Terrible performance on M1 Pro 16 inch Macbook Pro

OK - so I have been doing some more testing ....

Mac OS 12.1 update and the Apple Logic 10.7.2 that came out today did not resolve the issues I am having.

What did resolve the issue for me is launching Logic Pro in Rosetta mode. If you Get Info on the Logic Pro application and select the tick box "Open using Rosetta" - my projects open and play - with all the plugins loaded just fine.

So - give that a go if you're having issues with Logic on an M1 that is using audio plugin designed to run on an Intel CPU.

I'm looking forward to 2025 when all my audio plugins have been updated to Apple Silicon 😀

Well I just done a test to show the shocking performance of this.

I'm using a MacBook Pro M1 Pro 16”

They are both exactly the same project. Latest version of logic, macOS and the latest version of avenger. The image with high CPU is the project being opened in logic native mode (Rosetta not ticked) and the low CPU being opened in Rosetta mode (Rosetta ticked)

The difference is quite shocking…

So I just opened up my MacBook Apple care case again. My M1 Max can’t handle basically the easiest session. The person I spoke with the other day, had no idea about this even being an issue, and we did a complete walkthrough and troubleshooting test. This was while they screen shared to see what was up on my end. After we disabled all my plugins and vsts, we only used logic stock vsts and plugins. We got the a sessions to cpu spike at around 4-5 tracks, followed by crackling noises. After that we cleared the preferences folder. Which helped slightly but nothing crazy. Today I reopened the case, and once again they were completely unaware of this being an issue. I recommended that they search themselves in places like this thread. After the gentleman looked at my case notes, he was very enthusiastic about bringing the case to engineering. I will keep you posted, and recommend each and every one of you make this call, the more of us that speak up, the more they will work to fix it. Please don’t slack on this everyone.

suprisingly, after some testing it seems like even when running logic under rosetta, setting the processing threads from 8 to automatic, the performance seems to be better and more stable. Projects with a track count in the 200s, which would gave me system overloads every once in a while, and would quite probably give a system overload when jumping to other applications while logic is still playing, doesn't seem to give me any system overloads when the processing threads are set to automatic.

This might be a Logic 10.7 vs 10.6 difference. in 10.6 the performance was noticably better with the processing threads set to 8.

I had the same problems as mentioned here in this thread and found out that imessages was part of the problem. If i got a message my mac would totally freeze up in some projects. After turning off imessages i have not have the same problems with crackling, freezing etc. Hope it will last :)

Edit: seems like other apps like spotify youtube etc does the same thing as imessages. But it seems to work fine as long as i just run logic and ableton live.

I am on OS 11.6.3, and when I updated to Logic 10.7.x it behaved as described above. I went back to 10.6.3, and with Big Sur, works perfectly.

So, from my experience, it isn't Monterey, because Monterey isn't on this machine (M1 Mini BTO).

If the next update purports to fix all this mess, I'll still keep a copy of .6.3. And I'm not going to Monterey until I have to. I know that many of you are stuck with machines that came with Monterey pre-loaded. Sometimes Apple can be annoying.

Only if you've checked prior that your DAW works properly in native mode with VST3. You may just remove all your AU components out of the ~library/audio/plugins/components folder (e. g. drag them onto your desktop), restart the Mac and your DAW (in native mode), disable the "use AU" function (or whatever it is called) and reassign your plugins within the plugins controls in all of your tracks to VST3. If it works: Great! If not: Bummer! Redrag the AU components back to their home and restart your DAW in Rosetta mode.

As some of you have I have updated to latest version of os and Logic. Thought it was ok then the dreaded one right side CPU spike in Logic. Cracking, pops, unusable.

Only solution is to run Logic in Rosetta mode. So bad that Apple haven't fixed this yet, really bad on their part.

Let's hope they are doing a native re-write for Logic 11 or get this fixed asap. Has anyone had any luck taking to Apple about this?

Just a quick update. It seems to run fine with built-in audio only and the USB interface disconnected (I wonder if it's actually the system that's having trouble with USB audio, not Logic? That might explain why it has to be physically disconnected). The CPU spikes aren't back, but presumably that's because "Ocean Eyes" only uses built-in Logic plugins. Obviously I'm keeping my copy of 10.6.3 (haha!), but at least this seems like some form of progress. Time to start looking for (and testing!) TB interfaces, I guess.

I recently got MBP 16 with M1 Max and Monterey. At first I was getting a lot of random processor spikes with Kontakt in Logic. However I’ve noticed now it’s only happening with specific libraries. One of the main culprits is Action Strings 2. I set up a test using other processor hungry libraries such as Arkhis, Thrill, Mallet Flux, Elysion and don’t have any issues, but as soon as I load up Action Strings 2…bam! I’m assuming at this point that there is something in the scripting that’s causing the problem. I know that Ben Osterhouse talked about how efficiencies can be gotten by better scripting. So I’ve gone from feeling that I need to return the computer to being happy with the general performance. I’m also wondering if there’s some sort of machine learning going on as it seems like the longer I use it the more optimized it feels.

this fix worked for me - which surprised me, as ive been having this issue for months, I had tried changing the Processing Threads to 10 before - but it wasn't combined with the Process Buffer Range set to 'small'. For me, this works.....runnning MBP M1 Max with LPX in native mode (with native & non-native plugins) - no more clicks & pops. I too have submitted the feedback to Apple via this link. Let's keep at this team!

yeah 2-3 weeks on now since changing the 'Process Buffer Range' to 'Small' has done the trick - not clicks, no pops, running smooth as a whistle on 60 plus tracks running both native & non-native plugins whilst LPX is in Native mode - all good! MBP 16" M1 Max 64 GB RAM 2TB SSD

Try running it using the built-in speaker or audio as the sound output, just to eliminate your interface as a source of the issue, and set the sound in to "none". There's also a setting where you can set the SMPTE input to "Free" rather than "MTC", that might help, if it's constantly looking for MTC to sync to. And none of this would be a permanent solution, just a way of trying to identify what the hangup is. An interface with a driver that's not updated wouldn't help. And I'm assuming you're on a USB-C UAD box? Firewire is no longer supported...

Hi

I'm reading all the comments and agreeing with most things ...

A couple of comments are suggesting the Waves plugins are native as of V13. I'm confused because when I go to their web site it says - Waves V13 plugins are fully supported in Apple M1 processors. I take that to mean - we tested them - fixed a few things so we can charge for a new version - works OK in Rosetta. I'm not reading that as - we recompiled all our code for all plugins and they are now all native Apple Silicon plugins.

The same thing goes with the Native Instruments plugins but the situation is a little more unknown as NI are vague in their article on the subject. Bottom line is "We are working to ensure full support for Apple Silicon across all of our current products".

I think my issue with opening previous projects is with NI plugins. But - as I said earlier - if I force Logic Pro to open in Rosetta - the project along with all it's plugins opens and it works.

My worry is that Waves or Native Instruments [insert your audio plugin developer here] will never release native versions of their plugins and I will be stuck in 'Rosetta mode'. This may become a worsening situation in the years ahead as new plugins get released as fully native and do not run within Rosetta. What then?

Will native plugins work within Logic running in Rosetta mode? Will the performance issues return again with a mix of native and non-native plugins within Logic. I fear it will become a mess.

Right now I am seriously considering purchasing a second hand Intel iMac for music production. My investment in Intel audio plugins over the years is to great to just leave it and move on ...

In my experience one of the problems ıs Alchemy. Deactivating it or completely removing calms down the cores. I tried it it in all available quality settings but the result is the same. Lots of thread jumping even when the song is not running.