The Ultimate M1/M2 Mac Buying Guide for Music Production: M2 vs M2 Pro vs M2 Max vs M2 Ultra

[@JamesZhan]

My M4 Pro MacBook Pro Testing video is here! Watch it ➡kzbin.info/www/bejne/npTGqmRvfdJpg5o 🔥NEW VIDEO: My Analysis & Breakdown of the New M4 iMac, Mac Mini, and MacBook Pro for Music Production kzbin.info/www/bejne/hoCui5-IpJJ_ndE ▶ My $12,000 Video/Music Production Desk Setup, Powered by an M1 Max MacBook Pro: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mXKWnqaVZ76hY6M

[@Chrissyduds]

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

[@antoinemasson166]

Hi Chrissy, I'm looking to buy a MacBook Pro for music production and I have a big question : should I wait a few months before buying one? I would buy an M1 Max right now but I'm wondering about M4 series...

[@baldrust]

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.

[@JamesZhan]

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!

[@rob_fabre]

@@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

[@ImOzify]

@@rob_fabreeBay. Do thorough research and make sure you buy from a REPUTABLE seller, meaning 99% or higher positive reviews.

[@atetraxx]

​​@@rob_fabre well yea obviously they aren't made new anymore. They are 2 generations old. We're on m3/m4 now

[@servHis221]

⁠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...

[@LIFELOVER715]

You deserve an award for your presentation. The amount of information, with excellent articulation is worthy of great admiration & appreciation.

[@JamesZhan]

Wow, thank you so much for your kind words!

[@Meme_Mori]

This is excellent. Your buying guides for musicians/producers/engineers are the best I've seen on youtube. Great attention to detail. Thank you.

[@SylvanWilliams]

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.

[@vandenhengel978]

It’s a setting in Logic.

[@malteadotas4]

KZbin 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. 👍👍

[@JamesZhan]

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 ☺️

[@JesusArmasOficial]

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! 🙌🏻🎉

[@Kaotix_music]

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

[@JamesZhan]

@@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.)

[@Kaotix_music]

@@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)

[@JamesZhan]

@@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!

[@JesusArmasOficial]

@@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.

[@SpectacleMusic]

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.

[@jimi272]

Never change a running system. What did you end up doing?

[@Dane_Riazer]

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!!!

[@sergeyleps8492]

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)

[@Dane_Riazer]

@@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.

[@Wreckfinata]

@@sergeyleps8492 theres no settings at all to make it use the other cores?

[@MichelBarbaro]

Wow! That's a Mac buying guide for musicians! Thank you so much!

[@JamesZhan]

Thank you so much for the super thanks! Much appreciate it!

[@noeysun8780]

I haven't "liked" a video in a long time but...I'm really impressed with your presentation, how direct it is, and how informational it is. Thank you for putting this together. I even hit the subscribe button, which I never do when KZbinrs tell me to.

[@gamalehab7848]

Absolute superstar. Killed it with the review ♥️♥️♥️

[@burtayzulaloglu9284]

Just saved me $700 plus I got 64GB ram on an M1 Max instead of M3 Pro. Amazing content

[@h3lio5]

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

[@vincewatson_official]

I just love how you make Max Tech look like hyperbolic amateurs. Again. This is the yearly video I wait for.

[@JamesZhan]

Max Tech is over-dramatic sometimes but that's what works on KZbin. They do a lot of great tests! I use their tests a lot as additional research when putting these Mac videos together :) I like their testing much more than LTT's, as LTT can sometimes misrepresent Mac computers' performance (and Max Tech actually called them out).

[@josuastangl7140]

You're 100% right, it's actually hard to watch these other guys for me.

[@xray2785]

@@josuastangl7140yep, patronising and tabloid presentation style.

[@Henry0870]

I just bought a used base model M1 Max Mac Studio.😎(Coming from a 2009 (upgraded to 2012) Mac Pro) I did look at a M2 (pro) Mini, but for a bit less money (€1300) I now have: - more CPU cores (10 vs 8) - more Memory (32 vs 16 or 24) (Might be overkill for my current use, but better too much than later running out of memory) - More GPU. (although I'm currently not doing much video stuff, I do plan on doing some in the near future.) - More I/O options/port (4 tb vs 2 tb + 2 extra USB-c on the front)

[@НитинРаимаджий]

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

[@christopherpederson1021]

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.

