Apple Silicon M1 owners - what's your verdict?

I’ve been doing audio recording and software dev on my M1 Mini every day since I got it in early January. Absolutely love it for all the reasons above. I saw the article above about the write usage so I ran the utility to check... mine is at 0%, so I think it really depends on your workload.
 
I drank the kool aid and got both Mac mini and 13" MacBook Pro. They both work great. Cool, quiet. I have a 15" MBP with 32 gb of ram, 6 core i7. Most $ I ever spent on computer. Could have bought 6 M1 Mac minis for same price. 15" MBP is now in shop for 4th time. It sounds like a small plane about to take off almost all the time. It loses power plugged in. Crappiest Mac I ever bought for most $.

Apple knew they had a problem continuing down the Intel road and they're fixing it. The M1 Macs are the most exciting thing in consumer computing in a long time and they're only going to get better. The new computers are so quick and responsive and on the laptop, the battery life is fantastic. I was on 2 hour Zoom call the other day and had 83% battery life left afterward.

The single core performance which is what dictates how fast most tasks respond is by far the fastest of any computer out there.
 
Just noticed, you can already buy refurbished M1 MacBooks on the Apple store online, if you're looking to save a few hundred bucks..
 
Based on this thread I just pulled the trigger on a Mac Mini M1 with 16gb (this model Z12P000KD) this morning!

I’m a LONG time Cubase user currently on version 11 pro running on Windows 10.
I will be converting over to Luna and Logic Pro on the Big Sur platform. I run the Apollo X4 interface and my plug-ins are from UA, Toontrack (drums), Native Instruments (Komplete) and Izotope (the full suite).

How much trouble do you think I’m in for? Haha. I’m not sure which of these plug-ins will run in Rosetta or which will not run at all on this platform but I expect they will migrate over time.
 
Manny Fufish said:
Based on this thread I just pulled the trigger on a Mac Mini M1 with 16gb (this model Z12P000KD) this morning!

I’m a LONG time Cubase user currently on version 11 pro running on Windows 10.
I will be converting over to Luna and Logic Pro on the Big Sur platform. I run the Apollo X4 interface and my plug-ins are from UA, Toontrack (drums), Native Instruments (Komplete) and Izotope (the full suite).

How much trouble do you think I’m in for? Haha. I’m not sure which of these plug-ins will run in Rosetta or which will not run at all on this platform but I expect they will migrate over time.
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Good call
I know toontrack works, and I don’t know about the others but Native Instruments should be compatible soon if not already.
You’ll really enjoy it with Logic, it’s an unexpected delight of this crossover
 
Manny Fufish said:
Based on this thread I just pulled the trigger on a Mac Mini M1 with 16gb (this model Z12P000KD) this morning!

I’m a LONG time Cubase user currently on version 11 pro running on Windows 10.
I will be converting over to Luna and Logic Pro on the Big Sur platform. I run the Apollo X4 interface and my plug-ins are from UA, Toontrack (drums), Native Instruments (Komplete) and Izotope (the full suite).

How much trouble do you think I’m in for? Haha. I’m not sure which of these plug-ins will run in Rosetta or which will not run at all on this platform but I expect they will migrate over time.
Click to expand...
UA hasn't officially announced M1 support, so you might have problems with your Apollo and your UA plugins. I've seen mixed reports though.
 
GlennO said:
UA hasn't officially announced M1 support, so you might have problems with your Apollo and your UA plugins. I've seen mixed reports though.
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Hi @GlennO thanks for the info in this thread. Yep, I saw this release on Sunday where they support Big Sur now, but not qualified on M1 yet. Word on the street is console and plugins are running on latest version. Hopefully it gets qualified in the next few months.
https://help.uaudio.com/hc/en-us/ar...-Apple-M1-Compatibility-Info?mobile_site=true
 
Glenn0, you're right - it is troubling, but it is also being pushed to the absolute limit of all resources, otherwise if we can identify the process or OS X fix, it will be fine, as I also agree you're right, its a Big Sur issue, not a Silicon M1 issue, so it shouldn't BE an issue for us hopefully!

and RIGHT ON @Manny Fufish
 
I think Komplete or any sample-based stuff should be ok, I would expect any issues would crop up in synthesizers that rely heavily on x86-specific optimizations. Although apparently many of those are also ok...
 
I’m just saying I’m finding my sample-based VI code to be every bit as challenging as my synth-based VI code when it comes to making this transition.
 
Ah ok, I can definitely see how that would be the case depending on what processing is being applied to the samples. I'm just basing it on my experience with plugins I've used, Kontakt, Addictive Drums, and most others have worked just fine but I did come across one or two synth plugins that experienced higher than expected CPU usage.
 
Ok so some of you may tell I’m a nerd when it comes to certain things - and I checked and it’s as GlennO says, and others pointed out - depends on your usage. I checked my SSD with all onboard utilities including SMART - 100% error free and no anomalies reported - but FWIw I am running ONLY Logic Pro with XLN AD2 (no other 3rd party VSTs, and no non Apple software installed either) and besides no issues to report , again the Speeeeed!!! Lol

(and Dave, that was clear to me, which is why im so grateful @GlennO has been appearing in this thread!)
 
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