# Apple M1 Compatibility List



## Jordan D Smith (Dec 13, 2020)

Has anyone created a master list of all the software and hardware (related to music production) that is currently compatible with the new M1 processors from Apple?

If not, let’s do that here. For those of you that already got an M1 Mac, let us know which libraries, virtual instruments, audio interfaces, etc current do and do not work.


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## el-bo (Dec 13, 2020)

Not on M1, myself. However, I have received emails from 'Fabfilter' and 'Rogue Amoeba' announcing Big Sur and M1 compatibility.


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## dbudde (Dec 13, 2020)

Not sure if everything you want is in this list, but it's a start

https://isapplesiliconready.com


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## Jordan D Smith (Dec 14, 2020)

dbudde said:


> Not sure if everything you want is in this list, but it's a start
> 
> https://isapplesiliconready.com



To a degree, yes. Thanks! I'm also curious about UAD Apollo hardware and Spitfire's in-house VI's they use for LABS, BBCSO, Originals, etc.


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## el-bo (Dec 14, 2020)

Jordan D Smith said:


> To a degree, yes. Thanks! I'm also curious about UAD Apollo hardware and Spitfire's in-house VI's they use for LABS, BBCSO, Originals, etc.



Would be a good idea to log this stuff in your original post, to keep all the info easily accessible. It’ll be a bit of work to keep up with, and would be understandable if you weren’t up for the task. If not, perhaps we could find an alternative solution


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## nas (Dec 16, 2020)

Not sure about a specific list for the M1 chip but here is a list for compatibility with Big Sur:









macOS 11 Big Sur: Compatibility Guide - SweetCare


Apple released macOS 11 Big Sur on November 12th, 2020. While the operating system upgrade is currently available, do not upgrade unless all of your music production devices and software are officially deemed compatible by their respective manufacturers. Check the Manufacturer Compatibility List...




www.sweetwater.com


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## Gerd Kaeding (Dec 16, 2020)

Jordan D Smith said:


> I'm also curious about UAD Apollo hardware ...


UAD today released Update 9.13.1 which makes their Software and all via Thunderbolt (!) connected Hardware officially compatible with OS _Big Sur _on INTEL Macs . ( Apple's M1 based Macs _aren't_ officially supported yet !! )








LUNA Release Notes


Note: LUNA Recording System is available for Mac only. Related Information LUNA System Requirements LUNA User Documentation Download LUNA Tip: To get the latest version of LUNA, choose "Che...




help.uaudio.com


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## Jordan D Smith (Jan 25, 2021)

Gonna give this a bump to ask how many of you all have spent much time composing with an M1 equipped Mac.


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## Vik (Jan 30, 2021)

Jordan D Smith said:


> Gonna give this a bump to ask how many of you all have spent much time composing with an M1 equipped Mac.


No-one, it seems? I'm also curious about this.


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## ism (Jan 30, 2021)

Jordan D Smith said:


> Gonna give this a bump to ask how many of you all have spent much time composing with an M1 equipped Mac.



I’ve started using my m1 macbook for music ... and it’s working ok. Logic and Sine crash now and again, but they did that on my old machine also. And it’s worth the little bit of extra hassle for the extra processors and memory compared to my old machine. 

If I had critical path projects I probably wouldn’t risk it, but all in all, it’s a big improvement.


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## Vik (Jan 30, 2021)

What about the memory limitation? Is it any truth at all to the idea or claim about having only 16 gb is less troublesome on a M1 Mac than on Intel back?


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## ism (Jan 30, 2021)

Only had 8g on my last machine, and have yet to come even close to running out of memory on the new one, so I really can’t offer a comparison. Impressionistically, for whatever its worth, 16G does seem to go an awfully long way though.


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## Stefcien (Feb 4, 2021)

Im curious how the M1 handles huge libraries like EastWest


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## rnb_2 (Feb 5, 2021)

I think we're still very much in the phase where those whose livelihood depends on running big libraries aren't going to waste time testing - they're waiting for beefier new Macs to arrive to start thinking about this. As a hobbyist, and a pretty recent one at that, I don't have anything difficult to throw at the hardware.


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## DoubleTap (Feb 5, 2021)

Someone started a thread about this on KVR and has compiled a list of most things: https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=556728


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## Tronam (Feb 12, 2021)

Jordan D Smith said:


> Gonna give this a bump to ask how many of you all have spent much time composing with an M1 equipped Mac.


So far so good. Even running under Rosetta translation it's easily more powerful than my previous 2017 4C/8T i7 15" MacBook Pro, yet manages to be totally silent, runs cool and has a battery that can last 2 or 3 days depending on how I'm using it. All of my past projects, even the largest orchestral projects have been running fine in Logic now that Native-Instruments removed the Native Access installer block.

It's kind of difficult to gauge memory utilization on these new M1 systems because of how quickly it shuttles data back and forth between the SSD and integrated memory. I did go for the 16GB RAM to be safe and haven't run into any bottlenecks up to this point. Surprisingly all of my 100+ 3rd party plugins are simply working without hassle, even iLok, but I have encountered a few odd quirks. The bespoke Spitfire Audio instrument plugins will sometimes load and weirdly not play any sound unless I click on the little refresh button at the top of the GUI. Some programs like Reason and Ableton Live are running fine and stable, but their performance seems abnormally low, like they're confused by the M1's CPU cores and don't understand how to utilize them. It'll take some time still to iron out those quirks, but I'm really happy with it so far.


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## Jetzer (Feb 12, 2021)

So far I have worked without any issues on an M1 Macbook Air with the following:
- Cubase 10.5
- Fabfilter plugins
- Spitifire Labs
- Kontakt 6 with various Spitifre libraries
- U-he Zebra and Diva

The only thing that doesn't work so far is my Korg Nanokontrol.


