgrade
Colt! Your website seems to be WONKY! I had a friend who was interested in mastering, but they told me the website link was wrong.
Hey bro would a base Mac mini 4 with 24 gb ram / 512 storage would be good for music production
At this point M4 Pro is the sweetspot. Even a Mini can beat now my base M1 Max Studio in terms of music production. Interesting!
Glad I waited for the M4 mini to get a audio computer... will be going with a pro and a high spec to do video also, but that is not costing much at all... £800 less than before for better specs
Hope it helps!
So I got the M4 Pro now what to do? I’d like the same programs/apps/plugins and settings I had on the old machine. Do I migrate them over and risk carrying over obsolete files or do a fresh install and tediously search for all the programs/apps/plugins and reset settings?
it would be so cool if you could link / conect 2 mac's Together and have one running your DAW and Another Just running all the plugins prosesing
You don't need to, I have a Macbook M2 and it can run large live DAW sessions and Resolume ( for live motion graphics ) at the same time. It's pretty damn powerful.
I was looking at the benchmarks today and the 12 core has 8 performance core and the 14 core had 10 performances and is the only mac mini that is more powerful the the top spec mac studio is the M4 Pro 14 core
For those of us who with some older firewire gear in the mix, will Core Audio still let us use a firewire to thunderbolt over usb-c connector with these new M4 models like I can with my 2018 intel based model? I also have a Quantum 2626. Will that work as well?
Hey Colt, do you think this would be enough, for hybrid mixing using an orion 32 and (+focusrite scarlett with adat) and my 48 channel midas console ?
The base Mac mini is tempting, but the performance vs efficiency core breakdown leads to a misleading and tantalizing “10 cores” when in reality it’s 4p6e, which could be better. Still great for regular consumers, but I’d put it out of the convo for ‘prosumers’ and hobbyists.
I have a M1Pro 16” MacBook Pro with 32 gig ram and 4TB storage. Phenomenal computer. I would buy a Mac mini for a desktop but I would go with the pro chip and 32 gig ram and a minimum 512 storage with the expectation of using external storage…which you would need to be priced in over a internal storage upgrade. I would not buy a max or ultra chip , it’s just not needed. For a MacBook Pro it’s different. I went with the 4TB upgrade 3 years ago which cost £1000 on its own but it’s a laptop, you don’t want to leave things behind. I have 1TB free after a reinstall earlier this year to free up some space. The memory in these machines is unified which means it’s share between the cpu and GPU and that’s why I would always recommend 32 minimum because it’s the second brick wall your going to hit , the first being Storage and the 3rd being Heat….before you hit the CPU ceiling.
Bro great news when do they become available
The base model is not the best option for most. The SSD is too small. I’ve been using an M1 and M2 mini and some plugins, tend to eat up the SSD a lot. It soon mounts up and I’ve always run out of space quickly, even with the external SSD I have. I’ve ordered the M4 Pro 14 CPU/20GPU. I use LUNA a lot and PT, with some quite intensive plugins both UA and others. Found the M1/M2 base were OK (ish) with running those, but soon ran into issues with the SSD and CPU struggling. The new M4’s really will allow less stress of having to figure out what I can and can’t use, and just use what I want instead. Happy days!
Looking sharp Chief !!!
Goodness, gracious… I’m on the M1 Max 64 2 Tb and I feel like at the end of everyone of my projects when I’m mastering. I’m just skating by like the house is gonna explode. I’m doing everything on Ableton. But my CPU starts riding at about 50%. Want to get one of those 192 M2’s four guys.. the studio stick a fork in it
Whenever they do drop those fours? Those twos are gonna go like wildfire.! 🙏🏼
Plus, I’m more of an artist than engineer. I mean, I’m getting better… I try really hard. I run it hybrid. I’ve got some nice outboard. I mean, I’m sure I’m doing something wrong though in my internal routing. 🙄 but if I get an M2 192 who gives a care! I’ve been in this game a long time too! Crashing and burning at the end of every project😂
Great video. Love it. Can you break down your external drive set up? I would love for you to do a video on that as well if you want to. :-)
M4 Pro chip has more performance cores which you need for Logic or ProTools
I am happy with my 2012 Mac Mini.
I have three of these, benchmark models. I love them too!
