I really liked the Touch Bar … but its position sucked. I always touched buttons accidently (muting sound etc.) when resting fingers/palms - also it got pretty hot from time to time. Wasn’t always pleasing but a nice addon though… just the wrong place & time. But thank god we’re now back to the formfactor of an MacBook Pro from 2007 
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I also like the touch bar, and that’s one thing I’ll miss whenever my new Mac arrives (Nov 5-10th is still the delivery date). I do understand why they removed it, and as musicians we also like dedicated controls (knob per function, etc.). It’s a similar situation with the touch bar, it can show lots of things, but it’s slower than hitting a dedicated key (or key combination).
For me, the main things on the new MBP that I want are:
- Apple Silicon with more CPU power, I really want to move away from Intel on MacOS. My current template in Bitwig pushes my current MBP further than I like. It handles it, but barely, and I’ve moved back to 256 samples (prefer 128@48Khz).
- More GPU power so I can stream 1080P 60fps for my YT videos
- Better thermals. When I stream with Bitwig, and OBS running current MBP gets very hot and the fans kick up.
- Significantly faster SSD which will be awesome with tools like Omnisphere that stream/load samples. Also just loading apps like Bitwig should be quicker.
- Larger display with the ability to drive external monitors.
My current concern is that I opted for the M1 Max in the 14 inch, and it could run too hot. Apple didn’t send out the 14" with the M1 Max configuration to reviewers, so there are no reviews of it yet. Should be soon though, and worse case is that I cancel my order, and either get the 14" M1 Pro or the 16".
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I actually found that guy embarrassing 
That actually seems like it’s an issue with who Evers software not keeping up to date with latest OS. Much like the 64bit conversion. Devs knew TWO YEARS before Apple was going to drop 32bit and we’re STILL not ready when the change happened.
I’m sure which ever software he’s demoing just didn’t to the werk to get ready for the new machines.
Example: a game my girl is werking on, their team was notified quite a while ago of the new sizes of phones to come, so they can adjust data for the game to fit the new phones. It’s on the devs to stay up to date to conform to latest specs. They are given AMPLE notice.
Ha I was able to read that before you deleted it 
Disappeared right before my very eyes.
No rant. Troof!
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Yup , if devs don’t get devkits then we still typically get a heads up on things to set up systems.
And with ui it’s mostly made dynamically anyway , there’s either something in the os or guidelines for software to match. It’s quite a minor thing compared to dealing with different screen sizes , aspect ratios and localisation ( German and Chinese are typically tricky ) across 100’s of phones/ iOS / android etc
I’ve never seen that influencer and I doubt I’ll ever see him again unless ‘the algorithm’ seems its necessary.
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Mine arrived yesterday. As a longtime Apple user, I’m blown away by its build quality. I can see some people objecting to the weight, but it feels like a professional workstation.
Did Big Sur have the radical new UI, or is this a Monterey thing? I am coming from Catalina. Whatever the case, the new UI feels like a big upgrade too. The new sound effects might take a minute to get used to. Haha.
The display is fantastic, the keyboard feels great, now I just need to find some time to install all my software and get to work.
But yeah, this is the first time in years where a new MacBook Pro has wowed me. Maybe since first unibody.
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Very cool! What configuration did you get?
16" Space Grey
M1 Max
10-core CPU
32-core GPU
32GB unified memory
1TB SSD
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So I got the 14inch m1 max with 64gigs of ram and 2tb of hard disk.
It’s quiet as a lamb.
I did try playing civ 6 on it for a few hours at max settings and that’d cause the fans to turn on and it did get a bit warm, but not too warm where it couldn’t sit on my lap.
Over all im very impressed with it. everything just so damn… snappy.
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For music production, is it worth getting the M1 max over the pro? it is the same amount of CPU, the only changing factor is GPU which is for graphics right? so we wouldn’t even see the difference as far as number of track/instruments/fx. Am I right?
If we’re all being honest, if it’s just for music production it’s not even worth going above the standard M1!
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The point is to get the most maxed out Apple you can afford, because you can’t upgrade it afterwards…
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No M1 max, no M1 pro. The standard M1 is great.
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Yeah and I do agree with that - to an extent. I’m not suggesting the Pro or Max isn’t worth it or are in some way wasted. Many Mac users are quite comfortable having their machine for well over 5 years and in those scenarios, the Max makes sense.
I still have a sort of Windows laptop mentality. I’m just about 3 years into owning my MBP which, other than some mild battery issue, is running great still. At this point I’d usually be screaming for a new machine! I’d love a new MBP but surely I can hold off for at least another year…
I do think the standard M1 will service us music lot incredibly well for years though. The whole M1 range seems fantastic.
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Agreed.
I don’t think M1 Pro & Max are worth it unless you do super heavy tasks, like 3d rendering and huuuge 4k video projects.
Otherwise I’d definitely go with a cheaper Mac, spend half as much money…then upgrade in 5 years, when the cheap Macs are as good as todays top of the line Macs.
(Also your Macbook battery will be half-dead by then anyway, no matter which Macbook it is)
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What about screen real estate? 96% of the time I use only the Macbook screen … so I‘d rather have the XDR screen with 16,2“ … been watching a friend‘s Ableton project lately on his iMac and I was shocked how much difference it makes. Of course this could be solved with an external display.
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I have the 13" M1 and I work only with its screen. I tried a second larger display but I didn’t keep it because the quality/sharpness was not as good. I can’t say 13" is ideal for arrangement sessions in DAW, but somehow I got used to it. Bottom line: if you want an external display, get a real good one, because the mac display quality makes a lot of sub-par screens look really bad.
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and the 13“ isn‘t even very good compared to the XDR in the new M1 Pros (or is it?). Let‘s hope that microLED will be affordable as TV / desktop screen soon (and nooo I‘m not paying for the external XDR from Apple $6000 
)
Even though I’m upgrading my MBP I agree with this. While I don’t use an M1 for music, I use one for work and it has fantastic performance.
That said, the M1 Pro is a big step up for multi core processing power, so no one is crazy for wanting or getting one.
Having extra headroom to explore new things isn’t a bad thing per se.
The M1 Max is likely overkill, but if you want to explore video production, or have other graphic intensive tasks you may check out, it’s worth having IMO (and from what I have seen so far, there is not a severe thermal penalty or battery drain for choosing the Max over the Pro). The biggest obstacle really is cost, and the Apple tax is alive and well!
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