M1 Musicians Sound Off - (Sibelius, Finale, GarageBand, Logic)

[Joey225]

Hi all!

If you got one of the new M1 Macs and use either Sibelius, Finale, GarageBand, or Logic (but especially the first two, notation software) - how is the performance so far? Sibelius and Finale would have to be run through Rosetta, and neither really performs efficiently on my 2016 15” MBP, so I’m interested in knowing how they’re handling a sustained workload on these new Macs.

I’d love to get the air for the savings, but the speakers and battery life on the pro would make a big difference to me!

 

[chassarri]

Haven't done too much with GarageBand yet. I did try a little bit of recording with a USB 4-track capturing vocals and guitar. I had a few effects on guitar tracks
I'm working with the base model M1 MacBook Air, but the little bit of mixing and tweaking on a project this afternoon felt really responsive.

The computer never heated up. Previously on my 2020 Intel MacBook Air, the fans would be buzzing. I don't regret upgrading one bit.

I don't have any experience with notation software, but I'd imagine it would work well?

 

[jabbr]

I can't imagine notation software being too demanding, I think you should be fine as long as they run on Rosetta. There's a good ongoing thread on Gearslutz about running DAWs on the M1... performance is looking really amazing so far.

 

[Joey225]

I pulled that thread up, thank you!

Thanks for the input so far folks. Makes me a feel a little better.

 

[lightfire]

Haven't done too much with GarageBand yet. I did try a little bit of recording with a USB 4-track capturing vocals and guitar. I had a few effects on guitar tracks
I'm working with the base model M1 MacBook Air, but the little bit of mixing and tweaking on a project this afternoon felt really responsive.

The computer never heated up. Previously on my 2020 Intel MacBook Air, the fans would be buzzing. I don't regret upgrading one bit.

I don't have any experience with notation software, but I'd imagine it would work well?

What 4-track? It didnt require drivers? I am worried I will have to buy a new interface. I will be using Logic.

 

[chassarri]

What 4-track? It didnt require drivers? I am worried I will have to buy a new interface. I will be using Logic.

Oh, I just have a little USB-A 4-track mixer. Super basic audio interface. I think your current gear would world fine.

 

[lightfire]

Anyone else tried other interfaces/USB devices?

 

[Judy Coder]

Hi all!

If you got one of the new M1 Macs and use either Sibelius, Finale, GarageBand, or Logic (but especially the first two, notation software) - how is the performance so far? Sibelius and Finale would have to be run through Rosetta, and neither really performs efficiently on my 2016 15” MBP, so I’m interested in knowing how they’re handling a sustained workload on these new Macs.

I’d love to get the air for the savings, but the speakers and battery life on the pro would make a big difference to me!

M1 with Finale/Sibelius/Other: I just ordered the fancy new 2020 MacbookPro with the M1 processor. Now I learn Finale and Notion have NO plans to make their software compatible, and Sibelius has Rosetta glitches. Please share your thoughts.

 

[Bob_DM]

Anyone else tried other interfaces/USB devices?

Edirol FA-101 (TB3 > TB2 > FW800 > 3 LaCie drives > FireWire 400) and Steinberg UR 44 (USB) working fine here!

 

[seniorservice]

M1 with Finale/Sibelius/Other: I just ordered the fancy new 2020 MacbookPro with the M1 processor. Now I learn Finale and Notion have NO plans to make their software compatible, and Sibelius has Rosetta glitches. Please share your thoughts.

Hopefully more positive than that as it doesn't seem to tally with what's written here - https://www.scoringnotes.com/news/music-notation-software-macos-big-sur-and-apple-silicon-m1-macs/

Would be interested to find out how you get on as I'm holding back from upgrading Sib 7 (tempted by Dorico) & 2015 mbp for now.....