[@НитинРаимаджий]

@@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

[@duarteestelita7257]

@@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.

[@devarni]

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.

[@TeemBlack]

Hey @JamesZhan, can we please get an m3 Pro vs m2 Pro breakdown for music production pretty please

[@JamesZhan]

Here ya go! Just posted a video on M3 Pro vs M2 Pro! kzbin.info/www/bejne/fITUiWeYqZ6npZYsi=ZCU8BG-toWwNcJLu

[@Richoutandtouch]

New Pro Tools now takes advantage of the efficiency cores . Big improvement

[@antoinesry7906]

Man I've never seen someone paying attention to details and to what we need precisely like this, already subscribed and the video is still on , fantastic job on this one thank you so much for this

[@JamesZhan]

Wow thank you so much for your kind words!

[@ignoranceisnotatrend4669]

​@JamesZhan outstanding video sir👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👍🏾👍🏾👍🏾👌🏽👌🏽👌🏽 I can't afford the macbook pro 😢 and I'm only just djing with serato dj pro software, so what macbook air m1, m2, or m3 series with 16 gb and at least 512 or 1tb would you recommend for my use? James your advice to my question will be GREATLY APPRECIATED 👏🏽 thank you very much, i would really appreciate a fast response so I can make my purchase.

[@ObscurelyTitled]

not sure i understand...in logic i can select up to 16 threads

[@chrisdaze8831]

Thanks!

[@JamesZhan]

Wow, appreciate the Super Thanks!

[@PB72UK]

Ive just ordered a refurbed studio m1 max to do creative stuff on, it was a tough call between that and the m2 mac mini pro machine , but you can now pick up the m1 studio for less money so to me its a no brainer , cant wait to get it tomorrow.

[@slippyg]

Best and clearest video on KZbin for performance benchmarks

[@OneFineChopstick]

You are pretty amazing at this. Dislike the average influencer/review/content creator videos so much so yours is a breath of fresh air. keep the videos coming.

[@johnhahn1877]

I'm currently in the market to replace my Mac and this is extremely helpful info. It appears as though I was leaning the wrong way with my choice based on your information. I've been a MOTU DP user since the 90's and love the workflow. I would love to see how DP performs with regard to CPU usage and optimization vs the DAW software you evaluated here.

[@IsraelKeys88]

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

[@artiemixx9319]

Refreshing to hear someone not try to upsell when it’s completely unnecessary. Thanks!

[@WrvrUgoThrUR]

I bought an M1 MacMini 16Gb ram and run Native Instruments Maschine. I can throw mega plug-ins and soft synths at that thing and the processor load has never gone above 25% in Maschine. I don’t even worry about stacking plug-ins it anymore. The M1/16gb is a beast!!!

[@empresssunbow]

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!!

[@jameslast3192]

Thanks for keeping it plain , concise and simple! Great guide.

[@gslide06]

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.

[@nine27]

So based on what you are saying for music production, mixing etc the m2 max mac studio would be fine for me and is not necessary to wait until the m4 studios are coming out. I am still using an intel mac mini i7 6 core at the moment and its been beginning to boggle down on large pro tools sessions with tons of plugins. I want to mention Pro Tools is 32gb ram recommended now as you probably know and I do both produce and mix and want to be able to handle very large sessions and plan on taking on video for my own projects. Hence being focused on getting a studio with say 96gb of ram and a 2TB SSD. I also tend to use glyph ssd’s for Pro Tools sessions and Sound Libraries and planned on getting their NVME drives for the next system so 2TB should be suffice for storage needs. Also trying to have to avoid having to buy a UA Satellite to replace an old Apollo that has thunderbolt 2 since all their plugins are not native yet and I jumped ship interface wise to an RME UFX III. Although, I probably need to see how many plugins of theirs are still not native to confirm so maybe TB 5 wont matter. Anyway please let me know what you think. Thank you it is appreciated

[@SuddenSoundStudios]

One of the most clearly presented, knowledgable presentations I've seen for music production on Apple silicon, and in fact for *any* use case for *any* range of hardware. Brilliant! Thank you!