I still have mine but I locked it away ever since I got my M2. I retired it. It gave me a long run. It still runs. Macs last almost forever. I love them
Having been interested in the market of upgrading (still in iMac 2017 model with 16gb ram as my entry) I have been waiting to see what new model is offered. I would consider the M4 pro but only need 512gb. Even doing video, data is stored on the external, would I really need 1 tb for small video productions I may do? Also wondering your recommendation on display monitor. Would I need a 4k for mostly audio production or could you use something general?
I've never been able to produce music on less than 32gb ram. I find it so frustrating that Apple charges so much for memory upgrades
I'm still wary of upgrading the further into the silicon chips. I saw a guy do testing of the M chips in different DAWs. Each generation of M chips has a certain number of primary cores and a certain number of efficiency cores. And certain DAWs can only use efficiency cores. From my understanding they've moved further and further away from primaries meaning that you may actually be getting less performance in your session
Actually from what I understand they added more performance cores to this family. Or at least a good portion of the models.
@trebleboost7 are you talking just M4s?
Any tips on peripherals? Like which monitor to get for the stuff we do, editing and thumbnails and music production.
nice diffuser
I did NOT know you could buy Apple computers through Sweetwater! I’m gonna do that
That would have saved me the trip to Best Buy
Absolutely! I bought my first trashcan Mac Pro from them all the way back in 2013!
Prices are proprietary with Apple so it isn’t any difference where purchased
I think Apple have managed to normalise in our minds that 256GB internal SSD and 16GB RAM is a good buy. Yes, the chip is an absolute powerhouse, but SSD NAND Flash is super-cheap nowadays. 256GB system drive is the kind of storage you'd see 5-10 years ago.
I think more people need to complain to Apple and make themselves vocal, rather than just working around it by using larger external storage. Maybe they want everyone to use Cloud storage instead so they can scan all our files? Something to think about!
But yeah, I'm still considering one of these M4s, so long as I can work around the storage/RAM limitations. Thanks for the video review! Much appreciated. :)
im asking because i need a new comp/. your sure the 24 gig of ram is enough.....i know they have a shared memory thing going on i wanna go mac for my new machine
Isn't it not worth to take the 14 core for Cubase 14?
New chips only got less performance cores than the previous versions. Depending on what DAW you use, M2 Max is still better than the new M4 IMO.
Hey what is your thoughts on the 2022 Mac Studio m1 ultra maxed out because I bought this computer a while ago for mixing audio and video editing however at times it feels sluggish, what advice can u give me in order to keep me from losing my mind, considering all the money that was spent on this computer, and every few months or so here comes here comes a newer Mac
Hello friend! I'm not Colt but maybe my answer helps. I truly believe that the Mac you have is a beast! Computer tech advances like crazy and every 6 months the new "greatest thing" is released. I have an M2 Ultra, and it completely crushed my older Intel setup. There are some minor bugs I've encountered (which everything I've owned has had, because perfection doesn't exist), but most of the bugs occur when the installed software isn't fully M1 native. Rosetta has worked great and I've been able to run many instances of libraries and plugins through this translator without issues, but to get the best results, I really spent a lot of time replacing as much old software as possible with M1 native versions. After I completed my setup, I managed to run an unreal amount of processing and virtual libraries on Logic Pro X that I had no idea was even possible. Anyways, your computer is awesome! Marketing in tech can make us think that the new computer is the greatest and that our old setup isn't good enough, but for music production, I am convinced that many years will pass until I hit 100 percent of CPU usage in a session with my Mac Studio. Hope this answer helps you out. Have a great weekend!
Even if you're using the mini as a professional studio user, why still bump it up to 1TB? why not host vst's and everything else onto an external drive like the samsung t7 or t9? I'm not sure why pay apple for the extra internal storage.
People have always made fun of Apple for how expensive their computers are. I think ever since the introduction of the M series processors, those arguments aren't as valid anymore. Super cool how much performance you can get for the price!
Great review. My only comment is about the elephant in the room which is AI. If you want to take advantage of all of the new AI capabilities coming down the pike then I definitely recommend going for the higher chips and maxing out the RAM.
Is Pro Tools approved/compatible with the M4 chip?
