Apple Silicon

Want to talk about music hardware or software that doesn't include Reason?
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O1B
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07 Nov 2020

It Begins..:

November 10, 2020, @ 10AM PST

https://www.apple.com/apple-events/?&ci ... 8537393556_
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https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.busine ... 0-11%3famp
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Heater
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07 Nov 2020

With hopefully amazing battery life.

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O1B
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10 Nov 2020

https://www.apple.com/apple-events/event-stream/

STREAMING EVENT OVER - Silicon Air, Mini, and MPB 13"

What?! - Aint no more to it!"

Heater wrote:
07 Nov 2020
With hopefully amazing battery life.
Last edited by O1B on 10 Nov 2020, edited 1 time in total.

Heater
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10 Nov 2020

Yep. Up to 20 hours of battery life. That’s amazing

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O1B
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10 Nov 2020

So Glad I Return'd that Air. Delivery in 4 Days.
*** 3 weeks for the other Color, FYI. ***

Ordered: 13" MBP 16, 1TB, + Care. ~$2000.
Half the Price of my 2016 15" MBP :shock: :( :puf_unhappy: :puf_unhappy: :redface: :puf_smile: and another old 15"
- But - WAAY more JUICE - seemingly.

I just want it to work. I needed a new Computer.
But, it sure is Purdy.
Image
Heater wrote:
10 Nov 2020
Yep. Up to 20 hours of battery life. That’s amazing

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miscend
Posts: 1955
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12 Nov 2020

Preliminary Geekbench numbers are looking very good, beating previous generations with Intel
https://9to5mac.com/2020/11/11/macbook- ... mark-test/

AnandTech argued that the M1 chip in fact has the potential to be the fastest laptop CPU on the market
https://www.anandtech.com/show/16226/ap ... -deep-dive

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fieldframe
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12 Nov 2020

Performance is going to be amazing once software vendors have made the migration, but I wonder how long that's going to be. It will probably vary quite a bit.

Mainly, it depends on how much x86-specific code is in the code base, as anything more abstracted will be something the compiler mostly takes care of. Reason Studios has had a big emphasis on portability ever since the introduction of Rack Extensions, so I have a good feeling that we'll see Reason on Apple Silicon within the Reason 11 cycle. It might even come with the hiDPI update.

I'm somewhat annoyed that Ableton will probably not update Live 10 for Apple Silicon, given that Live 11 has just been announced. You'll probably have to upgrade to get native support.

The VST world is going to be the worst, though. Arturia will probably be prompt, and even update plugins that are part of older V Collections as long as they haven't been superseded. NI will probably be slower and more inconsistent. But all the smaller vendors will be a crapshoot, as well as secondary products by bigger names. Izotope will probably update Ozone quickly, while Iris 2 will never get updated short of an Iris 3.

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O1B
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16 Nov 2020

:exclamation: 'Got a Carrier notice: 13" MBPs (Silicon⚡) are shipping - from Shanghai, China. :puf_smile:

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Billy+
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16 Nov 2020

Disappointed that the ram is maxed out at 16gb, my Mac mini 2014 has 16gb in it and I was looking forward to getting more, looking more like I'm moving to pc as each day passes, glad I stuck with just reason and didn't buy logic this year.

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miscend
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16 Nov 2020

Billy wrote:
16 Nov 2020
Disappointed that the ram is maxed out at 16gb, my Mac mini 2014 has 16gb in it and I was looking forward to getting more, looking more like I'm moving to pc as each day passes, glad I stuck with just reason and didn't buy logic this year.
The current M1 range are just the cheaper low end configurations. The high end configurations of the MBP are still on Intel machines. What I've read is that when they replace the higher end configurations they will have more RAM options. Also if the Geekbench scores are anything to go by, then the Arm chips are more efficient with memory, as the Geekbench benchmark score also measures memory performance.
Last edited by miscend on 16 Nov 2020, edited 1 time in total.

