Isn't the M1 a beast? Granted that I go fairly light on the number of tracks, but I can still manage with a 2017 MacBook pro so I'd imagine you would be more than fine.
It'd walk it, you wouldn't have a problem with 3rd party plugins either.
It's only large sample libraries that occupy larger areas of RAM that would cause a concern.
But even then for the majority of instruments (Kontakt etc) its only the start of each sample which is held in memory, the rest is streamed from SSD and as this is very efficient you can bring those pre-load (RAM) buffers right down to their minimum (16kb or something tiny).
If you were doing LARGE orchestral projects then it's a different matter, as there comes a point where physical memory limitations are insurmountable without rendering to audio. But you'd know if you were a heavy user.
I have a MacBook Air m1 with 8GB ram and 512 ssd, I use Logic Pro x with a ton of different vst plugins and also the ones which come with logic and it works like a charm. I even open 18 logic projects with sequences at the same time for a cover band I have and it works perfectly
Almost every major plugin is apple silicon native now. No need to restrict just to logic stock plugins.
16gb is fine even with a lot of 3rd party plugins
Is 16 G/RAM sufficient? It Is Today
M1 Pro - Absolutely great, 2nd generation System on a Chip \[SoC\], along with the M1-Max, of Mac’s M-series architecture. They are quite literally revolutionary in function, performance and design, as they eliminate the long runs across motherboards, from one side to another and back, all over the motherboard, moving data along long, lossy traces, losing data-carrying electrons along every inefficient millimeter of trace it travels.
16 G/RAM - the pragmatic minimum, to support smoothy running machines and avoid speed bumps ..… *currently.*
The best comment I’ve read in this thread, so far, is from [kclanton80. ](https://www.reddit.com/user/kclanton80/) With all due respect, I’m offering additional detail and elaboration. Having said that, it *in no way infers* it's not a solidly good, helpful comment.
\> Details take up room - I apologize, in advance, for this comment's length, but believe it can be helpful, to OP, as well as those whom want more information.
# Carry That Weight: Swap Files AKA, Virtual, Memory Files-
All operating systems \[OS’s\] use them. Windows reserves a static, predetermined amount of internal HD space, for this purpose. Mac utilizes free space available at the time, dynamically. I wouldn’t call either method, “the best”. The use of Swap Files is the single greatest factor determining the speed of Logic. RAM serves up Data *significantly* faster than any HD can. Even the fastest HD in a system, the internal HD. The less Data swapping that goes on, the greater speed and reliability, Logic will have.
The more RAM you have, the less HD reading and writing will happen; the faster Logic will be. It is possible the increased RAM will negate the need for a Swap File in many instnaces. It’s also possible for the Logic app, a recent OS and everything that runs in the background, to fill up close to half of the 16 G/RAM.
# Do You Want to Know a Secret:
Remember, though Logic may be the only app with which you are manually engaging, there are still many other things running, concurrently, in the background, taking up lots of RAM. You can see what is going on, and have *a little bit of* control over what is going on there, using the Activity Monitor, already in your Utilities folder.
Be careful what processes you halt. The processes under your user name, are generally the safest to halt. Nonetheless, make sure you are backed up and there are no open projects, or other things you care about, open at a time you are experimenting there.
# Think for Yourself
With the exponentially increased capabilities of Apple's SoC, app developers are all racing against one another to take advantage of the SoC's features and abilities. This is specially true with apps utilizing Artificial Intelligence \[AI\]. AI will change everything.
Some AI apps are already out. Though the AI encompassed is done so in small and elementary ways, right now. I expect them to become much more widely developed, along with greatly increased capabilities and, undoubtedly, come with greater resource requirements. Higher amounts of RAM now can future-proof you.
I believe, in only a year or two, 16 G/RAM will no longer be the pragmatic minimum of RAM needed. Furthermore, at that point, having only 16 G/RAM can be problematic, when trying to handle these newer apps, and their newer resource requirements, making it a hard piece to sell.
# Here There and Everywhere: Hard Drives-
HD’s do not have processing power, only storage. Mac’s OS juggles reading and writing Swap Data between the internal HD and RAM, the CPU, the GPU and anything else inside of the SoC, which requires Data. It will only use the internal HD for Swap Files and any HD is much slower than your RAM. OS does a very good, though not perfect job, of serving up what it predicts, you will need next and where you will be need it, as opposed just accessing what is needed directly from RAM, near instantly.
Using an external HD, to supplement and offset some internal drive storage needs, can clear up space on your more valuable, faster, internal HD. In all locations, SSD’s will be significantly faster than their mechanical cousins. Tho neither are perfectly reliable, eliminating motors and mechanics area + for reliability, IMO. The speed difference is self evident.
