MacBook Pro M1 2021 8GB vs 16GB? Memory for Music Production

[@bryans8656]

This is the best explanation of memory usage and pressure that I've seen.

[@MarkPayneAudio]

Thanks Bryan!

[@rafsanrahi2469]

People in comments make me laugh. I see so many wondering if 16 gb ram is enough when they don’t even know if it’s enough for music production. Are you going to write the score for Batman Trilogy with 1000+ tracks? If not, then you don’t need 16 gb of ram. I used to use FL, Cubase, and even logic when it first came out for windows 20+ years ago. Back then OS was x86 and the hype with x64 was just coming out. Back then, the only issue was CPU and 4 gb ram on intel was enough for music production. Fast forward now with M1 and 8gb unified memory vs 16 gb??? Come on bro, unless you are working in Hollywood and scoring the next best blockbuster film, I am 100% nobody here will push their system for the next #1 top charting Spotify record. If you are a music producer, 8 gb is enough. Especially for electronic music, get an AKAI MPC One with a base model M1 iPad Pro and you will be set for life. I use this combination daily and never had cpu or ram problems.

[@tcroyce8128]

When an audio engineer lays down memory management way better than typical University lectures.

[@MarkPayneAudio]

Thanks! Appreciate the comment!

[@jaggertadeo7276]

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[@lyleisrael5691]

@Jagger Tadeo instablaster ;)

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[@jaggertadeo7276]

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[@the_benja_men]

“I don’t like seeing memory pressure; it winds me up.” Perfect! Great video!

[@MarkPayneAudio]

Yes! Thank you!

[@valdir7426]

been running with 8 Gb for years; honestly never seen the memory pressure thing goes orange. I use ableton live; and use 20 tracks tops, very few samples/orchestral library; live takes usually less than 3 GB, I just try to not open several memory hungry applications at the same time. I don't know the details of memory management on OSX; but with compressed memory and fast swap it seems like there's a lot of headroom before the machine will actually choke, so I'll say for most people 8 GB will be fine. 16GB will give you some comfort and will marginally speed up your experience; but that's all. A few years back I'd considered the best value mac to be a used mac (like quad core macbook pro or mini from 2012 / 2015); now it's clearly the base macbook air; that you can already find used. the 512 GB is a nice upgrade; but even that is really way too expensive for what it is when you can use external SSDs.

[@artist79]

my question is why are you even on this video? i want to buy new mac and i stumbled upon it. you just dropped here casually?

[@kojoefante]

@@artist79why are you here? Are you the KZbin police?

[@iammustafa]

Same here! I am a CS grad from university and I work as a Technical Support Analyst at a big software company. I just started singing and music this summer.

[@jkimmmusic]

The best explanation on 8GB vs 16GB M1, kudos to you and you earned a sub!

[@MarkPayneAudio]

Thanks!

[@kylejohn2946]

Mark you should have shown playback on the 16gb like you did the 8gb so we can see the CPU meter in Logic

[@xavierclarke5940]

Thanks for the video, i just recently got the 8GB version for Christmas, and was really hoping i could use it for logic pro without worrying too much about memory. so far everything i have thrown at this device has handled it pretty well, didn't know what the memory pressure thing was until now so thank you very much for making the video.

[@MarkPayneAudio]

You are going to get on fine!

[@pimentocheese618]

Hi! right now i only have money for the 8 gb ram version, and i wanna produce music but just in a medium cpu usage, not planning to use really hard plugins. Will it do it for me or should i just wait a while so i can get the 16 gb?

[@lammyjammer6670]

I've been searching for a year for this very explanation! Excellent!

[@amado5490]

I love how this video tackles EXACTLY the question I had. And it does with exquisite transparency, as usual. I would give it a 100 thumbs up if I could.

[@DJMixtApe808]

Thanks Mark, a really excellent and detailed video. This is precisely the question I’ve been mulling over since M1 came out as I current work on a 2014 iMac for music and 2015 MacBook Pro for my work. I chop and change those uses a bit in any given day, but when reviews of the speed of the M1s came out, I genuinely feel I could potentially downsize my hardware and get just one laptop to do all my work on. Like you, I think I’d end up opting for the extra breathing space to be on the safe side, but I’m still not 100% decided. Videos like this are a massive help, though, so thanks again for taking the time to do the research. I also gained some useful general understanding of how RAM works too, which is a bonus! :)

[@MarkPayneAudio]

Thanks Seth, I'm not that pretty so I have to provide KZbin value in other ways :-)

[@namakudamono]

Thanks Mark! I went for the 16gb model.