 

[gank41]

I use 3 Blue Yeti USB Mics along with 1 Blue SnowBall USB Mic connected to a 4 port USB Hub and my Bose QCII Headphones, and then record in Logic. I've had to create an aggregate device in the Audio/Midi Settings and then have that "input" and output set as the default when opening Logic and then to a pre-set template that "just works" when it's opened so it's ready to go. The Blue Yeti's have a 2 channel setting so in all there's 7 tracks ready to go. Doesn't work well for tracking over it due to the latency. I've yet to test out my Edirol FA-101, but would end up using that with an old Yamaha MD8 as a mixer.

 

[EDF]

Been using Pro Tools with an Apollo Twin and Waves 11. No issues so far. Everything runs smooth.

 

[vocalnick]

With regard to interfaces, my understanding is if your audio/MIDI device is class-compliant, then it'll work fine. iOS compatibility is a good indicator here.

If you need specific drivers - as with my trusty old MOTU 896MKIII Hybrid, then you're at the mercy of your interface manufacturer to update the driver. I'm holding onto some hope... but who knows.

In the meantime I have a Native Instruments Komplete Audio 6 which is doing a great job, and the MOTU is attached to my Mac Pro if/when I need it...

 

[flyingfoxshots]

I use 3 Blue Yeti USB Mics along with 1 Blue SnowBall USB Mic connected to a 4 port USB Hub and my Bose QCII Headphones, and then record in Logic. I've had to create an aggregate device in the Audio/Midi Settings and then have that "input" and output set as the default when opening Logic and then to a pre-set template that "just works" when it's opened so it's ready to go. The Blue Yeti's have a 2 channel setting so in all there's 7 tracks ready to go. Doesn't work well for tracking over it due to the latency. I've yet to test out my Edirol FA-101, but would end up using that with an old Yamaha MD8 as a mixer.

In studio, we use U-Phoria UMC404HD audio interface and it works fine with M1 and 4 mics. Our first remote interview with the M1 Was was last night using GarageBand and aggregate device for 4 mics. I could not get all 4 mics to appear as inputs via the 4 port USB hub. This set up worked perfectly with the old Intel MacBook. Now, strangely, I could get 3 mics to show as inputs with 4 mics plugged in -or- 2 mics to shows inputs with 3 mics plugged in -or- 1 mic to show up with 2 mics plugged in. So, essentially one less that the total amount plugged in (hope this makes sense). In any case, your set-up sounds like what I need for remote recording. Maybe it's my hub. Can you share the make/model of the hub you are using? Much thanks!

 

[gank41]

In studio, we use U-Phoria UMC404HD audio interface and it works fine with M1 and 4 mics. Our first remote interview with the M1 Was was last night using GarageBand and aggregate device for 4 mics. I could not get all 4 mics to appear as inputs via the 4 port USB hub. This set up worked perfectly with the old Intel MacBook. Now, strangely, I could get 3 mics to show as inputs with 4 mics plugged in -or- 2 mics to shows inputs with 3 mics plugged in -or- 1 mic to show up with 2 mics plugged in. So, essentially one less that the total amount plugged in (hope this makes sense). In any case, your set-up sounds like what I need for remote recording. Maybe it's my hub. Can you share the make/model of the hub you are using? Much thanks!

Sure thing, I've got a Totu USB Type-C Hub Pro that I got on Amazon. In my case I just need to make sure that I connect the M1's power brick to the USB-C Power Delivery port for power. Actually, since I wrote that post I've stopped using the SnowBall mic and one of the Blue Yeti's. The SnowBall mic just fell off a table and the USB port got pushed in and busted. Kind of a bummer, but I got it free from Blue after asking about a repair (I should hit them up again. Their support has always been great). One of the Blue Yeti mics started getting a lot of clicking & clipping no matter what gain we had it set thru the Blue Mac app, or via the knobs. Again, though, that mic was also totally free from Blue, too. But I've tested on its own later and it worked totally fine. Tried it again with the other two working mics and still a no go. If I had another adapter I'd try it in the other port. I think you might be dealing with what I am, possibly. It might be a power issue for the mics.

