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M1 MacBook Pro, MacBook Air and Mac Mini


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No matter how good they are, I don't think they can ever live up to the hype from the YouTube reviewers. Wow, they are really praising them for the fast speed and low heat output.

Wait, somebody posted a YouTube video of a guy running Logic Pro on an M1 Mac mini with A THOUSAND plugins (over 900 instances of Space Designer), which is literally the definition of the machine "living up" to what we are going to be using these boxes for, and you don't think they can "ever live up to the hype"?

 

Pray tell, what would your definition of "living up to the hype" entail?

"The Angels of Libra are in the European vanguard of the [retro soul] movement" (Bill Buckley, Soul and Jazz and Funk)

The Drawbars | off jazz organ trio

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From the point of view of the history of computer architectures and of the IT market in general, i think the M1 chip represent something really of historical importance.

I am not talking about the position of Apple, that is another important story.

 

From the 80s on, we assisted to a slow reduction in variety in the CPU business, up to the total x86/amd64 monopoly started in the 2000's; at least from the desktop and above computers.

Even if the computer architecture community always believed that a RISC architecture could be superior to a CISC and specifically to the x86 architecture, the huge market beyond the PC market generate the

billions dollar needed to keep the lead even with the x86 architecture. The RISC cpu slowly faded away, Alpha, SPARC, MIPS, even the Intel own Itanium (ok, that was a bit more than a RISC).

 

Many perceived the situation as the end of history in computer architecture. The mobile revolution brought enough capitals for another actor to take up a RISC architecture to compete with the mainstream Intel processor.

A kind of RISC revenge for old IT guys like me :->.

 

Of course, Apple will keep this stuff for them, but they showed that it is possible; this will bring big changes to the market, even if slowly.

 

OK, excuse me for posting this IT point of view :->

 

Maurizio

Nord Wave 2, Nord Electro 6D 61,, Rameau upright,  Hammond Pro44H Melodica.

Too many Arturia, NI and AAS plugins

http://www.barbogio.org/

 

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Having been around for the PPC transition in 93, I appreciate the late triumph of RISC, such as it is.

 

But as I understand it, the real killer in these machines isn"t so much the RISC core, but the shared memory architecture made possible by the bespoke components surrounding it â plus the neural engine etc.

 

It will be interesting to see how they scale the architecture for the high-end machines.

"The Angels of Libra are in the European vanguard of the [retro soul] movement" (Bill Buckley, Soul and Jazz and Funk)

The Drawbars | off jazz organ trio

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I had a MacBook Air. Then I bought a 13" MacBook Pro.

 

Both had hardware failures: screen lamination problems, motherboard failures, power supply failures, and speaker failures.

 

I paid way too much money for the experience.

 

I've learned my lesson. Never again will I buy a Mac.

 

I still use an iPhone, but it's the least expensive SE model, and I'll use it until it gets too old to update. I replaced the battery on a couple of older iPhones via iFixit.com and use them for music playback through a Bluetooth speaker.

 

Oh, and I have a couple of iPads.

 

But no Mac. Not for me. I don't care how fast their new M1 processors are. They're no good if their hardware is prone to failure.

 

I'm writing this on a Dell XPS 13 that I purchased new in January for $800. I replaced the 256GB SSD with a 1TB Adata XPG SX8200 Pro. It's a lovely alternative to the 13" MacBook Pro.

 

You all stay safe and play music this holiday season!

 

Tom

"Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent." - Victor Hugo
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I had a MacBook Air. Then I bought a 13" MacBook Pro.

 

Both had hardware failures: screen lamination problems, motherboard failures, power supply failures, and speaker failures.

 

I paid way too much money for the experience.

 

I've learned my lesson. Never again will I buy a Mac.

 

I still use an iPhone, but it's the least expensive SE model, and I'll use it until it gets too old to update. I replaced the battery on a couple of older iPhones via iFixit.com and use them for music playback through a Bluetooth speaker.

 

Oh, and I have a couple of iPads.

 

But no Mac. Not for me. I don't care how fast their new M1 processors are. They're no good if their hardware is prone to failure.

 

I'm writing this on a Dell XPS 13 that I purchased new in January for $800. I replaced the 256GB SSD with a 1TB Adata XPG SX8200 Pro. It's a lovely alternative to the 13" MacBook Pro.

 

You all stay safe and play music this holiday season!

 

Tom

 

1980s -> 2020

Apple IIe, Mac Plus, PowerMac 7600, iMac G3, iMac G5, Mac Pro G5 dual 2ghz, Mac Mini Intel, Mac Book Intel, Mac Book Pro Intel

 

All of these machines were still running when I replaced them. Most I sold to a second owner.

The only machine that ever experienced a hardware problem was the iMac G5 - IMHO the G5 ran too hot for the slim design.

But regardless, I walked into the Apple store at the mall, without Apple Care, and they replaced the motherboard on it free of charge.

 

I've also owned Dell, HP, Lenovo and do my own custom builds ( I like to dual boot Win/OSX).

 

Just sharing a different experience.

Yamaha CP88, Casio PX-560

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I've had issues with both "sides", and had many computers with no issues from either camp. I'd feel pretty good about owning either windows or apple at this point, I use Windows 10 for work and it seems miles better than XP (the last OS on windows I tried to do music with). I'm currently somewhat invested in Logic pro, but most of the plugins I use are 3rd party at this point so it would be not TOO painful to move to another DAW if I felt windows hardware provided a much better deal for equivalent performance. PCs of course can be upgradeable while these macs are not, that is a big issue for some people.