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## Nicholas (Feb 12, 2021)

Jetzer said:


> So far I have worked without any issues on an M1 Macbook Air with the following:
> - Cubase 10.5
> - Fabfilter plugins
> - Spitifire Labs
> ...


That's crazy if you think about it... I mean, it's a completely different chip architecture! Apple really did a good job with Rosetta 2.


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## Jetzer (Feb 12, 2021)

Yes, quite incredible!


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## Vik (Feb 12, 2021)

Have any of you run projects with memory hungry sample libraries – libraries that you for sure would need more than 32 gb RAM or more on Intel Macs?


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## Tronam (Feb 12, 2021)

Vik said:


> Have any of you run projects with memory hungry sample libraries – libraries that you for sure would need more than 32 gb RAM or more on Intel Macs?


What makes this a little difficult to measure while we get used to these new systems is that the M1 kind of blurs the line between the SSD and RAM quite unlike other computers I've used in the past. Whether you adjust Kontakt's preload buffer to load as little into RAM as possible to stream from disk, or vice versa, it will still just be streaming from disk in the end. I would like to try putting together several versions of a large benchmarking template, configured both ways, to see what the performance trade-offs are like for either approach.


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## davidson (Feb 17, 2021)

Tronam said:


> What makes this a little difficult to measure while we get used to these new systems is that the M1 kind of blurs the line between the SSD and RAM quite unlike other computers I've used in the past. Whether you adjust Kontakt's preload buffer to load as little into RAM as possible to stream from disk, or vice versa, it will still just be streaming from disk in the end. I would like to try putting together several versions of a large benchmarking template, configured both ways, to see what the performance trade-offs are like for either approach.


The thing is, not many of us are going to be storing their kontakt libraries on the fancy new internal ssd.


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## rnb_2 (Feb 17, 2021)

davidson said:


> The thing is, not many of us are going to be storing their kontakt libraries on the fancy new internal ssd.


But that is where the system swap file lives.


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## davidson (Feb 17, 2021)

rnb_2 said:


> But that is where the system swap file lives.


Good point! Does the M1 use swap files to any greater degree than intel?


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## ism (Feb 17, 2021)

rnb_2 said:


> But that is where the system swap file lives.


Does this mean that you get specific benefit of the M1 SoC integrations, even when you're using an external SSD?

Any idea if this will require a native build of Kontakt or if Rosetta/Kontakt will be enough?


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## rnb_2 (Feb 17, 2021)

I wish I could answer those questions authoritatively, but alas.

Many have said that the M1s act like they have more RAM than they do - some say about twice as much - and people with 8GB M1s typically say they're surprised that it never seems to be an issue. I haven't pushed my 16GB mini hard, so can't really comment. The theory is that the tight integration of CPU/GPU/RAM and the speed of the SSD allows the M1 to page things in and out of RAM faster and more efficiently than a typical Intel Mac, but I don't think anybody has taken a hard look at it to see what exactly is happening, and I still haven't really seen a stress test with VIs. As I've previously noted, anybody whose livelihood depends on RAM-hungry VIs isn't taking a flyer on machines limited to 16GB of RAM - there's no upside for them, only potential wasted time - but hobbyists or people who bought M1s for other purposes have been able to throw a surprising amount at them without having any problems.

Kontakt seems to be fine running in Rosetta at this point, though a native build will undoubtedly have benefits. The thing to remember about Rosetta 2 is that it's translating Intel code to ARM on first run, so after that, it's running native code, just not thoroughly optimized native code. The one thing I can point to is that some common tasks for me, like exporting JPGs from raw photos in Lightroom Classic (still Intel-only), are marginally faster on the M1 than on my 2018 i7 Mac mini, but my 20MP raw photos aren't taxing on a 16GB machine, so RAM isn't an issue.


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## davidson (Feb 17, 2021)

rnb_2 said:


> I haven't pushed my 16GB mini hard, so can't really comment.





rnb_2 said:


> and I still haven't really seen a stress test with VIs.


Lead the way, young jedi.


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## rnb_2 (Feb 17, 2021)

Sadly, I'm technically-savvy but a musical neophyte. I just got back into this world for the first time since the mid-90s as a way to stay sane during the pandemic, and don't have any of the big RAM-hungry VIs.


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## NameOfBand (Mar 7, 2021)

Bumping this. Now that M1X is coming up, how are you guys experiencing your M1's? Any major issues in terms of compatibility? I need an upgrade, and wonder if I should wait for the M1X, or go more "safe" with old Intel models. Like everyone else I have a lot of templates and projects etc, would rather not have to reconstruct all of that. Do you think time will fix the current issues soon enough?


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## ism (Mar 7, 2021)

I'm finding that Logic and Sine crash ocassionally. But for the most part I'm really loving my 16G m1 mbp for music. I'm not using a huge template, but I find it has at least 3x the capacity of my old machine (also an mbp), and possible much more, as I've not seemed to come close to hitting the limit yet, and I've yet to even need to purge instruments - which is where it might get interesting, as accounts suggest that the m1 architecture might implement swap space in a way that adds significant capacity even when you get to your memory limit. Nothing definitive on this though. I'm just have to wait until I hit larger projects. And conceivably an m1 native Kontakt build might push the limits further. Probably not more that a future m1 with more than a 16G limit though.

I'd be nervous if I was using it for mission critical work, but as it is, I'm comfortable enough to remove Logic and all the music software from my old machine, as I really don't foresee any need to fall back to.


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