Do not buy Apple right now .. just wait a little bit for them to catch their mistakes.

DJ RX-78

I LOVE NATIVE INSTRUMENTS!

There is no other way to put it, I LOVE the Maschine (got my self the M+), the Komplete keyboard (albeit I still haven't taken it out of the box, long story for another time), and I love using them with Mac computers. Typically I've worked on Macbook Pros because I also DJ with the Z2 mixer and Traktor. I've been meaning to get some new computers for my home/mobile set up, just one problem... actually a couple...

Apple dropped the ball on their new Macbook Pros and Mac Studio + Display.

I'll drop some links below for these, but the bottom line is you should not buy any new Apple products at this moment. Early adoption with new gear can be a risk, but thankfully with companies like NI with some of their more flagship platforms, they keep things solid with little to no major issues. Some things would be nice additions... internal battery... I know you were thinking it too... but for the most part solid. Yet much of the issues with the new Mac products from apple may be a detriment to your workflow.

What I would recommend is reaching out to apple via their feedback form and let them know why you will wait for them to make their corrections.

Again, I can't stress enough, I adore using Native Instruments and Mac computers as one. It's my bread and butter, it's how I make things happen. I want to support both companies doing amazing things with their technologies, but I prefer to wait for good things to happen. I waited from the Mk1 Maschine until the Maschine Plus. Now after a decade with my iMac and Macbook Pro, I was hoping to make the next step... but not until these glaring issues are worked out.

Since I can't articulate the issues as well, I'll let some other people tackle this:

https://youtu.be/mqHHx3QmuVM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoigsHYc77s

https://youtu.be/jlsgPq_6v68

https://youtu.be/GLgnhI0_O50

https://youtu.be/E75mtGjDRRI

JesterMgee

In fairness to Apple (and i'm a PC user waaaaay first because, well, many reasons) LTT isn't the best source for the best of Apple as they are always looking for the negatives in their products mostly because the costs of some of it is a complete joke to the sane world... Kind of rightly so since Apple like to make their products a "Premium" option and their pricing is highly reflective of that so stands to reason they SHOULD be held to account for even the smallest failure or limitations.

Problem is "holding out" is a life long endeavour because Apple gave up caring about Devs and Users looooong ago in the pursuit of constantly "moving forward" giving no $h!7s if they break compatibility with everything along the way, they want everyone to constantly keep up and buy more products. Gone are the days you could say "at least with a mac I'm getting a solid and reliable platform that just works..." no, what you are getting is an apple product that mao or may not work with the software you have after the next update.

Tony Jones

As someone who was an Apple-hater for years until I had some very bad experiences with some high-end windows laptops, I've now moved 95% to Apple as for me it's a reliable platform, and they do give good support (replacing a keybed on a 4-year old macbook air for free, for example).

Yes they are dear, with a premium image, but I have no issues with drivers and an integrated environment. There comes a point where you'd rather use what you have then spend forever tweaking (and I've build my own hardware and was a certified MCSE at one stage).

Apple could do a lot of things better, but as I'm also a Logic Pro user, I can't help but smile when I count how many substantial, free upgrades the software has had.

This 'don't buy leading edge' can apply almost anywhere, and if you need to make your living from a platform of course you avoid change and wait for products to mature.

Yes they need criticism, yes the AU format seems pointless, yes Logic plugins would be great unbundled so I could use Alchemy in Maschine, but they clearly work well for a lot of people. I've better things to do than preach against a platform and dig up evidence, I'd rather get on with my life.

Kubrak

Well, making premium display that does not have adjustable height (needed for ergonomy reasons), which have almost all displays including cheapest ones. And premium display that does not have pivot, which is pretty handy feature....

Or making expandability hard.

It may have just one reason, get consumer and milk him as much as possible.

JesterMgee

As someone who was an Apple-hater for years until I had some very bad experiences with some high-end windows laptops, I've now moved 95% to Apple as for me it's a reliable platform, and they do give good support (replacing a keybed on a 4-year old macbook air for free, for example).

Yeah hardware wise they have always been reliable. I am no "hater", I actually use and prefer an iPhone because it is always reliable, I have a macBook and 3 ipads but in regards to reliability, their update cycle and lack of backward compatibility with things is what keeps me off their macOS as a replacement.

The trap is when an update comes out and a user needs to update to it because one piece of software requires it, a domino cycle starts where you now need to update EVERY application. This is where developers now take full "rear end" advantage of users because now you have to shell out to update half your suite of applications because the version you have does not work in this new release. It's just not something Windows users really need to ever worry about but this is something mac users need to be concerned with in a 3 year cycle.

Case for me, fu%$!@ng Waves... I need it for PC and MacOS for testing but Waves10 had issues on a new release of macOS so Waves11 came out with a fix, of course I had to shell out $150 for this with absolutely no benefit what so ever other than macOS compatibility. Windows was happy either way.

Then you have these examples:

Well, making premium display that does not have adjustable height (needed for ergonomy reasons), which have almost all displays including cheapest ones. And premium display that does not have pivot, which is pretty handy feature....

Or making expandability hard.

Most of Apples targeting with their insanely expensive monitors, or the complete joke that is the tower wheels is Apple have positioned themselves as the "yuppy" brand which is basically gold chains on a rapper. If someone is rocking a full tower with the $600 wheels, chrome trim, upgraded SSD storage and dual pro monitors this is an instant statement that "hey, i'm a professional".

Each to their own but I find it rather hilarious in business when a user has the absolute latest macbook and all updated software but then has to ask for a significant discount because they are just a "poor musician".

mezzurias

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/12337#Comment_12337

I mean you Waves example seems more like a Waves issues than an Apple issue. I've updated most if not all o my plugins over the years without having to pay anything. I'd be looking elsewhere if a company charged me $150 to update a plugin just to work with macOS.

Kubrak

Well, SW companies should charge for native M1 support. What the hell, why should Win users contribute on paying for Apple Silicon mess?

JesterMgee

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/13828#Comment_13828

Nope. They didn’t charge for a fix, I had to upgrade from waves 10 to 13 because 10 was no longer supported on macOS 10.15. An issue windows simply doesn’t have.

its brow the macOS eco system works, every update makes it possible for developers to drop support so you are forced to update. This is often what will happen as you buy a new machine after 8 years and find all your software needs updating to work so you have to pay through the nose.