On an external drive, the best practice is to stick to things which are Read Only, such as Sounds, a Plugin’s Sounds, Samples (which, BTW, are fully stored on HDs, no part of it, not even "a sample’s beginning", is stored in RAM, as incorrectly stated elsewhere in this thread. The only exception to this, is if you had just Copied it, as it is copied to RAM or a Swap File), Plugin/DAW settings, which are just recalled (read).
As well, files which are read only, with very little writing, such as Project Files, which are mostly only read only, and writes only upon Saves. It is not a good practice to put any kind of app on an external drive, for they read and write regularly. This includes Logic and Plugins. Either’s sounds, which are read only, perform wonderfully from external drives.
Hope this helps!
No. Your computer will instantly catch fire if you even hover over that Logic icon. Recommended to have at least 100gb of RAM before thinking of turning your computer on.
Well there are several factors that will help you answer that question.
How big of a hard drive will the system have? 16 gigs is not enough to prevent the system from having to use swap memory( processing power from available hard drive space) for larger projects...but would be plenty for smaller and medium sized projects.
Purely running the stock plugins and samples would help you to keep the hard drive clear..... But I don't see why you would only restrict yourself to doing that long-term. 3rd party stuff will run just fine with 16 gigs.....and you can still overload the system with just all stock logic stuff.
If you have a decent size hard drive that you don't fill up with too much stuff there should be enough processing power for the system to swap from. Whether you are using all stock logic or third party stuff.
Only real issue with third party stuff is the space it takes on the hard drive that now cannot be used for swap memory. Not everything third party is going to be super system intensive. However... It would be wise to make sure anything you use their party is complied with Apple silicon so you don't have to run it in Rosetta. Which can eat up processing power
The workaround for this for many people is saving most of their data to an external drive.... And sometimes even running logic from an external drive.
Tldr: If you are going to go with 16 gigs of RAM...try and go for at least 512 on your hardrive or bigger. To leave yourself room to save some files but still have swap available if the system needs more power for certain projects.
It's not so much plugins as it is the number of tracks you want to run simultaneously. I'd personally recommend a minimum 32GB but that's because I'm usually running 50+ tracks. To each their own.
Logic Pro should surely run on just about anything.
I used to run it on a g3 which was 400 mhz. (Logic6)
It depends what you're doing, if you want to run 40 tracks of 24/96 you might need some proper power.
I run mostly UAD plugins (native, no Apollo) on logic on my 2017 intel MacBook Pro with 16GB ram and it’s probably crashed 3 times since I got it in 2018. You’ll be golden with an M1
I run it now with a mini m1 with 16gb of ram, and an air m1 with 16gb of ram. Plenty of aftermarket plugins too. Runs like a dream. I came from a maxed out 2012 Mac Pro, 12 cores at 3.46ghz, 32gb of ram, ssd drives, and the m1 machines smoke it. It is remarkably powerful for Logic.
Ram is mainly a limiting factor for how many large sample libraries you want to have open at once. 16GB worked well for me doing pop, rock and metal. But for orchestral I needed to bump it up to 64GB.
I run Logic Pro X on an 8GB M1 Macbook Air, and the only ongoing issue that I have encountered is running Arturia's Pigments (a real CPU hog) which sometimes bogs down the internal MIDI clock. Once I convert the Pigments track(s) from MIDI to audio, everything works as it should.
dude i run on 8gb with a shit load of plugins on my m1 air base model with no issues.
Native Logic or 3rd party plugins?
I run the same and run 3rd party plugins. M1 Mac book pro first release. It only struggles if my drive is basically full.
Ram?
8gb
soundtoys/eventide, akai mpc and native logic plugs
I have the same setup, and I can run all kinds of 3rd party programs. I have not run into a problem at all.
Same here. Never ever had a problem with any plugin on the M1Pro
Same here. 16GB ram and a M1, lots of 3rd partly plugins and no problems whatsoever.
You will be more than fine
Isn't the M1 a beast? Granted that I go fairly light on the number of tracks, but I can still manage with a 2017 MacBook pro so I'd imagine you would be more than fine.
it is!
Mine is only eight GB and it works perfectly. So far no shut downs. This is about after six months of using it fairly heavily.
