In this article, we will be sharing up to date information, as we get it from brands and the community, about which pro audio applications and plug-ins do and don't work with Apple Silicon powered computers as well as other related issues which affect pro audio users. This article will be constantly updated as the information and compatibility status changes. 

There is also more information beneath the searchable database regarding Apple hardware compatibility.

Check, Check And Check Again

We recommend that you search the database to see whether the software, and hardware that you use is compatible with macOS Big Sur or macOS Monterey yet. You should wait until all the DAW, plug-in and software brands that you use as well as peripheral manufacturers are also supporting macOS Big Sur 11 or macOS Monterey BEFORE you upgrade.

DAW Support

This is the support status of the main DAW as we understand it…

Not Here = Not Supported

Absence on this list should be taken as not compatible, initially, the information will be scarce. As soon as brands let us know about their Apple Silicon compatibility, we will update this article and database as we do for all our macOS searchable databases with our MacOS 10.13 High Sierra Pro Audio Compatibility Guide, macOS Sierra Pro Audio Compatibility, macOS Mojave Compatibility - The Ultimate Pro Audio Guide, macOS Catalina Pro Audio Compatibility and our macOS Big Sur Pro Audio Compatibility articles.

Don't Update In The Middle Of A Job

We always recommend that you leave any upgrade until you have some downtime. Experience has told us that upgrades are rarely straightforward, especially OS upgrades as they often have knock-on effects, so wait until you have time to fix the unforeseen problems.

With the announcement back in November 2020, Apple announced a 2-year program to move all their computers away from Intel processors and onto their own Arm-based Apple Silicon System on a Chip (SoC) chips.

Apple M1 Silicon Macs

Apple started by developing an entry-level tier of Apple Silicon powered Mac computers, the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac mini. Then in April 2021, Apple announced the M1 powered iMac and an M1 powered iPad Pro.

With this move, Apple announced the first chip dedicated for the Mac, the Apple M1. It was the first 5-nanometer chip with 16 billion transistors. It has two different types of cores with 4 high-performance cores and 4 high-efficiency cores.

It was the highest performance processor Apple made to date. The M1 chip has twice the performance using just a quarter of the power. Not only does the M1 have 8 cores, but it also has an 8 core graphics processor built into the chip. It also includes a 16-core neural engine for machine learning and has 11 trillion operations per second.

The M1 - The First System On A Chip For The Mac

Macs and PCs have traditionally used multiple chips for the CPU, I/O, security and more. Now with M1, these technologies are combined into a single SoC, delivering a whole new level of integration for greater performance and power efficiency. M1 also features a unified memory architecture that brings together high-bandwidth, low-latency memory into a single pool within a custom package. This allows all the technologies in the SoC to access the same data without copying it between multiple pools of memory, further improving performance and efficiency.

The M1 SoC features an 8-core CPU consisting of four high-performance cores and four high-efficiency cores. Each of the high-performance cores has been designed to provide high performance for single-threaded tasks while running as efficiently as possible.

On-Chip MachIne Learning

Not only does the M1 have CPU and GPU on the same chip it also adds a Neural Engine to the Mac platform, specifically to handle machine learning (ML) tasks. Featuring Apple’s most advanced 16-core architecture capable of 11 trillion operations per second, the Neural Engine in M1 enables up to 15x faster machine learning performance. In fact, the M1 system on a chip has been designed to excel at machine learning, with ML accelerators in the CPU and a powerful GPU, so tasks like video analysis, voice recognition and image processing will have a level of performance never seen before on the Mac.

Graphics Processor On The Same Chip

The new M1 chip includes Apple’s most advanced GPU. It benefits from years of analysis of Mac applications, including everyday apps and challenging pro workloads. The GPU in M1 features up to eight cores capable of running nearly 25,000 threads simultaneously. The GPU has been designed to handle extremely demanding tasks with ease, from smooth playback of multiple 4K video streams to rendering complex 3D scenes. With 2.6 teraflops of throughput, M1 has the world’s fastest integrated graphics in a personal computer.

All M1 chips feature an 8-core GPU with the exception of the M1 chip used in the entry-level ‌MacBook Air‌, which has a 7-core GPU.

