Apple M1 chip, yay or ney?

[Zukan]

I have a student who wants to buy a new Mac. I teach him both audio production and video editing. He is 13 years old and will be starting a new audio/media course at school this fall and they will be using iMacs, iMovie, Cartoon 3 and Photoshop. He will be using Reaper and the design software with his new Mac.

His parents have the money to buy him either the new M1 Mac or the standard Intel based i5 jobbie.

My concern is: will all the software work with the M1 and will he benefit from purchasing the M1 or should he opt for the Intel based Mac?

[Kwackman]

As M1 is the latest Apple chip, the i5/7/9 series will probably be phased out, I'd suggest "yay", to elongate compatibility with future Mac OS.
The Apple owned programs will (hopefully!) be fully compatible, I'd a quick google and photoshop seems to run on the M1 too. Couldn't find out about Cartoon 3.

[Luke W]

Tough call at the moment... For me they're at that in-between point where I probably wouldn't want to go for either! But if it had to be now then I'd probably lean towards the M1 as well.

[RichardT]

The M1 is quicker than Intel chips at rendering tasks - so I’d go for the M1. The Apple software will all work, and Photoshop runs natively on Apple Silicon.

Cartoon 3 is the only possible issue I can see. I can’t find it using Google so I’ve no idea whether it would work!

[Forum Admin]

I'm using a MacBookPro M1 and love it. It renders video so fast and feels so responsive when opening windows/apps that going back to an Intel iMac is purgatory.

M1's Rosetta 2 Intel emulator is very good, and whilst the first time you open a non-Silicon-ready app it takes a bit longer, it opens quickly next time and from thereon in.

Abdullah Diaa's website keeps an app database of what works natively with M1 Silicon:

https://isapplesiliconready.com

Personally, I'd get his parents to buy him an M1 Mac.

[Forum Admin]

Cartoon 3 is the only possible issue I can see. I can’t find it using Google so I’ve no idea whether it would work!

Is the student referring perhaps to Cartoon Wars 3?

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/cartoon-wars-3/id919010633

[Zukan]

Not sure Knower. I'm waiting to find out more. His teacher suggested those particular apps/software.

[ManFromGlass]

Won’t the storage limitation of the M1 be a consideration unless he wants to lug around an external drive? I can imagine a keener filling up a drive with projects quickly.
Then again, the torture of working with an iMac at school while having an M1 at home might be a consideration.
We have an M1 Air here and I think it was a great move for our needs.

[Zukan]

The new iMac 24" hits the bill perfectly in terms of ram and hd....It's whether the software will run seamlessly with the M1 that I am interested in.

[ManFromGlass]

Good point - will M1 projects open on an iMac?
I guess it depends if the code writers start taking advantage of the chip in some form of non-backwards compatible way.
If I was using Logic on the M1 I don’t think I could open the file on my current tower set up. I’ve had this error message recently with a friends Logic file.

[Zukan]

Good point - will M1 projects open on an iMac?
I guess it depends if the code writers start taking advantage of the chip in some form of non-backwards compatible way.
If I was using Logic on the M1 I don’t think I could open the file on my current tower set up. I’ve had this error message recently with a friends Logic file.

Damn.

[Forum Admin]

Hadn't realised the student would be moving things from a classroom iMac to his home M1... in which case best buy an Intel Mac to make transfers to classroom Intel easy-peasy.

[Kwackman]

Couple of points.

It's possible in a year or so the schools will be changing their Macs, and probably only M1 models will be available.

The iMac will still be useful after he finished his course- might as well be an M1.

Some programs let you export for previous versions. I use this on Apples "numbers" to transfer files to my really old iMac. Maybe similar options are available, if needed, on the applications that are relevant to him?

[James Perrett]

I'd be very surprised if M1 projects couldn't be opened on Intel Macs if they were both using the same version of software. This would affect huge numbers of people who need to swap projects and I think we would have heard all kinds of angry shouts if it were the case.

It appears that there is a beta version of Reaper for M1 but for best compatibility with Intel plug-ins they advice using the Intel version on M1 at the moment. I presume this plug-in compatibility issue will affect most software.

[Zukan]

Still confused.

Ok, so the cartoon software is called Comic Life 3.

[Forum Admin]

OK more info on Comic Life 3 here:
http://plasq.com/apps/comiclife/macwin/

It's not M1 native but would run under Rosetta 2 I'd wager.

If he's 13 he's got a good few years left at school. M1 Mac gives him future-proofing, but a new Intel iMac will last him too... decisions, decisions.

If I was his parents, I'd be asking the school what the likelihood of them upgrading their Intel Macs within 5 years will be, and act accordingly upon their response? (That won;t be much help if they say "we have no idea... budgets have been cut, etc".

[Zukan]

Good advice. Thanks Knower.

[Murray B]

A yay from me with my experiences so far.

You may have already encouraged the parents to do this, but if not make sure they ring Apple directly to order the machine and explain that the new machine is for their 'student' child - this will result in a 10% discount on the cost price of the hardware and access to the Pro-Apps bundle which is Logic Pro X, Final Cut Pro, Compressor and MainStage for £199

[ManFromGlass]

Good point - will M1 projects open on an iMac?
I guess it depends if the code writers start taking advantage of the chip in some form of non-backwards compatible way.
If I was using Logic on the M1 I don’t think I could open the file on my current tower set up. I’ve had this error message recently with a friends Logic file.

Damn.

And Zukan - the Logic file that gave me the warning message was from a Logic version newer than 10.4.4 but not from an M1 machine. I could open the file. All the crossfades were out of time. I tried to import all into my template but the crossfades were still off. In the end I had to bounce all tracks down to audio files in the newer song and import them into my template.

[Zukan]

Damn, more confusion.