M1 iMac Music Production

[crazyjorgito]

Hello everyone!

Im planning on buying the new 24" iMac with 16GB RAM and the 8 GPU cores, mainly its use is going to be music production. My 2016 Macbook Pro fan noise is horrible when recording or mixing, its never quiet and these computers seem to be super quiet when all the software is adapted to the M1 chip.

I will mainly be using Luna (Universal Audio) as a DAW and maybe Pro Tools.

Anyone there has already tested these iMacs when mixing or recording? Hows the fan noise?

Thanks!

 

[TheTrueZoltan!]

I have pre-ordered a 24" M1 iMac which I will mainly use for mixing and recording music, so am very curious about this, too.

I expect the machine to be really quiet and I don't think I will have a lot of incompatibility issues, because I use Logic as my DAW and the drivers for my Presonus Quantum 2 Thunderbolt audio interface are already M1 compatible.

The only thing that concerns me are the reports about low USB and Thunderbolt data transfer rates. I have ordered the 2 TB SSD version so I don't need external storage, but will the USB/TB issues affect the overall stability, performance and round-trip latency of the audio interface?

 

[Fishrrman]

BEFORE you buy an m-series iMac (or any other m-series Mac) for music production, BE SURE that the hardware and software you'll be using are going to work with it.

This has always been a major point of contention for those who produce music -- new hardware/new software can be incompatible with OLDER hardware and software.

The incompatibilities usually get resolved over time, but it DOES "take time".

Another good forum for audio production folks is gearspace.com (formerly known as gearslutz.com). That would be a good place to check such issues.

 

[4sallypat]

I just received my M1 iMac and ordered the Pro Apps Bundle (EUD) that includes Pro Logic and Final Cut Pro.
There is no fan noise that I can hear - it's super quiet and runs ice cold.
Will be testing it soon....

 

[thingstoponder]

I have pre-ordered a 24" M1 iMac which I will mainly use for mixing and recording music, so am very curious about this, too.

I expect the machine to be really quiet and I don't think I will have a lot of incompatibility issues, because I use Logic as my DAW and the drivers for my Presonus Quantum 2 Thunderbolt audio interface are already M1 compatible.

The only thing that concerns me are the reports about low USB and Thunderbolt data transfer rates. I have ordered the 2 TB SSD version so I don't need external storage, but will the USB/TB issues affect the overall stability, performance and round-trip latency of the audio interface?

What exactly is the issue being reported? Low bandwidth or high latency? Bandwidth does not really matter for audio interfaces. Many are still USB 2.0. But if there is a latency issue compared to previous Macs then that could be a problem. If people are reporting slower bulk transfer speeds (like SSDs) but the latency is the same then that shouldn’t matter for audio.

 

[crazyjorgito]

What exactly is the issue being reported? Low bandwidth or high latency? Bandwidth does not really matter for audio interfaces. Many are still USB 2.0. But if there is a latency issue compared to previous Macs then that could be a problem. If people are reporting slower bulk transfer speeds (like SSDs) but the latency is the same then that shouldn’t matter for audio.

Thats a good point. Hope that we can get the feedback from some users in this post!

 

[uller6]

I have pre-ordered a 24" M1 iMac which I will mainly use for mixing and recording music, so am very curious about this, too.

I expect the machine to be really quiet and I don't think I will have a lot of incompatibility issues, because I use Logic as my DAW and the drivers for my Presonus Quantum 2 Thunderbolt audio interface are already M1 compatible.

The only thing that concerns me are the reports about low USB and Thunderbolt data transfer rates. I have ordered the 2 TB SSD version so I don't need external storage, but will the USB/TB issues affect the overall stability, performance and round-trip latency of the audio interface?

How is the Presonus Quantum 2? I've been curious about those, but I had an old persons FW400 interface that had hiss problems and a very low noise floor, so I switched to a Focusrite Pro 40 (which I'm still running now). But that's also a FW400 interface, so I'm looking to upgrade to a thunderbolt at some point.

I use Logic for tracking with my Focusrite Pro 40 on my M1 air (FW400 > FW800 > TB2 > TB3). It works great with 3.8 ms latency at 32 sample buffer. It's fast, smooth, and less jittery than the old 27" iMac I was using as a tracking station. It's a heck of a lot quieter too!

 

[crazyjorgito]

Any news?

 

[esphil]

If the m1 runs circles around most previous macs it should have no problem with music production.

 

[mcdreamer]

I've used both Ableton Live 11 and Logic with good results over the last few months on my M1 MacBook Pro. Most plugins I've tried seem to work, thought I don't have a huge selection (mostly Native and Arturia). The biggest exception I've seen so far is NI is Massive X which definitely won't work (though I don't own it). Focusrite have just released drivers for their Thunderbolt Claretts which also seem work well for me.

Most of my Live sets are usually between 10 and 20 tracks, most loaded up with multiple devices. So far the CPU seems to cope very well and there's no fan noise. I tend to use more virtual synths rather than sample based devices so I'm more CPU bound than RAM bound. Normally RAM usage sits around 10GB.

Of course most of this is working via Rosetta 2 and your results my differ to mine depending on what you use.

 

[drxcm]

Bought my 24" 8 core/16gb/1tb for music production - suspect it will be absolutely fine. I wouldn't be worried unless you have hardware that has no driver support.

 

[PeterJP]

Of course most of this is working via Rosetta 2 and your results my differ to mine depending on what you use.

Good news to get this validates for music production. I'm using an M1 mac mini at work (non-music production) and everything I use there runs just fine, Rosetta or not. Currently using a 16" MBP for music, but the screen is too small and it runs hot with an external screen. So I'm considering an M1 imac. I checked and my Motu M4 interface is supported on the M1.

