M1 Air performance test results, Logic, Bitwig, Live, Reaper, and DP11.

[anttimaatteri]

The thing that annoys me most about these comparisons is that they never talk about build quality and usability. I have a MacBook Pro and a fujitso Windows 10 machine that are more or less equally specced. The MacBook is still solid after 5 years, but the Fujitsu is a plastic piece of crap and the trackpad is basically unusable. The Mac originally retailed for $1100 and the PC was $1400, iirc. (I got the Mac as a refurb for $900 and the PC three-years used for $300.)

All of the Macs I've owned have served me for 4-5 years each and I've never had any issues except for my original iBook G4 (my favorite Mac I've owned) which spontaneously self-destructed after like 4 years of really heavy use.

you should make a tech-tv show about it. some competition for linus tech tips or so maybe?

[Passing Bye]

.....

[apoclypse]

The thing that annoys me most about these comparisons is that they never talk about build quality and usability. I have a MacBook Pro and a fujitso Windows 10 machine that are more or less equally specced. The MacBook is still solid after 5 years, but the Fujitsu is a plastic piece of crap and the trackpad is basically unusable. The Mac originally retailed for $1100 and the PC was $1400, iirc. (I got the Mac as a refurb for $900 and the PC three-years used for $300.)

All of the Macs I've owned have served me for 4-5 years each and I've never had any issues except for my original iBook G4 (my favorite Mac I've owned) which spontaneously self-destructed after like 4 years of really heavy use.

The one that annoys me is that the comparison always devolve to price but they don't really compare like for like. In HB's video they mentioned that price as an issue but the laptops they were testing with don't have Mini-LED screens, have mediocre speakers, usually have mediocre web cams, are big and heavy with huge power bricks and can barely run 2 hours on battery when pushed and that's with the GPU capped at 30FPS (which is the default behavior for NVidia's mobile chips).

An equivalent laptop specs wise. A Razerblade with an OLED panel and 3080 is $3,400 which isn't that far off the MBP but in certain aspects has worse components. You an of course compromise on display, sound and efficiency but then you are talking about a whole different category of laptop imo.

[Etienne1973]

@apoclypse

+ 1

[Etienne1973]

double, sorry!

[machinesworking]

and you are exactly WHO?

abby normal doin some idiotic random bullshit testing with plugins smashed into some daws and call that a test or a day?

god knows why they tested with fl studio. hardware unboxed is one of the bigger channels testing, next to gamers nexus. they usually dont give a ratfuck about audio-benchmarking. they just put it in on demand for testing cpus with what they deem to be "average performance environment"

maybe they all should ask you mr. go-to-guy?
but according to the stupid text you wrote about that testing, you simply havent even watched the video, but zapped thru for buzzwords. that little gpu test was ONE of a dozen or more...

You're the dumbass bringing in completely unrelated videos comparing Mac to PC into a thread on DAW performances on M1 chips. You're the genius looking for some sort of argument. But yeah, my test is irrelevant compared to the awesome perpetual Mac VS PC war you're trying to start.

[pdxindy]

The one that annoys me is that the comparison always devolve to price but they don't really compare like for like. In HB's video they mentioned that price as an issue but the laptops they were testing with don't have Mini-LED screens, have mediocre speakers, usually have mediocre web cams, are big and heavy with huge power bricks and can barely run 2 hours on battery when pushed and that's with the GPU capped at 30FPS (which is the default behavior for NVidia's mobile chips).

An equivalent laptop specs wise. A Razerblade with an OLED panel and 3080 is $3,400 which isn't that far off the MBP but in certain aspects has worse components. You an of course compromise on display, sound and efficiency but then you are talking about a whole different category of laptop imo.

The screen on my new 16" MBP is impressive. A small but clear and distinct step up from my existing 16" MBP which itself has a very nice screen. I quite like the new keyboard too. It feels good and is quiet. Also an improvement over the previous MBP.

But the biggest thing is using it for a couple hours, not heavy work, but enough that the old one would have been hot and the fans would have been audible and the new one I can't quite tell if it is warmer than room temperature and completely silent. It makes a huge quality of use difference.

I have not done any speed tests compared to my 16" intel. I don't feel motivated to as I was not looking for a lot more power but rather the cool and quiet running. It is obviously a bit faster and I'll happily take that, but it was not my main priority.

[apoclypse]

The one that annoys me is that the comparison always devolve to price but they don't really compare like for like. In HB's video they mentioned that price as an issue but the laptops they were testing with don't have Mini-LED screens, have mediocre speakers, usually have mediocre web cams, are big and heavy with huge power bricks and can barely run 2 hours on battery when pushed and that's with the GPU capped at 30FPS (which is the default behavior for NVidia's mobile chips).

An equivalent laptop specs wise. A Razerblade with an OLED panel and 3080 is $3,400 which isn't that far off the MBP but in certain aspects has worse components. You an of course compromise on display, sound and efficiency but then you are talking about a whole different category of laptop imo.

The screen on my new 16" MBP is impressive. A small but clear and distinct step up from my existing 16" MBP which itself has a very nice screen. I quite like the new keyboard too. It feels good and is quiet. Also an improvement over the previous MBP.

But the biggest thing is using it for a couple hours, not heavy work, but enough that the old one would have been hot and the fans would have been audible and the new one I can't quite tell if it is warmer than room temperature and completely silent. It makes a huge quality of use difference.