I have no reason to think it isn’t, however, you should always check compatibility before purchasing, or upgrading your OS
@@ColtCapperrune Yep...Just did. It's not listed as being supported, but it's likely that there wouldn't be any issues for a home studio hobbyist...
Mac studio will get M4 ultra or next year m5
5:20 mini Pro IS the new Mac Studio :)
The YT channel James Zhan has some great videos on this topic. He shows how different DAWs use and wont use particular CPU cores and how extra GUP cores don't help with audio prod. I found he's findings eye opening and saved money selecting the right chip for my needs. I also like the M4 Mac mini amazing to fit so much into such a small chassis.
Will there be A Mac Pro with m4 Max
On the earlier machines people found out that the smaller SSDs had considerably slower read/write speed. I would suggest 1TB at least for that reason
Oh yeah, thanks for all of this as a music producer a mixing engineer and recording engineer who does a lot of drum tracks and records in the studio doing country music and also rock 'n' roll music nothing else because all the other styles just don't sit with me, especially electronic and all that stuff but anything that uses live recording I will be doing that I had my first Mac, which was a Mac 20 inch and late well not late 2007 it was like early 2007 and this was a really good computer but then I upgraded to the Mac Pro for 2.8 GHz and eight core CPU and plus the stuff I could do with my Mac Pro was great then I went and bought the first GEN 4K iMac, which was really good that i purchase and then I had a little bit of a problem with Apple because you know USB-C not all my stuff was USB-C compatible so I said hell with it. I'm going for windowpavilion laptop, which served me well but it was a really bad thing then when Apple introduced the M1 chips when it first was announced I said oh my God it is all my plug-ins by the way all my plug-ins are $80,000 plus and having a huge Protools set up means that now I have to go and buy a PC which I had to because I was upset with Apple at least they should've given us a timeframe when all these chips would be compatible with my plug-ins but you know Apple they don't do that so I had a huge problem. I bought a Lenovo ideal Center five PC with a AMD ryzon five processor. The worst thing I did in my life now I have an M1 MacBook Air and at the moment there is no way am I going back to PC with my protools I could not use it at all so that was it I am going to go and buy myself a Mac mini with the m four pro chip. The only thing I am gonna do is keep the 512 SSD I have a 14 TB western digital drive, which is plenty for me I will be upgrading the RAM to 64 GB so that I have a lot more room when I'm doing my drum track sessions and recording the fiddle of the banjo banjos and all that stuff and you know this is what we use in our recording session. I use in my recording sessions when I mix I always get tracks in a 90 tracks plus and use the effects to my ability so all my $80,000 plug-inthat's why I'm going for the MacBook Pro as my base model that's gonna be my laptop right that's not gonna be for my studio that's gonna replace my MacBook Air that's just for when I'm on holidays and stuff like that then my Mac mini with the M4 Pro and 64 GB of RAM is gonna be enough since I have an external drive I won't need anything else, but by the way check out my channel. I have some very good videos that are from different companies like Yamaha and all that stuff but you may be interested in and let's see how my Mac mini works integrate into my studio. I'd love to see that so have a nice day and keep up the good work. Oh yeah, on a sidenote, we don't use graphics the more power of the processor and ram the better
$600 one is fine. Get an external. Go get em tiger !
Would not recommend 256gb of Storage for the fact of SWAP RAM to where the computer offloads the RAM to the SSD for better performance. This is the case with all current OS on the market. I have a 256gb M1 Mac Mini w/ 16GB RAM and when my SSD gets full my computer crashes because of the SWAP RAM that caches to the SSD. Get at least 512GB SSD or 1TB.
What about TWO Mac minis?
Upgrades are insanely overpriced and for the cost of doubling ram and ssd, why not get an entire second mini! ?
but then, how to use them? Most software isn’t designed for distributed computation.
Strawman:
1x mmm4 base model role as studio master, driver, controller…
A. connectivity to drives,
B. Remote display to run the second mmm4,
C. Ability to continue working on other tasks while workhorse second mmm4 crunches big rendering or mix bounces
Second mini, workhorse:
1x mmm4 with more modest upgrades
For that price, they should have at least a 512GB SSD. You can get Mini PCs with 1TB SSD, 32GB of RAM and 8 core 5GHz CPUs for $599.
Sure… but the performance isn’t comparable in the slightest.