News Apple M1 5nm chip launched for macbook air and pro 13 inch
- Thread starter princeoo7
- Start date
superczar
Juggernaut
I guess we tend to get rather passionate about tech
A laptop is just a tool - and no tool is the right choice for every job.
This is a $1000 machine and needs to be viewed as a mid range tool and its pointless comparing/ viewing it as a high end machine.
The way I see it, the M1 is the most VFM option for most people but (obviously) not all...
Sure, there are people who would be better served with a Ryzen megaripper with a GTX 10040221 GPU or the likes
And people who would be better served with an Atom too..
A person who is into Pro audio - and has a lot of vintage but otherwise excellent equipment may not be well served with one - trying to attribute blame as to why not on any of the involved parties is a pointless exercise
And as for people with lesser mortal kind of requirements (browsing 100 tabs? email? Word docs?) , I am one of those but the improvements that this system brings to the table easily make it one of the best machines I have ever brought
A laptop is just a tool - and no tool is the right choice for every job.
This is a $1000 machine and needs to be viewed as a mid range tool and its pointless comparing/ viewing it as a high end machine.
The way I see it, the M1 is the most VFM option for most people but (obviously) not all...
Sure, there are people who would be better served with a Ryzen megaripper with a GTX 10040221 GPU or the likes
And people who would be better served with an Atom too..
A person who is into Pro audio - and has a lot of vintage but otherwise excellent equipment may not be well served with one - trying to attribute blame as to why not on any of the involved parties is a pointless exercise
And as for people with lesser mortal kind of requirements (browsing 100 tabs? email? Word docs?) , I am one of those but the improvements that this system brings to the table easily make it one of the best machines I have ever brought
Last edited:
Yes, these are the things I know nothing about..and really wanted to know.
I will be needing a laptop by end of this year and really wanted to buy a M1 machine. My usage scenario is mixed ( email, browsing etc. plus some audio works)
The online videos made me think Logic does run great in these machines, but in reality it was a complete disaster ( even if I work completely within the box..only possible with a stellar DAW like Logic, where the native plugins actually are top notch)
But after using an Air for few days and watching the youtube videos again, it became obvious that most of these people don't actually know the absolute basics. They are just using some templates from sample packs and adding random things here and there. This kind of marketing usually backfires.
Someone here posted a link of a youtube video where a completely clueless guy is exporting a project in Live 11 with a blank master out ( half of the tracks are not even bounced to audio!!) He's exporting straight from midi!!
Watched that video in half speed, his kick drums are in stereo, even the bass track is stereo ( not even has the mono utility in those tracks) Who can mix drums with a stereo kick!!
I will be needing a laptop by end of this year and really wanted to buy a M1 machine. My usage scenario is mixed ( email, browsing etc. plus some audio works)
The online videos made me think Logic does run great in these machines, but in reality it was a complete disaster ( even if I work completely within the box..only possible with a stellar DAW like Logic, where the native plugins actually are top notch)
But after using an Air for few days and watching the youtube videos again, it became obvious that most of these people don't actually know the absolute basics. They are just using some templates from sample packs and adding random things here and there. This kind of marketing usually backfires.
Someone here posted a link of a youtube video where a completely clueless guy is exporting a project in Live 11 with a blank master out ( half of the tracks are not even bounced to audio!!) He's exporting straight from midi!!
Watched that video in half speed, his kick drums are in stereo, even the bass track is stereo ( not even has the mono utility in those tracks) Who can mix drums with a stereo kick!!
superczar
Juggernaut
YT Video reviews are part of a broader problem...Not that text based/classical style reviews were beyond reproach...
But the current shift towards YT videos for everything is just ugh..Things get amplified / blown out of proportion (both good and bad)by YT creators all the time just for eyeball grabs
Your requirements are quite specialized - and it would be difficult to get straight answers either on YT or here..
However, I am pretty sure there would be subreddits and audio production forums where you should be able to glean info on real word experiences..
or in case you have access to a M1, then even better.
Either way, if you go that route, be prepared for some unexpected glitches given the combination of a non common use case and a new PC architecture ..
Esp as audio glitches are still par for the course on any platform - I mean even after all this time, the BT audio / headset stack on Windows remains a just about usable mess...