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bitley
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16 Nov 2020

I just wonder what to do with all these lovely vintage Macs. I have a whole library of them and I max them out. They just keep delivering. It's like sometimes I wish I needed to get a new mac :)

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miscend
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16 Nov 2020

Apple Silicon M1 when emulating x86 with Rosetta 2 is still faster than Intel Macs in single Core Benchmark


https://www.macrumors.com/2020/11/15/m1 ... benchmark/

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Billy+
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17 Nov 2020

miscend wrote:
16 Nov 2020
Apple Silicon M1 when emulating x86 with Rosetta 2 is still faster than Intel Macs in single Core Benchmark


https://www.macrumors.com/2020/11/15/m1 ... benchmark/
Yeah but the benchmark isn't saying what it's doing, I want to know if it's going to be better running Reason with say 2 instances of spire , 2 serum 6 rack extensions and a bunch of izotope mixing / mastering plugin.

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QVprod
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17 Nov 2020

Billy wrote:
16 Nov 2020
Disappointed that the ram is maxed out at 16gb, my Mac mini 2014 has 16gb in it and I was looking forward to getting more, looking more like I'm moving to pc as each day passes, glad I stuck with just reason and didn't buy logic this year.
These are actually very promising. Even with the 16GB limit. Keep in mind your 2014 is a dual core machine. This one is an 8 core.




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O1B
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17 Nov 2020

Great Video!
QVprod wrote:
17 Nov 2020


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O1B
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18 Nov 2020


flexluthor
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18 Nov 2020

Its really annoying that every review is all about video editing. There is no one talking about music production on any of these videos.

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QVprod
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18 Nov 2020

flexluthor wrote:
18 Nov 2020
Its really annoying that every review is all about video editing. There is no one talking about music production on any of these videos.
Only Logic users have guaranteed compatibility so that limits access this early. Plus music YouTube channels are generally smaller than tech channels. That said, video is far heavier than audio so you can assume a computer that’s great for video will also be good for music.

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fieldframe
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18 Nov 2020

QVprod wrote:
18 Nov 2020
That said, video is far heavier than audio so you can assume a computer that’s great for video will also be good for music.
True, with one important caveat: video (with the exception of streaming or broadcast) isn’t nearly as latency-sensitive as audio. Video tends to be edited or composited with RAM previews and then rendered offline, while the plugin-centric music production workflow most of us are familiar with is all real-time.

I have high hopes for Apple Silicon and Rosetta 2, but I’m extremely curious to hear someone’s experience running something like Ableton Live with a handful of plugins (including RRP of course) on one of the new machines.

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QVprod
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18 Nov 2020

fieldframe wrote:
18 Nov 2020
QVprod wrote:
18 Nov 2020
That said, video is far heavier than audio so you can assume a computer that’s great for video will also be good for music.
True, with one important caveat: video (with the exception of streaming or broadcast) isn’t nearly as latency-sensitive as audio. Video tends to be edited or composited with RAM previews and then rendered offline, while the plugin-centric music production workflow most of us are familiar with is all real-time.

I have high hopes for Apple Silicon and Rosetta 2, but I’m extremely curious to hear someone’s experience running something like Ableton Live with a handful of plugins (including RRP of course) on one of the new machines.
I understand there are technical differences in function, but have you come across a computer in recent years that was great for video and not audio? The opposite however is common due to computers using integrated graphics. Both workflows are reliant on single core and multi core performance. I don’t see how that would be different just because of a new processor type. Keep in mind there are several audio/music apps for iOS/iPad OS, many of which act as AUv3 plugins in side of iPad DAWs. Latency isn’t a problem. I’ve performed quite a few gigs with an iPhone and a midi controller.

The only places I’d imagine there being any detriments is in compatibility with a new OS or Rosetta 2. To which there’s generally issues across the board anyway. So far, Reason 11 works just fine (per usual) minus codemeter according to RS’ compatibility statement.

flexluthor
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18 Nov 2020

QVprod wrote:
18 Nov 2020
flexluthor wrote:
18 Nov 2020
Its really annoying that every review is all about video editing. There is no one talking about music production on any of these videos.
Only Logic users have guaranteed compatibility so that limits access this early. Plus music YouTube channels are generally smaller than tech channels. That said, video is far heavier than audio so you can assume a computer that’s great for video will also be good for music.
Video isn't really heavier because these things have the t2 chip built in which helps with video encoding and decoding. There is nothing extra built in to help with audio stuff. That's why I said, it's not an apples to apples comparison when looking at just video numbers.

I'd just like to see someone running real audio software on it right now to see how it performs on Rosetta apps. We havent seen how VSTs or DAWs other than logic perform. Its kinda important, because everyone knows Audio production companies are the absolute last people to update their software to new standards (looking real hard at you Reason Studios.... how many years have high DPI screens been around now...)