[@Maradnus]

I have the M1 8gb. IT runs amazing.... I have had a harder time managing the CPU use. I do EDM & I can tell you that 6 instances of phase plant & a few snap heaps with nearly no extra plugins brings it to the knees. I have only ever seen Logic use 5 gig for an average project. & memory pressure have only broken 60% 2x in the last few weeks while monitoring, mostly its around the 40% mark. None of this has been while working with projects just testing & getting use to being back in the studio after 10 years gap. So far I am more limited via CPU with an all MIDI set up. So it back to bouncing tracks & passages so no real drawbacks

[@kojoefante]

Huh?

[@johnwade7430]

Really interesting - just seeing how these programs utilise the System.

[@highkingkay]

This is very interesting!! I'm a software developer and musician, could hear you talking for hours and hours. Great content! Cheers!

[@MarkPayneAudio]

Wow, thanks!

[@adielbarboza5470]

Soo,witch onw would you recommend for a musician and soon a software developer?(and videogames to)

[@Jimbowholivesinsoup]

Finally, a nice explanation, not some random data and useless "tests"

[@MarkPayneAudio]

Thanks Ernests

[@mannkeithc]

I agree, it is better to buy the M1 MacBook Pro with 16GB RAM at the outset, especially as you cannot add an additional 8GB RAM if you subsequently decide the original 8GB RAM model is not enough for your use profile.

[@kerryobrien6110]

I got a really good deal on a 2019 iMac with 8GB that I am essentially only using in my music studio with Logic Pro X. I wanted to see if it was worth upgrading to 16GB. This video was so helpful in telling me that it isn't worth it, not for what I'm doing with it. Thanks Mark!

[@MarkPayneAudio]

Excellent

[@dbfromvinestreetrecords1888]

In all my years using Logic, and trying to figure the best settings out, this is the best I've ever gotten. It had an immediate result on a large mix I'm working on. Mostly it was setting the cores to 8. I have Intel based Mac Pro and it worked perfectly; instant CPU relief. Thanks you, thank you, thank you!!

[@MarkPayneAudio]

Great to hear!

[@That.Thou.Art.]

Wich model of Mac Pro with Wich intel do u use ? What about RAM etc.? Waiting for your answer💚

[@MarkPayneAudio]

@@That.Thou.Art. In later videos I compare the 8GB M1 Air to a 16GB M1 Pro. You will find that video I am sure.

[@devicefuldb5097]

@@That.Thou.Art. I thought I responded to this but don't see it here. Anyway, I have a Mac Pro late 2013 that I purchased in 2015 with 1T SSD and 32GB DRAM, which I upgraded to 2T and 64GB of DRAM. It's really a super machine. I've got a massive mix that is actually done save a few minor adjustments and it's using 31GB of DRAM when loaded. Logic was struggling (CPU) until I changed to the 8 core setting. Oddly, the 12 core setting, also available, didn't work as well as the 8.

[@NordicMushroom]

Very professional review and explanation of ram, good job.

[@MarkPayneAudio]

Glad you liked it!

[@lundsweden]

Heres the thing though, some sample based plugins are 8GB or more for a single instrument. You would imagine all that will be loaded into RAM, right? I have 16GB and it is plenty (for me) but 8GB may be too low. I've seen film composers custom PCS with hundreds of GB of RAM. This makes sense to me as they may have a whole suite of weighty orchestral instruments loaded up and ready to go.

[@MarcusRobertsonTwo]

This is the exact video I was looking for! Thank you!

[@MarkPayneAudio]

Excellent!

[@zero-order-hold5704]

This was exactly what I was looking for!

[@MarkPayneAudio]

Thanks Zero!

