I had the m2 mini on its knee, when i used multiple instances of fab filter distortion in serial, oversampling enabled, yes its powerful and snappy, good to work with, but there are weak spots here and there.
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tbf fabfilters are the most heavy plugins I have when set to highest oversampling, but truth is you don’t need that much oversampling, in 99% of the time you’d need x2 or x4 max of your current sample rate, on Saturn 2 the HQ modes are a bit deceptive, Good mode is x8 oversampling and the Superb is x32, so imagine that you’re on 48k and you do x8, it samples to 348k samples on Good mode and ~1.5 million samples, and that’s double encoding because it samples up and then down, lots of cpu usage there.
I suggest watching the FabFilter video on oversampling, I used to put everything on highest modes but I realize I don’t actually need it unless I can clearly hear artifacts, and in worst case even if you do have some artifacts you’ve missed in your final export and someone else noticed it, you can always open your project and re-render with higher mode
(note about the video, it uses the old Saturn which had x4 iirc, the new one has much more oversampling on the lowest setting)
btw, just a note, Reaper has a really cool feature where you can oversample individual plugins chain instead of individual plugins, so for example you can throw 4 instances of Saturn and they all will be oversampled with Reaper and you don’t have to use HQ mode on them… really useful way to save cpu!
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Looked in Activity Monitor, Bitwig 5.0.4., only with Diva, Bitwig plugin host consumes 3% CPU. Plugin sandboxing is “by Manufacturer”.
macOS Monterey 12.6.8
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Interesting. I’m using a Focusrite Scarlett 18i8 and never had any issues on my Mac Book Pro 2014. Can anyone report if there are issues to be expected with it on Max Book Air M2?
My gen1 6i8 did not like my m2 one bit. Glitched out like crazy even at the largest buffer sizes.
Bought an audient id14 for mac. Works great. Still use the 8i6 on my desktop PC, no problem.
Too bad, that would rule the M2 Air out for me. Don’t want to buy a new interface. Did you try to sort out the issue and found out it’s related to something at the heart of M2? A quick google research didn’t give me results that make it clear there’s a fundamental incompatibility between the two. Unlike for example for an external Samsung hard drive that seems to not work with newer Mac OS.
At least Focusrite claim for all of the Scarlett model and generations “ Works with Ventura on Apple Silicon? Yes!”
Well to be fair they state all products back to gen 1 are compatible with apple silicon. I’m not too Mac savvy as I’m a relatively new user but I tried all the obvious stuff but with no joy.
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Have you tried the stuff they’re suggesting on their website what to do if Macs don’t recognize Scarletts? Like deleting some libraries? And first checking whether it’s even recognized as a USB device?
Is there anyone with an M2 who is using a Focusrite Scarlett without issues? So far I’ve only heard from people with problems … But it’s hard to believe that such a popular product would be incompatible with one of the most common hardware for music making.
Edit: thinking about going for an M1 Air instead since Scarlett seems to work with that one. Would 8GB still be enough on that one for basic multi track recording and some minor plugins? Or would I need 16GB on M1 for a use case that’s fine with 8GB on M2?
(more detailed use case described here: New MacBook (Pro?) - #24 by Azzarole)
The new Macs are great. But you have to have a little internal cry after paying for one. Buy one second hand for literally half the price less than a year old online. I was planning to do this but typically I couldn’t find the spec I wanted when I was ready to buy so I bought new for like £3000. Just seen same spec on eBay for £1580
Wow. They usually lose value very slowly, a used Air M1 costs like 70% of its release price where I am.
I was able to select it as an output device in Ableton, but the sound was very choppy. As I’ve had the Scarlett since gen. 1 so like… 12 years or so, I wasn’t too bothered about investing £150 for the Audient.
I may try the focusrite again if I need more inputs, but I’m mostly working ITB right now with maybe just a guitar on DI and the input on the Audient sounds pretty good.
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same 
There are good M2 on sale again and close to bite the bullet. My main worry is: how big of a pain will it be to transfer Ableton plus plugin licenses to a new Macbook? Thinking of Valhalla plugins, Arturia V collection, Fors stuff, Felt Instruments plugins and Other Desert Cities. Should I be worried of losing licenses or can all of this maybe even be transferred quite easily?
If you do a migration from one machine to another, it’s only licenses that rely on machine IDs that typically need to reauthorize, and unless you’ve had to do it a few times recently, you should be good with reauth.
For anything ilok, remember to deauthorize the old machine before wiping it.
I just went from an M1 to an M2, did an apps, system, and user migration, and all went well. Didn’t have to reauthorize the Valhalla plugins at all. Arturia you can just unauth your old machine via your account, and reathorize without issues. You get 3 slots, and if you deactivate your old machine, you shouldn’t need to use another slot. Audio Damage plugins aren’t an issue either. I can’t speak to Felt stuff as I don’t have any.
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Sounds promising, thanks!
Found a good deal on an M2 air and jumped the gun.
Now I have to deal with these Thunderbolt inputs. Are they generally compatible with USB C cables or are there any restrictions / things to watch out for?
I would always connect my Scarlet Focusrite 18i8 to one of them. The other one I would use occasionally to either connect an Elektron box or external hard drive. Trying to avoid adapters or hubs since they’re big and I bought the Air cause it’s small.
Thunderbolt connectors are physically the same as usb-c. The only difference is that Thunderbolt is even faster than usb-c. Don’t worry, they are definitely compatible. (I’ve connected all kinds of usb-c equipment to Thunderbolt and never had a problem)
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Just checking back in to report that I’ve bought an M2 Air with 8GB two weeks ago and everything is working really smooth. Never have I encountered any issues with Focusrite Scarlett 18i8 in Ableton or Focusrite Control. The only thing to watch out for is to download the Focusrite Control version that says “M1” next to it in the description, not the newest one. Note that I’m mostly using it to record up to four stereo tracks into Ableton simultaneously. And occasionally send some of these tracks out and back into DT via 18i8 outputs.
Migration of licenses was also easier than I had thought. Valhalla and Fors plugins especially required no action at all. The most complicated ones were from Wave Audio, where you need to install a control app on your old and new laptop to deactivate/activate licenses. Still not a big problem.
The smaller M2 makes a huge difference to me. It just fits way better on my desk and never gets in the way like my older Mac Book Pro. It’s also comfortable that I can unlock it with my two index fingers so I can start/stop recordings easily without having the monitor on all the time. It’s two small things that actually make things a lot more fun for me.
The only thing I’m a bit disappointed about is M2’s power. It’s showing about 30% CPU tasking in Ableton as soon as I start Arturia’s Jupiter 8 clone, without even playing around with it. More processor heavy plugins like Other Desert Cities bring that number up to over 50% quite fast, without even recording tracks or having several tracks with audio in them. My 2014 Mac Book Pro with 16GB was showing less CPU under the same circumstances. Though to be fair, it became really heated and loud starting from 30% CPU according to Ableton. So maybe Ableton is showing different values on M2 or it just can handle these tasks a lot better than the older models. I’ve not run into any issues so far, but I can see why people recommend 16GB for people who are working more in the box.
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I don’t know if you’re aware, but Ableton on M1/M2 works a bit differently with regards to CPU load and how it relates to buffer size. So in case you’re using a larger buffer, try lowering it. 
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