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MacBook Pro M1 Pro , M1 Max


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I was hoping for fanless new MacBooks.

I suspected that the M1 MacBook Air would be the only fan less machine for awhile. Which is very important for the bedroom musician recording acoustic guitars etc. but everyone says the M1 MB Pro is pretty damn quiet too. I am very interested to hear about the fan situation in the new MB Pros under pressure.

 

Hopefully the next MB Air stays fan less with even more power.

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I was hoping for fanless new MacBooks.

I suspected that the M1 MacBook Air would be the only fan less machine for awhile. Which is very important for the bedroom musician recording acoustic guitars etc. but everyone says the M1 MB Pro is pretty damn quiet too. I am very interested to hear about the fan situation in the new MB Pros under pressure.

 

Hopefully the next MB Air stays fan less with even more power.

 

the fans should kick in sometimes on intensive tasks; no reason you should be hearing them at all while recording a guitar (or a vocal)...

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  • 3 weeks later...

the fans should kick in sometimes on intensive tasks; no reason you should be hearing them at all while recording a guitar (or a vocal)...

 

I'm currently using a late 2019 MBP (i9, 64 GB) which used to behave well and regarding power it is certainly more than good enough for my sessions. But lately I experience much more fan noise than in the past, which is a real nuisance when working in the studio (esp. when listening to more quiet passages of an arrangement). I was told that Apple continues to change fan settings (both, on an ongoing basis and with new OS releases) and that might be the reason why I hear much more fan noise now than I used to (I moved to BigSur and to 10.6.3).

 

Anyhow, as I don't want to have a little chip-barbecue inside my MBP due to using some crazy fan control software (they always tell me using them works but is at my own risk) I'm seriously considering moving to a MacBook M1 Pro or M1 Max. Can anybody confirm that there won't be any more fan noises when recording in Logic or simple playback? I don't mind fan noise when Logic is doing some intensive tasks (eg. bouncing a bunch of tracks simultaneously) but I can't have it while playback or recording.

 

PS: I'm using 2 external Apple Cinema displays (27'') and might move now to a single 27'' 5K from LG. How about fan noise with these combinations?

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the fans should kick in sometimes on intensive tasks; no reason you should be hearing them at all while recording a guitar (or a vocal)...

 

I'm currently using a late 2019 MBP (i9, 64 GB) which used to behave well and regarding power it is certainly more than good enough for my sessions. But lately I experience much more fan noise than in the past, which is a real nuisance when working in the studio (esp. when listening to more quiet passages of an arrangement). I was told that Apple continues to change fan settings (both, on an ongoing basis and with new OS releases) and that might be the reason why I hear much more fan noise now than I used to (I moved to BigSur and to 10.6.3).

 

Anyhow, as I don't want to have a little chip-barbecue inside my MBP due to using some crazy fan control software (they always tell me using them works but is at my own risk) I'm seriously considering moving to a MacBook M1 Pro or M1 Max. Can anybody confirm that there won't be any more fan noises when recording in Logic or simple playback? I don't mind fan noise when Logic is doing some intensive tasks (eg. bouncing a bunch of tracks simultaneously) but I can't have it while playback or recording.

 

PS: I'm using 2 external Apple Cinema displays (27'') and might move now to a single 27'' 5K from LG. How about fan noise with these combinations?

 

for now, try working with one external monitor, or none... and you could try resetting the nvram, and the SMC, see if that helps...

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I’ve tried it with no monitor. It’s a bit better but not as it used to be (when there was almost never fan noise except for heavy jobs). But can anybody confirm that there won't be any more fan noises when recording in Logic or simple playback when working on M1 Pro/Max?
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I suspected that the M1 MacBook Air would be the only fan less machine for awhile. Which is very important for the bedroom musician recording acoustic guitars etc. but everyone says the M1 MB Pro is pretty damn quiet too. I am very interested to hear about the fan situation in the new MB Pros under pressure.

 

From Marco Arment on Twitter:

 

I’ve now had the 16” M1 Max MBP at full sustained CPU load (800%+) for 3 hours.

I do, finally, hear the fans — but just barely. It’s quieter than my iMac Pro was at full sustained CPU load.

Hard to notice above ambient noise from a few feet away. Gotta put your ear up close.

 

 

Full load, for three hours continuously, and you can still barely hear the fans above ambient noise.