[@johnd942]

In a word, complex! The 'ram-drive' woke me up a bit; being a throw-back to my MSDOS days with XT and AT based machines. Nevertheless, a very useful and meaningful presentation. You are clearly a very well-educated man in this field. However, I needed to view the 'Green Memory Pressure' image to grasp what you were saying. Both thumbs up, and subscribed. Thank you.

[@hardtimesmusical]

Excellent video. I'm not the most tech savvy ..relying on my sons for advice to run my studio but I understood everything and am much more educated now about the subject. Thanks.

[@MarkPayneAudio]

Thanks David. That is very encouraging. I am trying to keep these things educational!

[@NickHchaos]

Wow, your description of "This is what you're looking for" matches me perfectly: Logic, some video, + all around and other duties!

[@MarkPayneAudio]

Glad you liked it!

[@NickHchaos]

@@MarkPayneAudio You convinced me to buy the M1 Air with 8 cores and 16 GB memory. as I plan to stream music performances through it. So that will be audio interface+ Logic+ streaming program simultaneously.

[@charbax]

Haha sorry you feel that memory pressure :) Thanks for the memory demo. I would only get the 8GB/256GB Macbook Air, and save myself $500-600 compared to your config. Or if I do all the music in a studio, just get the M1 Mini 8GB/256GB, at about 40% of the price of what you're paying. Sorry I don't think Apple devices keep their value, Apple themselves don't even give a couple hundred $ if you trade in your old mac for it. And you never know what Apple and other companies come out with. I expect Chromebooks and Windows 10 on Arm laptops to come out doing the same kind of stuff (using other DAW and video editing apps for sure) shortly, with actually more features, smaller bezels, better cameras, more ports, SD card slots, longer battery and even 5G/LTE integrated at less than $500. More importantly, M1 Macs will soon hopefully have all the apps and plugins all native Arm optimized, that changes a whole lot when it comes to memory management. Also I expect the Big Sur upgrades to manage backgroud app memory and SSD memory swap even more effectively. So I expect things to only get better and better on just 8GB RAM.

[@MarkPayneAudio]

All good points. I am on the road on live shows so it is important that my system can travel with me otherwise, yes a Mac mini would be a great call with a 5K monitor, boom. I actually find that FaceBook Marketplace has been a great place for me to move stuff on. I would never take the pathetic money Apple offer for trade ins. I agree with you.

[@gluelessest]

Too bad windows and chromebooks dont have as good daws as logic :/

[@charbax]

@@gluelessest I would think Windows has excellent DAWs as Ableton and company. I expect Windows apps to run on all Chromebooks smoothly from some point this year. Otherwise Linux DAWs should work on Chromebooks now and there are a bunch it looks like: www.slant.co/topics/6067/~daws-for-linux at some point Google needs to massively invest to help improve the free and open source DAWs out there. Same thing for improving of open source free apps like GIMP, Blender, OBS, and etc. Companies like Google should invest to make sure they're as good as any proprietary app out there.

[@gluelessest]

@@charbax not as smooth workflow in my opinion. Maybe its just cos I havent used ableton as much.

[@gluelessest]

@@beepst I just want to make music not browse shit ton of tutorials :D

[@raf.nogueira]

I didn`t even know that music software could use so much CPU and RAM like that. Amazing video!

[@MarkPayneAudio]

You do now :-)

[@raf.nogueira]

@@MarkPayneAudio Did you ever had contact with anyone that had a M1 with 8gb or RAM, and they are developers ? I want to know if is possible to work on medium to heavy apps projects with 8gb of Ram, I never had mac before, planning to sell my gaming pc to buy one

[@mitchkroska3678]

@@raf.nogueiraI have a macbook with 8gb of ram and I work on a project that uses Docker with Kubernetes to run locally. My computer hosts the server and database. I find that 8gb is enough, it's never been a problem. Unless you're doing heavy machine learning type things it should be fine. Obviously each application is different and each requires a different range of resources but I would say that unless you're working on medium-large production level business apps, you'll be fine. That said for $200 extra, it would be best to upgrade to 16gb just to make the computer last for as long as possible. If I where buying new I would upgrade to 16gb

[@raf.nogueira]

@@mitchkroska3678 I'm super glad about your commentary, I both the Macbook Pro m1 with 8gb ram, I'm anxiously waiting for it to be delivered in mailbox ... Can't wait to type some codes on it :P

[@therock88]

Such a great video man Finally a real test.... 🙏

[@MarkPayneAudio]

Glad you liked it!

