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What is the current status of the Native instrument's compatibility with m1 MacBooks?

Fraxer01

Member
Hello, could someone tell me if NI is already compatible with m1 devices? I can't seem to find a direct answer when it comes to 2023. I'm mainly interested in Kontakt and all Kontakt libraries.
While I'm at it, do MacBooks need an audio interface for low latency or a setup of just the midi keyboard + laptop is viable?

Thanks!
 
natively support Apple M1 Max I guess. I got no problems using everything. There is a bug that I cannot type and text in the search bar of Kontakt 7 in logic, they only start some key commands after I press anything.
 
While I'm at it, do MacBooks need an audio interface for low latency or a setup of just the midi keyboard + laptop is viable?
It's viable, but you'll get better sound quality with a better audio interface. My suggestion is to try it and see whether you're happy.

And why is latency the first thing anyone asks about? That's not directed at you, I mean in general!

There's been a conspiracy to get people to talk about that way before asking far more important questions.
 
It's viable, but you'll get better sound quality with a better audio interface. My suggestion is to try it and see whether you're happy.

And why is latency the first thing anyone asks about? That's not directed at you, I mean in general!

There's been a conspiracy to get people to talk about that way before asking far more important questions.
In my case since I mostly work with sample instruments that's the main thing I worry about. Is there something else I should keep in mind besides recording? I'm pretty inexperienced with hardware.
 
In my case since I mostly work with sample instruments that's the main thing I worry about. Is there something else I should keep in mind besides recording? I'm pretty inexperienced with hardware.
Things like the number of ins and outs an interface has are important. :)
 
To answer your question, no you don't need an interface, unless you need more audio ins/outs than just stereo out from your macbook.

Latency-wise, Apple's CoreAudio has been and continues to be fantastic. All third-party developers essentially build on top of CoreAudio, which is why you'll often see their driver type as... well, CoreAudio!

So an audio interface frankly won't make much of a difference there, if any. If you were on Windows, that could be a different story.. (maybe that too has improved, who knows)

For context, I used to perform electronic music with a bunch of midi controllers and Ableton. Live glitch/mashup/controllerism, so low latency was a must. For years I ran straight out of my MBPs headphone jack into mixers. Only when I started jamming with other musicians / live looping I had to go with external IO. Made no difference to cpu/latency, same as before. Only real noticeable change was the extra thing I had to lug around in my bag.
Keep it simple, save yourself some money, be happy. :emoji_thumbsup:
 
To answer your question, no you don't need an interface, unless you need more audio ins/outs than just stereo out from your macbook.

Latency-wise, Apple's CoreAudio has been and continues to be fantastic. All third-party developers essentially build on top of CoreAudio, which is why you'll often see their driver type as... well, CoreAudio!

So an audio interface frankly won't make much of a difference there, if any. If you were on Windows, that could be a different story.. (maybe that too has improved, who knows)

For context, I used to perform electronic music with a bunch of midi controllers and Ableton. Live glitch/mashup/controllerism, so low latency was a must. For years I ran straight out of my MBPs headphone jack into mixers. Only when I started jamming with other musicians / live looping I had to go with external IO. Made no difference to cpu/latency, same as before. Only real noticeable change was the extra thing I had to lug around in my bag.
Keep it simple, save yourself some money, be happy. :emoji_thumbsup:
Super helpful info, thank you!
 
Live glitch/mashup/controllerism, so low latency was a must.
I'm curious how, say, 7ms vs. 10ms of latency would make a difference for that, especially if you're using MIDI controllers with latency that dwarfs it.

Serious question!

There are musicians who are very sensitive even to converter latency (maybe 3ms going through a digital mixer @44.1/48). But that's different.
 
I'm curious how, say, 7ms vs. 10ms of latency would make a difference for that, especially if you're using MIDI controllers with latency that dwarfs it.

Serious question!

There are musicians who are very sensitive even to converter latency (maybe 3ms going through a digital mixer @44.1/48). But that's different.
I’m talking more about being able to run audio at 128 samples vs 512 or 1024 for example. Which makes a big difference for performance.

In that regard, CoreAudio performance smokes windows built-in audio and is pretty much on par with any external IO, ime.
 
There are musicians who are very sensitive even to converter latency (maybe 3ms going through a digital mixer @44.1/48). But that's different.
I kinda resent what you seem to be implying here. Perhaps you should look up some Moldover controllerism vids, so u can see why folks working in that space might be just as sensitive to latency as “real” musicians. 🙄
 
I kinda resent what you seem to be implying here. Perhaps you should look up some Moldover controllerism vids, so u can see why folks working in that space might be just as sensitive to latency as “real” musicians. 🙄
I was at a session where Steve Ferrone was bothered by the converter latency. My hunch is that very few of the best musicians in the world are that sensitive to it as far as timing is concerned (as opposed to the live sound phasing with headphone monitoring).

The difference between a 128- and 512-sample buffer is like 8 vs 25ms round trip. Even I am bothered by that, and I do understand what you're saying now.
 
I was at a session where Steve Ferrone was bothered by the converter latency. My hunch is that very few of the best musicians in the world are that sensitive to it as far as timing is concerned (as opposed to the live sound phasing with headphone monitoring).

The difference between a 128- and 512-sample buffer is like 8 vs 25ms round trip. Even I am bothered by that, and I do understand what you're saying now.
Oh yea. I’m definitely not THAT sensitive to be able to spot 7 vs 10ms!.. but yea, 128 vs 512 makes a big difference when mashing buttons virtuoso style. (Do check out the Moldover stuff, dude’s a bit insane!…)

I was just addressing the OPs question re: latency of onboard audio vs external IO on MacBooks.

And ime, nothing will be gained on that front by adding external io, other than the inputs and outputs, which sounds like the OP doesn’t need.
 
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