I am waiting for the 27/30" version for the larger screen. Out of habit, I was thinking of getting 32GB RAM. But I just checked and even with my most complex piece of music in Logic at the moment (15 tracks, several recorded from external instruments) Logic is only using 1,5GB... I'm so used to working with VMs and people editing video that I automatically reach for higher RAM 16GB is probably enough for music for several years to come...

 

[crazyjorgito]

Bought my 24" 8 core/16gb/1tb for music production - suspect it will be absolutely fine. I wouldn't be worried unless you have hardware that has no driver support.

Thats exactly the configuration that i want. Hope that you can give us some feedback on how it works and any kind of export test that you can do.

Thanks!

 

[Shirohana]

I have an iMac 8 core 8GB and am pleasantly surprised what a workhorse this Mac is.
Just an indication: I had large files open in Logic, FL Studio and Gadget 2 at the same time and experienced no lag or latency whatsoever.

 

[JLOAKS]

Bought my 24" 8 core/16gb/1tb for music production - suspect it will be absolutely fine. I wouldn't be worried unless you have hardware that has no driver support.

This is the same setup I have and Logic Pro runs great. I particularly like how quickly it loads 3rd party softsynths while browsing the library, makes it a lot easier to run through sounds.

 

[crazyjorgito]

During the last year I've been a user of the DAW LUNA (Universal Audio) I really cant wait for an M1 version of their software. I wondering also how long will waves plugins take in order to update to M1. Is anyone using these plugins under Rosseta?

Thanks!

 

[Kierkegaarden]

I have an iMac 8 core 8GB and am pleasantly surprised what a workhorse this Mac is.
Just an indication: I had large files open in Logic, FL Studio and Gadget 2 at the same time and experienced no lag or latency whatsoever.

Is this the mid-level model?

 

[PeterJP]

Is this the mid-level model?

The difference between the mid-level and the top model is only the amount of storage. If you increase the mid-level's storage to 512GB, you get exactly the price of the top level model. So it will be either of them, really.

I was hoping for new hardware during the keynote yesterday but none appeared. So considering to get a mac mini 16/512 for music now with an external disk to expand storage. Music production being what it is, there will be cables all over (at least 1 USB MIDI, 1 to the audio interface, 1 to the monitor, 1 to the disk). Does anybody have an elegant solution for that with a mac mini?

 

[Kierkegaarden]

The difference between the mid-level and the top model is only the amount of storage. If you increase the mid-level's storage to 512GB, you get exactly the price of the top level model. So it will be either of them, really.

I was hoping for new hardware during the keynote yesterday but none appeared. So considering to get a mac mini 16/512 for music now with an external disk to expand storage. Music production being what it is, there will be cables all over (at least 1 USB MIDI, 1 to the audio interface, 1 to the monitor, 1 to the disk). Does anybody have an elegant solution for that with a mac mini?

Actually I was wondering if this was the mid-level as opposed to the base-level model. Would either work fine for music production?

Why not the iMac over the Mini? You could always trade up when the new MBPs come out or the eventual higher end iMacs.

 

[PeterJP]

Actually I was wondering if this was the mid-level as opposed to the base-level model. Would either work fine for music production?

Why not the iMac over the Mini? You could always trade up when the new MBPs come out or the eventual higher end iMacs.

I think the poster meant the 8 core GPU version, which is the mid/high one.

The imac is a very nice machine. But there are a few advantages to the fact that the mini is not an all-in one in the context of how I use it:

• I can chose the monitor. Looking at the 28" Huawei MateView, which is 3:2 aspect ratio. Very handy to have more vertical space with the Logic Pro mixer below all the tracks.
• That monitor has an USB-C dock. So I double the amount of ports. Which is also handy with some USB MIDI equipment, an audio interface, a cabled keyboard, etc. So I don't need a separate USB hub, which I would need to get for the imac.
• I can get a mechanical keyboard and a serious mouse
• The mac mini can be configured with a 10GbE for a very small surplus

As for price, the mini + monitor + webcam + keyboard/mouse will be about the same as an imac 24". All in all, it's a choice. But seen the fact that the actual computer inside is the same, we can discuss music production on the imac 24" and the same will be valid for the mini

 

[ChrisMc73]

Hey all, digging up this older thread with a search for M1 and Universal Audio. I'm about to purchase a new M1 Mac but haven't yet decided if its the M1 MacMini, M1 iMac or M1 MacBook Pro or waiting now for some newer ones. But still I'm curious if anyone is using like the Universal Audio Apollo X4 and Luna with a M1 Mac of any kind and how its doing compatibility wise?

 

[Tyler Spicer]

I've been using an M1 MBA with an Apollo Twin X Duo. Pretty stable for the most-part with the occasional bug in console or just with the audio drivers loading correctly when turning on the device. It's not as smooth as on intel, but the 0 fan noise is well worth it for me!

Plugins are really hit and miss at the minute. Waves is a nightmare when opening older projects, but if you're using Plugin Alliance or the majority are plugins from the more M1 compatible companies, you should be mostly problem free. If I'm 100% honest, I do sometimes think I should grab a 2018 Intel Mini for my audio work just because it's not always plain sailing, but the joy of using the MBA and its fan-less-ness + form factor have meant I've stuck with it. So far not perfect, but very useable and will only get better! If anything, I've really learnt to get the most out of logic's stock plugins and realised how good, and versatile, some of the logic stuff is: Particularly the compressor and the vintage EQs!