[@mikefishmusic]

This is very useful info for what I was looking for. Thank you!

[@DajanaOfficial]

🙏🏾🙏🏾🤘🏽🙏🏾🙏🏾 Thiis iis sooooo good man! Thanx. Only problem is...I'm usin logic....and changing now would be like starting to write with my left hand...

[@kry8244]

No, the video is wrong. You have to change the settings to use all cores in logic

[@TruthAndMoreTruth]

I'm running Logic X on a 2008 stock iMac, with 2 gig ram, and original 7200 RPM HD. and it works incredibly well. If I upgraded the RAM, and added an SD, I can't imagine it not handling all of the tracks I could every possibly use. I remember having an expensive computer built in 2001 to handle a DAW... Now, a throw away computer can do this better than that machine ever could. Get ANY Mac that can run Logic. I use my old iMac as a dedicated studio computer that's only used for that purpose.

[@stofenn]

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.

[@servHis221]

Thank you for the video. Leaving this here for my future self. Get the M1 10-core Macbook Pro

[@unconditionallovechild]

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 🤞

[@heavymetalteacup]

I can't overstate how helpful this was to me as I am considering migrating my music workflow from PC to a Macbook, and was considering if changing DAWs would be necessary and/or optimal - I use Reaper, so finding out it performed well here was just a bonus to the already helpful info! Subscribed!

[@yashshirodkar9726]

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….

[@HarleyBob957]

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.

[@SPOD_ZONE]

I used to get 100+ ttracks in 2008 on. Logic 7 on my imac. Cant believe its not unlimited by now.

[@TomRValdez]

Thank you so much James!! This was mindblowing! I'd assumed newer CPUs would result in more horsepower, but learning that the M1 can have MORE performance cores than M2 AND that Logic does not utilize efficiency cores changes the game. Thank you for providing in-depth info regarding available choices relating to audio production.

[@NelsonColt]

Thank you James for such a great tutorial! I do have a question though……I run a semi-pro home recording studio. Been using Logic Pro X since 2019 on a 2018 Mac Mini. It’s now time for me to upgrade. I need to know which version of the new Mac Studio I should get now……still running Logic Pro X with 5 different virtual instrument softwares. I record live guitars and vocals, the rest is all ‘in the box’. Hoping to get this answered and thank you so much!

[@JamesZhan]

A bunch of new Macs are being released this week, so hold off buying for now! I'm working on new videos reviewing these Macs, so keep an eye out for them!

[@NelsonColt]

@@JamesZhan thank you so much James. Very appreciated!

[@empresssunbow]

really love your video! It helps me so much. Thank you!!!

[@KyleSand]

Late 2013 mac still rocks logic pro

[@garycard1826]

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.

[@garycard1826]

Actually I got 512 GB SSD.

[@jordanknapp8061]

You need to make an updated video with the m3 chips

[@ShogunxCAL]

Everything is clean about this man. Video quality on point. Comparisons 🔥 Well done sir well done.

[@johngiovanni]

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.

[@Terribleguitarist89]

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

[@dreadscott3079]

What did you end up going with I’m in the same boat

[@FF18Cloud]

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

[@madness8556]

Thanks so much for your excellent video! I've just set up a Mac Mini M1 16GB RAM 1TB SSD in my project studio and wow it's awesome! I was all ready to splurge on an M2 Pro Mac Mini with 16gb RAM and 1TB SSD mainly because of the extra connectivity and ports but I saved a considerable amount of money and went for the Mac Mini M1, spending the extra money on an OWC thunderbolt dock and extra external SSD drives. I can't get over how snappy the system is and how quickly my sound libraries how load as compared to my previous ageing fully maxed out 2012 27 imac! I don't do much by way of video editing so the extra horsepower in the newer M2 chips would be largely a waste for me. Keep up the great work.

