Fanu/FatGyver
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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 zero…plugins, installations, passwords, all other software…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 I’m not sure I’ve ever got as many msgs about one thing in 24h, phew.
Now here’s
1) a quick low-down and
and
2) “what’s to come on uncle Fanu’s patreon?” at the bottom.
So my old machine: late 2015 27” iMac / i7 / 32 GB ram.
New machine: the latest 24” iMac with the new M1 CPU.
In a nutshell, in the DAW world, there’s not a TON of difference in time in *exporting* (do read on though, as there are good things).
Much, much less than I’d expected.
It’s literally just a few seconds, so that’s much less impressive than I anticipated.
I did a list of times that’d let you look and compare, but in all honesty, it’s 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! It’s probably because a lot of the plugins I use as well as Ableton Live run thru Rosetta, so they’re not *optimized* for the new M1 CPU so they’re bottlenecking the performance, if I’m 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 what’s literally the heaviest plugin I know and own: Ozone Master Rebalance till the CPU just crapped out. Trust me, it’s 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.
“Only five plugins more?” you say?
Those plugins are HEAVY. Often one can make it a CPU-crap-out fest.
So that’s 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, it’d be definitely notable for a video that’s 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.
I’m 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 project…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 – “what’s to come next on uncle Fanu’s patreon?”
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 there’ll be audio goodies/samples and extras…you know I appreciate you guys!
I’ll try to get to that soon…I’m amped to talk about it, and I’ll also talk about what IMHO makes a Metalheadz song.
Well, that’s it for now…stay tuned! <3
-Janne
Comments
AltBraKz
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 I’m not sure. If that’s the case, it’s going to be a long time before arm versions of daws will be useful. I might be wrong though since logic is arm
Janne Hatula
Yeah man! I've had surprisingly few issues, TBH. I've heard M1-native Izotope stuff is on the way…
AltBraKz
I have had an M1 since launch, took the risk and ditched my previous intel mac and haven’t looked back. I haven’t had any issues with third party plugins. I have the full izotope suite and while I don’t really use ozone, I’ve used the neutron plugins and nectar 3 under Rosetta with no issues. Ableton and renoise both run so well under Rosetta that I haven’t even downloaded the ableton arm beta yet. Really happy with the performance
Janne Hatula
They do mention Rosetta: https://support.izotope.com/hc/en-us/articles/4407854293523-Opening-your-Recording-Software-using-Rosetta-2
hologroove
I 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. :)
Janne Hatula
I 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.
hologroove
that'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 :)
Janne Hatula
Actually, 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).
hologroove
I just realised that most Izotope plugins don’t yet work on M1. Would that mean that you are working without Ozone nowadays? I’m confused :)
Janne Hatula
I actually have some disappointing and confusing test results. Will write longer a bit later when I have time. Test machines: • Late 2015 iMac with i7 CPU • 2021 M1 iMac So: • 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! • 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 – 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 – irrespective of whether I use stable Live 11 or the latest alpha – 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
Found 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 – yet – purely Ableton-performance-wise. Reported this officially. (my 2015 iMac beat my M1 in Ableton-native tests)
