Apple M1 vs Intel for Audio: A Real World Benchmark

[Blue Cat Audio]

New blog post: Apple M1 vs Intel Mac for real time audio: a real world benchmark



Have you tried the new M1 Macs yet?

[Krakatau]

luckily I have bought the latest MacBook Air ...I'm rather impressed because it seems even more powerful than my i7 iMac usual laptop from 2012 !

[Blue Cat Audio]

There is definitely a breakthrough compared to the aging x86 architecture!

[licasto2]

I bought an M1 MBP for my day job and installed Logic and the M1 U-HE betas to play around with. I am extremely impressed by the performance. My audio interface isn't compatible w/ M1 yet so I have to use the built-in audio but I'm getting better numbers on the laptop than on my iMac Pro/Multi-UA Apollo X High dollar "professional" rig.... AND no heat or fan noise whereas my "professional" rig heats up the room 5 to 10 degrees after a few hours of heavy use. If I wasn't in the middle of a record ATM I'd sell the iMac Pro immediately before its value becomes close to zero if/when Apple silicon "pro" models come out.

[Vaultnaemsae]

As a long time Axiom/PatchWork etc. enthusiast (super underrated software in my opinion) I was excited to hear about Apple Silicone M1 compatibility.

When my mid-2015 MacBook Retina started having major problems last week I borrowed my brother-in-law’s new 2020 MacBook Air M1 (8GPU/8core/16GB RAM/512GB storage) and ran some tests on it. It was nothing short of macOS 11 in beast mode — so much so that I bought one with the same spec (but higher storage) the very next day. I am very happy with it overall. It enables things my old device simply couldn’t manage in practice. I have also fixed the old Mac and am thinking I’ll use both in combination going foward.

However, I’m not sure why but Axiom 1.6 seems to perform more reliably under Rosetta 2. I have never had so many spinning rainbow beach balls as I’ve had with the stand-alone version of Axiom in native M1 mode. I’ve had to force quit almost every session.

Are there any tips here? I can trigger it by instatiating a specific third party plug-in that’s not Big Sur or M1 ready (FAS FX Reverb) but it does actually kind of work under certain conditions.

I can also trigger it 100% by running Omnisphere 2 (Also M1 ready) as a stand-alone in parallel with Axiom.

But it also happens randomly/occasionally with standard presets using only included BCA plugins. Multi-core or regular mode seems to make little difference.

Maybe I should just run everything inside PatchWork? But PatchWork doesn’t handle tap tempo (or MIDI clock sync AFAIK).

I tried various interfaces to the same avail — unfortunately I don’t have an RME as used in the benchmark tests on the BCA blog.

I’m a bit disappointed but am also sure there is a solution. It’s possibly user error…Any thoughts?

[Blue Cat Audio]

Thanks for the feedback. That's really odd as we have been using a M1 Mac for demos and gigs for months in both native M1 and Rosetta mode and never had a single issue (hang or crash).

The usual way to get the spinning wheel of death in M1 mode is indeed to load a third party Audio Unit plug-in that is not M1-ready (it should not happen with other plug-in formats), because Apple tries to wrap it with their bridging process, which hangs the parent process.

I don't think it could be related to the audio interface either (unless they have a very faulty driver, but that's really unlikely): we have been using interfaces from RME, TASCAM, XSONIC, ESI, Focusrite, Hotone (and more...), and none of them caused any particular issue.

Regarding the case when using only BCA plug-ins, do you mean built-in plug-ins that are bundled with Axiom, or others? If that's the latter case, you may want to check that you have installed the M1-ready version when available, or you may indeed encounter the issue mentioned above, if they are Audio Units.

[Vaultnaemsae]

Aha, thanks for the tip…I always use the audio units — common sense I guess but it didn’t occur to me as I had saved AUs in some presets. I’ll try with VST2/3 versions and see if it makes any difference.

Actually, this reminds me…now that we are seeing some apps with AUv3 appearing on macOS 11 is there likely to be support for those in future versions of PatchWork and Axiom?

[Blue Cat Audio]

As far as I remember, I think that AU V3 plug-ins should be supported by AU V2 hosts, so I don't think there is anything required for Axiom or PatchWork to load these plug-ins.

[Vaultnaemsae]

As far as I remember, I think that AU V3 plug-ins should be supported by AU V2 hosts, so I don't think there is anything required for Axiom or PatchWork to load these plug-ins.

What I meant is perhaps best explained by a specific example/comparison.

In Logic Pro X the user can instantiate Moog Model 15 AUv3 (assuming the standalone app is installed) and it functions as a plugin (albeit sandboxed).

The same AUv3 displays as part of the Audio Unit database in Live 11 but cannot be opened.

Similarly, there is no way to load the same AUv3 in BCA software but it is not even visible due to the way Blue Cat apps access 3rd party plugins.

[Ocsprey]

Hi Vault - I'm having the same issue as you with crashes loading plugins. Did you ever get those worked out? I'm using Patchwork 2.51, not in Rosetta mode, on my M1 mini. Recognize you from the AB forum - I'm @Aud-iOS over there.

[Blue Cat Audio]

Are these plug-ins M1-ready? If they are not then you have to load PatchWork in Rosetta mode.

[Vaultnaemsae]

Hi Vault - I'm having the same issue as you with crashes loading plugins. Did you ever get those worked out? I'm using Patchwork 2.51, not in Rosetta mode, on my M1 mini. Recognize you from the AB forum - I'm @Aud-iOS over there.

As yet unresolved. Yes, that’s me from AB forum — Hi!

[Vaultnaemsae]

Are these plug-ins M1-ready? If they are not then you have to load PatchWork in Rosetta mode.

I don’t think you understand. Please read me details previous post again.

[Blue Cat Audio]

I don’t think you understand. Please read me details previous post again.

I was actually referring to Ocsprey's post regarding crashes. For AUV3 plug-ins I think I indeed understand the issue - properly supporting these will require the use of a system scanner to list the plug-ins.

[Vaultnaemsae]

I don’t think you understand. Please read me details previous post again.

I was actually referring to Ocsprey's post regarding crashes. For AUV3 plug-ins I think I indeed understand the issue - properly supporting these will require the use of a system scanner to list the plug-ins.

Hey, sorry if I came across as insulting your intelligence. I thought your reply was to my post.

You obviously know what’s going on. Blue Cat Audio keeps improving their products and it’s a pleasure to use them.