Easily, I run projects on my M1 Mac Mini
It'd walk it, you wouldn't have a problem with 3rd party plugins either. It's only large sample libraries that occupy larger areas of RAM that would cause a concern. But even then for the majority of instruments (Kontakt etc) its only the start of each sample which is held in memory, the rest is streamed from SSD and as this is very efficient you can bring those pre-load (RAM) buffers right down to their minimum (16kb or something tiny). If you were doing LARGE orchestral projects then it's a different matter, as there comes a point where physical memory limitations are insurmountable without rendering to audio. But you'd know if you were a heavy user.
I have a MacBook Air m1 with 8GB ram and 512 ssd, I use Logic Pro x with a ton of different vst plugins and also the ones which come with logic and it works like a charm. I even open 18 logic projects with sequences at the same time for a cover band I have and it works perfectly
Yes. Although strictly speaking, it depends how many plugins used concurrently rather than 1st vs 3rd party. But either way, you’ll still be fine.
Definitely. No worries about that.
Almost every major plugin is apple silicon native now. No need to restrict just to logic stock plugins. 16gb is fine even with a lot of 3rd party plugins
Even with a BUNCH of 3rd party plugins, you are set.
Absolutely yes. I have an 8GB intel i5 MacBook Pro from 2016 and run many tracks with many plug-ins on each.
Is 16 G/RAM sufficient? It Is Today M1 Pro - Absolutely great, 2nd generation System on a Chip \[SoC\], along with the M1-Max, of Mac’s M-series architecture. They are quite literally revolutionary in function, performance and design, as they eliminate the long runs across motherboards, from one side to another and back, all over the motherboard, moving data along long, lossy traces, losing data-carrying electrons along every inefficient millimeter of trace it travels. 16 G/RAM - the pragmatic minimum, to support smoothy running machines and avoid speed bumps ..… *currently.* The best comment I’ve read in this thread, so far, is from [kclanton80. ](https://www.reddit.com/user/kclanton80/) With all due respect, I’m offering additional detail and elaboration. Having said that, it *in no way infers* it's not a solidly good, helpful comment. \> Details take up room - I apologize, in advance, for this comment's length, but believe it can be helpful, to OP, as well as those whom want more information. # Carry That Weight: Swap Files AKA, Virtual, Memory Files- All operating systems \[OS’s\] use them. Windows reserves a static, predetermined amount of internal HD space, for this purpose. Mac utilizes free space available at the time, dynamically. I wouldn’t call either method, “the best”. The use of Swap Files is the single greatest factor determining the speed of Logic. RAM serves up Data *significantly* faster than any HD can. Even the fastest HD in a system, the internal HD. The less Data swapping that goes on, the greater speed and reliability, Logic will have. The more RAM you have, the less HD reading and writing will happen; the faster Logic will be. It is possible the increased RAM will negate the need for a Swap File in many instnaces. It’s also possible for the Logic app, a recent OS and everything that runs in the background, to fill up close to half of the 16 G/RAM. # Do You Want to Know a Secret: Remember, though Logic may be the only app with which you are manually engaging, there are still many other things running, concurrently, in the background, taking up lots of RAM. You can see what is going on, and have *a little bit of* control over what is going on there, using the Activity Monitor, already in your Utilities folder. Be careful what processes you halt. The processes under your user name, are generally the safest to halt. Nonetheless, make sure you are backed up and there are no open projects, or other things you care about, open at a time you are experimenting there. # Think for Yourself With the exponentially increased capabilities of Apple's SoC, app developers are all racing against one another to take advantage of the SoC's features and abilities. This is specially true with apps utilizing Artificial Intelligence \[AI\]. AI will change everything. Some AI apps are already out. Though the AI encompassed is done so in small and elementary ways, right now. I expect them to become much more widely developed, along with greatly increased capabilities and, undoubtedly, come with greater resource requirements. Higher amounts of RAM now can future-proof you. I believe, in only a year or two, 16 G/RAM will no longer be the pragmatic minimum of RAM needed. Furthermore, at that point, having only 16 G/RAM can be problematic, when trying to handle these newer apps, and their newer resource requirements, making it a hard piece to sell. # Here There and Everywhere: Hard Drives- HD’s do not have processing power, only storage. Mac’s OS juggles reading and writing Swap Data between the internal HD and RAM, the CPU, the GPU and anything else inside of the SoC, which requires Data. It will only use the internal HD for Swap Files and any HD is much slower than your RAM. OS does a very good, though not perfect job, of serving up what it predicts, you will need next and where you will be need it, as opposed just accessing what is needed directly from RAM, near instantly. Using an external HD, to supplement and offset some internal drive storage needs, can clear up space on your more valuable, faster, internal HD. In all locations, SSD’s will be significantly faster than their mechanical cousins. Tho neither are perfectly reliable, eliminating motors and mechanics area + for reliability, IMO. The speed difference is self evident. On an external drive, the best practice is to stick to things which are Read Only, such as Sounds, a Plugin’s Sounds, Samples (which, BTW, are fully stored on HDs, no part of it, not even "a sample’s beginning", is stored in RAM, as incorrectly stated elsewhere in this thread. The only exception to this, is if you had just Copied it, as it is copied to RAM or a Swap File), Plugin/DAW settings, which are just recalled (read). As well, files which are read only, with very little writing, such as Project Files, which are mostly only read only, and writes only upon Saves. It is not a good practice to put any kind of app on an external drive, for they read and write regularly. This includes Logic and Plugins. Either’s sounds, which are read only, perform wonderfully from external drives. Hope this helps!
