A few quick thoughts about an M1 iMac + what's coming next for my Patrons!
Added 2021-09-27 18:22:42 +0000 UTCSo I spent ALL last weekend setting up my new iMac, which sports the new M1 CPU. Man, 48+ hours to set *everything* up from zeroā¦plugins, installations, passwords, all other softwareā¦felt like working thru the weekend.
I got the machine in hopes of getting more juice for exports especially.
I posted about it on socials and Iām not sure Iāve ever got as many msgs about one thing in 24h, phew.
Now hereās
1) a quick low-down and
and
2) āwhatās to come on uncle Fanuās patreon?ā at the bottom.
So my old machine: late 2015 27ā iMac / i7 / 32 GB ram.
New machine: the latest 24ā iMac with the new M1 CPU.
In a nutshell, in the DAW world, thereās not a TON of difference in time in *exporting* (do read on though, as there are good things).
Much, much less than Iād expected.
Itās literally just a few seconds, so thatās much less impressive than I anticipated.
I did a list of times thatād let you look and compare, but in all honesty, itās not worth reading, as the differences are so small, often 2-3 seconds, so no wow factor there: it'd make for boring reading.
BUT! Itās probably because a lot of the plugins I use as well as Ableton Live run thru Rosetta, so theyāre not *optimized* for the new M1 CPU so theyāre bottlenecking the performance, if Iām correct.
The good thing? Well, I was feeling a bit down after export times, but stress test in Ableton Live reveals the power.
On my old iMac, I had a project where I inserted Izotope Ozone (kind of heavy) AND started adding whatās literally the heaviest plugin I know and own: Ozone Master Rebalance till the CPU just crapped out. Trust me, itās heavy stuff. Often one Rebalance on the master in a project where you have other stuff too can make the i7 cough.
So on the i7, I had the Ozone and FIVE Rebalance plugins when CPU hit around 100% and things got useless.
So the comparison on the M1 one: I could add FIVE more Rebalance plugs before things went to shit.
āOnly five plugins more?ā you say?
Those plugins are HEAVY. Often one can make it a CPU-crap-out fest.
So thatās good.
A video file that took my i7 some 46 seconds to export took the M1 only 31 seconds. This was a 5-minute video file thru Screenflow with no gimmicks or special processing. If you think how (klnd of big) the difference is for a 5-minute file, itād be definitely notable for a video thatās 30-60 minutes long!
NOTE: the software I used on the M1 model IS optimized for M1. Technically the software was the same, Screenflow, on both comps, but on the old machine, it was v9, and the new one, v10, an M1-only/optimized one.
Iām happy to see the video exports benefits.
So it seems that optimized software does play a big role here.
Then, a heavy Ableton project of mine is Black Label that came out on Headz. I know I promised a video of it but goddang the project is so heavy, it was a cracklefest almost without video capture, and it made my Screenflow crash once and I lost the video projectā¦and TBH it was crazy CPU cough fest when doing video capture. So I nearly thought, I can't do it.
But now, I can run the project AND do video capture on it, and the CPU ain't going crazy...was hitting 40% on a test today, yay!
So in a nuthsell, in audio export world it's not looking super killer so far, but inside a DAW, hellll yeah.
Some quick disappointments in the plugin world: seems my fave acid plugin, D16 Phoscyon isn't working, and there's no update coming, afaik, other than a paid new version, which is fine per se of course.
I should test Bitwig, too, as it's optimized!
So, relating to this ā āwhatās to come next on uncle Fanuās patreon?ā
The video walkthrough of Black Label, of course! I've been requested song walkthrus/masterclasses a lot, so you'll get one soon.
Patreon exclusive, no public free viewing!
And thereāll be audio goodies/samples and extrasā¦you know I appreciate you guys!
Iāll try to get to that soonā¦Iām amped to talk about it, and Iāll also talk about what IMHO makes a Metalheadz song.