On a side note, For basic headphone/headset (mic) / speakers, OS X continues to remain a far better option than win so hopefully the same will carry over to the specialized use cases too - but more research would surely be a good idea
alekhkhanna
Herald
Not commenting from any audiophile's perspective, but the audio output on the MBA is pretty solid - by laptop speaker standards I mean. It won't replace my dedicated setup or cans, but for a quick run down, they are above average.
raksrules
Northstar
I had never used or heard MBA speakers before and I was blown away by the sound on my MBA. I can see youtube videos with nice sound and take calls on my macbook (via iPhone) and even for zoom meetings, the audio is super sufficient.
very sad to hear. hope you get something that makes you happy. the rest of us idiots are extremely happy with the new macs and the slight quality of life improvements it brought to the table like significantly improved battery life and much improved general performance. it has also helped our wallets by being cheapest 'nice' laptop on the market even though it's indeed very upsetting we don't have any music editing or production to do on our machines. the 69 day battery life is quite awesome tbh.
agree that most youtube reviews/reviewers are shit though.
agree that most youtube reviews/reviewers are shit though.
indeed really good along with the mics
Completely agree about the speakers...even ipad pros have excellent speakers. My posts were not directed @ anyone satisfied with the laptops. I was really upset with some youtube videos ( some of them do understand production and clearly were misguiding their audience..most are new in this)
It's not reddit, but dedicated forums like KVR/ gear slutz still exist for rock / metal/ classical production and not yet invaded by beat makers and loop based producers. Major DAWs have dedicated forums, but the famous cakewalk forum is gone.
Most experienced people there work on desktops ( iMacs mostly) and much older MacBooks while on the road. Many are in their 50s/60s, they are scared of Apple's newer portless laptops.
Please understand we are not tech savvy people and we have learnt our basics in ProTools ( Mac guys) or Samplitude ( PC guys) Ableton was a mystery to me before the covid pandemic, since I was very familiar with the basics of production techniques, it took me less than 2 weeks to complete their Master program. But it doesn't mean I will ever mix in Ableton as the mixer sucks ( it's great for trying several ideas, basic song structure etc. for your own band's music)
We're a scared bunch with lots of vintage outboard gears, far more expensive than a laptop. Apple knows it very well and till 2013-14 things were good. But in last 5-6 years one issue after another is coming up. I've seen few studios installing Windows desktops for their massive arsenal of UAD plugins ( those only work with their interface and reduces CPU load)
MOTU the owner of a very old DAW ( digital performer) was forced to come out with their Windows version few years back ( after a huge campaign signed by all major studios dumping Macs)
The most expensive DAWs Sequoia and Pyramix do not even have any Mac version. I've never used Pyramix, but played around with Sequoia and it's spectacular with really high precision tools for manipulation. Apple is winning big in consumer products, but loosing their Pro base slowly.
We have a photography thread in this forum, why not an audio/ video production thread?
Knowing some basic production techniques also helps in a major way in deciding headphones, speakers etc.
For example each piece of music / song is like a tree, where the kick drum and bass are the thick stem, guitars etc. are the branches, Synth soundscapes are the wide bunch of leaves, cymbal strikes are the flowers in it.
Now if a headphone like 1000XM4 makes the stem way too stocky, the tree will basically become a stocky tree with few leaves and some weirdly placed flowers ( with no leaves around them).
Going with the tree analogy, that's the reason your kick drum and bass are mono, guitars are often mono but two monos for two channels. Synths are always stereo and cymbal strikes are just streo room mic captures in most cases. Now mono in audio engineering is not one sided sound ( one sided audio is called panning), it's always sent to a stereo master channel.
Now let's go beyond computer, if you're curious about sound tracking, mixing, mastering or sampling....please be free and ask anything. Unlike Corona, these things are really easy to comprehend. Some music theory is also welcome, but I'm just a bass player with very limited ( but absolutely clear) knowledge of music theory.
It's not reddit, but dedicated forums like KVR/ gear slutz still exist for rock / metal/ classical production and not yet invaded by beat makers and loop based producers. Major DAWs have dedicated forums, but the famous cakewalk forum is gone.
Most experienced people there work on desktops ( iMacs mostly) and much older MacBooks while on the road. Many are in their 50s/60s, they are scared of Apple's newer portless laptops.
Please understand we are not tech savvy people and we have learnt our basics in ProTools ( Mac guys) or Samplitude ( PC guys) Ableton was a mystery to me before the covid pandemic, since I was very familiar with the basics of production techniques, it took me less than 2 weeks to complete their Master program. But it doesn't mean I will ever mix in Ableton as the mixer sucks ( it's great for trying several ideas, basic song structure etc. for your own band's music)
We're a scared bunch with lots of vintage outboard gears, far more expensive than a laptop. Apple knows it very well and till 2013-14 things were good. But in last 5-6 years one issue after another is coming up. I've seen few studios installing Windows desktops for their massive arsenal of UAD plugins ( those only work with their interface and reduces CPU load)
MOTU the owner of a very old DAW ( digital performer) was forced to come out with their Windows version few years back ( after a huge campaign signed by all major studios dumping Macs)
The most expensive DAWs Sequoia and Pyramix do not even have any Mac version. I've never used Pyramix, but played around with Sequoia and it's spectacular with really high precision tools for manipulation. Apple is winning big in consumer products, but loosing their Pro base slowly.
