# First tests with my new Mac Book Air M1



## pcarrilho (May 11, 2021)

Hi guys.
Yesterday i bought a new Macbook Air, 16GB Ram and 500 Gb DISK.
This computer will be essentially for my work related to sound design, production of samples libs, music for video games and even some soundtracks for TV.
The intention is not to use it for large orchestrations, where a large amount of memory is needed, but I wanted to do a stress test, and take the computer to the extreme, to see how it behaves in extreme situations.

I used the *EW OPUS Edition*, Full version (not gold!).
The samples are stored on an *Sata SSD disk* in an external box (500 Mb per second of transfer ... nothing too fast).

I used a midifile of the opening song of the Star Wars to test it (20 tracks).

*First test:*
- LogicPro X Buffer: 64
- each instrument on one diferent opus instance (i don't use multi-timbral mod).
- 1 microphone per instance
- Many of the programs loaded legato versions, to elevate the stress of the CPU.
- 4 Instances of EW SAPCES II convolution reverb
- 12 stock eq. plugins
- 4 stock Compressors plugins
- *Audio from the computer itself!* I haven't installed an audio interface yet.

I tested first with all instruments loaded into memory and a second test used the PURGE ALL OPUS INSTANCES function (love this feature !!!)

*RESULT*:
- The project ran *without any stress*. Percentage of CPU has barely exceeded 25% (on average).
This is the scenario a usually use. Composing with one mic per instrument, and on mixing, i add extra mics (and bounce or even freeze tracks).
I was very impressed! Lot of headroom to work!


I decided to take the test to the *extreme*:

- I loaded *ALL microphones* on all instruments (more than *80 microphones* in total).
I tested it first with the instruments *not loaded* (using the purge all again).

The project ran! (my intel desktop with 8700K processor and 32 Gb of memory does not run this project on cubase).

Now the *ultimate test.* Here I confess that, despite testing a scenario that I will never use, I wanted to see how he behaved carrying all the instruments with all the microphones. Theoretically, it shouldn't work (the computer only has 16 GB memory, and the loaded instruments exceed 20 GB of memory, and the computer still needs memory to run the logic and the operating system).
To run this extreme test, I increased the buffer in Logic to 1024 (which I usually use in the mixing phase).

The project ran! how is this possible ??? I think the biggest stress was running 80 microphones all from the same external disk, which is not very fast (I think that on an internal disk or thunderbolt the results would be even more impressive).

I don't think 16Gb is for those who are really used to using 64Gb (or more) on their computers, but ... he ran a project with loaded instruments that exceed his physical memory. And I don't even understand how that was even possible.

With these results, I think that this M1 processor meets many of the needs of many people, with incredible performance (and the computer didn’t overheat!).
I don't think of course 16Gb is for those who are really used to using 64Gb (or more) on their computers, but ... he ran a project with loaded instruments that exceed his physical memory. And I don't even understand how that was even possible.

At the very least, I was impressed with the performance achieved by this small machine, and outperforms my Intel 8800K desktop and my 15'' 2018 Mac Book Pro (six core I7).

I will do more tests, with some intensive CPU usage (Alchemy and Omnisphere)...


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## zimm83 (May 11, 2021)

Hy ! Thanks a lot for this test. It is exactly what i wanted to know. Great test for a great machine.
I want to buy a Macbook air 16 go. I really don't need more ram.

If you have time to test something :
Could you just confirm that in standalone mode, Kontakt can use the 8 cores of the M1 ?
I use miltitimbral standalone Kontakt. I love using it that way.
If you have time to test. Thanks in advance !
I know you are using one instrument per track.
But what about 1 multi per track ? How does it stand in standalone mode, and in a your daw ? 
Hoping tha 1 Kontakt instance can use 8 cores. I usually stack 20-25 instruments in 1 Kontakt multi..
If one instance uses 1 core....i'm out ....else Yeah !!!
Thanks again from France !!!


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## pcarrilho (May 11, 2021)

zimm83 said:


> Hy ! Thanks a lot for this test. It is exactly what i wanted to know. Great test for a great machine.
> I want to buy a Macbook air 16 go. I really don't need more ram.
> 
> If you have time to test something :
> ...


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## zimm83 (May 11, 2021)

pcarrilho said:


>


Oh thanks a lot. Okay we can choose 1 to 8 cores on the M1.
Thank you very much. Really appreciate.
Now i can order my macbook air ! 
I will go from windows to mac...was waiting for such a powerful laptop.
Thanks a lot.
I found on internet that the M1 can handle much more memory because of SWAPPING and CACHE MEMORY on disk and compressed memory ! 

Cache memory is RAM contents that have been paged out to disk to free up RAM and to expand RAM by taking parts of the hard disk and writing RAM contents into it.

Great machine !
Thanks.


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## Jeremy Spencer (May 11, 2021)

pcarrilho said:


> I used a midifile of the opening song of the Star Wars to test it (20 tracks).


Was the playback using all 20 tracks and and all mic positions?


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## pcarrilho (May 11, 2021)

zimm83 said:


> Oh thanks a lot. Okay we can choose 1 to 8 cores on the M1.
> Thank you very much. Really appreciate.
> Now i can order my macbook air !
> I will go from windows to mac...was waiting for such a powerful laptop.
> ...


But don't assume the macbook air with 16Gb can handle 32Gb of samples...
I just did a test, and run a project with 20Gb of instruments, and it worked... but was only a first test...


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## zimm83 (May 11, 2021)

The external usb has low speed (500b/s) , but on a thunderbolt 3 external ssd they all say that the speeds are like the internal disk ! 2000 mb/s read !