8-)

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I’ve tried it with no monitor. It’s a bit better but not as it used to be (when there was almost never fan noise except for heavy jobs). But can anybody confirm that there won't be any more fan noises when recording in Logic or simple playback when working on M1 Pro/Max?

 

have you tried an nvram and/or smc reset?

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Full load, for three hours continuously, and you can still barely hear the fans above ambient noise.

8-)

 

Wow! :shock:

That's so cool - and I hope it's true for when using external 5K displays as well. :|

Guess I'll place my order now ... :mrgreen:

 

have you tried an nvram and/or smc reset?

 

No, I haven't as I've read in a thread that this didn't change anything. Moreover my i9 MBP is quite silent when:

- not using a DAW

- not using external displays

So I figured it shouldn't have something to do with "messed up" nvram/smc settings ... but maybe I was wrong here.

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Full load, for three hours continuously, and you can still barely hear the fans above ambient noise.

8-)

 

Wow! :shock:

That's so cool - and I hope it's true for when using external 5K displays as well. :|

Guess I'll place my order now ... :mrgreen:

 

have you tried an nvram and/or smc reset?

 

No, I haven't as I've read in a thread that this didn't change anything. Moreover my i9 MBP is quite silent when:

- not using a DAW

- not using external displays

So I figured it shouldn't have something to do with "messed up" nvram/smc settings ... but maybe I was wrong here.

 

well, if you read that in a thread, it must be true (of course, this goes for my advice as well). maybe don't try those things, in case either one helps... :mrgreen:

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I suspected that the M1 MacBook Air would be the only fan less machine for awhile. Which is very important for the bedroom musician recording acoustic guitars etc. but everyone says the M1 MB Pro is pretty damn quiet too. I am very interested to hear about the fan situation in the new MB Pros under pressure.

 

From Marco Arment on Twitter:

 

I’ve now had the 16” M1 Max MBP at full sustained CPU load (800%+) for 3 hours.

I do, finally, hear the fans — but just barely. It’s quieter than my iMac Pro was at full sustained CPU load.

Hard to notice above ambient noise from a few feet away. Gotta put your ear up close.

 

 

Full load, for three hours continuously, and you can still barely hear the fans above ambient noise.

8-)

 

That is great to hear!!!

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  • 3 months later...

I bought a new 2021 MBP a few weeks back, my previous was a 2012 MBP. After migrating I went though the expected- updating plugins, discarding ones that won't work (I have to keep my old MBP handy to open some old projects that use them), the waves apps updates, some older waves plugins had to have the "plan" updated with that cost, the ilok updates, on and on, that took some time, constantly shutting down LPX, restarting in rosetta, or without core audio, turning on and off plugins to find the problem. I just want others to make sure there will be some work with a MBP upgrade. The other thing is that after reading some articles about how much ram I'd need I got 16mb, thinking I could just add 16 more or whatever if it turned out to be inadequate... well of course the articles were BS. Looking into purchasing more ram, I discover that for the FIRST TIME EVER!!! the user cannot ad ram to a mac. There is no warning nowhere about this, so it's up to users to spread that word. My only option is to have apple do the upgrade, at some cost.

This is not a cheap machine by any means, but that's one cost an LPX user probably must just swallow, get the 32mb version.

There have been countless other niggles to deal with in this upgrade, but here is my main bitch- the new trackpad is a nightmare for me. It's nearly impossible to do anything accurately without touching it wrong, or whatever, constant undos and mess-ups. There are settings for it of course, none of them seem to make it much better. I even taped a piece of cardboard over the lower right part of it (I may patent this) so the bottom of my hand wouldn't touch it, in combination with some fingertip move, and suddenly I'm on Mars. I can't overstate this, though I'll probably get used to it. I could use a mouse, but that belies the point of using a laptop for this work so I can do it anywhere. I really consider this a major design flaw, I don't know what they were thinking, it's a problem in photoshop too for careful selections etc. I can't help but think they've gone further down the path of being clueless to the needs of pro users.

So much for that, other than getting the trackpad thing off my chest, I hope this post lets others be prepared for their upgrade to a new M1 MBP and LPX.

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You haven't been able to add user RAM to a Macbook Pro since 2012... *especially* with the M1 Macs, where the RAM is part of the processor package (which is a big part of Apple's marketing on these machines.)

 

Also, I've never had a problem with the trackpad, and I've been using them since 2006-ish - you might just need some time to get used to it perhaps, or switch to a mouse if you're more comfortable. Nor have I ever heard of anyone complaining about the trackpads on MBPs - they are, I believe, widely regarded as pretty good. You might want to turn off a bunch of multi-touch gestures if you're not familiar with them, as you may be triggering behaviours you don't want... that's simple enough to do with the trackpad system preferences.