 

Really looking forward to seeing what the more upscale models bring, though looking at that mac mini I reckon I could make that work right now if I needed something. It's a bit short on usb/thunderbolt ports but considering the power plug is separate (unlike my macbook pro) it's not too huge a deal (I have hubs I use now).

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I think now is the time for an M1 Mac Mini.

 

My (second) 2012 MacBookPro is experiencing the same random shutdowns that my first one suffered a couple of years back. I replaced the main board in the last one (maybe 250USD) and gave it to my favorite waitress. They were both upgraded to 16Gb and SSDs inside...

 

I can get some great performance out of Logic as is, but so looking forward to a silent machine that cannot fail to be better, and for 3800AED (local currency)it"s perfect for me at this time.

 

I can"t stand those YouTube reviews, either... Regurgitating of the same benchmark things. Argh.

 

And I will have to wait for NI, but so be it!

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555 plugins on the 8GB Mac Mini..

 

https://sonicstate.com/news/2020/12/03/sonic-lab-m1-mac-mini-plugin-tests/

 

The comments at Synthtopia are pleasantly techie and discuss how long it should/might take to make music software Apple Silicon native, for those so inclined:

https://www.synthtopia.com/content/2020/12/03/new-m1-mac-mini-runs-444-voices-555-plugin-instances/

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I"m getting the 16GB/2TB MBA with Spitfire"s BBCSO Pro and some Albions. Will be fun. I hope.

 

I'm considering the new Mac Mini. It can sit in the second unused bay of my Sonnet Rack Mac rackmount kit. I can keep testing it as more VST companies announce compatibility.

 

Then, I would have a cool redundant system in my gig rack. :)

David

Gig Rig:Casio Privia PX-5S | Yamaha MODX+ 6 | MacBook Pro 14" M1| Mainstage

 

 

 

 

 

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  • 1 month later...
12 Core M1X MacBook Pro Said to be due come March 2021.

 

https://www.macworld.co.uk/news/12-core-macbook-pro-3800060/

oooooofffff.

 

Put that in a 14" machine at 1799, or even 2199, and wow.

"The Angels of Libra are in the European vanguard of the [retro soul] movement" (Bill Buckley, Soul and Jazz and Funk)

The Drawbars | off jazz organ trio

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Agreed. We"re seeing the 8-core M1 mini crunch plugins that haven"t been optimized for it yet with ease. This will in fact bring Xeon level Mac Pro performance to a much lower price point.

The big transformation is how more and more power users are going to be satisfied with the performance of Apple"s entry-level consumer products. The conversation is changing from 'I need a Pro machine' to 'the performance of the consumer products is overkill for my needs'. Even the options for RAM and storage are equivalent to what power users needed 5 years ago. That"s a big shift in what the Apple user base considers 'essential'. I think across the product line, people will be downgrading from what they traditionally would have needed.

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To an extent this has been happening all along - using those who get all their work done on a smart phone, tablet or chrome book as example. But I suspect the the greater processing power and resources will quickly be taken advantage of by the OS designers and software developers.

Yamaha CP88, Casio PX-560

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  • 2 months later...

PreSonus posted Thunderbolt drivers for their Quantum interfaces this week as well, so it"s good to see support is coming online from several vendors. I"m still waiting on MotU but hopefully they"re not far behind. Drivers are the biggest challenge since they cannot be translated by Rosetta, and most vendors had work to do going from Catalina to Big Sur as Apple no longer allows drivers to load directly into the kernel for security reasons.

 

I was also pleased to see that most of the vendors I rely on for plug-ins have made progress. FabFilter had everything ready quickly, Spitfire Audio has a number of betas available, U-he is starting to roll out their support. Pianoteq is also already M1 native as of early this year. I still expect to encounter some bumps in the road as my M1 MacBook Pro arrives today, but it"s encouraging.

Acoustic: Shigeru Kawai SK-7 ~ Breedlove C2/R

MIDI: Kurzweil Forte ~ Sequential Prophet X ~ Yamaha CP88 ~ Expressive E Osmose

Electric: Schecter Solo Custom Exotic ~ Chapman MLB1 Signature Bass

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  • 2 weeks later...
MOTU's Big Sur-compatible and M1-native AVB drivers are officially out, and running beautifully here. It's great to see it all coming together, with only a few holdouts still running via Rosetta on my new system.

Acoustic: Shigeru Kawai SK-7 ~ Breedlove C2/R

MIDI: Kurzweil Forte ~ Sequential Prophet X ~ Yamaha CP88 ~ Expressive E Osmose

Electric: Schecter Solo Custom Exotic ~ Chapman MLB1 Signature Bass

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Awesome. Focusrite updated my 18i20 GEN3 so it works on M1 now. They also released an update of the Focusrite Control software. Working very well on my M1 Mac Mini

David

Gig Rig:Casio Privia PX-5S | Yamaha MODX+ 6 | MacBook Pro 14" M1| Mainstage

 

 

 

 

 

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Awesome. Focusrite updated my 18i20 GEN3 so it works on M1 now. They also released an update of the Focusrite Control software. Working very well on my M1 Mac Mini

 

I'm pleased to hear that, as I've been a happy Focusrite user for many years. I'm squirming for Apple to release an iMac, knowing I'll be lucky to even hear them announce a 2022 release by Christmas. The positive aspect: forced patience! By then, any gremlins in the M1 world will have come to light to a great degree, or so I am hoping. When I plug in Migration Assistant, I always have a priest and a tank of oxygen on standby. It will add to my alleged character to resist buying a Mac Mini.

 "I want to be an intellectual, but I don't have the brainpower.
  The absent-mindedness, I've got that licked."
        ~ John Cleese

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