(upbeat hip hop music)
(host claps)
- All right.
Shout out to that Willy Wonka type beat in the beginning.
(host laughs)
Also shout out to my braider for lacing me.
Oftentimes I talk about the cameras and lenses
that help me create content,
but the real workhorse behind the scenes
is actually my editing machine.
In the past, I've used my 2020 M1 Mac mini to edit
the majority of the videos that you've seen on this channel.
But, I've been using the 16 inch M1 Pro MacBook Pro,
these names are crazy, for the past several months.
Now the question is, is the M1 Pro Pro enough?
Also, have I seen a real difference since adding
this machine to my workflow?
Now, if I'm being honest, I actually prefer editing
over filming most of the time.
Don't get me wrong, the magic definitely starts
with planning, lighting and filming your shot,
but it finishes in the edit.
There's something special about seeing it
all come together in the final edit.
Now I've been editing on Macs for the past decade plus
and of course my editor of choice is Final Cut Pro X
and the 2021 M1 Pro MacBook Pro is quite literally
the most important tool on cranking out this content.
I also use this computer to Produce content
throughout the work week for my day job
as a video producer and editor for JFL network,
you know, Jon Rettinger and team.
And every now and then, of course, to produce videos
for this channel, like the one you're watching now.
One of my favorite features when it comes to this machine
is the screen, and I'm a big guy, I like big screens.
And this 16 inch MacBook Pro does not disappoint
when it comes to the display.
Not only is this screen great
for watching Dolby Vision HDR content,
but it's also great for creating HDR content.
I actually recently got a chance to edit and film
and produce a music video using this screen
to grade and edit in HDR for the first time,
and I was definitely impressed
with how versatile this machine is
when it comes to content creation.
The mini LED display has a peak brightness
of 1600 nits in HDR mode,
which is more than enough for consuming and creating an HDR.
Not to mention it has 120 Hertz ProMotion display
so every animation looks smooth.
And lately I've been hooking it up to my 34 inch display
using this dock from Brydge.
And my display isn't the greatest when it comes
to color grading, but it's amazing
for gaming and media playback.
It's also very helpful to see how videos will look
on non Apple screens so I have an idea
of how most people will be viewing it.
Now I'm not a super speced-out tech head
when it comes to the tools that I use.
Like I don't care about really the mega pixels on my camera.
I don't care about the CPU, GPU
all the stuff inside my computer.
I just want things to look good
and I want it to perform when I wanna use it.
And the performance on the Apple silicon machines
has actually been able to handle everything
I've thrown at it, from the M1 Mac mini
to this M1 Pro MacBook Pro.
They're solid.
Unless you're doing 3D work,
I think the M1 Pro is more than enough.
In most cases the regular M1 is more than enough.
But don't get me wrong,
you can definitely max these machines out
and push them to the limits.
You will notice a ceiling if you try to do anything
that's like super intensive.
But, for regular YouTube content or social media content,
people that are just wanted to edit what they just filmed,
you don't have to worry about it on these machines.
(hip hop music)
(cord clicks) (computer beeps)
The one spec that I would invest in
and throw all my money at is RAM.
Memory is vital when it comes to
these Apple silicon machines and I learned that
when I got the M1 Mac mini with the 16 Gigs of RAM.
Many of my colleagues were getting the same machine
but with 8 Gigs and they instantly regretted it.
So if you have the extra money, throw it at the memory.
And you know what?
I actually appreciate the fact that these Apple Macs
with their new silicon are taking me out of the mindset
of worrying about cores and GPU and specs.
It's starting to get to the point where I know I'll be good
if I just invest in the Pro machine.
And at the rate that these Macs are improving
the future is looking super bright.
Speaking of performance, the only benchmarks
that matter to me on these machines
are the export times of Final Cut Pro.
Now I have a couple exports to reference for you guys here
on the M1 Pro MacBook Pro.
First project is the DJI Mini 3 Pro Video
that I just uploaded to the channel last week
and this project had footage from the Sony FX9,
the Mavic Air 2S and, of course, the Mini 3 Pro.
Also there were several different effects,
motion blur overlays, and different codecs.
I'll say, if you're actually editing off of a fast SSD,
before you import your footage,
make sure that you select "leave files in place."
This way your machine isn't working double time
and you can actually get to your edit quicker.
The M1 Pro MacBook Pro actually exported
the DJI Mini 3 Pro video in six minutes and 45 seconds.
An export like this could have easily taken like 12,
15 minutes on my M1 Mac mini.
Now the only time that I actually noticed
the M1 Pro struggling is when I used the Neat Video plugin
to de-noise the footage.
Now, if you know anything about Neat Video,
you know that it destroys your timeline
and your render times.
This plugin is not for weak editing rigs.
In the past, I've used my 2018 MacBook Pro
and I couldn't even use Neat Video at all.
But, when you're able to use it
it's like magic for cleaning up noise.
Now, the other Project that we're gonna reference,
is actually the video that you're watching right now.
Now, of course at the time we're recording this
I don't know the export times
but I'm gonna put them up on the screen.
And to give you some context about this video,
it had a pretty thick intro.
Now, of course, throughout the video
there's just B-roll laid and maybe a couple text overlays
or titles, but the intro had a lot of nested clips,
a lot of masking,
pretty intensive color correcting
because I was actually using the Laowa Probe lens
which shifts pretty warm.
And also of course you could only shoot...
The fastest aperture you could shoot
on the Laowa Probe lens is f/14
so I have to have a lot of light,
but I didn't have a ton of light
and had a bit of noise in the shadow
so I used Neat Video to clean it up a bit.
Hopefully it turned out great.
But, I don't doubt that this probably exported,
I'm gonna take a guess right now,
I don't know what the number is of course,
by the time I'm recording this,
but I'm gonna say it took 10 minutes.
Maybe, I'd say it took between eight and 10 minutes.
I'll say eight and 10 minutes.
Hopefully I was right, we'll see at the end of this.
Maybe I was wrong.
All in all, just saying that, you know,
I don't know what a professional is.
I don't know.
I mean, I get paid for the work that I produce,
but, I'd say if you wanna make anything like what I'm making
on YouTube or anything else that you would consider
less than what I'm making on YouTube,
the M1 Pro is more than enough
and you'll be able to get by considerably.
I think that this this machine
may have a pretty high ceiling.
You won't notice it's age, probably for another four years,
if you're just editing 4k content
and things are only gonna get easier
as software updates come out
and further optimization happens
with the software and hardware and the M1 architecture.
It's only gonna get better.
But I'm happy to say that you can go
with the base model M1 Pro MacBook Pro and be good.
This one only has 16 gigs of RAM.
If I had my choice, in the future,
I would definitely invest in more RAM, 32 gigs, 64 gigs,
whatever the max is on RAM.
That's gonna improve your longevity
as far as life expectancy for your machine.
And with these Apple silicon backs definitely invest in RAM.
Just throw all your money at RAM
and of course also internal storage
because the SSDs built-in are super fast
and you don't have to worry about carrying around T5s
or anything like that.
But yeah, we're in a good spot right now
as far as being content creators out here.
This is a very good time to create.
But that's about it from me guys.
It's been a pleasure as usual.
Hopefully you guys like the video, if you do,
consider subscribing, liking, all the good stuff,
commenting whatever.
Until next time, guys.
It's been a pleasure as usual. Stay fresh.
Peace.
(tranquil hip hop music)