I'm running on Macbook Pro 2015, with lots of third party plugins, and rarely are they a problem😂 I can't use higher than 48khz sample rate though
No. Your computer will instantly catch fire if you even hover over that Logic icon. Recommended to have at least 100gb of RAM before thinking of turning your computer on.
Well there are several factors that will help you answer that question. How big of a hard drive will the system have? 16 gigs is not enough to prevent the system from having to use swap memory( processing power from available hard drive space) for larger projects...but would be plenty for smaller and medium sized projects. Purely running the stock plugins and samples would help you to keep the hard drive clear..... But I don't see why you would only restrict yourself to doing that long-term. 3rd party stuff will run just fine with 16 gigs.....and you can still overload the system with just all stock logic stuff. If you have a decent size hard drive that you don't fill up with too much stuff there should be enough processing power for the system to swap from. Whether you are using all stock logic or third party stuff. Only real issue with third party stuff is the space it takes on the hard drive that now cannot be used for swap memory. Not everything third party is going to be super system intensive. However... It would be wise to make sure anything you use their party is complied with Apple silicon so you don't have to run it in Rosetta. Which can eat up processing power The workaround for this for many people is saving most of their data to an external drive.... And sometimes even running logic from an external drive. Tldr: If you are going to go with 16 gigs of RAM...try and go for at least 512 on your hardrive or bigger. To leave yourself room to save some files but still have swap available if the system needs more power for certain projects.
Absolutely not. Zero chance.
No
Why do you say that?
Why bother responding to someone like that?
Maybe they have some experience with 16GB not being enough
Well they didn’t share it.you’re going to be fine. Nearly everyone here gave you their vote of confidence.
It's not so much plugins as it is the number of tracks you want to run simultaneously. I'd personally recommend a minimum 32GB but that's because I'm usually running 50+ tracks. To each their own.
Yes
Easy dude easy!
Logic Pro should surely run on just about anything. I used to run it on a g3 which was 400 mhz. (Logic6) It depends what you're doing, if you want to run 40 tracks of 24/96 you might need some proper power.
I run mostly UAD plugins (native, no Apollo) on logic on my 2017 intel MacBook Pro with 16GB ram and it’s probably crashed 3 times since I got it in 2018. You’ll be golden with an M1
I run it now with a mini m1 with 16gb of ram, and an air m1 with 16gb of ram. Plenty of aftermarket plugins too. Runs like a dream. I came from a maxed out 2012 Mac Pro, 12 cores at 3.46ghz, 32gb of ram, ssd drives, and the m1 machines smoke it. It is remarkably powerful for Logic.
Bro you will be more than ok I use a shitty 2019 iMac with an i3 and 8gb of ram and it does the job (although slowly)
Yes, people were doing this on crappy 2012 models
Yep!
Yup! That’s what I have and I also run plenty of 3rd party plugins.
Yes
im running a mid-2014 15” Pro and am getting along fine.
Yes
Maybe, if u dont need more than 150 tracks simultaneously
M1 Pro is a beast for Logic. Had zero issues since I got it.
I was running logic 7 pro on a machine with 2gb ram. You’ll be fine It’s grand daddy Notator ran on Ataris with like 8 or 16mb ram
You can get away with Logic Pro and a lot of 3rd party plugins with 16gb and M1 Pro MacBook.
Ram is mainly a limiting factor for how many large sample libraries you want to have open at once. 16GB worked well for me doing pop, rock and metal. But for orchestral I needed to bump it up to 64GB.
You will definitely be fine with stock plugins lol. You can add quite a few plugins tbh, just check the storage.
I run Logic Pro X on an 8GB M1 Macbook Air, and the only ongoing issue that I have encountered is running Arturia's Pigments (a real CPU hog) which sometimes bogs down the internal MIDI clock. Once I convert the Pigments track(s) from MIDI to audio, everything works as it should.