With the increasing popularity this video gets more and more off-topic comments. For the first time ever on this channel I had to delete insulting comments. I don´t want to tell you which computer you should get, I just want to tell you how it works for me and why I decided to use this configuration. If you feel offended by a computer review please get your problems sorted out instead of attacking other people. I will go back to making music now, most questions have been answered here somewhere.

This review helped me tremendously. I was wondering the same thing: Mac Mini vs MacBook Pro and had pretty much come to the same conclusion that Mini would work best for my audio/video needs. I am buying the Mini this week. Thanks for doing such an eloquent job of stating why it works for you and what it does do. Well done.

Hey, I wanna thank you for your review. You answered all my questions and I'm blown away by how much this device can handle. Great setup btw, I look forward to seeing your next online show.

A lot of comprehensive and well-considered detail in a competently presented presentation. Thank you, Martin! I’m currently looking at the Mini myself.

Finally someone that speaks of performing and streaming with the same unit !! Thanks

Finally a great review video on youtube. Great sound, great video quality. No nonsense talk. 20min well spent If only more videos where like that. Danke

I'm so glad I found this your setup and cpu load is almost identical to mine and I can't do all that I would like without loads of dropped frames and audio lag etc. I'm using a 2017 iMac and now know what I will upgrade to from seeing this!! Thank you!

I honestly struck gold surfing & finding your channel. I absolutely love your channel. Keep up the great work & thanks you dearly for so much information.

Martin, just found your channel and thank you for a great review. I didn't think the Mac Mini would be this powerful. I'm now sold on the idea of getting one after your comprehensive review.

Good work Martin. Your assessment of RAM and HD purchasing is refreshing in that you considered value as opposed to just cost.

That’s pretty amazing what you’ve thrown at your M1, when it comes to production and content creation. It helps validate my purchase of the Mac mini earlier this year, and for the most part I have very few issues. I love the fact that I have to focus less on the tech issues and more on just creating. Much appreciated!

This has been the most thorough and most helpful review on this topic - thank you Martin. I have watched several videos and read several reviews, and this was by far the most helpful. Cheers!

Thank you Martin for this I was looking at the M1 and really good to hear your results.

Thank you for this video Martin and I am very grateful for your effort to make it. Fortunately, I didn’t see the negative comments. Really trying to limit what I let in while still being aware of the world we’re livin’ in. I have mainly been a collector of boxes that I thought would save me over the past 30 years though nothing has jelled into a functional system. I have an Express 128, Roland A50, M - Audio Keyrig 49, AKAI LPK25 Edirol FA101 etc etc And now my early 2011 MacBook Pro, no battery, (swollen) is starting to show its age. Music production is a wish list item, I am a working Actor and must self tape so video has become the priority. I will continue to watch you and others and hopefully I can move the needle and achieve a functional music production home studio.

Hi Martin! Thank you for your in-depth and honest review, It's a pleasure to listen to your voice. I've just ordered the M1 mini with 16 Gb of ram and 512 Gb SSD

I’ve been looking for something to replace my old late 2013 MacBook Pro, and I’ve been super stressed trying to find a new Mac, but this video seems to have helped me out!! You’re a legend for putting this together!

Martin, this review is GOLDEN. Thank you! I've been holding out for the MB Pro, or a 27inch M1 that I can upgrade to 64 Gigs of RAM. Its encouraging that you are able to run instances of CPU intensive software (Pigments, Omnisphere, Serum) without chronic drop outs with your 8 gig M1 :) I also own a Motu midi interface (and Native instruments Apps) and was SHOCKED to hear about the lack of M1 support. I will be hounding Motu for movement in this space. I'll also put a bug in Apple's ear about these vendors. Its a win-win sales bonanza for both Apple and Motu to address compatibility with the M1. Again, thanks for the detailed review :)

Fantastic review. I am preparing to make the plunge and your review answers all the questions I’ve been trying to source answers to across the internet.