The 8-core GPU versions found in the MacBook Air, Mac mini and MacBook Pro are compatible with up to a 6K display, including Apple's Pro Display XDR. Whereas, the previous-generation Intel-based Mac mini and Intel-based entry-level 13-inch MacBook Pro were only able to support up to a 5K display.

No Support For External Graphics Processor Units With Apple M1 Powered Computers

Apple's new M1-equipped MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac mini are not compatible with eGPUs, including the Blackmagic eGPU that Apple had promoted alongside other Macs and that is available through the online store.

Apple Mac M1 - How To Workaround Extended Display Limitation

During our testing, we have discovered that Dual Extended display support is not possible on either the M1 Apple MacBook Air or M1 MacBook Pro. We learnt that this is not a limitation of CalDigit’s Thunderbolt or USB-C docks, but of the Thunderbolt 3 ports on the M1-based Macs.

In our research, we leant that YouTuber Ruslan Tulupov has made a video showing a workaround and showing 6 displays running on the Mac M1 computers. Check out our article Apple Mac M1 - How To Workaround Extended Display Limitation.

Why The Apple M1 Chip Is So Fast - A Developer Explains

You may have wondered why the Apple M1 Chip is so fast? We have shown, with both the benchmark tests and our own more practical tests for Pro Tools, Logic and Studio One, even these first-generation Apple Silicon M1 powered Mac computers are remarkably fast. In this article, Why The Apple M1 Chip Is So Fast - A Developer Explains, we learn from a developer as to what makes, even these entry-level Macs, so fast.

macOS Big Sur Optimized for M1

macOS Big Sur was the first operating system to be designed for Apple Silicon and so for the first time on a Mac, Apple is able to design the operating system and the silicon together as they have been doing for iPhones and iPads for some years now. They are claiming launching apps is nearly instantaneous, while Safari really ‘shines on Apple Silicon’ as well as 1.5x speedier at running JavaScript and what they claim to be ‘1.9x more responsive’. 

There is a hardware-verified secure boot, automatic high-performance encryption, macOS run-time protections.

With Big Sur and M1, Apple said that users will be able to run a greater range of apps than ever before. All of Apple’s Mac applications are now Universal and run natively on M1 systems.

For pro-audio, Apple claims you will be able to run 3x more instruments and effect plugins in Logic Pro. For video editors, Final Cut Pro can run up to 6x faster.

Rosetta 2

Existing Mac apps that have not been updated to Universal should run seamlessly with Apple’s Rosetta 2 technology. Apple said that some apps perform better under Rosetta than running natively on Macs with old integrated graphics and for the first time iPhone and iPad apps can now run directly on Mac. Additionally, the foundations of Big Sur are optimised to unlock the power of Apple Silicon, including developer technologies from Metal for graphics, and Core ML for machine learning.

If you want to learn more about how Rosetta 2 and Universal 2 will impact audio applications including DAWs and plugins then read our articles…

Apple Silicon - How This Will Affect You And Other Audio Professionals

In this article, Apple Silicon - How This Will Affect You And Other Audio Professionals, we are covering more developments that have come to light including news that Apple Silicon Macs will not be using 3rd party graphics processing, Arm processing will be coming to the Windows platform, progress on audio software running on Apple Silicon using Rosetta 2 and when and what Apple Silicon Mac computers we will see coming onto the market.

Apple Silicon - A Developer Helps To Explain The Impact

There is obviously a lot of detail about how Rosetta 2 and Universal 2 are going to work, and we wanted to explore the reality of how these will impact the pro-audio sector. In this article, Apple Silicon - A Developer Helps To Explain The Impact, with the help of an audio software developer, we try to explain some of the challenges as it pertains to audio software, Big Sur and Apple Silicon.

iLok Is Supported - Other Copy Protection Systems May Not Be - Check First

For those of us watching the reports of the performance of the new Apple Silicon equipped Macs there has been a major impediment to pro audio users wishing to try one of these M1 Macs. The only officially supported DAW was initially Logic Pro but even Logic users would be restricted in their plugin choices until all their third party plugins are compatible. Early adopters like FabFilter and Blue Cat Audio were compatible very quickly but as so many premium plugins use Pace’s iLok technology unless that is capable of running natively on an Apple Silicon Mac then a very large number of plugins won’t work.

