(Mac Newbie) Dedicated Audio Drive Needed?
 

With an M1 Mac Mini, would I still need a dedicated external audio drive for Pro Tools?

Re: (Mac Newbie) Dedicated Audio Drive Needed?
 

I think as a general rule of thumb you don’t need a ‘dedicated’ audio driver to run ProTools. However from a reliability and stability standpoint dedicated audio hardware can be beneficial. For example RMEs drivers are incredibly reliable, and good news RME already have approved their drivers and hardware for M1 so that could be a route to go. In addition RME are well known for having incredibly stable drivers (to which I can attest to). But there are other audio interfaces out there of course that have M1 ready drivers.

Re: (Mac Newbie) Dedicated Audio Drive Needed?
 

I think you misunderstand. OP is wondering if he needs a separate harddrive/ssd for his sessions. The simple answer is no. The new M1 macs have flash drives with about 2500 Mb per second transfer rates, so unless your disk is low on free space, it'll handle it.

Re: (Mac Newbie) Dedicated Audio Drive Needed?
 

Touché Ben, your interpretation makes a lot more sense. I was wondering why the OP had phrased audio driver in such an odd way. Much to my chagrin, I do believe my interpretation is incorrect! Thanks for catching that.

Re: (Mac Newbie) Dedicated Audio Drive Needed?
 

That is good to know, thanks.

Re: (Mac Newbie) Dedicated Audio Drive Needed?
 

The reason you do need an external disk is for backup.
You need backup.