Absolutely superb review thank you. I too ditched apple a few years back and really didn't think I would buy ever again.... So pleased the world of computers at least is moving forwards again.... It's that silence that I am most excited about... brilliant thanks again...

Thanks for this Martin. Was thinking about getting one of these. Now my mind is made up. Love your channel and your music. Working my way through the stay at home performances. Nice to see I’m not the only one with a cat who loves music too. All the best and thanks again.

Thank you, Martin! I love your shows, and I also love your gear oriented videos. Um abração!

omg, your storytelling is legendary, I am not making fun, when you explain the scenarios with such technical precision, the story and points come along, very good review, learned allot and cute cat!

thanks alot for this review, that not just throws a benchmark at the system and calls it a day. If I hadn't already bought the M1 Mini for Audio-Production, I would have now. :D

Hey Martin, I just checked that MOTU has upgraded the majority of their devices to work with the M1 technology, I hope your MOTU midi express works with your mini Mac. Thanks for your very detail video , much aprecciated!

This is so chilled out, I reached a transcendental state at 4 minutes. So refreshing compared to your 'Whatsup everybody' videos. Thank you!

I use PreSonus StudioOne 5 as my DAW. I purchased the 16GB version of the M1 MacMini and it is brilliant! Absolutely no issues.

One of the earlier releases of MacOS for the M1 would just keep randomly rebooting. So glad they've sorted it now and it's working well for you. BTW, I've started listening to your music on Spotify after seeing this video, love it! ;)

Wonderful and honest review. Great to hear you speak. As they keep iterating and making the "M" processor line faster and more efficient, the lure to switch back to Mac (especially for audio/video producers) is going to increase. Side note: my presets spotted at 03:47!! Cheers Martin.

Thank god someone made this. The only review that’s been helpful

Hi Martin, Thank you for your honest and trustworthy opinion about the M1 machine. It is really good to hear about 'real world' use. I will definitely be considering it when I next upgrade my setup…

Great, honest review, especially for musicians, thank you!

Thank you for this video, Martin. This has been extremely useful for me in making a decision about getting an M1. Excellent job.

This is a brilliantly put together review! Thank you for making it :)

I am so appreciative of this thorough review Martin! Thank you! I have a home studio and have been wondering how to upgrade for quite some time never able to land on what would work best. Cheers to you from Canada!

I have moved my music production to a 16GB MacMini M1 from a Mac Pro 2013 and I run Logic in Rosetta mode. All works perfectly fine, even Softube‘s Console 1.

Thank you for sharing your experience in detail. I brought some 4K video to a friend who has a M1 MacBook Pro and it editing was so fast and smooth it was amazing. I ordered the same Mac mini as you. I can't wait to use bitwig on it and use the modular software on it and not have the CPU struggling

Thanks for the insight! Man, so amazing what can be packed into such a small box. Might have to pick one of these puppies up.

Your video is impressive sir. Very articulate and informative. Its quite impressive what your M1 Mini is handling. Thanks for sharing. A lot of people on the tube are saying M1 isnt great for serious pro work but its very clear the M1 is capable of that and more. I mean, maybe not if youre editing multiple 4k streams of vid, but audio? Its CLEARLY handling even very demanding needs. Put it this way, Im running a late 2012 Macbook Pro Retina, 70+ tracks in Pro Tools, at 96k, and only bottleneck if i run my mastering chain(Ozone) on the mixbuss simultaneously. My new M1 iMac arrives tomorrow. If my old machine handles 90% of my needs, Im confident M1 will handle anything I can throw at it.

Martin, thank you so much for your honest opinion on the Mac Mini M1. I have an iMac late 2014 and when I’m working on music, my fans goes on and it gets loud! On top of that, I get overload messages when too much stuff is happening. I am really looking at upgrading my iMac 2014 and your video helped my decision to do so. Again, thank you for your great video review on the Mac Mini M1! Oh, btw, I believe the Mac mini does not have a fan. That’s how efficient the damn thing is 😊.