[@MisterGarethEdwards]

Thanks - just what I needed! look forward to seeing what other stuff you cover.

[@MarkPayneAudio]

Thanks Gareth. Check out the series in the Apple Silicon playlist.

[@masterstacker2833]

Very well done demonstration and I heartily agree. I got 16 on my M1 MBP.

[@MarkPayneAudio]

All good!

[@dwcc789]

These videos are brilliant. Really appreciate how you explain aspects of computing I’ve known about but never really understood..thanks!

[@MarkPayneAudio]

Glad you like them!

[@Geally416]

Great video. I wanted to get 16gb mainly for recording music in logic. I hardly know anything about computer terminology and was still able to understand everything properly. Appreciate it sir👍

[@MarkPayneAudio]

Glad I could help!

[@bernardkocioek685]

Thank you for that video. I was thinking about buying 8 GB and save up money for some plugins. But after this in-depth video I decided to buy 16 GB. Thank you Mark.

[@MarkPayneAudio]

I think that is a wise choice. This is going to be the best computer I have owned since my original 15" MBP Retina which was a revelation at the time. This thing has the same jump forward... and more.

[@TerranceNock]

I’ve NEVER understood something so simply! Wow! Thank you!! Getting the 16Gb tomorrow.

[@MarkPayneAudio]

Brilliant! I am on commission from Apple for memory upgrades :-) (British humour/irony alert!)

[@pasha811]

Great stuff and very useful, thanks! I am starting now to think about Apple Silicon as a replacement of my aged iMac and this video is fantastic!

[@MarkPayneAudio]

Glad it was helpful!

[@Rahul-fq9kf]

really good. i wish i was comp engineer like you with so much tech system knowledge. thanks for answering my query.

[@METALSMYMIDALNAME]

Great video mate. I’m currently thinking about purchasing the 8GB MacBook Pro M1 with 256GB SSD. Then looking to get Logic Pro and have a go at music production. It’s something I’ve never done before so all aspects of it are completely new to me. It’ll be more of a hobby and just something I’ll do in my spare time at home, then hopefully if I get into it more I can explore more options. Just thinking I don’t want to spend a lot more money on the 16GB version if it’s going be unnecessary, but obviously if I’m going to run into problems I’d rather spend the extra. Thanks in advance

[@MarkPayneAudio]

Watch my latest cider comparing an 8GB Air to a 16GB. I think this will set your mind at ease.

[@METALSMYMIDALNAME]

I’ve had a look at the video, what I got from it was I should be okay with the 8GB for what I want it for?. But then if you want to start using more plug ins and delving further into it then it’ll be better to have the 16GB?. I’m just thinking I’m only really intending on using stock plug ins and seeing how I get on. It’ll be rare that I’ll have multiple applications open at 1 time, 99% of the time I’ll be solely running Logic. Thanks again

[@MarkPayneAudio]

You will be fine with 8GB

[@arminsapeins5415]

@@METALSMYMIDALNAME hi! Did You buy the 8/256 version? And how it’s working for You with Logic Pro?

[@vag4lvevo22]

Wow. Great video. Now I understand more about rams on a computer. 🙏

[@MarkPayneAudio]

Glad you liked it

[@budgetguitarist]

This is outstanding. Subscribed!

[@budgetguitarist]

Of course, I also have to say that I don't see a scenario where I need to run business productivity software at the same time as Logic, and I do think that's a bit of an edge case! But it did make for a very effective demonstration of memory.

[@loyefesobi]

Thanks. The explanation definitely convinced me to get the 16GB RAM

[@ajmedia559]

Just got my self the m1 with 16g and 1tb ssd should be a beast

[@Mr_Kirk_]

LOOOOOOVE THIS!!!!! I'm a UNIX guy and I've been WISHING that someone would talk about this from a perspective I understand! Thank you! This is perfect! A UNIX guy doing music now :) Speaking BOTH of my languages :))))

[@MarkPayneAudio]

Indeed!