We have a photography thread in this forum, why not an audio/ video production thread?
Knowing some basic production techniques also helps in a major way in deciding headphones, speakers etc.
For example each piece of music / song is like a tree, where the kick drum and bass are the thick stem, guitars etc. are the branches, Synth soundscapes are the wide bunch of leaves, cymbal strikes are the flowers in it.
Now if a headphone like 1000XM4 makes the stem way too stocky, the tree will basically become a stocky tree with few leaves and some weirdly placed flowers ( with no leaves around them).
Going with the tree analogy, that's the reason your kick drum and bass are mono, guitars are often mono but two monos for two channels. Synths are always stereo and cymbal strikes are just streo room mic captures in most cases. Now mono in audio engineering is not one sided sound ( one sided audio is called panning), it's always sent to a stereo master channel.
Now let's go beyond computer, if you're curious about sound tracking, mixing, mastering or sampling....please be free and ask anything. Unlike Corona, these things are really easy to comprehend. Some music theory is also welcome, but I'm just a bass player with very limited ( but absolutely clear) knowledge of music theory.
Last edited:
I have been little busy with destroying my thumbs trying to finish ori on switch. i must be a masochist.
basically the idea is to use qemu to emulate a arm machine and install ubuntu. but i got off on a tangent because the pre compiled qemu binaries are compiled for arm64 which is a little bit generic. this means qemu will not use all the features of the chipset. think of it as enabling NEON extensions will make graphics smoother on arms chips that have them implemented. so... though all the chip specs are not known for m1 (at least i don’t know) the logical step is to compile qemu with xcode (hopefully it enables all the required options) and there goes a week. I will soon do some experiments and keep you posted.
on the other hand if you don’t want all of this. you should try ACVM which is a simple gui with pre built qemu (it uses generic qemu-aarch64) but you will have to build a os disk image manually or something like yocto project.
if only they unlocked boot loader or just enabled linux to run natively.
I cringed a bit when I saw "-oPrimes.exe" in linux...
anyways, this is a difficult test and doesnt really help much because for example rpi3b+ has Broadcom BCM2837B0 which is a Cortex-A53 (ARMv8) ISA which means it supports NEON extensions which means that to fully utilize the ISA you have to enable -mfpu=neon setting for g++. but... since apple has architecture license from ARM and they can change the architecture as they want... no body knows if M1 supports NEON extensions. since its much newer generation ISA we dont know what to enable in g++ or if they submitted compiler changes for g++ mainstream. and things like that... just like he said, drag race doesnt show if a car is fast enough....
This right here is why I want to switch from my current Core m3 macbook to the M1 Macs. It takes 18 minutes plus for the first build and I expect that to come down to under 2 minutes (not a huge project yet).
I have decided to wait till October though for the M1X Macbooks as they are expected to have several other generation changes. The performance to price ratio of the mac mini is just too tempting to resist.
superczar
Juggernaut
Shameless plug..
In case anyone is looking for the cheapest single wire docking solution, please look up the Apple multiport adapter (A2119 which is the newer model. The old one was restricted to 4K at 30hz like the other cheap USB C docks).
I have been using this for the last 5 months and its been absolutely great.
This single connection lets me use the MBA as a full fledged desktop driving a 4K 60 monitor and handling the data for gigabit ethernet, external USB HDD, mic , kb/mouse etc + charges the laptop.
Eventually decided to get a full fledged thunderbolt 3 dock so this one goes in spare mode.
Will be putting this up on a FS thread later today
In case anyone is looking for the cheapest single wire docking solution, please look up the Apple multiport adapter (A2119 which is the newer model. The old one was restricted to 4K at 30hz like the other cheap USB C docks).
I have been using this for the last 5 months and its been absolutely great.
This single connection lets me use the MBA as a full fledged desktop driving a 4K 60 monitor and handling the data for gigabit ethernet, external USB HDD, mic , kb/mouse etc + charges the laptop.
Eventually decided to get a full fledged thunderbolt 3 dock so this one goes in spare mode.
Will be putting this up on a FS thread later today
FXGalvatron
Forerunner
Okay, a bit off topic or should I wait for the M1X/M2 Air or go with the M1? Jsut need it for the battery life since I type a lot on the road and for the occasional coding and stuff. Besides, if the renders are true for the next Air, I might have to buy it while it's available. Hate the white bezels and color designs.
hellblazer33
Forerunner