Thank you for the time you took to pass this info on definitely appreciated as I been wondering about this for some time, most helpful thank you

I thank you for this video, I was very unsure the mini could handle such a load. I appreciate your frank, open take on how this functions.

Excellent review - and very impressed with your translations...

Thanks a lot Martin, you have seal the deal in terms of me getting a new Mac mini for music productions give thanks well appreciated.

This helps, Mini is the way for me as well....the music in the background is soothing....thanks for the upload Martin :)

Love You dude for producing top end modern art. You music means a lot to me! All the best !!!

I really appreciated your insight = To see the flip in the industry to such a degree literally overnight is so exciting. I’m chilling to see if the MacMini M1X show up before buying - but this was great affirmative feedback. Thank you again. 😊👍

thanx a lot for this review mate ,much love and respect for your music !

The best "M1 for music production" review I've seen on KZfaq. Very clear and detailed. Thank you!

Very informative and concise! Thank you for sharing your experience. I'm moving my studio to Apple Silicon in the near future.

Thanks for this review. Your projects are likely A LOT larger than mine, so I feel pretty comfortable in ordering a mac mini m1.

Thank you so much for making this video. Exactly the questions I wanted answered!

2015 mbp here and seriously thinking of picking one up, great review 👍🏾

Thanks a lot for this very detailed review/analysis. Really helpful and appreciated.

Danke für das Video! Hatten überlegt uns einen neuen Mac fürs Studio zu holen und jetzt sind wir uns sicher, dass der Mac Mini den du reviewed hast, gut ist dafür ist!👍🏼

This is exactly what I needed to hear. Perfect

Glad to see you like it. I also got the 16gig version for the studio, and the transition was a breeze. All my software and plugins work well under Rosetta, no issues with bluetooth and wifi either. I'm running big sessions, 100+ tracks of audio, virtual instruments and a bunch of plugins, recording screen at the same time and having bunch of chrome tabs opened on the other screen... and the mini runs without a problem, keeping silent at all times. Really incredible, and when software starts to have native support it will only get better!

Fantastically informative review! Thank you Jesus ;-) Your Behemoth streamed live session running smoothly was incredible! Never imagined such power. I detest the Apple closed ecosystem, but hearing you’ve ran a build PC like myself and done the switch- I think you’ve just convinced me on the M1 -bang for buck. Looking at the new iMac too. Decisions...

This is exactly the info I've been searching for. Thanks 👌

nice review! installing stuff right now, and its unexpectedly easy! m1 rules!

Thank you for taking the time to share with us. I’m sorry about those whose comments might have been offensive,

Very good review here, thanks! And great synth eyecandy in the back as well! Is that an Oberheim Expander? Cool!

Completely agree with the MOTU bit! Thanks for saying it for us "users" 😁 Great vid, love the honesty and quality of info! Keep it up

Awesome video! I love that you get right to the point and title the topics. Subbed and belled. Thank you!

Yes, I bought the base model just to test it out, within 3 days it had become my main machine. Not perfect, but I do punish this M1 ecamlive, logic, fCPX, nodejs at the same time, but it always delivers!

I can’t speak for MOTU or Native Instruments but big companies like that have a much longer development cycle than the smaller ones and I suppose a lot depends on how much advance notice they got from Apple of the M1’s release. Having written that, of course Da Vinci Resolve manages to work......However, this is a very comprehensive video, Martin. Great work as usual!

