Latency on Reason 12 w/ MacBook M1

[LJP]

Hey All, looking for some help with big time latency in Reason 12 on my new MacBook Pro 2021 with MacOS 12 and M1 chip. I basically upgraded every key component in my studio including my audio interface to Apollo X6 running thunderbolt 3. Patiently waited 8 months for all my SW and HW to be compatible with the new Mac. Was recording vocals into Reason today and every clip had to be adjusted by almost 80ms to get it aligned to when I recorded it. Dropped buffer size down to 256 and even tried to use latency compensation setting in Reason preferences. I'm scratching my head here and in disbelief this is happening with most modern home studio gear. I only have about 8 audio tracks in this song and not many plugins at all. Anyone have any advice before I bail on Reason and switch to Logic Pro or something else?

[Last Alternative]

Well that’s good to know! My MacBook Pro is on order. After everything I’ve seen and heard I’m switching to Logic and hopefully Reason will be good enough to work right down the road.. I hope you get some answers.

[LJP]

Yeah, it's frustrating to say the least. I recall having some issues like this on my old MacBook which seemed to get worse when I upgraded to Reason 11 and started using more resource intensive plug-ins. Part of the reason I upgraded my MacBook and my audio interface was thinking that with so much memory, CPU power and thunderbolt 3, I would never have to deal with any latency again. Wrong!! While I have not gotten any other responses on this thread, as I began reading some of the other posts I realize there are real concerns here with Reason 12. Several serious songwriters I know and the techs at the reputable gear vendors have told me I need to get off Reason because it's not a mainstream player any more, but I've used it so long and know every piece in an out. My workflow producing music will take a big hit if I have to go through the learning curve of a new DAW. In fairness, my next step will be to use Logic and/or one of the other DAWs I have licenses for and do a serious comparison test when I do my next song. Other than the DAW I will keep all the other variables the same. Depending on what I find, I'll post here again in hopes of helping others.

[stillifegaijin]

Unfortunately resource intensive plugins, as you mention, are going to cause latency. They has very little to do with Reason.

Also, some latency at 256 is pretty normal. If I’m recording guitar or vocals and want no latency I turn off any super intensive plugins and drop my buffer to 128.

That isn’t just Reason. Same with Logic and Pro Tools. Logic should be better on M1 but depending on third party plugins you might still have issues.

[joeyluck]

I barely recognize latency with the buffer at 1024.

Something else to keep in mind is if your plugins report latency or not, such as Reason Studio's own Polar unfortunately.

[turn2on]

I already write about this year ago. M1 and Thunderbolt drivers of audio interface. You can find this topic.
I have Presonus Quantum 2626.
On intel-mac it have about 1.4 ms latency with Reason.
On M1 mbp, it have about 5 ms.

Thunderbolt driver, is native M1 driver. Reason is under Rosetta. Need to wait R12 with M1 support (without Rosetta)

[jam-s]

I barely recognize latency with the buffer at 1028.

That's an odd number. Usually you want to have the buffer size as an exponential of 2 to have aligned memory reads, so a 1024 samples buffer should usually work a little better.

[joeyluck]

I barely recognize latency with the buffer at 1028.

That's an odd number. Usually you want to have the buffer size as an exponential of 2 to have aligned memory reads, so a 1024 samples buffer should usually work a little better.

Typo

[miyaru]

I read about buffer sizes of 256 and 128 samples. In the start of my projects/songs where I record the most of my audio, I use 64 samples as buffersize.

It is not that I have a huge CPU machine with loads of RAM and a superclass audiointerface.

Win10 running on an Intel i-7700 quadcore, 16 GB Ram and a Focousrite Scarlet 18i20 3rd gen USB interface.

When I proceed in the proces, I sometimes enlarge the buffersize to 128 samples, and with extreme thing at the end of the proces to 256 samples.

[orthodox]

I don't record at all, so I'm happy with the default setting of 4096 samples on generic DX audio driver on Windows.

[miyaru]

I don't record at all, so I'm happy with the default setting of 4096 samples on generic DX audio driver on Windows.

How do you make music, drawing all notes and beats in?

[orthodox]

I don't record at all, so I'm happy with the default setting of 4096 samples on generic DX audio driver on Windows.

How do you make music, drawing all notes and beats in?

Yes, I am a midi writer. I can play keyboard on occasion and then fix it on the timeline.

[miyaru]

How do you make music, drawing all notes and beats in?

Yes, I am a midi writer. I can play keyboard on occasion and then fix it on the timeline.

Keyboards and drums are mostly drawn in too by me, but I do record bassguitar and guitar. If it it’s a vocal song, I record vocals too of course.

[bossa]

Yeah, it's frustrating to say the least. I recall having some issues like this on my old MacBook which seemed to get worse when I upgraded to Reason 11 and started using more resource intensive plug-ins. Part of the reason I upgraded my MacBook and my audio interface was thinking that with so much memory, CPU power and thunderbolt 3, I would never have to deal with any latency again. Wrong!! While I have not gotten any other responses on this thread, as I began reading some of the other posts I realize there are real concerns here with Reason 12. Several serious songwriters I know and the techs at the reputable gear vendors have told me I need to get off Reason because it's not a mainstream player any more, but I've used it so long and know every piece in an out. My workflow producing music will take a big hit if I have to go through the learning curve of a new DAW. In fairness, my next step will be to use Logic and/or one of the other DAWs I have licenses for and do a serious comparison test when I do my next song. Other than the DAW I will keep all the other variables the same. Depending on what I find, I'll post here again in hopes of helping others.

I also had a lot of problems with Reason 11 and my old Mac (Retina 2014). I'm still waiting for over a year for the long promised support for the M1 processor! Dear Reason people: You are scaring people away because it is not fast enough!
What would interest me: What about running Reason Rack in a DAW as a VST that supports M1 processor?