[@dmitryfomin2671]

Thank you sir! The most clear explanation. Does this apply to MacBook Air as well?

[@subrunnerfly1703]

I got 32 gig ddr4 🤗tried to put like 12 dune 3s and a few serums,thought it was going to overload but seeing the cpu used there is plenty of space to put another 30 dunes lol,still thinking of upgrading to 64 gig ddr4

[@alexmcgowan8963]

Thanks for the reply Mark. I'm a relative newbie to Apple stuff, but after a bit more digging on the website i've seen theres a customise option, where you can add more RAM, increase storage etc :)

[@MarkPayneAudio]

Yes you have options to customise. Please see my lashes video here kzbin.info/www/bejne/f6qVgJ-sZsife6c where I discuss this.

[@wpoeyer]

Very nice explanation of memory usage. Thanks!

[@MarkPayneAudio]

Most welcome! What are you running currently?

[@wpoeyer]

@@MarkPayneAudio I run an Intel :( Mac mini at the moment with quad core processor and 16GB of memory. For some light mobile work I use my MacBook Air which has 8GB of memory. 8GB is mostly enough, but sometimes when working with Lightroom or large files in Photoshop memory pressure gets high but never a real problem. MacOS handles memory really well! I'm currently deciding if I will upgrade to a M1 MacBook Pro with 16GB to replace both machines of wait a bit longer and see if Apple will release a 16" MacBook Pro this year...

[@peterremke]

good video. I bought the M1 air with 8GB Ram. I usually do my Logic on a 2017 iMac. Now I'm worried I didn't buy enough Ram, but hey, I should just use it and be productive, if it works, it works...

[@MarkPayneAudio]

Glad I could help

[@prebenraunsbjerg]

As always super helpful. I am finally getting round to possibly perhaps maybe replacing my old early 2008 monster of a Mac Pro (still struggling to match the 12TB internal storage and 24GB of RAM without breaking the bank and your videos are super super helpful. If you're ever in Lancashire there's a pint with your name on it. Or a glass of wine. Or a cup of tea.

[@MarkPayneAudio]

Lovely!!!

[@prebenraunsbjerg]

If you do come round you can admire my Mac Studio M1 Max ... so far an absolute joy - even running Ventura.

[@jas_bataille]

Great explanation and test. I would really love if you could do the same tests with Logic Pro running natively instead of being translated to Rosetta to see whether or not the memory pressure will change. Cheers!

[@matthewblue7839]

But then the plugs wouldn’t all run ?

[@lukeshirtliff7861]

i got macbook pro 2013 with 16gb and when i play edrums through midi it can glitch/lag and stuff my recording up

[@nicebluejay]

this was a frickin great video. thanks!

[@MarkPayneAudio]

Glad you liked it!

[@GeorgePMusic]

thank you Mark... that was a great tutorial...very informative

[@MarkPayneAudio]

Glad it was helpful!

[@Mphojele]

Nicely explained, I almost wasted my money buying a 16g machine, all I really need is 8g.

[@vikramjitbanerjeetuki]

Thanks for this bro much appreciated 🙂

[@MarkPayneAudio]

No problem 👍

[@saint_apollo]

Just subscribed loved this video.

[@MarkPayneAudio]

Thanks for subbing!

[@jaynw26]

Awesome, awesome video. Well done!

[@MarkPayneAudio]

Thank you very much!

[@williamshaneblyth]

I think we also have to realise that we use to have very slow spinning disks a few years ago. You throw a ton of stuff at it and it'll start to swap memory for to the disk which was a dog in those days and it crawls. The new internal hard drive in a M1 is insanely fast storage so you don't notice it swapping out. The fact is that the memory and the storage are now both fast as chips these days. Yes the memory now is still faster than the storage but not by much at all. So real world disk swapping on ultra fast SSD chips in a M1 ends up faster than the memory in a machine from 5 to 10 years ago. Hence one reason why it's so much faster now. Any old machine throw the spinning drive out for a fast SSD internal and it suddenly goes into hypersonic mode in comparison.

[@TazzSmk]

whoa, first time I hear someone mention RAMdisk creation on M1, glad it's possible, thanks for the vid!