I’ve been using my Mac mini M1 for six months in Ableton and things are working smoothly overall. Sometimes I’ve had strange USB and Thunderbolt drop-outs after waking the computer from sleep, but things always work after a reboot. All in I’d definitely make the same choice again, the M1 chip is such a welcome update for me as long time Mac mini user. Since I steer clear of Native Instruments (I’m definitely an Arturia man) I haven’t had any issues with software compatibility. I have noticed strange spikes in CPU usage when using massive sample libraries but I assume that’s due to paging since RAM memory is limited to 16GB. In such situations I just freeze and flatten those channels as soon as possible. Recently I’ve achieved 50+ channel projects with smooth playback, with some of the channels using CPU hungry VSTs such as Softube Model 84/72 synths. The price to performance ratio of the M1 Mac mini for music production is unmatched as far as I’m concerned, especially if you’re into iOS synths which work perfectly as external instruments in Ableton.

Thanks Martin. Really useful review. Covered pretty much everything I wanted to know. 👍

Thank you this is just what I needed. Great video!

I’m still running my 2012 MBP and it is incredible how upgrading to a SSD extended its life. I haven’t thought about upgrading until the M1 chip came out because like you said, Apple got to a point where the price didn’t match the performance for what was out there. Thanks for your honest review!

My MacBook Pro M1 arrives this week but that’s for portability. I may get a Mac mini along the line just for studio setup. Super excited after watching many many videos about them. Thanks for this

I like the direct to the point presentation. Thanks, my German friend.

Killa Guy! Thank you for your time and your support! ♥️

It really feels like these high performance RISC chips that Apple has ushered in are the start of a new era of personal computing. This is more than just simple iteration, evolution. This feels fairly revolutionary.

This is an awesome video. I appreciate how you explained everything and pinpointed all of your instruments and DAW,s. I’m a big fan of Moto also and it was interesting and hearing you say that Motu do not upgrade at the moment.. I’ve recently purchased native instruments a few years ago, and I haven’t even taken the opportunity to try out the new sounds as of yet. I’m looking to buy a brand new computer I have a 2014 iMac desktop. I was thinking about buying an M2 pro.. but here in the United States, everything is so expensive watching this video makes me rethink how to spend my money moving forward.

I can share the excitement about the M1 Mac too. A year ago I bought a 16GB Macbook with the M1 chip to replace the I7 Windows computer and was also extremely amazed at what it can do. I've worked on Windows machines for almost 20 years, although as a designer I naturally preferred the Mac until then. But the price/performance ratio was better for Windows in the meantime. In addition to music productions, mainly in Cubase, I've also been making timelapse recordings with a gigantic wealth of data for the past year. Of all my computers, whether Mac or Windows, the M1 manages this the fastest. It took me a long time to push him to the limit. A few days ago I downloaded the augmented voices and strings from NI. In a project with 30 to 40 tracks, the M1 then also begins to scratch. I reduced the setting to 5 tracks and then it works again. I'm curious where the journey with the new Macs will go. Ich kann die Begeisterung über den M1 Mac ebenfalls teilen. Ich habe mir vor einem Jahr ein Macbook mit 16GB mit dem M1-Chip als Ersatz für den I7-Windows-Rechner gekauft und war ebenfalls äußerst erstaunt, was der alles kann. Ich habe fast 20 Jahre mit Windows-Rechnern gearbeitet, obwohl ich als Designer selbstverständlich bis dahin den Mac bevorzugte. Aber das Preis/Leistungsverhältnis war zwischenzeitlich bei Windows besser. Ich mache neben Musikproduktionen, hauptsächlich in Cubase, seit einem Jahr auch Timelapse-Aufnahmen mit einer gigantischen Fülle von Datenmaterial. Das schafft der M1 von allen meinen Rechnern, ob Mac oder Windows am schnellsten. Ich habe lange gebraucht, um ihn an die Grenzen zu bringen. Vor wenigen Tagen habe ich von NI die augmented voices und strings heruntergezogen. In einem Projekt mit 30 bis 40 Spuren fängt der M1 dann auch an zu kratzen. Ich habe das Setting auf 5 Spuren reduziert und es geht dann wieder. Bin gespannt wohin die Reise mit den neuen Macs hingeht.