Well, thatās it for nowā¦stay tuned! <3
-Janne
Comments
Ya I also have some things around native apps that I need to research because what I had heard is that if you are using a native DAW, all plugins need to be native versions to work but Iām not sure. If thatās the case, itās going to be a long time before arm versions of daws will be useful. I might be wrong though since logic is arm
AltBraKz
2021-11-16 18:36:46 +0000 UTCYeah man! I've had surprisingly few issues, TBH. I've heard M1-native Izotope stuff is on the wayā¦
Janne Hatula
2021-11-16 18:29:11 +0000 UTCI have had an M1 since launch, took the risk and ditched my previous intel mac and havenāt looked back. I havenāt had any issues with third party plugins. I have the full izotope suite and while I donāt really use ozone, Iāve used the neutron plugins and nectar 3 under Rosetta with no issues. Ableton and renoise both run so well under Rosetta that I havenāt even downloaded the ableton arm beta yet. Really happy with the performance
AltBraKz
2021-11-16 18:23:17 +0000 UTCThey do mention Rosetta: https://support.izotope.com/hc/en-us/articles/4407854293523-Opening-your-Recording-Software-using-Rosetta-2
Janne Hatula
2021-10-18 08:12:27 +0000 UTCI was looking at this list, neither Rosetta or native is mention for Ozone. Probably they just didn't update the table: https://support.izotope.com/hc/en-us/articles/4407777831699-macOS-11-Big-Sur-and-Apple-Silicon-Compatibility Anyway, I can't wait to have an M1. :)
hologroove
2021-10-18 08:09:11 +0000 UTCI think they're being honest in saying that; they prob mean that they're not *optimized* to use the power that M1 can offer..i.e., they don't work natively / without Rosetta conversion. Once that version comes out, I expect that to be faster.
Janne Hatula
2021-10-18 07:45:54 +0000 UTCthat's cool. Their website is missleading then, they claim that Ozone supports only Intel, not even Rosetta support yet. I plan to go M1 only in ~2 months but it's good to know that Ozone works already :)
hologroove
2021-10-18 07:31:20 +0000 UTCActually, they do, but you may have to run them or your DAW in Rosetta mode (mixing and mastering a song here as we speak, with the latest Ableton Live beta, and I can see Ozone AU, VST, and VST3).
Janne Hatula
2021-10-18 06:30:11 +0000 UTCI just realised that most Izotope plugins donāt yet work on M1. Would that mean that you are working without Ozone nowadays? Iām confused :)
hologroove
2021-10-18 06:28:39 +0000 UTCI actually have some disappointing and confusing test results. Will write longer a bit later when I have time. Test machines: ā¢ Late 2015 iMac with i7 CPU ā¢ 2021 M1 iMac So: ā¢ General-processing-wise, I can see an improvement: using a heavy plugin, Ozone Rebalance, my M1 iMac can take twice the amount of those plugins before crapping out. So yes, I get the feeling that M1 has the power, as expected. No surprises! ā¢ Purely Ableton-Live-wise, the performance between these two machines shows that the new machine does worse! I've done a few Ableton test projects that only use Ableton devices, and the old machine can run considerably more stuff before crapping out than the M1. I'm bummed! I've run benchmarks, and the M1 of course gets a much better score. If it didn't, I'd return the machine. Also, video export tests tell a clear story: M1 machine takes way less time on exports. Something is not right ā with Live and M1? Will write more later when I get a moment and also report this on Centercode. But in a nutshell, if you have two machines, do this: Create a Live project with the old machine that has, for example, an instance of a Live synth. Leave all 3rd party processing out. Keep duplicating stupid amounts of that track till CPU starts to hit 100%. Save the project and load it with your new M1 machine and see how it performs. With several projects, my M1 sucks at this ā irrespective of whether I use stable Live 11 or the latest alpha ā and can handle less tracks than my 2016 iMac. When I load the project where my old iMac hit 100%, the M1 hits around 130-140%. FWIW, I just did a similar test with Bitwig: no problem, and M1 shows its power! With Bitwig, where the old iMac craps out, the M1 hits around 65% or so. So, this issue seems Live-specific and we gotta address this.
Janne Hatula
2021-10-01 06:08:50 +0000 UTCFound out thru testing today that Ableton-native plugins offer a worse performance on M1 than pre-M1 Macs. So if you're looking to update, it's not worth it ā yet ā purely Ableton-performance-wise. Reported this officially. (my 2015 iMac beat my M1 in Ableton-native tests)
Janne Hatula
2021-09-29 17:05:00 +0000 UTC