So, currently, we're using two Blue Yetis with this same hub, and everything works totally fine. I can run a cable to his living room TV so we can all see what's going on better. It really works great! If these mics didn't sound so darned good, we'd be switching to a newer type of interface. Cheers

USB C Hub, Type C Hub, TOTU 11-in-1 Adapter with Ethernet, 4K USB C to HDMI, VGA, 2 USB3.0 2 USB2.0, Micro SD/TF Card Reader, Mic/Audio, USB-C Pd 3.0, Compatible for Mac Pro and Other Type C Laptops

USB C Hub, Type C Hub, TOTU 11-in-1 Adapter with Ethernet, 4K USB C to HDMI, VGA, 2 USB3.0 2 USB2.0, Micro SD/TF Card Reader, Mic/Audio, USB-C Pd 3.0, Compatible for Mac Pro and Other Type C Laptops

www.amazon.com

 

[HowlingM]

In studio, we use U-Phoria UMC404HD audio interface and it works fine with M1 and 4 mics. Our first remote interview with the M1 Was was last night using GarageBand and aggregate device for 4 mics. I could not get all 4 mics to appear as inputs via the 4 port USB hub. This set up worked perfectly with the old Intel MacBook. Now, strangely, I could get 3 mics to show as inputs with 4 mics plugged in -or- 2 mics to shows inputs with 3 mics plugged in -or- 1 mic to show up with 2 mics plugged in. So, essentially one less that the total amount plugged in (hope this makes sense). In any case, your set-up sounds like what I need for remote recording. Maybe it's my hub. Can you share the make/model of the hub you are using? Much thanks!

 

[HowlingM]

Anyone else tried other interfaces/USB devices?

I have a Zoom Livetrak-8. Flat out doesn’t work on my machine now.

 

[tomerTA]

GUY,
I HAVE A M1 MAC (BOUGHT LAST MONTH), BIG SUR v. 11.2.3 AND I TRIED RUNNING SIBELIOUS 7 AND GET AN ERROR MSG " YOU DO NOT HAVE A PERMISSION TO OPEN THE APP"
AS I READ THROUGH, I FOUND OUT NEEDING TO ISTALL ROSETTA 2 THROUGH TERMINAL "softwareupdate --instal-rosetta" then i get another error msg "installing rosetta 2 on this system is not supported"

any ideas please?

 

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

Pardon?

 

[tomerTA]

Pardon?

i just figured out i cannot install rosetta 2 in big sur v 11.3, so sad

 

[gank41]

i just figured out i cannot install rosetta 2 in big sur v 11.3, so sad

You should definitely file Feedback with Apple for that because you should be able to install Rosetta 2.

 

[tomerTA]

You should definitely file Feedback with Apple for that because you should be able to install Rosetta 2.

as i mentioned in the previous comment i typed within terminal: softwareupdate --instal-rosetta
and get the error msg installing rosetta 2 on this system is not supported, is there another way to install it?

i also read that apple removed it at bigsur v11.3, did something changed ?

 

[gank41]

as i mentioned in the previous comment i typed within terminal: softwareupdate --instal-rosetta
and get the error msg installing rosetta 2 on this system is not supported, is there another way to install it?

i also read that apple removed it at bigsur v11.3, did something changed ?

No, they didn't remove it. They DID add the verbiage for if it was not supported. But at no point has anyone reported Rosetta 2 actually not being supported in their region. Do you mind if I ask where you're at?

 

[tomerTA]

in israel
so y do i get this msg "installing rosetta 2 on this system is not supported"
any clue ?

 

[gank41]

in israel
so y do i get this msg "installing rosetta 2 on this system is not supported"
any clue ?

Honestly, no ☹️ Again, I’ve only read that people found the message embedded in code but not that it’s actually been enforced anywhere. I’m not sure.