[@JamesZhan]

This is exactly what my buying guide videos is all about-maximizing cost effectiveness on the computer, and use the extra money on other things that would provide you with actual, practical benefits. Amazing decision!

[@madness8556]

@@JamesZhan I only ever bought a new Mac once in my life and that was a G4 digital audio 466ghz with a grand total of 1GB ram and 2 x 30GB internal hard drives. It was a great set up for me running a Digi001 with Protools LE and Logic in 2001 but it cost me a fortune at the time and was very quickly superseded by newer much more powerful Macs. Every other time, I've bought a used fully maxed out imac that was the previous model at half the price that always lasted me for years. My previous set up was a fully maxed out 2012 27 imac with 500gb SSD and 32gb ram and it's still going great today despite the fact that it's now getting a bit old in the tooth! I could have spent twice as much on a Mac Mini M2 Pro but I certainly wouldn't get twice the performance grunt and the extra peripherals add SSD drives, especially the fabulous OWC thunderbolt dock really make the system shine. I'm not going to be running 100 track plus orchestral sessions so I couldn't be more satisfied and once again, thank you so much for your excellent videos and advice. Keep it up! Cheers

[@legendarylexie]

Love u for the Cubase part

[@MarsowMusicKontakt]

Thank you very much for your videos. I really missed the performance of my Lenovo Legion y 540 on Core i7 in Fl Studio. After your previous video on this topic, I tried Reaper, it was unpleasant to change what I know, but the performance in Reaper is 2 times better. I was going to buy a new MacBook on the M4 Pro, but most likely I won't do this, since Reaper allows me to work with my Lenovo. Thank you for saving my family 3600 euros. My wife is very grateful to you.

[@SteveEbe]

Very informative! I'd be curious how UA Luna would figure in, because that's the DAW I use.

[@yanmontoyamusic]

i bought the macbook air m3 with 16 gb ram and i am very dissapointed and had to sell it because it gets hot on and slows down, impossible to do some big projects with oversampling especially with the new plugins. if youre only using stock or waves youll be fine with a macbook air

[@FurkanTopal]

How do we know how many performance cores exist in a chip? I don't see it's specified on Apple's website. 🤔

[@JamesZhan]

Yes it does. You will need to go to the "Tech Specs" tab (top right) on a Mac product landing page

[@rouje44]

The EXACT video i was looking for! thank you James!!!

[@revp01]

As always with your videos: Excellent analysis. Extremely helpful. Confirms most of my thoughts on this subject. I’m a Reaper user on Mac M2. The M2 MacBook Pro w/32GB RAM is beyond amazing and well worth the purchase.

[@abdulazizrehan]

In the market for a Mac Studio or Mini, should I wait for M4 or go with M2?

[@eternalstudios4749]

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.

[@timursky]

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?

[@Lockenjonney]

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!)

[@JamesZhan]

Just posted a video on it! kzbin.info/www/bejne/fITUiWeYqZ6npZYsi=ZCU8BG-toWwNcJLu

[@IAM_Reedy]

