In mid August 2022 we surveyed audio professionals who had invested in Apple Silicon to gauge how satisfied they were with Apple Silicon for use in a professional audio environment. Here are the results of that survey.
580 people responded to the survey, a third came from the USA, about the same amount from the UK and Europe and the remainder from the rest of the world. In total respondants came from 58 countries.
How Satisfied Are You With Apple Silicon?
In terms of user satisfaction, 8 out of 10 said they were more than satisfied than they expected to be, with the remainder less than satisfied.
When asked those who were more than satisfied gave these reasons;
How much quieter it is. 26%
How much faster it is. 26%
I was able to buy a Mac that was powerful enough and within my budget. 18%
How well my software runs. 17%
That my concerns about incompatiblity haven't come to pass.14%
Of those satisfied it seems that despite the Apple marketing machine pumping out all sorts of data about speed, some of it done under lab conditions, 26% those who purchased an Apple Silicon machine found it to be faster than they expected. The same amount said that they were impressed by how quiet the new Macs are.
What’s most interesting about those who expressed positive satisfaction in the survey is that around a fifth were able to buy a new Mac that is both powerful and within their budget. One of the biggest concerns when Apple released the 2019 Mac Pro was that to get a powerful computer required a serious outlay, or for some a compromise by settling for a machine less powerful, such as the Mac mini.
Moving on to the group who expressed disatisfaction with their new Apple Silcon computer, reasons given were;
It is slower than I expected. 33%
Some of my plug-ins are incompatible. 32%
Some of my software is incompatible. 32%
It is noisier than I expected. 3%
Conversely those who felt disatissfaction cited speed as the number one reason, albiet almost equally tied with plug-in and software incompatibilty. A small number also said that they felt their Apple Silicon Mac was noisier than expected.
Coming back to speed, whilst Rosetta 2 offers an almost transparent translation layer between Intel coded software and native Silicon, it will mean compromises. Any software running in Rosetta 2 will take a small performance hit. Futhermore, if you are running an application, such as Pro Tools, using Rosetta 2, then all plug-ins (even those coded as native) will run in Rosetta 2. This is why it’s important to distinguish between native and Rosetta 2 compatibilty. Given that a large number of our users are Pro Tools users, then we are not surprised by the disatisfaction expressed above.
We have a searchable database giving information on Apple Silicon compatibility for audio plugins and audio-related hardware. For more detailed information visit our dedicated Apple Silicon Pro Audio Compatibility Article.
How Likely Are Silicon Owners To Recommend It To Others?
The final question of the survey was “On a scale of 1, being unlikely and 10 being very likely, how likely are you to recommend an Apple Silicon Mac for audio production?” Using the scale score, this gave the likelihood of recommending a new Apple Silicon Mac for audio production at 8.82 out of 10. 325 gave a score of 10, with 10 respondants giving a score of 1. When split, 47 gave a response of 5 or less, with 533 giving a score of 6 or more.
Conclusion
This survey wasn’t broken down into specific Apple Silicon models, however since release Apple has made M1 based versions of the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, Studio and iMac. It has also release M2 based versions of MacBook Air and MacBook Pro.
It has yet to release a Mac Pro using an Apple Silicon processor, or a Mac Studio or iMac with more powerful M2 chips. Some professionals are waiting for these releases before making the jump.
However, given that Apple has transitioned to a new chip architecture, which has required DAW, plugin, software and hardware developers to adapt to, for those audio professionals who have already made the leap to Apple Silicon, the results are impressive.
In many cases the bottlenecks to fully exploit the new platform are in the hands of developers as they transition their software and hardware. It can be easy to get impatient, however some products, depending on complexity and age are far more challenging to port across.
What this survey demonstrates is that there are plenty of audio professionals using Apple Silicon machines that are more than satisfied with their decision to invest in this new technology.