I have not done any speed tests compared to my 16" intel. I don't feel motivated to as I was not looking for a lot more power but rather the cool and quiet running. It is obviously a bit faster and I'll happily take that, but it was not my main priority.

Yep. Mine should be coming arriving a in a few weeks. Had to cancel my initial order and upgrade to the 16" from the 14". I tried just going to an Apple Store to buy one but they didn't have any in stock.

[stargate]

The thing that annoys me most about these comparisons is that they never talk about build quality and usability.

...

I am not an Apple fan or regular Apple user, but I have to agree with this. I picked up a used 2010 Core2Duo MacBook Air to port some software to Mac, hacked MacOS Catalina onto it, and it's a fine, elegant and still completely usable 11 y/o laptop, I barely notice that it's old. I also have a 2012 HP laptop I keep around for testing that looks like a 1970s Cadillac next to it.

[apoclypse]

The thing that annoys me most about these comparisons is that they never talk about build quality and usability.

...

I am not an Apple fan or regular Apple user, but I have to agree with this. I picked up a used 2010 Core2Duo MacBook Air to port some software to Mac, hacked MacOS Catalina onto it, and it's a fine, elegant and still completely usable 11 y/o laptop, I barely notice that it's old. I also have a 2012 HP laptop I keep around for testing that looks like a 1970s Cadillac next to it.

I decided to boot up my old 2007 MBP and it still works like a charm It needs a new battery but other than that it boots up fine and looks fairly brand new.

I have an old Lenovo Thinkpad X41 from about the same time that barely boots.

[pdxindy]

Quick breakdown, stress test for software instrument use in the M1 MacBook Air using Diva initial patch, simple 120bpm 8th note 4 bar run followed by a two bar pause and three note chord, 6 bars in total. 48khz, 256 buffer. M1 MacBook Air 16GB, 1 TB SSD, Big Sur 11.6.

I didn't understand exactly what you were doing with this test. So my quick test is not comparable to yours.

I used Diva with the preset Deep Space Diva, accuracy great, voices set to 4 and a 4 voice chord repeating so never more than 4 voices at once. 48khz, 256 buffer. 16" M1 Pro MBP 32GB Monterey.

In Bitwig 4.1 beta 4 - I had 70 simultaneous tracks without crackles. Maybe I could have added a couple more but I got bored and went back to working on a project.

[syntonica]

Quick breakdown, stress test for software instrument use in the M1 MacBook Air using Diva initial patch, simple 120bpm 8th note 4 bar run followed by a two bar pause and three note chord, 6 bars in total. 48khz, 256 buffer. M1 MacBook Air 16GB, 1 TB SSD, Big Sur 11.6.

I didn't understand exactly what you were doing with this test. So my quick test is not comparable to yours.

I used Diva with the preset Deep Space Diva, accuracy great, voices set to 4 and a 4 voice chord repeating so never more than 4 voices at once. 48khz, 256 buffer. 16" M1 Pro MBP 32GB Monterey.

In Bitwig 4.1 beta 4 - I had 70 simultaneous tracks without crackles. Maybe I could have added a couple more but I got bored and went back to working on a project.

70 simultaneous Divas is plenty fast to do whatever. Carry on!

[pdxindy]

Quick breakdown, stress test for software instrument use in the M1 MacBook Air using Diva initial patch, simple 120bpm 8th note 4 bar run followed by a two bar pause and three note chord, 6 bars in total. 48khz, 256 buffer. M1 MacBook Air 16GB, 1 TB SSD, Big Sur 11.6.

I didn't understand exactly what you were doing with this test. So my quick test is not comparable to yours.

I used Diva with the preset Deep Space Diva, accuracy great, voices set to 4 and a 4 voice chord repeating so never more than 4 voices at once. 48khz, 256 buffer. 16" M1 Pro MBP 32GB Monterey.

In Bitwig 4.1 beta 4 - I had 70 simultaneous tracks without crackles. Maybe I could have added a couple more but I got bored and went back to working on a project.

70 simultaneous Divas is plenty fast to do whatever. Carry on!

Yup... more than I ever need...

[machinesworking]

Quick breakdown, stress test for software instrument use in the M1 MacBook Air using Diva initial patch, simple 120bpm 8th note 4 bar run followed by a two bar pause and three note chord, 6 bars in total. 48khz, 256 buffer. M1 MacBook Air 16GB, 1 TB SSD, Big Sur 11.6.

I didn't understand exactly what you were doing with this test. So my quick test is not comparable to yours.

I used Diva with the preset Deep Space Diva, accuracy great, voices set to 4 and a 4 voice chord repeating so never more than 4 voices at once. 48khz, 256 buffer. 16" M1 Pro MBP 32GB Monterey.

In Bitwig 4.1 beta 4 - I had 70 simultaneous tracks without crackles. Maybe I could have added a couple more but I got bored and went back to working on a project.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/12rWK1_ ... sp=sharing

Here's the test, Logic is in there too. it's all pretty straightforward. I'm guessing you'll get around 34-40 with this test in Bitwig.

[jancivil]

DP started as Professional Composer, a year before Performer, actually, 1984. I have the vaguest recall of working with it once on somebody's system or at least watching it. If I had to lose Cubase that's where I'd go, DP.