[@MarkPayneAudio]

No problem! It was not something I knew you could do either!

[@mauricio.montoya]

Great content! Thank you very much, I have subscribed to your channel, let's see how it grows!

[@MarkPayneAudio]

Thanks for the sub!

[@paulgero]

Thank you Mark ! Very clear and helpful.

[@MarkPayneAudio]

Glad it was helpful!

[@PortugalCarp]

Thanks for posting this video. It has explained things in a clear way.

[@MarkPayneAudio]

Glad it was helpful!

[@paulgibson3259]

Great video. 16 gig here I come. I think the future resale value point is what tipped the scale for me.

[@MarkPayneAudio]

Good call!

[@gabrielmarquez]

One of the best explanation out there! Thanks!

[@MarkPayneAudio]

You're welcome!

[@itonuoro3813]

Thank you, your video does help me a lot!

[@MarkPayneAudio]

Glad it helped!

[@kenmh7357]

Great presentation and best conclusion "future proof" and re-sale value. I own a mid-2014 I bought used with 16 gb of RAM. Currently using 8.8 gb of RAM. If I were a power user with 8gb, I would be toast.

[@MarkPayneAudio]

Watch out for the file system caching use. The system will use up spare memory dynamically for file system cache. It is a weak hold on RAM and the first thing to get sacrificed when the pressure comes on.This can make you feel you are using more memory than you really are.

[@jadorejoe]

Thank you Mark! Very informative and helpful!

[@MarkPayneAudio]

My pleasure!

[@MichelBarbaro]

What valuable information! Many thanks!

[@MarkPayneAudio]

Glad it was helpful!

[@familymovie5799]

Very thorough video. Im still suprised though that you hit cpu or ram block warnings. The logic project seemed rather small, and not heavy on vsts, and fancy plugins, some were even your softube ext device. I understand that having other software open taxes the memory but again it wasnt like you had final cut open in the backround rendering a video, it was word, excel, outlook a few tabs. Not that much in my opinnion for such a speced out machine, so I wonder if it was throtteling??

[@nellyps3]

I have a 16gb MacBook m1 with m1 compatible plugins and cant even record or playback

[@MarkPayneAudio]

Why not?!

[@nellyps3]

@@MarkPayneAudio idk if its one of my plugins, but i cant get my daw to play or record. I took all my plugins out logic and the track plays fine. And added them slowly but im still getting that message. Idk if Antares is the culprit or not. Even apple has tried helping me

[@CMC5961]

Very informative indeed. I was wondering if I should get a Mac Mini 16GB @$899 or a MacBook Pro with 8 GB RAM for $1219 at B&H. After watching your video, I decided to get the Mac Mini, it also has better connections with my existing 27” Apple Cinema Display and Bose speakers, dedicated microphone, etc.

[@MarkPayneAudio]

Excellent!

[@mikeschmidt1415]

Mark, thank you for sharing your knowledge. Much appreciated.

[@MarkPayneAudio]

No worries!

[@blonchie4724]

Excellent video! Just what I was looking for. Thanks

[@MarkPayneAudio]

Glad it was helpful!

[@calvingudu9237]

Could you please inform me whether Mac silicon (M1 and M2) supports AVB for integration with a Person's rack mixer?

[@D4aniB]

Hello! I'm trying to understand the CPU and RAM performance. I have an early 2015 macbook pro with 8gb of ram. Ram pressure is always green, but CPU sometimes hit the 60 percent, mostly when seeing youtube, and get a little laggy. My question is, if 7 years ago, when I bought it, if I had bought it with 16gb of RAM, I would have seen now the diference? I mean, the CPU would go better if I had that 16gb of RAM?

[@johnmknox]

Eating into the swap file of an SSD is not a good idea because those things only have a limited number of read/writes and they will wear out a lot faster.

[@MarkPayneAudio]

All of that is measurable. Check out this video! kzbin.info/www/bejne/g4elmY2Zi8mIaKM

[@robstaylor4234]

what lights you have under sound panels

[@MarkPayneAudio]

Led strips.

[@robstaylor4234]

@@MarkPayneAudio I figured that much, what brand? where did your order them?

