Motu Microlite.
Anyone using this with an M1Pro and Fruityloops?
Any issues?
I’ve been offered one at half price, so thinking about trying it because using usb to usb mid hubs hasn’t worked out so far.
don’t have any experience with it but I did some research on the Express XT and it looks like all motu midi stuff share the same driver/software, so imo it should work without any issues
you can verify with support to be sure though
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I’ve literally never owned a Mac. I sort of need a new computer though as my 2012 (!) PC which was a ridiculous power house at the time is creaking a bit now.
I might have just come into about enough money to buy the base unit M2 Mac Mini, a hub and a bigger SSD drive.
Am I MAD to think this will be enough to run Ableton and do a load of audio work?
I’ve sort of stopped using plugin instruments to some extent, so probably not much stress from there. Mostly recording audio from hardware but I do LOVE a load of effects.
Also, never been in an Apple store… if I got to one, would I likely be able to get Logic up and play with it to reassure myself it’s going to be powerful enough?
I sort of think it might tbh!
no, it’s enough and then some
I would suggest taking a look at this mac mini m1 (which is “less powerful” on paper then m2) by Martin Sturtzer, his workflow seems to be a lot like what you’re describing and he streams and records A LOT, all with the m1 mini… you probably would be able to find some reviews for m2 as well but this one should be as close as possible to your workflow.
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thanks, that’s super useful as also have an Elgato game capture with a view to doing some streaming in the future!
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not familiar with Elgato but make sure they work natively on ARM, otherwise you can use OBS which works perfectly fine
My brother has a base M1 Mac Mini with 16gb RAM and 1TB hard drive and also a dock with another 1tb SSD attached, and it can handle almost anything - an M2 would only better that already very strong performance. Buy with confidence, unless you’re mixing a 120 piece orchestra, with 10 plugins on each channel, and even then it would probably handle it 
I’ve also got a Mac mini, an M2 Pro, and it’s a total beast - see my last post in this thread with an example of loading the CPU and RAM up.
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thanks. Am thinking maybe I want 16GB RAM. Doesn’t make the price TOO insane I guess.
You’d be absolutely fine with any M1 laptop/desktop variant, but I would steer clear of the 8gb RAM models, as that’s just on the line of whether it would be future proofed or not. 16gb is a no brainer option if you can afford it.
Avoid the Intel Mac’s, as they are no where near as snappy as the Apple Silicon Mac’s. They would work just fine, but just really slow compared to the M1/2 series, and there’s not that much difference in used prices anyway.
Hope that helps
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16gb is fine - I’m only using 16gb max in most DAW cases, unless I run Windows on a virtual machine in the background, and then it eats into the other 16gb.
Depending on how much hard drive space you have free on the Mac system drive, if you do reach the 16gb limit, the Mac automatically uses the hard drive as a kind of RAM back up and you’d not really notice the difference in operating speed when it does this little trick for you.
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Sorry, but the “16GB because future-proof” argument bugs me. I’m doing great with an 8GB minimum spec M2 Macbook Air. I’ve used it to track about 20 channels (Syntakt and Digitone on Overbridge, some hardware) with no problem.
There is an easily searchable youtube video of someone hammering Ableton Live Logic Pro on an 8GB M2 Air.
If the device is primarily a music-making appliance, then 8GB should be just fine. Get 16GB if you really see a need, but don’t assume you MUST have it because “future-proof”.
Edit: the video was linked back in October '22 in this thread: Apple goes to ARM - #1857 by holonology
@the_duckchild mentioned that he’s streaming and recording, while 8gb is plenty for ableton only, running it alongside with streaming and recording will be much smoother with 16gb.
as for future proofing, well it’s enough for you right now, but imagine a year or so your DAW or your favorite VST maker ads new features that cause much larger ram usage, what will start happening is that your os will start to swap memory to your hard drive, that will both will make things much slower and will shorten the lifespan of your drive and other components, because swapping takes some cpu resources as well, so eventually you’ll be shortening the life of the device.
these things happen all the time where developers release new version of something that adds new cool features but not optimized, and it can take years for them to polish it, so future proofing by getting higher amounts or ram/cores/storage only means that the machine is ready for such situations and have enough “headroom”, and eventually will live longer then a constantly stressed machine.
btw I’m talking about music software but this happens to any software, browsers, even macos new versions sometimes released unoptimized and it takes them several months to release optimizations.
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I understand what you said and disagree. I think you don’t take into account how much more efficiency-focused coding is now we are post-Moore’s Law, and just how much better Apple Silicon is than Intel/AMD machines. You also don’t take into account the potential utility of having extra money that you didn’t spend on unnecessary RAM upgrades.
Hopefully, we can just agree to disagree.
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sure, we can agree to disagree, everyone should choose their own specs, but just because these machines are not upgradeable I think that people should get the max they can afford if they plan to do other things besides music production.
I look at computers as disposable anymore. Perticularly since they’re gonna be updated more frequently since they’re on their own chip making schedule now. Buy what you need now, worry about what you need later, later.
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Air m1 just two ports, interface plus usb not leaving much for power, unless via some dongle means. Any desire to connect to a screen and this eats into ports as well. Unless something with power delivery - a great option for an Air - ie the Studio Display with extra USB-C. But I’d recommend M2 Air for 2 ports independent of power delivery. 15” M2 Air apparently drops next week
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This is my personal usage experience.
I regularly run between 12-16gb RAM usage when using my M2 Pro Mac Mini (32gb RAM), so if I only had 8gb RAM (hypothetically speaking - I know 8gb isn’t available on the Pro variant), then I would be constantly in the situation whereby MacOS would be using the internal NVME drive for RAM duties and more than likely this would cause a bottleneck in bandwidth., as the NVME is slower than the RAM data throughput speed.
If I’m running Parallels or other CPU/RAM hungry applications in the background, then I easily dip into the 16-32gb RAM territory.
If the budget is really tight, then 8gb RAM is definitely workable for music applications with Mac Silicon machines, but if you have that little bit of extra cash, then 16gb is an absolute no-brainer, and 32gb RAM gives ultimate flexibility and headroom without ever needing to worry about RAM availability/bandwidth issues - unless you are editing 4k/8k video of course, where you may require more.
I’d say 16gb RAM is more of an essential, as opposed to future proofing. 32gb RAM is more future proofing in my eyes.
This is all fair. For full disclosure I also have a much more powerful machine I use for music and other things. If it was my only machine, I would probably have gotten more than 8GB. Getting what you need now is very reasonable.
My beef is just with “future proofing”. It has become accepted wisdom somehow and I think a data point or two where the more affordable option works is important.
Another downside to “future proofing” is that base models tend to sell for closer to their original price than higher optioned models. If you resell your device and save the money you would have spent on the future proofing, you could potentially just buy the superior future device when you need it in the future.
Much as I am trying i’m not sure the PC bargain hunter isn’t too strong in me.
Every time I look at it being TWO HUNDRED POUNDS to buy 8GB of RAM it makes me start surfing reconditioned PCs.
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Fair enough 
I had an old Mac Mini from 2012 and it was still doing fine for general music production even after 10 years. It did have 16gb of RAM though 
At the end of the day, like most things technology based (and materialism in general), it’s a lot of marketing smoke and mirrors, and general consumer addiction to having the latest and best ‘stuff’.
Best to take everything with a pinch of salt, as it helps to create more balance in life.
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