Hey Teej, just downgraded to 2021.3 but one thing I notice and would like you to check (it's probably not a big deal in actual use) is your memory usage in 2021.3...so I just opened a project and already showing 69% RAM usage whereas on 2021.6 this same project was only using about 19%...granted I don't see the beachball and it does seem "snappier" but I'm on a M1 with only 8 Gigs (I bought the base model mainly to test)...I have gotten Avids warning in the past "You need to add more physical ram you sorry cheapskate" on this release but so far nothing drops out or crashes...just wondering what your specs show or if its an issue at all really...it could simply be the way PT reports to the system.

Interesting. 2021.6 added support for M1 under Rosetta and it is running worse than 2021.3? Did you do the preference deleting dance? I'll have to test it out on my 16/1TB M1 Mini. I've mostly been using Cubase 11 and Ableton without any issues.

D

Can anyone recommend a decent alternative for OBS that is running natively on the M1 Macs?

I guess I can try the built in screenshot app and see how that goes, but in the past it summed everything to mono on me for some reason, possibly because I was using a mic.

I haven not noticed something like this on 2021.3.1. 2021.6 has lots of beach balls though.

didn't do the preference deleting dance. 2021.3.1 are both installed (renamed 2021.3.1 .app before installing .6)

.6 was great except for beachballing and it gave me two hard crashes. 3.1 feels snappier and is stable for me. If I have some downtime this month I may try putting macOS 11.5.1 on the machine (11.2.3 right now) and doing some preference dancing, but my understanding is it won't change the fundamental issues with .6. ***

8GB of ram is very little for a PT system in 2021, M1 or not. If 2021.3.1 is using a lot more memory than .6 it doesn't feel like it. It's completely unsupported so I'm not asking too many questions

...if the next PT version is still gimped on M1 compared to 2021.3.1, there will be a lot of questions.

***EDIT: JFreak on the DUC says he has no beachball with a clean install of macOS 11.5.1 and PT 2021.6. He emphasises clean install, not factory install. waiting for that downtime to try it out....

I'm going to have to comment on this...I still have a Mac Pro 5,1 Quad with 64 gigs of Ram, SSD/etc...I installed a Titan Ridge card to run Thunderbolt and it works flawlessly with my Apollo Twin...

This little Mac Mini M1 blows it out of the water in ProTools...8 gigs vs 64...and 8 gigs wins hands down...not even close:

I can run 26 instances of Abbey Roads Chambers on the M1 and it barely breaks a sweat...I can run maybe half that many on the Mac Pro with 64 G Ram...

I get that Avid wants you to have at least 16 gigs but the new architecture here in play by Apple changes how ram is used...it used to be the predominant issue for performance...it is no longer.

The performance is staggering but how much swap is happening on that 8GB machine? SSD longevity is a concern.

I just got my mini m1 the other day and installed pt .6 fresh on my System. It was stable but alot of beachballing. 3.1 is for sure alot more fun for me

I agree. My 8gb machine is fantastic. I use iStat Menus to keep an eye on cpu/memory useable on the menu bar. Memory fills up to like 60% quite quickly, even in normal use, but then it'll top out at like 80% even in really heavy use. That's where the compression and swap is coming into play. It's all seamless, though, and seems to work really really well.

I also tinker with Final Cut and even movie projects are no sweat for it.

I think the newer version of ProTools is a sign of things to come...while it did give me the beach ball more than 2016.3 it was waaay less RAM usage...like 50-70% less...thats a huge factor meaning that Avid has some really sloppy code issues to work out...but then again its Avid, they typically release and then trouble-shoot based on customer complaints instead of testing before release.

This was some great advice. After a bunch of testing I narrowed the problem down to a simple delay plugin: Sandman by Unfiltered Audio. A single instance was enough to cause playback to hiccup giving me "System Overload" errors constantly. After removing all instances my projects are flying with less than 50% cpu usage - just like I expected from this brand new machine.

