Terrible performance on M1 Pro 16 inch Macbook Pro

That is really interesting... Because theoretically my CPU should be at least twice as fast as your M1 chip, plus the extra thermal capacity of the 16" chassis.

Through my testing, I've found really obscure things cause all 8 Performance cores to spike. Such as one instance of Waves SSL (Which is M1 compatible) but the other 10 instances don't move the needle at all. I would be able to figure out some kind of work around if the cause wasn't so random feeling.

Also, the cpu will run at basically 100% for the whole session and but then will drop to 30% and start stuttering and throwing out artefacts like nobodies business. I hate it I hate it I hate it.

One easy thing to check is to make sure that if you're using Native Instruments stuff, Kontakt, particularly, you have multi-threading OFF in its settings; I tried turning it on to see if it helped with my processor spiking and it was just a universe of crackles and pops. Send more info; what plug-ins are you using, for example? And I set out to de-bug my problem by loading a tune with the processor spiking and one by one deleting plug-ins until it stopped, which is how I figured out that as along as I wasn't actively on a Kontakt instance, I was good to go.

Good to know George! Thanks!

It does seem to be more in relation to context though. So for example, if I place a Waves SSL channel before a UAD compressor, I'm getting wild spikes until I remove the SSL and then reinsert it. But if I place it after a UAD compressor, no issue.

The main issue is that activity monitor shows 100%+ CPU at basically all times thanks to the AU units (compatible not Rosetta)

I suspect that if you check the expanded CPU meter, it's only one processor hitting 100%, which was the case in my scene. Which would likely mean it's just one element of your track that's freaking it out, and it's a question of finding that. FWIW I only saw a slight performance ding using Rosetta and doing some offline bounces as a test. I'm running it native now and everything's OK. Waves 13.0 here, and only the Ampex 102 on the mix buss from UAD...

Holy **** (I saved Apple the work of replacing **** with ****) that's terrible. What happens if you save those channel strips to a folder, then reset them all to default and start adding them in one at a time? FWIW even here on the M1, the Logic plug-ins use far less processor than 3rd party; some of the newer stuff, the "Vintage EQs", for example, are quite worthy...

I have kind of tried this in other projects. For example, a band I work with sent me a logic project with 25 or so tracks, some synths, some guitar amps etc but all stock logic and it was bugging out HARD. All active cores at 100%, glitching, skipping. un-usable playback. I have no idea why this stuff is affecting certain users more than others.

Also, while that is a work around, it's still total poop that after paying £3k+ for this machine, we have to go to the lengths of not using tools we've invested in after being promised they'd work. Such a shame.

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...

Cool suggestion George, I'll try that.

Yeah I'm on a Thunderbolt Interface. Apollo Twin II. UAD aren't compatible yet which is baffling as one of the big players in the music industry, but hey hopefully soon.

FWIW when I bought my M1 I expected I wasn't going to be able to use it for 2 or 3 months while everybody sorts themselves out, so I was quite shocked that things ran on my end. I spent half a day trying different drivers and firmware upgrades to my MOTU interface before I found one that would stay locked in, and other than that things are running fine, though I am hoping that once EVERYTHING is native M1 my processors, hovering around 50%, go down to more like 20, which is what I would expect...

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 ...

I have the same problems thought it was just me and have contacted plug in companies direct. Am having rubbish cpu performance and terrible cpu spikes and loud pops and cracks. I have been running in non Rosetta mode. My friend have said running in Rosetta mode solves a lot of the problems. I will be trying this but defeats the object of m1.

I hope apple get to hear about this and get a fix for this soon.

I am having terrible performance with 16 M1 Max 64Ram 4tb SSD

On one project I reduced it to just 2 DMD and one Alchemy and no 3rd party plugins. Disconnected everything, turned off wi fi Bluetooth etc.

While playing playhead jumps back to start

All CPU cores randomly jump to 50 percent. Crackles and spikes. It is ridiculous. And this is with 256 buffer!

I used to have great performance with 2017 i7 iMac. Do not know what the cause is but it is impossible to use.

I have Logic 10.7.2 with Monterey 12.1

When I migrated from a MacBook Pro 2011 to my MacMini M1 - Logic was more or less useless, due to both Waves and iZotope didn't support the M1 processor. Only option was to use Rosetta2, and since then I've been doing quite ok, except when Apple got the Flex-tool all messed up in 10.7.1

I think I have it solved! I also had the same problem on my 16" M1 Max - I tried increasing the I/O Buffer Size, increasing the Process Buffer Range, changing the Multithreading to 'Playback only' - nothing worked, then I noticed on this video he increases his Processing threads from Automatic: https://youtu.be/CTWbLt1g2_c?t=120 So, I changed my Processing Threads from 'Automatic' (which seemed to only use 8 cores) to 10 (8 High Performance Cores) and immediately problem solved. The app is not running under the "Open Using Rosetta" option. For my own interest I tried running a very basic session on all of the different Processing thread options, they all gave me clicks & pops, the only option that works was 10. Hope this helps.

For me - this did not work. I have tried to set the Processing threads to 10 (see my earlier screenshot) - but performance was woeful. Running Logic in Rosetta is better - but not great.

I'm hoping that this thread is now big enough and long enough to get some eyeballs on it at Apple and maybe some large audio plugin manufactures.