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QVprod
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18 Nov 2020

flexluthor wrote:
18 Nov 2020
QVprod wrote:
18 Nov 2020


Only Logic users have guaranteed compatibility so that limits access this early. Plus music YouTube channels are generally smaller than tech channels. That said, video is far heavier than audio so you can assume a computer that’s great for video will also be good for music.
Video isn't really heavier because these things have the t2 chip built in which helps with video encoding and decoding. There is nothing extra built in to help with audio stuff. That's why I said, it's not an apples to apples comparison when looking at just video numbers.

I'd just like to see someone running real audio software on it right now to see how it performs on Rosetta apps. We havent seen how VSTs or DAWs other than logic perform. Its kinda important, because everyone knows Audio production companies are the absolute last people to update their software to new standards (looking real hard at you Reason Studios.... how many years have high DPI screens been around now...)
Actually it’s heavier by sheer file size difference. Video files are considerably larger and encoding generally happens at the export or conversion stage. T2 chip to my knowledge does nothing during the editing portion... color grades, effects, transitions...etc... Audio performance is very much based on processor, and even then the requirements are much lower. That’s why a lot of pro studios still use old macs. I used a 2006 Mac Pro as my main machine (an upgrade from my 2010 MacBook Pro) up until 2018. Ran pretty well as a production machine, not so much for video though. The opposite is rarely (if ever) true.

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QVprod
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18 Nov 2020

Nonetheless here's the first music benchmark video. Only caveat is he compares to a top i9 iMac.


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fieldframe
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18 Nov 2020

QVprod wrote:
18 Nov 2020
Actually it’s heavier by sheer file size difference. Video files are considerably larger and encoding generally happens at the export or conversion stage. T2 chip to my knowledge does nothing during the editing portion... color grades, effects, transitions...etc... Audio performance is very much based on processor, and even then the requirements are much lower. That’s why a lot of pro studios still use old macs. I used a 2006 Mac Pro as my main machine (an upgrade from my 2010 MacBook Pro) up until 2018. Ran pretty well as a production machine, not so much for video though. The opposite is rarely (if ever) true.
Obviously the file size is much greater, meaning a heavier demand on storage throughput, but in most cases, the video is using codecs that are supported by hardware acceleration (including the T2), which is used every bit as much during editing as exporting. Compositing and color grading is another matter, though modern software tends to offload that to the GPU. Audio remains the standout because there is no (outside of UAD plugins) DSP hardware acceleration, so audio continues to be considerably more CPU-dependent than video.

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QVprod
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18 Nov 2020

fieldframe wrote:
18 Nov 2020
QVprod wrote:
18 Nov 2020
Actually it’s heavier by sheer file size difference. Video files are considerably larger and encoding generally happens at the export or conversion stage. T2 chip to my knowledge does nothing during the editing portion... color grades, effects, transitions...etc... Audio performance is very much based on processor, and even then the requirements are much lower. That’s why a lot of pro studios still use old macs. I used a 2006 Mac Pro as my main machine (an upgrade from my 2010 MacBook Pro) up until 2018. Ran pretty well as a production machine, not so much for video though. The opposite is rarely (if ever) true.
Obviously the file size is much greater, meaning a heavier demand on storage throughput, but in most cases, the video is using codecs that are supported by hardware acceleration (including the T2), which is used every bit as much during editing as exporting. Compositing and color grading is another matter, though modern software tends to offload that to the GPU. Audio remains the standout because there is no (outside of UAD plugins) DSP hardware acceleration, so audio continues to be considerably more CPU-dependent than video.
It actually depends on what software you're using. Most though, or at least Premiere and FCP, are primarily CPU dependent for a lot of things. Davinci Resolve is an exception to that rule being mostly GPU reliant. If you look up any computer build for video editing, a high powered CPU is always recommended, often times over a high powered GPU. Considering that there are very few audio companies that offer DSP based solutions for plugins (Pro Tools HD, UAD, and most recently Waves), it could be that these solutions don't exist in mass for music/audio because the average user doesn't really need them. Modern CPUs are enough. But I think we're getting off track here.Point is, CPU is important to video as well.

Again I ask; have you seen a computer sold that's great for video editing, and not also great for audio/music?

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