Incidentally Acustica's Sienna is causing forced quitting of Logic even though it's supposed to be M1 native ready. I have a support ticket in on that now.

Loving Logic on the M1 now that it's behaving as advertised.

Apparently there's a difference between a factory install and a clean install...the latter having no beachballing with 2021.6. This is according to only one source I've found. (JFreak on the DUC)

I am willing to try it but it will only be this weekend before I possibly have a chance, maybe next.

Sorry my ignorance. What is the difference?

Factory = direct from apple, maybe has some extra software, might not be latest OS build.
Clean = fresh OS install on a formatted drive

Another user commented they tried a clean install with an M1 iMac and .6 was still beachballing. I may just wait for the next PT version this year and try a clean install with that.

ok thx, maybe I did some os updates but I did install pt directly after the os updates on a brand new m1 Mac and got some beachballs. Anyway loooking forward to hear your report.

Working great! 16GB Ram / 1TB SSD version. Loaded plugins from Waves, Slate, Lexicon, IK Multimedia, etc, all working great!

Faster than my upgraded 2012 MacPro by about half. Super pleased!

Game changer!, it really catches my attention how the M1 manages here, how much better things are going when playing live a stack of 5 or 6 instruments in logic with scaler or Cthulhu. Before I had problems (mac mini i7) now I was able to stack twice as much without worries. Very important for me. Incredible, I am so thankful that apple made something so cheap and so powerful, and this is just the beginning.

This one's for the Rogue Amoeba users out there (I use SoundSource to host IK ARC 3 room correction)...

Looks like SoundSource 5.3 from Rogue Amoeba is M1-compatible. And Intel-only plugins will run under Rosetta.

https://weblog.rogueamoeba.com/2021/...undsource-5-3/
(scroll to the bottom)

I use SoundSource to host my DiracLive plugin. It works wonderfully. It actually always worked fine on M1, but its nice now that's native.

Didn't feel like reading the 50 previous pages.

For those of you running the M1 MBPs, how are you managing I/O with the limit of 2 TB ports, with one being power? Assuming non Mac mini M1.

It was a limiting factor for me, with my fast Storage being TB3 and Multi-Monitor over Display Port (TB) & HDMI. After seeing that the 16" MBP M1 (major refresh) just got pushed out, I popped for one of the new non-M1 MBPs (which scores very well on GeekBench/ Right behind the M1 models); and I was just able to connect everything up regarding peripherals/storage.

Thunderbolt 4 hubs.

There is no 16” MBP M1 [yet]

Oh, I'm aware. That's why I mentioned that it's release got "pushed out". The latest news is that the 16" (m1x/m2 whatever we want to call it) won't see 2021. The reason I mentioned it is because it will have much more flexible I/O and the return of the dedicated MagSafe power, freeing up I/O.

Not sure where you read that but the whole road map was just leaked. 14 and 16 are coming by November of this year at the latest. Upgraded Mac mini early next year and smaller form factor Mac Pro coming after that.

somebody tried Pro Tools 2021.7 with a M1 machine yet ?

I just downloaded it and tried it on my M1 mac mini...opened a few projects that used to give me beachballs...seems to be much improved, but to be honest I never had a lot of the spinning beachball issues that others complained about...I actually downgraded to 2016.3 for a week and then went back to .6 because I hated the Ram usage difference...my spinning balls were not as beachy as everyone else's so to speak.

2016.7 seems a little snappier than .6 and obviously the beach is not spinning seems calm...

I'm not sure what the update addresses but so far no issues.

Perhaps others just like to beach about their spinning balls...

typically i take all the mac leaks w/a grain of salt but this looks pretty solid.

https://www.macrumors.com/2021/08/02...apple-watches/

This might be my next "last studio purchase"...sell off my older stuff...renovate an RV as a travelling studio and get the hell outta dodge.

That only make sense with a Mini. With a Macbook you want a big internal and not lugging around anything but your portable backup SSD. I paid for 1TB inside the MBP. I won't live to regret that even one day.