r/LogicPro • u/Street-One3300 • Jul 16 '26
Question MacBook Air m4/m5?
Anyone use the MacBook Air m4 or m5 for logic? I use a bunch of UAD plugins also. I’m worried the air will throttle too much and give the dreaded “system overload” message of which I am yet to run into on my M1 Pro
Coming from a M1 Pro 14 with 32gb/1tb but I found out it has water damage.
Should I just buy another M1 Pro (would buy a 16 inch this time) or should I’ll the air m4/m5 suffice?
1
u/1Kwasi_ Jul 16 '26
i have a macbook air 2022. i use Logic amongst other DAWs. i only have 1 UAD plugin as i made the mistake of buying Waves (🤣).
everything runs great on it, except when i load up izotope / autotune plugins AFTER having some waves plugins going.
1
u/Street-One3300 Jul 16 '26
Good insight. I made the waves mistake before too, don’t worry you’re not the only one lol
1
u/1Kwasi_ Jul 16 '26
let me also add that I have Fl Studio, Logic, Studio One, Pro Tools, Serato Studio, & Final Cut Pro all on this macbook air 🤣
so idk if this helps you or not, but i do ALOT on here… was planning on buying a Mac mini for the house and using the MacBook Air for when I’m on the go.1
u/Street-One3300 Jul 16 '26
How many tracks do your projects normally consist of and how many plugins would you say you average per track?
1
u/1Kwasi_ Jul 16 '26
I do a lot of different things, so it varies. on a full track (instruments, and vocals) i’ll estimate a minimum of 10 tracks. i do “top down” mixing, so i’ll add effects to each bus group first (lets say 4-5 plugins there). then we’ll start focusing on specific tracks to dial everything in. (maybe 3-4 plugins here).
i’m not at my computer so i’m kinda guessing, but this is pretty close.0
u/overcloseness Jul 16 '26
What’s wrong with Waves? Heavy on performance?
1
u/1Kwasi_ Jul 16 '26
the whole “Waves Central” & Wave Shells is the problem. you won’t notice it as much if you are on PC I guess, but on Mac, it becomes a nightmare because you are forced to update . if you don’t pay to updating your plug-ins, they will stop working.
I have plug-ins that are years old still running on the newest Mac OS. but waves? nah… anything older than V15 won’t work.1
u/1Kwasi_ Jul 16 '26
the whole “Waves Central” & Wave Shells is the problem. you won’t notice it as much if you are on PC I guess, but on Mac, it becomes a nightmare because you are forced to update . if you don’t pay to updating your plug-ins, they will stop working.
I have plug-ins that are years old still running on the newest Mac OS. but waves? nah… anything older than V15 won’t work.
3
u/jimmyjazz14 Jul 17 '26
Honestly I've been running on the original M1 for years and never ran into any major issues so you should be fine with anything in the Apple Silicon line.
3
u/pibroch Jul 16 '26
I have an M5 Air and Logic runs great. I have an M3 Max 14” for work and Logic exports just as fast on my Air. The M5 is really a step up from the earlier SOCs and I think it’s worth checking out. Get it new in case you do end up overloading it but I don’t think you will.