@@duncanmorrisette5623 the MP controller can be seen as a platform, where multiple software systems can take advantage of the hardware. In addition to the controlling of third party plugins we have a mixing utility plugin, the Ableton app for controlling Ableton native devices, the integration with Audiogridder for offloading DSP and we are now developing a super comprehensive midi controller app to use for anything that communicates with MIDI. Stay tuned!
you can do without the controllers and you can even do without another PC, just install a virtual machine in your Mac and run both .. M1 are powerful enough to run them seamlessly.