[@MarkPayneAudio]

@@robstaylor4234 Amazon jobs. They are all the same :-)

[@noonghazi]

This is perfect! Thank you so much

[@MarkPayneAudio]

Thanks!

[@digitalsketchguy]

Hi Mark. I'm looking to buy the mac min M1 8GB because I'd like to try out Pro Logic X. Been using Reaper for a while on an old windows PC - AMD E2 chip ( don't laugh! ) but I rarely use more than 20 tracks & always commit to WAV very early on & have no problems with CPU throttling. I installed a trial of Cubase & my machine some time back & it nearly died just opening the bloody program. I'm not a 50 - 150 track person. Do you think the base mac mini M1 would be suitable? I'm not a laptop person either, never was, screens too small & the touch pad is not my thing.

[@MarkPayneAudio]

Yes I think this will serve you very well.

[@jak_9803]

Thank you for this! Definitely gonna get 16gb now :)

[@ASMRAndMore]

Wow... I hit subscribe, and look forward to watching all your videos..... you sir do a fantastic job!

[@MarkPayneAudio]

Welcome aboard!

[@MarkPayneAudio]

Thanks for the support!

[@DREQON2005]

So if I’m strictly gonna be just recording songs but I’m not producing at all is 8 good enough for me? I’ll be buying all my instrumentals I use I figured I don’t need much

[@FilipBadiar]

Thanks Mark, finally a great and in-depth analysis of something which is a big concern for music producers when it comes to the new M1 devices - relatively low RAM memory. A question if you don't mind - how do you think the 16GB version of MacBook Pro/Mac mini would perform when using large-sized sound libraries? (such as orchestral libraries which are anywhere from 50-500GB in size) I keep hearing that M1 is so fast and the whole system so well integrated that it often makes up for that lack of RAM headroom. But with such large-sized libraries, do you think it would be better to get the intel based Mac with 32-64GB RAM?

[@MarkPayneAudio]

I need to collaborate with the kind of producer that uses a high degree of sample libs. Then we can test it. This is a big question for a lot of people.

[@toohardtohandle]

I have a 16GB M1, and when doing some drum editing, slicing things up using flex time, I get a notification saying my system has run out of application memory. Logic slows to a crawl and has crashed once or twice, and is usually helped by selecting unused regions and deleting them from the session. I’m not sure if this is a combination of using other plugins in conjunction with editing, such as plugins that have look-ahead. Perhaps I should be doing the editing first, slicing things track by track and clearing unused regions as I work my way through each channel.

[@pavanmusical]

Thank you so much! You have no idea how long I have been searching for a binary answer to this question. Everyone else is just yapping and not giving a final result. You explained it really well.

[@MarkPayneAudio]

Glad it was helpful!

[@moosey62]

Thanks Mark!!! Top presentation.

[@Justmino]

I don't understand why there isn't a 32GB version. My 5 year old MBP has 16 RAM. I realize it's an upgraded RAM, but what about if I want to put a whole 18GB session in the cache (in Pro Tools)? Still can't do that?

[@MarkPayneAudio]

I cannot help you with this. I have no Protools experience. I am yet to hear from people measuring what heavy sample library Logic sessions need. You can see the memory sizing of the post live production sessions I am running. of course 8GB is working well for this and 16GB is more than enough. I can only show you what I know to be true based on what I am doing in my workflow.

[@Justmino]

@@MarkPayneAudio cool, thanks for your reply. In Pro Tools there’s a function that lets you allocate however many GB of RAM to the cache and loads the entire session in it. Takes a minute to load but makes very large sessions extremely light. I use this all the time with post sessions and when I get to the master session it usually goes way past 16GB. Which means I need to use the regular cache, works fine but makes a dif in insane sessions. Good old days when you could simply add more ram to the MBP.

[@dashnitro]

Really helpful, thanks for that!

[@MarkPayneAudio]

Glad it was helpful!

[@lapo667]

Love your videos

[@harrison9861]

in your opinion would i benefit swapping from a 2014 pro i7 4770hq with 16gb ram to a MacBook air/mini 8gb m1?

[@DrVimto]

great video.. been holding back on moving to the 13", because moving from a 15" 2017 mbp will feel like a mobile fone. been hearing new larger models maybe coming out. if it doesnt, will go back a screen size, and setup an external screen for audio.