James seriously aggravated pro studio musician here, somewhat computer savvy. I do professional guitar, keys and vocals. I can’t isolate my condenser mics based on the fact I only have one room available and space is a premium. The room is treated and tuned to the monitors so it is dead to reflections. Absolutely no electrical noise from power or lighting. Numerous monitors, even have the Adam AX’s like you. I normally work in recording studios but when Covid hit it forced me to build a very expensive setup at home but I’m limited on space. Now we are out of Covid I’m still recording in my home about 40% of the time. My issue is fan noise and coil whine… obviously… I hate it and spend way too much time trying to get rid of it from my tracks. I don’t want to noise gate. My clients demand high quality, clean and high gain tracks. Yes I have a ton of plugins available but generally only use the same three or four in my chain. Can you tell me if you think a new MacBook Air A2 can silently run two Apollo x8p’s, up to 50 tracks running during playback / record; minimum plugins (EQ, Compression)? Or will the new Mac Mini run silent enough? I also run a UA Ox for my guitar amps. Only recording one track at a time. I can easily buy a new Mac but figured I would ask you before I go down the road of procurement, installation, configuration etc… only to discover its underpowered and not usable. I run Protools and Luna exclusively based on the client. I have both PC and Mac versions of Protools. Ok.. so what I have tried… I have a 2021 MacBook Pro… too loud not useable. I have a 2023 Mac Studio… way too loud, which is now a paper weight. I have two newly built, extreme PC builds with water cooling for virtual rehearsal / streaming using OBS… very expensive but too loud for vocal and acoustic recording. Old vintage instruments and vocal mics being used so tone replication is a must. The old vintage mics pick up every little sound.. trust. Even a 15db “silent” computer fan idling at 1500 rpm in the background is a pain in my butt. Will a max built MacBook Air or Mini work for at least the vocal and acoustic guitar setup? And provide silent recording? I’m only asking for the computer aspect, everything else is good to go. No I don’t want to run any type of mic stand mounted isolation shields. I’ve tried them all and they are cumbersome to work with and you can still hear the fans. Yes I have invested heavily in AI software to remove background noise. This works to a degree but changes the tone and adds time to my workflows, not ideal. I have a lot of money wrapped up in this “home” studio and I would be willing to pay you to help figure this out. I’m in the Bay Area. No mastering done… only recording. Others have suggested building a server rack in another part of my home and building a rack mounted Mac Pro or server with remote storage. That would cost me above $50k to install and to me it gets far away from the home studio premises. Plus return on investment… might as well rent a local studio for a day. Whew… that is a lot to unpack. 😂

[@sjcongo]

Mac studio m2 max here that runs completely silent even when opening big logic projects … maybe you will need grounding and a power stabiliser and a good ups

[@IAM_Reedy]

@@sjcongo I have measured the Studio at 25db when running at 2300 rpm. That is not in anyway silent. Old Telefunken mics will pick that up easily. There are no electrical issues at all.

[@sjcongo]

@@IAM_Reedy what rpm ? Ssd s are silent…

[@IAM_Reedy]

@@sjcongo Mac Studio has a CPU fan.

[@JamesZhan]

It's hard for me to fathom that you are getting that much fan noise with your M-series Macs, especially when you are just doing up to 50 tracks of recording with minimal plugin use. I'm mixing and mastering huge sessions and at most, the fans in my M1 Max MBP are just barely louder than my breathing-most of the time I can't even tell the fans are on. I suspect there's something else going on. But the passively cooled M2 MBA can definitely handle 50 tracks of recording. Give it a try. Apple has a 14-day return policy if that doesn't work out. Good luck!

[@granadamusic]

man this is EXACTLY what i needed, fr!!! thanks a lot James!!!!

[@Ellie.Barrett]

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!

[@gingerking2900]

Hello ! Amazing video ! But how about FL STUDIO ? Does it use all the cores ?

[@Bourbosaurus]

I don’t normally comment, but fantastic video. One of the best I’ve ever seen on KZbin in general 😂 straight to the point with complete clarity.

[@michaelbain6402]

The only useful video for audio persons regarding macbooks.

[@geertteekens]

Great video!

[@esahm373]

Very good approach. But what about the limited connectivity, limited RAM and limited SSD space on the more affordable (= attractive) Mac mini base models?

[@grahamhughes2025]

thanks James. Awesome info. My 2015 Imac died. I am a Cubase user.....needing to get going again on a serious budget....or lack of. appreciated.

[@oxnardmusicadvocacygroupom9128]

great great great great explanation. You would think some of this info would be readily available. I was going to go M2 for music production and mixing but now I am moving back towards M1

[@xD3C3PTICONx]

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

[@BONGOLICIOUS1]

Update Vs the M3 models ?

[@JamesZhan]

Here ya go! kzbin.info/www/bejne/fITUiWeYqZ6npZYsi=ZCU8BG-toWwNcJLu

[@vandenhengel978]

You can change the settings of Logic, so that is also uses the efficiency cores.

[@BenG64646]

Very nice video! Thank u! Only thing: the max chips have more bandwidth. Does that not matter for music production?

