Hey guys, i'm currently working as a full time music producer and have been using a pretty decent custom pc for all my work last 3 years. However as of lately i'm getting quite a few jobs that require traveling to different studios/locations and due to that, i had to purchase the new m1 AIR macbook (the bare minimum to at least lay down some demo productions/rough mixes) , i discovered the beauty of getting to work everywhere, not just in my studio but to be completely honest.. even though i buy some plugins i'm still not able to afford alot of what i got used to while working on windows and even if i get my hands on some links there's still very little software that has the support for the new silicon chips. So the big question for me is... should i wait before going all-in on some apple workhorse laptop or wait? I dont really wanna invest alot of money in windows laptop since i got down bad by most of my win laptops but at the same time i dont wanna blow alot of money on apple laptop just to be very limited with software.. how long could it take till' silicon chips get where intel chips are now with the support? THANK YOU!

 

Hi, the M1 Air is running on Apple silicon already so you might be able to answer the question yourself

 

Newer laptop isn't that bad except battery life
If your plugins that aren't supported on M1 but very important and you need it now then you should buy a new laptop
Or not, better to wait and stick with your M1 Air

 

i love the way you phrased your question, and for me as well i love working remotely sometimes and feel like i can take my workspace with me and enjoy life outside while being able to work.
ill address a few things:

native apple silicon support
most plugins already have been updated to support and run natively on the new apple silicon CPUs.
the few the dont are either going to be abandonware, or a lazy developer that is taking hes time, or developers with obsolete SDKs/library dependencies that they need to replace and rebuild from the ground up to update.
i recommend that you check either on the companies website or even ask people here about specific plugins, and if you get no answer simply reach out to their support.
i use shit ton of plugins and im honestly just waiting on kush audio, neural dsp and JST to add native support, everything else is running natively
P.S - every mac release that has U2B in the title means universal 2 binary, which means it runs both on M1 and also on intel chips, some releases are also U2B but just dont mention it

plugin cracks and cracks availability
well... yea, pretty much anything that uses actual iLok (machine based/dongle/cloud) is not cracked for mac.
so if you have any R2R/RET iLok releases - you either need to buy them, or give them up (or wait for black friday sales like i did )
for the rest of the stuff - i actually find that the individual mac cracking community seem to grow with more nerdies out there doing cracks that work great (TRAZOR/FLARE etc..)
you should be aware if you dont already know - installing and running cracked software on mac can be more challanging, especially if youre not good with computers. you might have to dequarantine packages/installers to run them, and codesign plugins so your DAW wont crash. small learning curve thats natural now for all new mac users.

the macbooks themselves
these are simply great machines.
a few years ago the macbook pros (2016-2019) were absolute trash, with thermal throtlting, keyboard issues and just a junky machine overall, but now were in a different era, hell even the amazing magsafe is now back

i have a desktop windows machine, an old macbook pro, a Dell XPS 15" laptop, and a macbook air M1, and have plenty experience with the new 14"+16" macbook pro.
im not an apple fanboy, nor a windows fanboy, im a multi OS nerd that likes to use both
in my personal opinion - when it comes to a laptop right now, thats for music production, theres no better option than the new macbook pros 14" +16" for the following reasons:
- they are very quiet, youll be able to record while the computer is in the room (sure on busy projects the fans might kick in, but compared to an older macbook or a windows laptop its still way better)
- they are very power efficient, they have great battery life.
- the trackpad, its amazing and i find myself not using a mouse at all when im on a macbook.
- airdrop, ive been in plenty sessions where the artists wanted to send me a demo real quick or wanted me to send them a quick export.. just these small transfers of file that have that extra bit of convenience
- they really are blazing fast, i first noticed that when i opened kontakt, that shit opened so fast compared to literally any machine ive used in my life, things are extremely snappy
- you can work in low buffer size, like real low, and on heavy sessions (64-128 buffer)

if you have any other questions feel free to reach my DM's here, and best of luck with your decision!

 

Last edited: Jul 27, 2022

the most CPU intensive things I run on my MacBook Pro are still synthesizer plugins. Mostly the DSP56300 emulator and Falcon2. Get the MAX sized internal SSD and RAM. The last bigger project I mixed on here was like 6 gig of stems with Fabfilter instances all over it. Not even so much as a lag. lol

I would not go with an AIR. Many components they use in construction of the less expensive machines are not the same. But they are not CPU,Memory, or Storage numbers people easily read on a webpage and try to compare. They manage other components too, so they can achieve a target price point, and less savvy buyers only read those 3 numbers. Maybe a few thousand bucks on a laptop is too much to spend. Work around it. But an AIR and a PRO are two very different machines.

Do you know what the smartest Windows DAW users talk about frequently on here? They never take their nice shiny DAW on the internet, because of it's operating system. That should be telling as all get out to you. PC hardware can be great! When it's not running a cesspool as an operating system. But they have been talking about full workflow options for audio on Linux for at least 30 years.

Some pc comments will follow this main theme for you, in advance of it:

What is crabs in a barrel syndrome?


This paper introduces the concept of the Crab in the Barrel Syndrome (CBS)—a metaphor used to describe the mentality and behaviors of individuals belonging to or identifying with a particular community or culture, who 'hold each other back' from various opportunities for advancement and achievement despite incentives ...

 

Last edited: Jul 27, 2022