[@shashidharuppada8757]

MacBook Pro 3 8GB RAM is sufficient for music production beginners?

[@stuartrogers9031]

For music production minimum 16gb of ram and like you said this future proof the machine

[@dean-marr]

Thanks for this video. I use ableton with 8gb mini m1 256 with 24 tracks and its phenomenal 👌 I don't need tons of plugins and use outboard gear going into tracks. I treat my computer like an analog 24 track and I like having limitations

[@MarkPayneAudio]

Great to hear!

[@jamesforte5379]

Hey man just wondering I don’t have a big budget but need a new laptop as someone threw mine against a wall resulting the need to be plugged into a monitor which affects being able to gig as I play piano on my keylab88. Just wondering if you had external plug ins in the session. I use ableton atm and some of my projects can be like 100+ tracks I was using just stock plugins as I send my songs to get mixed mastered but was planning to start buying some eq compressors from slate , waves and uad how would the 8gb cope with them type of plugins running on a big session with a mastering bus with plugins also. I have a lot of stems as I use a lot of sample layers also from splice and random sounds I find and also play different layers with my key lab pads keys bass lead synth organ etc

[@pimentocheese618]

Hi. So i'm thinking on buying a Mac Mini M1 for using Ableton live 10, but I'm not sure if it'll be the right choice since I don't know if any of my go-to plugins are available on that system, these are the plugins I intend to use: U-he Tyrell n6, PG 8X, Surge, Valhalla vintage reverb, Izotope Vinyl, Spitfire Audio Labs, Wider, Serum. Has someone had experiences with any of these plugins on a M1 Mac so far? Also i've read that the best way to do it is by using Rosetta 2, but i've read that Rosetta can damage the ssd of an M1 so i don't know what to do. Also idk if the compatibility problems have to be with m1 or the OS big sur. Any help would be appreciated

[@machinesworking]

Curious, have you tested what happens when you use more RAM than the system has? These new machines look to maybe handle that better and I haven't seen anyone do this yet.

[@likeaboss4318]

He actually did Thats the swap Memory If all of the ram is used, your systems ssd storage gets integrated and data gets dumped on it to free up the ram space So you never run out of ram space (so to say, you cant use more ram than you have) only if your ssd storage is full as well

[@InspectorSmeg]

Hi mate, awesome reviews. Is there a big difference between Ableton and Logic processing wise? Do you think this test is a good indicator for ableton users too? Thanks!

[@PushKahlon]

8 gig crashes if you're mixing and mastering. I've tried logic and pro tools. The processor isn't being stressed, but the ram can't handle the load. Definitely get 16 gigs.

[@MarkPayneAudio]

Hi Push. This is not my experience but your sessions may be of higher load than mine. Could you give us some idea of what your session "looks like" in terms of channel count, plugin load and sample rate?

[@PushKahlon]

@@MarkPayneAudio 24 bit, 48khz. About 16-20 tracks, plus 8-10 aux. Plus a mastering chain. Plugins range from waves, plug in alliance, AOM, and sound toys. These sessions run smoothly on a 2014 MacBook Pro quad core, with 16 gigs of ram, and a 2016 MacBook Pro with similar specs. I am running native, however, so that could be it, but pro tools showed the ram being 100% in use. Logic Pro doesn't have a meter for ram, just cpu and drive. Cpu wasn't being stressed much at all, so I'm assuming its the ram.

[@MarkPayneAudio]

@@PushKahlon Interesting. What is the size of Logic in memory when it is running this and what does your memory pressure look like (both from Activity Monitor)?

[@MarkPayneAudio]

Also Push... can you confirm that you are running Logic under Rosetta? I find the reliability is bullet-proof this way, whereas making native Logic (Apple coded) bridge to intel coded plugins is not the way to go.

[@PushKahlon]

@@MarkPayneAudio I returned the Mac mini already. I’m ordering a 16 gig one, just to be safe. But, I’m not sure if it was running under Rosetta.

[@anthonyhuerta3432]

Great explanation!

[@MarkPayneAudio]

Glad it was helpful!