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You haven't been able to add user RAM to a Macbook Pro since 2012... *especially* with the M1 Macs, where the RAM is part of the processor package (which is a big part of Apple's marketing on these machines.)

 

Also, I've never had a problem with the trackpad, and I've been using them since 2006-ish - you might just need some time to get used to it perhaps, or switch to a mouse if you're more comfortable. Nor have I ever heard of anyone complaining about the trackpads on MBPs - they are, I believe, widely regarded as pretty good. You might want to turn off a bunch of multi-touch gestures if you're not familiar with them, as you may be triggering behaviours you don't want... that's simple enough to do with the trackpad system preferences.

 

literally: everything that des99 said. plus, 16gb unified memory is a lot different than 16gb ram on an intel mac... and should be fine.

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You haven't been able to add user RAM to a Macbook Pro since 2012... *especially* with the M1 Macs, where the RAM is part of the processor package (which is a big part of Apple's marketing on these machines.)

 

Also, I've never had a problem with the trackpad, and I've been using them since 2006-ish - you might just need some time to get used to it perhaps, or switch to a mouse if you're more comfortable. Nor have I ever heard of anyone complaining about the trackpads on MBPs - they are, I believe, widely regarded as pretty good. You might want to turn off a bunch of multi-touch gestures if you're not familiar with them, as you may be triggering behaviours you don't want... that's simple enough to do with the trackpad system preferences.

 

my mistake on the memory upgrade, I'm generally pretty far behind on mac upgrades. Someone here said I should be fine with 16... generally, but not completely..

"You might want to turn off a bunch of multi-touch gestures if you're not familiar with them, as you may be triggering behaviours you don't want... that's simple enough to do with the trackpad system preferences." I addressed that, thanks for you help

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Someone here said I should be fine with 16... generally, but not completely..

 

ram is managed differently on the arm chips; you can google this; for example:

https://www.howtogeek.com/701804/how-unified-memory-speeds-up-apples-m1-arm-macs/

 

i run logic on my intel mac (mostly audio & synth plugins, no huge orchestral libraries), but i've never experienced memory issues (am at 16gb ram). on the new macs, it will be even better...

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  • 3 weeks later...

I purchased a MacBook Pro 16" M1 with Max Chip.

 

I loaded up some of my old Legacy Logic Songs that used to show fairly high CPU usage on my very old macs (around 24 track audio - under 20 sample instruments and basic plugins) ...

 

The same songs show in the LP CPU monitor as just a few percent (2-4%) at most. This is pretty amazing!

 

I imagine that the original M1 or the M1 Pro chip would be more than enough for most Music needs?

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my friends, all I was attempting to do was alert others embarking on this M1 upgrade from an older Macbook to some of the issues they may encounter unexpectedly, because I did. Sure, as some have posted “most should be fine with 16…” and as I said “generally, but not completely”. And despite this from above “Nor have I ever heard of anyone complaining about the trackpads on MBPs - they are, I believe, widely regarded as pretty good.” all you have to do is google it to see how widely regarded it is.

I didn’t come on and report this stuff just to be an apple basher, or mislead. I was hoping to help with expectations, obviously others have had no problems. Let me add the “evolution” of connectivity with these, spend some time looking into what you will need in terms of new cables and adapters for any peripherals, your interface, drives, etc.. Arturia seemed pretty unprepared to address this, for example. Plugins will take some time too, I had one that was supposed to be compatible and that crashed LPX on startup every time, and took a long time to track down.

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I tried googling as you said, and all I found was reports of failures, not complaints of how well they work in general. Perhaps that's what you mean?

 

I've not had any trackpad failures, nor have heard of anyone on the forums having them. I'm sure they do exist - as do failures or almost any part - but I stand by saying that I don't have the impression that MBP trackpads are regarded as bad, in general. I've had plenty of various failures and design problems with Apple laptops over the years, but the trackpad has never been one of those things. I'm sorry your experience is different...

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I never said there was a failure, I'm gonna let this go

 

No worries, you just invited me to google, expecting me I guess to find something I didn't.

I still don't really understand, and if you'd given me a link or two, perhaps I would have more of an idea of what you meant...

 

I'm not trying to minimise your report, I'm just trying to understand it... but never mind.

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