Hi All 
I’m thinking I need to make the move to one of the ARM macs soon, and I wonder if anyone already has one?
And what are your thoughts??
(I know Christian uses a newer Macbook and mentioned on videos that it smashes every task no problem, but not sure which processor it is)..
At first I considered Mac Studio, for longevity. But, as Christian pointed out the Macbook is very portable and clear advantages there. Also; I’ve seen that people are using Mac Mini’s in studios now and finding them great.
I’m also open to getting an older M1 or M2 rather than a brand new M3 M4. I’m open to approved used or referb as well as new but don’t want to push the boat out if it really isnt needed.. Obviously it’s my responsibility to make the choice, but I don’t know anyone with direct experience of using the ARM Macs for demanding projects.
I have an old 5.1 Mac Pro with a 6 core 12 thread processor that is now maxing out a lot. It was fine for loads of channels but now I’m doing more work with samples (especially now I’m trying to make a Demo of my pianobook library) it just won’t handle it now..
And I really don’t like bouncing stems whilst I’m going to be changing everything!! 
mac mini. you dont have to get the newest one but if you can get say the most beefed up M2 you’re gonna be set for a LONG time. i have an M1 and the lowest one and it’s FIIIIIINE it handles everything just fine, the storage sucks but maybe if i moved things to an external drive i wouldnt have this issue. anyway point being! new macbooks have port issues aka only a few usb C ports while mac minis still have normal USB ports, mine i think its a 2021 M1 and i got 2 USB C and 2 USB A ports, plus hdmi, plus ethernet, so just a good usb hub and i got all the things the studio needs running smoothly, also the processor is freaking awesome i can run games that my macbook could barely dream of, we dont need the visual cards but they’re good, enough ram to run big ish sessions with something like 100 tracks of virtual instruments without crashing… too much…
so yeah… honestly i would say if you can spend money on it, get the top M2 instead of a basic or middle M3 or 4 cause you’re probably gonna spend the same money but mac mini for sure.
unless you need to be able to be on the go, then in that case macbook pro… but same thing i’d go for a beefed up M2 over a newer M4 cause it might cost the same but you’ll get some 10 good years out of it with no issue
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Many thanks Jay! I’d seen similar opinions re: the beefed up M2 vs newer ones.
Don’t know if anyone else has heard but… I’d even seen a video on YouTube saying that one of the more recent models won’t even engage a certain number of its processors at all with Logic X!!
And that therefore the previous processor would out perform it! Dunnno if they fixed that or what, but it didn’t sound very sensible..
I like the sound of 10 years of use, I always liked Mac due to its longevity (hence my early 2000’s Mac Pro that was a studio Mac and has clearly been kicked in the front in a rage at some point and yet works fine!)
But wanted to wait to see how people got on with their silicone Macs first to make sure they don’t break, as I’m more suspicious of Apple’s decisions in recent years.
Many thanks for the pointers!!
yeah thats fair, its all a mess but at least for now, cant go wrong with a beefed up older model, just because it’s gonna be cheaper and honestly we musicians dont really need all the new stupid stuff they put on cause we dont use it
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