Terrible performance on M1 Pro 16 inch Macbook Pro

Hey everybody, just discovered this thread. I began experiencing a plethora of extraordinarily annoying issues ranging from Music in logic playing back not where I played it, to just everything you named, notes hanging, terrible noises when opening logic or AU plugins, honestly the list goes on to practically everything you have named in this thread. It escalated to the point that I made the apple store fully refund my M1 Mac mini and send me a new one way after the full return date. I am now working on a Mac Mini that is four days old with no 3rd party plugins on it and the same issues are beginning, starting with AU plugins making horrible noises when opened.

They're definitely trying to get to the bottom of this, but obviously it's taking time, so they're probably just suggesting that if a different interface works then it could be a workaround in the meantime. Interesting that it seems related to USB—does seem to suggest that it's to do with the T2 chip issue. It just still seems very strange that different versions of Logic would behave differently, in that case... I'm in the middle of a fairly large project right now and Logic 10.6.2 has been 100% fine—no issues at all. Very strange.

Hey guys,

Also reporting massive issues and disappointments with a brand new MBP M1 Max machine. Logic's performances aren't what they should be (keep in mind I run it with rosetta).

• I get weird crashes on very light sessions
• I get bugs when recording (not 16 tracks at a time like it often happens at my studio but 1 or 2!!), it loses sync and I need to stop and start again.
• Even the mouse has bugs and refuses to click sometimes!!

Currently working with a patient singer/song writer, but I just can't imagine tracking a live band like I used to do without a glitch on the old 2009 Mac Pro.

I'll have to run back to the old machine if no fix is found to these problems. Totally frustrating when you spent so much $ on a machine supposed to give you a huge step up...

Good luck!

M1 Max, 64GB RAM, 2TB SSD. I too am getting CPU spikes accompanied by loud crackles and long waits with the spinning beachball. Note that Logic Pro came installed on this machine. Also I’m not using any plugins that require Rosetta. This problem has rendered this very expensive machine useless for my session work. Very disappointed. 3 hours on the phone with Apple with only limited improvement. They don’t know what this is.

No, I meant the OS. Didn't hear or read anything about a new Logic or GarageBand version. I'm pretty sure the bug is in the OS and not in the specific programs. But that's just my opinion and maybe also of the "Universal Audio" folks who believe the next Monterey version would in fact be the real version 1 of Monterey. ;-)

I am now on a MBP 14 inch Apple M1 Max with 10-core CPU, 32-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine, 64 Gigs.

Using no audio interface. Loaded a project with 32 tracks, using all audio (no midi tracks) lots of logic plugins and NI Guitar Rig for FX.

So far no issues. Will try a midi heavy one next.

I also have these issues. 16" M1 64gig ram 4th ssd.

I started out simple with Logic and RME interface all latest drivers and immediately noticed some glitchy playback. In the excitement of a new mac, I persevered and installed all my stuff... 3rd party Soundtoys / waves / Arturia etc. Some native some not. But in any combination of Native / Rosetta / simple sessions / complex sessions I just could not get it to run smoothly. I tried the audio interface on USBc to USBa aapple dongle, and on a caldigit TB3 dock. Same issue... although I think slightly worse when though the dock (?). Strangely it was better at playback than record. So playing back sessions seemed ok sometimes, but as soon as I tried to record anything it just felt really unstable and i had clicks and dropouts in the audio. I tried for 3 days and then concluded that this combo just isnt good right now. Hopefully it will be fixed with an OS update but I dont want to risk having hardware that for some reason wont get fixed so I returned the laptop today. :( Hopefully some people have better luck than me!

Back to the trusty trashcan....

I'm on a MacBook Air M1 with 16 GB ram and a 1TB HD and have had good results in Logic thus far. Some projects I feel like I can just keep adding plugins and it may stutter once in a while but then seems to be OK. ( I mainly use Waves and stock Apple plugins plus a handful of others. )

Besides having just an M1 and not a pro or max, I am still on Big Sur and wondering if that is the main issue? From what I can tell Monterey is not yet fully supported by many of the 3rd party plugin vendors. See this https://www.sweetwater.com/sweetcare/articles/macos-12-monterey-compatibility-guide/#

I am seriously considering upgrading to a bigger MacBook Pro but this thread gives me pause. So am wondering...

Has anybody here tried downgrading to Big Sur?

Interesting, for sure... I'm a bit concerned that there's a hardware issue here, though I'm also wondering about firmware. Not sure how to check that, but I'd be curious to know whether your new machine has the same firmware as the previous one.

Start using Ableton Live :) Thats what I had to do. I am happy that it is not just me having this problems. I also spend a lot of money on this PRO machine. So I want some PRO performance!

Thank you for your contribution, I experience the same thing.

Hopefully it will be fixed soon.

Yes a lot!

Im currently running Logic Pro x version 10.7.2 (on M1Pro 16GB, 1TB SSD) and it crashed quite often.

High CPU peaks for no reason and random crashes. Mostly while using third party plugins (like Arturia, Native Instruments, SSL and Softube), but also with native plugins.

I also had issues while working with a higher sample rate (96kHz).

I personally would wait till its fixed, especially when you use Logic as your main DAW. Otherwise you could also have no problems with it.

Okay, so I tried the Focusrite (TB) and while it's much, much better than the Audient (USB), it's still not flawless like 10.6.2 is while running either the Focusrite or the Audient. This is all very, very strange and frustrating. I'm just glad I have a usable, working system while running 10.6.2.

Can anybody else on this thread report back on their experiences? For me, these last updates don't fix the issues; it's still basically unusable with my Audient ID-22 (USB) but runs okay on built-in audio (though not flawless—not as good as 10.6.2).

I'd also be curious to know whether those with working systems had plugin updates in the meantime. In my case, the only plugin updates I had along with macOS 12.3/Logic 10.7.3 were from Softube (who released a bunch of Monterey/M1 compatibility updates).

Interesting. Yes I thought all was 100% fixed with these latest updates, and for the majority of issues it is, CPU spikes etc. However, after a few more days of testing on my MPB 16” Max 64 GB, whilst it’s much better, I can agree with you that it’s still not perfect/fixed. I’m still getting a digital click the moment I hit the play button from wherever I am in the track. And likewise, I have a ghost doing bizarre things like a delay echo that will randomly play whilst the playback has been stopped for a minute or so. Sound (remnants of the track audio) just comes through the speakers from nowhere!

but at least apple are on the right path. Keep at it engineers!!

Sounds to me like they've added a lot more playback buffers... what your're seeing may be the buffers loading... Logic always did this before, but on a much smaller scale. This is not related to the Preferences-Audio/ I/O buffer setting. Possibly workarounds for an application that's not yet been completely patched together for M1-ARM compatibility?