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## zimm83 (May 11, 2021)

pcarrilho said:


> But don't assume the macbook air with 16Gb can handle 32Gb of samples...
> I just did a test, and run a project with 20Gb of instruments, and it worked... but was only a first test...


You are right, but 20-25 possible !
Cool !


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## pcarrilho (May 11, 2021)

Jeremy Spencer said:


> Was the playback using all 20 tracks and and all mic positions?


Yes... in one of my tests, as i said in my initial post: "I decided to take the test to the *extreme*:

- I loaded *ALL microphones* on all instruments (more than *80 microphones* in total)."

In this scenario, opus showed that i had 20.5Gb of instruments loaded...


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## Jeremy Spencer (May 11, 2021)

Wow! If you are playing back all 20 tracks, with no hiccups, that is impressive!

The weird thing is that Opus is only showing 20.5 GB. I only have Gold, but when I use HO Diamond in Play, 80 mic's would be a lot more than 20.5 GB.


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## Toecutter (May 11, 2021)

zimm83 said:


> Cache memory is RAM contents that have been paged out to disk to free up RAM and to expand RAM by taking parts of the hard disk and writing RAM contents into it.


But is this true for samples too? Even if the fastest nvme disks were as fast as RAM that's for sequential so you would most likely hit a wall.


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## zimm83 (May 11, 2021)

Look at this : At 6 mn he loads more than 11 gigs on a 8 gigs M1 with kontakt :


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## pcarrilho (May 11, 2021)

Jeremy Spencer said:


> Wow! If you are playing back all 20 tracks, with no hiccups, that is impressive!
> 
> The weird thing is that Opus is only showing 20.5 GB. I only have Gold, but when I use HO Diamond in Play, 80 mic's would be a lot more than 20.5 GB.


Some articulations use less RAM than others... The legatos i thing use a lot...
But yes, i playing back this project... of course on the limits! And at 1024 buffer... but still impressive.


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## Loïc D (May 11, 2021)

Thanks a lot for taking the time to do it and write your feedback.
This is the kind of test everyone is waiting for and not many is doing.
Please update us with all other attempts.
Those little machines are indeed very surprising...


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## gzapper (May 11, 2021)

Memory swap sounds like its now fast enough to pass for RAM on some projects.

Can you try some ridiculous things, like maybe copy and paste your entire OPUS channels and see if it'll play with 40GB of RAM for samples?


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## SGordB (May 11, 2021)

pcarrilho said:


> Yes... in one of my tests, as i said in my initial post: "I decided to take the test to the *extreme*:
> 
> - I loaded *ALL microphones* on all instruments (more than *80 microphones* in total)."
> 
> In this scenario, opus showed that i had 20.5Gb of instruments loaded...


Thanks for sharing these results. Just to clarify, am I right to assume that much/most of the time fewer than all 20 tracks were playing their MIDI content? If so, what were the densest (potential) choke points like in terms of number of tracks/notes/RAM with simultaneous playback? Those would be the proverbial weakest link that this entry level M1 Mac is only as strong as. Or rather, I should say those would be somewhat stronger than that weakest link which you haven't yet exposed.


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## MarcusD (May 11, 2021)

Also interested in this.

Please, can you create 1 instance of kotntakt, with a high memory patch (like 2GB), then score some midi across the range of the instrument. Then keep duplicating that track and playing back the project until the Mac gives up.

Be interested to see how it copes across different buffers.

Trying hard not to purchase a Mac. Waiting for the M2 to drop and hoping it comes with higher RAM capacity.


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## pcarrilho (May 11, 2021)

SGordB said:


> Thanks for sharing these results. Just to clarify, am I right to assume that much/most of the time fewer than all 20 tracks were playing their MIDI content? If so, what were the densest (potential) choke points like in terms of number of tracks/notes/RAM with simultaneous playback? Those would be the proverbial weakest link that this entry level M1 Mac is only as strong as. Or rather, I should say those would be somewhat stronger than that weakest link which you haven't yet exposed.


not fewr... I used the star wars theme... these theme is dense on some parts of the track... so there are parts with almost all of the 20 tracks playing, with 4 (or 5) mics per track...


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## Tronam (May 11, 2021)

Thanks for putting in the time to share your test results. Impressive for such a small laptop, especially considering the EW Play engine isn’t even Apple silicon native yet and running under emulation.


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## mat1 (May 11, 2021)

Can you keep going until it falls over?


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## jcrosby (May 12, 2021)

zimm83 said:


> The external usb has low speed (500b/s) , but on a thunderbolt 3 external ssd they all say that the speeds are like the internal disk ! 2000 mb/s read !


If you're assuming what I think you are (?) that's not necessarily true. Drive manufacturers misrepresent hardware all the time. They'll put a spinning rust drive in a USB 3 case and claim "speeds up to 500 MB/s". They'll use the speed of the USB 3 connection for marketing, without informing you that the actual storage can't performa at that speed, and real world performance might be more like 150.

The speed of the drive or interface is the speed limit of any storage device. If you put SATA III SSD in a USB 2 case it's going to be slow, giving you USB 2 speed because the USB 2 connection is the bottleneck. If you connect a SATA III SSD over TB3 you're still going to get SATA III Speeds becuase the SATA III interface is the bottleneck.

Always be thorough in speccing your drives and/or cases because there's a lot of misrepresentation out there.


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## wkundrus (Jun 5, 2021)

pcarrilho said:


> Yesterday i bought a new Macbook Air, 16GB Ram and 500 Gb DISK.
> ....
> I used the *EW OPUS Edition*, Full version (not gold!).
> The samples are stored on an *Sata SSD disk* in an external box (500 Mb per second of transfer ... nothing too fast).


You should use the Never Preload preference. Opus will work without preload and you will find 16 GB of RAM gets you a lot further.


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