[@JamesZhan]

No, not in this instance. Recording and processing audio don't really use that much bandwidth. You can record a full band easily with a 720RPM HDD hard drive. Most music production tasks won't even touch the ceiling of the speed of regular SSDs, let alone Apple's much faster ones.

[@nathanc3189]

remember that people have been doing music production for a couple decades (protools hd released 2002) on apple computers that have never had apple silicon and they made music just fine. any of these apple silicon chips are very powerful and are going to do a good job!

[@JamesZhan]

This is such a bizarre way of thinking about this. I mean, people have been doing music production just fine before computers even existed, does that mean any computer will be just fine?

[@dwalk2802]

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.

[@partlysimpson5154]

With logic u need to lower the buffer size to perform better

[@ulteriorreignsupreme]

Fantastic overview, just what I needed.

[@PittsMultiPass]

Please do this benchmark again for Ableton 12. It is supposed to be optimized to use the additional cores.

[@sarinsahil]

You my friend are bringing so much value to the world of musicians right now! Thank you :)

[@natevanderhoof]

Wow so amazing- you saving me hundreds of dollars on that max vs pro chip part. 🙏🙏🙏😊

[@NotMrDaine]

I was running a Mac Pro 3,1 until it finally died its death. So when the M1 dropped I grabbed a Mac Mini with 8GB/512GB. Despite losing a 3rd of my Ram it was still a HUGE generational leap for me. I expenaded I was able to grow, and surprisingly found myself outgrowing it after 18 months. I now have an M2 Pro Mac Mini 32GB/1TB and again it felt like this HUGE generational leap forward for me. Although I doubt I'll start pushing this capacity out for a long while. (No gaming, no video editing, just Reaper recording and mixing)

[@JamesZhan]

That's what I've been hearing from a ton of musicians/audio engineers since the M1 came out. Insane leap. Really gotta hand it to Apple on this one.

[@FurkanTopal]

Btw you're claiming M2 ultra wouldn't make difference for music production but isn't M2 ultra multiplying the performance cores as well? 🤔

[@darodrisc]

Hey James, excellent video, thank you. Have you any thoughts on the M3 chips?

[@DreamCatcherFury]

Thank you so much for making this video! Finally I decided which one is the best for my tasks. I will go for 16' M1 Pro 16 RAM, 512 SSD and external 2Tb SSD, would be perfect for me

[@JamesZhan]

Awesome choice! You can't go wrong with that configuration.

[@DJ-UrbanEcho]

Hello 😊 James Zhan, what is the best Ableton 11.1 setting for a M2 Max with 96 RAM to get the most tracks?

[@josephpeccerillo1640]

Thank you for this video. I’m researching a probable future Mac upgrade as I’m currently running Studio One on an i5 processor iMac with 8gb of ram and it’s definitely a drag. This opened my eyes as to where I should focus my needs as far as processing power and storage needs.

[@parthchaudhary1106]

Pls compare m1,m2 and m3 for music production

[@philipcoumans450]

Oh my gosh that was so informative. I run Logic Pro on a Mac Studio with M2 max chip (32GB RAM, 512GB SSD). Some of the virtual instruments I use are CPU and memory hogs, and I was getting concerned watching the Logic CPU and memory meters. I found it interesting that the M1 Pro would have probably been a better choice. Food for thought.

[@ShogunHz]

After watching this video, I found a Mac Studio: M1 Max, 32gb ram, 512 gb ssd for 1350 out the door brand new. Felt this matched my needs, using lots of midi hardware peripherals, au’s, and native instruments libraries. Some light vid work for content creation. Not sure about streaming with this rig, but I’m excited coming from a Late 2017 MBP! Thanks for the review!!

[@AaronPetrini]

This video should get a gold medal. Thanks so much!

[@emimanuel]

I am a touring musician and do produce my compositions in Ableton. Not much mixing mastering. I am only using some plugins to get a feel for certain songs. I have two external SSDS for all my projects. 512GB, 16 inch, M1 Pro was the best choice I could do.

[@undersh1mmer]

how much ram do you have on ur m1 pro?

[@benmartin5417]

Brilliant. You’ve cut to the chase and explained everything so clearly. Saved me £1k as well. Thanks