PACE Anti-Piracy today issued the following statement on Rosetta 2 compatibility for all users of their products and services…

“PACE technologies including iLok are Rosetta 2 compliant and have been since end of August 2020”.

Whatever you think about PACE and iLok, brands use iLok to protect their investment in developing products. What this means is that for any software developer, they will need PACE’s software to be able to run natively on Apple Silicon, before they can release a native version.

This includes Pro Tools and many top plugin brands. It may also be the case that other protection systems being employed by different developers may also present similar challenges for the Silicon transition.

Anyone thinking of buying an Apple Silicon powered Mac in 2021 you are going to be dependent on Rosetta 2 translation for some time, possibly until the second half of 2021.

We Test The Entry Level Apple Silicon Powered Macs With The Key DAWs

Across a series of articles, we tested the M1 MacBook Pro, running Logic Pro X natively, as well as Pro Tools and Studio One running via Rosetta. We also checked the M1 Mac mini running Pro Tools. Check out these articles to turn how we got on…

Apple MacBook Pro 13" M1 Audio Power Test - Logic Pro With Space Designer

Apple MacBook Pro 13" M1 Audio Power Test - Pro Tools - Unsupported - What Could Go Wrong?

Apple MacBook Pro M1 Audio Power Test - Studio One

Is It Too Early To Upgrade To Apple Silicon?

Initially, with the entry point tier of M1 powered Macs, the simple answer was yes.

In our article Want A New Apple Mac For Audio? Read This First written in November 2020 after the first 3 M1 Mac computers had been announced, we explored where we are at if you are thinking of buying a new Apple Silicon Mac to use as a studio computer for either music production or post-production then it's worth considering these things first before making the leap to the new M1 powered Apple Mac.

What’s Next? Apple M1 Pro And M1 Max

On October 18th, Apple Announced New 14-Inch And 16-Inch MacBook Pros With M1 Pro And M1 Max at its "Unleashed" event, which coincided with two major Apple product anniversaries

The 20th anniversary of the original iPod being announced. On October 23rd 2001 Steve Jobs unveiled the original iPad in front of the press at Apple’s old Infinite Loop headquarters. You may remember that Steve presented the iPod as offering "1,000 songs in your pocket" and compared it’s "ultra-portable" size to a pack of cards, which was unique at the time.

The 30th anniversary of the original PowerBook's introduction. These PowerBook models were Apple's first proper laptops using a hinged screen form factor were revealed on October 21st 1991 and are still very much in use today.

The First Pro Chip Designed For The Mac - The M1 Pro

With the new Apple Silicon M1 Pro, the CPU part is the same on both chips, with a 10-core processor made up of eight high-performance cores and two energy-efficient cores. The difference is in the GPU part of the SoC. The new 2nd-gen chip has 16 graphics cores. This compares to 8 CPU cores, four high-performance cores and four energy-efficient cores and only 8 graphics cores with 32GB of RAM.

It can support up to 2 external displays as well as the built-in screen.

The Second Pro Chip Designed For The Mac - The M1 Max

The second chip is the M1 Max, the CPU part is the same on both chips, with a 10-core processor made up of eight high-performance cores and two energy-efficient cores. The difference is in the GPU part of the SoC. The new 2nd-gen chip has 32 graphics cores. This compares to 8 CPU cores, four high-performance cores and four energy-efficient cores and only 8 graphics cores with 64GB of RAM.

The M1 Max has 7x faster than PC integrated graphics at the same power. Similar performance to discrete graphics but with 70% less power. It can support up to 4 external displays as well as the built-in screen.

Compared to the fastest PC laptop Apple could find, the M1 Max uses 100W less power with similar performance with Machine Learning tasks between 3 and 20 times faster than before.

Graphics Performance

Both new models will come with new high-resolution miniLED displays, which we understand were one of the reasons for the delays in announcing these new 2nd Gen Apple Silicon laptops.

The 14-inch model has a screen resolution of 3024 x 1964 pixels with the larger 16-inch model having a resolution of 3456 x 2234 pixels.

