I’m currently using Ableton on a Mac Mini M1 (8Gb/256Gb).
I’m reaching the limits of what I can add to my project, because of CPU spikes. Freezing/flattening is not an option as everything happens in real-time.
So I’m thinking of upgrading to a Mac Studio M1 Max. I’ve looked at the various comparisons online etc.
Anyone have any idea how much more I’ll be able to squeeze out of it?
Or any advice about this combo of M1 Max and Ableton etc?
Would be buying 2nd hand from Ebay. It’s already at the limit of my budget so can’t go for a more expensive model. The M1 Pro doesn’t seem like enough of an upgrade.
Studio M1 Ultra here with 64GB. No spikes, no need to freeze. In a project I can have 5-10 heavy plugins playing like let’s say Serum, U-he, plus endless amount of “normal” less CPU demanding plugins, plus some Arturia effects and Fabfilter eq/comp on every track, plus like 4 - 6 returns with some “heavy” reverb / delay chains and never experience any troubles.
Not sure about Max, but I guess it will be much better choice than M1 Mini / Pro. A friend has M1 Max laptop and says almost same things as me - all works, no single cpu overload, the machine is very capable.
Just to mention - some CPU spikes could be connected with some plugins still not updated for ARM architecture, so maybe that’s the reason. Worth checking and maybe optimising the workflow.
Besides music Studio Ultra it’s very cool for video editing, all very smooth and fast. It’s a very nice computer!
Highly recommended and I guess it’s still enough to be covered in next 5 - 6 years.
Is Mac actually a requirement?
I recently upgraded my PC, build new may be actually a better description.
64GB DDR5, I9-13900K, liquid cooling, new case, 1000W power supply and some less important components. It costed around 1600 Euro.
You can have Mac Studio in this price range but if you buy cheaper than you actually need you won’t be able to upgrade it anymore. Which is not that problematic with PC
This setup is powerfull. Don’t need to freeze anything and my projects are usually 100+ tracks, a lot with heavy processing
Have no specific info on core usage, I guess better check some videos on utube, there are some tests.
But it seems like it loads all cores one by one… like first in empty project it uses only 1 core and as soon as you start to add heavy things it’s starts to load other cores. Based on subjective experience, watching the cpu meter, etc…
I believe Ultra is a bit too much for music production. Most ppl say M1 Max is already an overkill for music… Anyway, I think it’s good to have a little more power for the future. Had Mac Pro tower since 2008, it was a bit expensive but it worked fine in the studio for 10 years and still can do things if needed with older os.
About limit on M1 Mini - try change buffer size, 512 samples should make things more easy on CPU
Not an option for me, in my setup, because of how I’m doing it!
I’m not doing production in the traditional sense. I’m using Ableton as a kind of ‘performance mixer’. My project is up to over 300 tracks, every single available MIDI CC is used, all Delay Compensation turned off and all plug-ins set to the most eco friendly settings.
I need the buffer as low as possible to play it all live.
It really is amazing how much you can squeeze out just the base Mac Mini M1. Absolutely insane!
I think I will go for the M1 Max. The added RAM should help a bit, too.
