# My Experience with UAD and RME on Mac M1



## khollister (Jul 17, 2021)

I doubt any of this is something that hasn't surfaced somewhere already, but thought I would summarize my findings for anyone thinking of an M1 and a UAD interface. While UAD doesn't officially support the M1's yet, they nonetheless do have complete instructions on how to install drivers and software on a AS Mac.

I have been using a Babyface Pro (previous generation, not the FS) on my laptop for travel for several years. Since my main rig has an Apollo X6, X8 & TB3 Satellite, I figured I would try an Apollo Solo on the M1 MBP so I could use my plugin library on the road (admittedly with a restrictive workflow due to the single DSP in the Solo). I had read reports of success with M1's, so Ordered one from Amazon - no questions asked free returns.

It installed perfectly using UA's instructions with the latest version of the UAD SW and prompted me for a firmware update. It works perfectly with M1 native Logic (the UAD driver and SW is still Intel only) and a very incomplete spot check of my UAD plugins (I have a huge number) shows no issues in spite of UA's warnings about some not working in Rosetta (they seem to work fine for me).

I then ran some tests using some torture test projects on both the BF and Solo. In terms of the number of tracks I could run without dropouts, there was basically no difference between the 2 interfaces - I was expecting the RME to do better due to native drivers. The Logic reported latency was very similar as well. At 48K/128 samples, the BF reported 7.2ms RT (3.5ms output) and the Solo was 7.6ms RT (3.2ms output).

Both interfaces worked fine through my Caldigit Element TB4 hub/dock as well as my T7 sample drive while charging the MBP. I'm very pleased with the Element but got lucky hitting Caldigit's web site when they were in stock. Last I checked, they were out of stock again.

Not sure whether I will sell the BF. I'm inclined to keep it just in case, although it would pay for the Solo.

PS: Oh snd I do slightly prefer the sound of the UAD DAC/headphone amp with my Sennheiser HD650's. It's not a huge difference but I happed to like the "UAD house sound" more than the "RME house sound". Either will get the job done however.

And I should clarify I am using the TB3 version of the Solo since I wanted a bus-powered solution like the BF. The USB Solo requires a power supply due to the SHARC chip.


----------



## khollister (Jul 18, 2021)

One thing I have discovered - if you leave Logic (I presume other DAWs behave similarly) open with the Solo as the active interface and sleep the computer, it does a forced shutdown after a few seconds and then reboots on wake. This is apparently an issue on Intel Macs as well. I have discovered that selecting the internal interface as the audio device in Logic before closing the lid (which puts the computer into sleep mode) solves the problem. You can wake the computer, the UAD Solo is automatically reconnected as an audio device and you switch Logic back to it and off you go.

I never discovered this before since my Apollo rack units are on the iMac Pro and I set it to not sleep, just turn off the display. Not sure (or care at this point) if this is a general Mac/TB/audio interface thing or something specific to the UAD TB driver. Just need to create some muscle memory to deselect the UAD before closing the lid if Logic is open.


----------



## rnb_2 (Jul 18, 2021)

I assume it would be fine if you just slept the display instead of sleeping the computer? That's what I do - all of my interfaces are USB, but I don't think that would matter if the computer isn't actually sleeping. Especially with the efficiency cores on the M1, the computer will use negligible power in this state.


----------



## khollister (Jul 18, 2021)

rnb_2 said:


> I assume it would be fine if you just slept the display instead of sleeping the computer? That's what I do - all of my interfaces are USB, but I don't think that would matter if the computer isn't actually sleeping. Especially with the efficiency cores on the M1, the computer will use negligible power in this state.


Absolutely - that is exactly what I do with my iMac Pro and Apollo X units. Since the laptop is for travel use, it doesn't stay set up all the time. I typically close the lid and move stuff off to the side on whatever table I'm using.


----------