The screen is a ‘Liquid Retina XDR, which Apple says is “the best display ever in a notebook features Extreme Dynamic Range and a million to one contrast ratio. HDR content comes to life in photos, video, and games — with refined specular highlights, incredible detail in shadows, and vibrant, true-to-life colours. Each display is factory calibrated and features pro reference modes for HDR colour grading, photography, design, and print production.

ProMotion comes to Mac for the first time, making everything from scrolling through a web page to gaming super fluid and responsive — while also reducing power consumption. With refresh rates of up to 120Hz, the adaptive technology automatically adjusts to match the movement of the content. ProMotion video editors can also choose a fixed refresh rate that precisely aligns with their footage.”

The graphics performance M1 Pro chip in a 16-inch MacBook Pro is 2.5 times better than the Intel Powered 16” MacBook Pro with the Radeon 5600M graphics card, whereas the 16” MacBook Pro with the M1 Max SoC with double the graphics cores is 4 times faster than the Intel MBP with the Radeon graphics card.

The M1 Max can drive up to 75 million pixels across the internal screen and four external displays.

More Ports

We are glad to see that Apple has reversed its policy of minimal ports, which forced us to use a raft of port extenders and adaptors. Back are an HDMI port, making it much easier to plug in another screen or projector and a much missed SD card slot.

There are three Thunderbolt 4 ports, 2 on the left and 1 on the right side.

Learn More

If you want to know more about the M1 Pro, M1 Max and the 14-Inch & 16-Inch MacBook Pro laptops they power then check out our articles Apple Announce New MacBook Pros With M1 Pro And M1 Max and MacBook Pro 2021 Geekbench Benchmarks Show Impressive Results For Pro Users.

Apple Release macOS Monterey

In this article, we will be sharing up to date information, as we get it from brands and the community, about which pro audio applications and plug-ins do and don't work with macOS 12 Monterey as well as other related issues which affect pro audio users. This article will be constantly updated as the information and compatibility status change.

With the release of macOS Monterey, on Monday, October 18th 2021, for the first time Apple jumps up one full integer between two consecutive macOS updates but with different versions of Big Sur being ‘point’ upgrades we suggest it left Apple with nowhere to go. It also cements Apple’s plan to move to Apple Silicon, confirmed by the release of the first 2nd-gen Apple Silicon computers with the release of the new M1 Pro and M1 Max powered 14-Inch and 16-Inch Mac Book Pro laptops.

There are still a lot of the tools we use that are not ready to run natively on Apple Silicon so we are going to continue the services of Rosetta 2, which enables Intel coded apps and plugins to run in Big Sur on Apple Silicon computers.

Support Dropped For Some Older Macs

macOS Monterey is compatible with most of the Macs that were that supported macOS Big Sur, but it drops support for some older MacBook Air and iMac models from 2013 and 2014.

These are the Macs that are approved for macOS Monterey…

• iMac - Late 2015 and later

• iMac Pro - 2017 and later

• MacBook Air - Early 2015 and later

• MacBook Pro - Early 2015 and later

• Mac Pro - Late 2013 and later

• Mac mini - Late 2014 and later

• MacBook - Early 2016 and later

Learn More

If you want to learn more about macOS Monterey and check if your favourite DAW and plugins are compatible with macOS 12 Monterey then check out our article macOS Monterey Compatibility - The Ultimate Pro Audio Guide when it is published.

Welcome to Logic Pro 10.7, now with Dolby Atmos. That sounds like a lot for most of us music makers who have likely never even touched Logic's surround functions to digest. It is, and it isn't. The new integrated native Dolby Atmos functionality focuses on music production for Apple Music and streaming. There are default settings under the hood in the Dolby Atmos Master file (ADM BWF file) that Logic Pro creates and exports that take care of many things for us behind the scenes. So, this truly is Dolby Atmos for the rest of us. No sound engineering degrees are required!

To learn more about Logic Pro 10.7 with integrated Dolby Atmos support then check out our article Logic Pro 10.7 Launched With Dolby Atmos And More.

Updates

As we said at the beginning, we will continue to update both this article and the searchable database as new information comes to light.