Hi, thanks for the useful info! love the dub techno live sets you do too.

this is what an honour review means. Splendid

Great lucid information, and great advice and tips. Thank You !

We run many programs and plug-ins at work like you do, but we only track 1 or 2 channels at a time on a mac tower with 64Gb of RAM. I was always wondering if a mac mini would have enough capabilities to run all of my work loads at home with less RAM, and I couldn't have found your review at a better time. Thanks again for the great review! Mac mini it is!

Thank you for this review! Was wondering about switching to a similar setup myself.

Hey MARTIN herzlichen Dank fuer deinen SUPER Review!TOP!Kind regards from Amsterdam!

Hey Martin, ich habe dich ja vor noch nicht all zu langer Zeit hier entdeckt. Ich höre seitdem enorm viel von deiner Musik auf Spotify auch die Sachen unter deinem Namen Phelios. Ich habe einen enorm leistungsfähigen Windows Rechner aber bin auch begeistert von der brachialen Power dieser kleinen Mac Kisten. Ich bleibe aus vielen persönlichen Gründen bei Windows im Studio aber für ein kleines Life Setup benutze ich einen älteres MacBook Pro. Das Problem auf den Social Media Kanälen ist mittlerweile das einige Leute es nicht zu schätzen wissen wie viel Arbeit in so einem Video steckt. Du machst so viel inspirierende Sachen hier und auch dieses Video ist denke ich für jeden sehr hilfreich, der über die Anschaffung eines Mac Mini nachdenkt. Die wichtigsten Fragen werden beantwortet. Besonders wie funktionieren die ganzen USB Sachen über Hubs, Kompatibilität von Software, Performance in der Praxis usw. Idioten gibt es leider haufenweise. Ich möchte mich an dieser Stelle für deine tolle Arbeit bedanken. Ich lerne immer etwas Neues. Mach weiter so 👍

I just wanted to say thank you very much for this nice and informative video - and for your music. I learned about it an Twitch-Stream of Jerome Isma-Ae, so kudos to him too.

The 2020 M1 machines are STILL the best value on the market. Apple really killed it. Thank you for this detailed review.

The most informative M1 music production review.

Very reassuring. Just pulled the trigger on a Mac Mini - M2 - 1TB system drive - 24gig Ram. Particularly pleased to learn that stacking USB isn’t an issue, I’m transitioning from a PC so braced for unforeseen problems!

Thanks for doing this informative review. 🙏🏿

Thank you, Martin! Greetings and thanks from San Diego, California.

Thanks for the review. The fan is blowing on mine, I can feel the air when I put the hand near the slot, but it does not make noise

Good Reviews. I got the 16g Ram 2 TB SSD version. You don't need 2 TB but it's nice to have more for Music projects. No lag.

great insight, lots of useful information in this video, thank you.

you answered all the questions i had, thanks man!

Super Info, endlich mal aus der Sicht eines Musikers.

Hi Martin, thank you for your great review of the Mac mini. I bought one 3 month ago and had the same experience. Everything in my set up worked fine except my Motu ultralight MK3. Your right about Motu. I feel they have been very lazy and almost ditched there loyal customers to try and sell there new Mk5. I’m not staying with Motu. Great set up by the way. 👍

thanx for this video. I was thinking about getting this and your video is very helpful

This is the best video so far on this subject that I’ve seen. I’ll still probably wait for the next M1x Mac mini and for Ableton and NI to update their software to work natively.

Great and comprehensive review. Thank you

Thanks for this video. I’m in the market for a new Mac. I need Logic and Final Cut Pro to just work. This helps! Rock on!

Thanks for this!!! Picked up the M1 Mac mini last week. Just about to install Luna..... fingers crossed lol!!!

Very good start to my research like you I have a great PC, but I need a Mac to learn logic and for other Mac-specific apps. Thank you for the video it was very useful! I will sub.