The Devil you Know

[Howdy Doody Time]

After a further couple of Mac failures (no response to the start button) I decided reinforcements were necessary. Determined to move to PC I started browsing Lazada (it's like Amazon in these parts) and thinking about the necessary visits to the various software vendors pages for all the PC versions of my software my hand on the mouse swiftly moved and pressed the purchase button on a MacBook Pro M2 before I could stop it.

Later, walking my six cats and four dogs along a quiet leafy lane, I realised I'd still have to visit all the vendors because the processor is different and won't understand the current stuff.

I suppose I'll have to download the "M" versions of not just the DAWs but all the Plugins too?

The previous (2019 MBP (Which looks identical) is currently handling all that. It has a dead battery (died after 3 months) and a keyboard solidly encapsulated in wood glue (from when I glued my Gretsch Headstock back on and the gluepot fell over in the night) but at some point I'll likely require the new one to take on that job.

The point, and my question, is does Rosetta actually work? I mean really, running Daws with plugins, or is it a case of the full download of everything? Much obliged for any guidance, Ta!

[James Perrett]

I'll move this to the Mac section because you'll be more likely to find useful answers there.

[MOF]

Yes Rosetta works for me, equally there’s a steady flow of notifications I get that plugins I use have been made Apple Silicon compatible.

[Howdy Doody Time]

I'm finding that "compatible" does not mean written in native "M" but rather modified so as not to crash Rosetta 2. It's Politikspeak

[MOF]

I'm finding that "compatible" does not mean written in native "M" but rather modified so as not to crash Rosetta 2. It's Politikspeak

Whether it's native or not crashing Rosette 2 is not what the OP wanted to know, are you having problems? If it's native "M" then it's highly unlikely to crash and if it's not crashing Rosetta 2 then it's equally not an issue.

[Howdy Doody Time]

This is why I originally posted in Recording Gear.

[MOF]

This is why I originally posted in Recording Gear.

No, I think Mac Music is the correct place, you need to know from Mac Apple Silicon users if Logic and third party plugins work.

[Howdy Doody Time]

Ok thanks MOF. I don't use Logic, I use Mixbus 32C, Nuendo, and Reason. I use Waves plugins and UAD (which is partially hardware) Currently my Waves licenses are on a thumb drive, and I haven't tried the UAD box yet. The MBP sees the Thumb Drive (which needs an adapter for USB) but doesn't load the licenses. It's not a big issue since I normally use an Intel based MBP (2019) which needs no translator, and eventually does the job very well, and I really bought the M2 MBP just as a replacement for my MBAir which was Intel, but I thought I'd look into this "M" business anyway. Apparently I should have bought an M based MBAir which is cheaper, faster and just as powerful as the MBP "M" I bought, but hey ho! it's not the first time I bought a Mac without checking the Reviews. The reviews of my particular MBP M2 are saying DO NOT BUY IT, and even the most favourable reviews of it are saying it's OK but boring and recommending you move up the range a bit. As I say, it's a pill, and not the first time I bought a Mac pill. In fact my Intel MPB (2019) was a worse pill than this one having awful problems from the start. The battery died after 3 months (and I refuse to buy a replacement) so it's desk bound but that's OK. I bought it in 2020 but it is a 2019 model, which is why it's Intel. This Processor change is not new to me either, I was working on Kiritimati Island (check it out on Google Earth for remoteness- there is nowhere more remote) and I had a week R&R leave in Hawaii and bought a MacBook. Guess what, it was the first one to move away from, I think Motorola, to Intel, and it ran Rosetta version 1. of course none of my software ran well, and since my Motorola version Mac was broken, I was stuck. So frankly my Mac expectations are not high, and the new MBP will be used as a general dogsbody for routine non critical tasks, and that's OK too.

[MOF]

I use Waves plugins and UAD (which is partially hardware) Currently my Waves licenses are on a thumb drive, and I haven't tried the UAD box yet.

I have a MBP 13” M1 16GB of ram 1TB SSD running on Big Sur OS. I checked that my UAD Apollo x4 and Waves plugins v12 worked with it, usually they are on my intel iMac. The Apollo does have specific installation requirements. https://help.uaudio.com/hc/en-us/articl ... zMuMC4wLjA.
Korg, Soundtoys, Arturia, Native Instruments, Omnisphere, Plugin Alliance, Steven Slate, Eventide and Synthmaster 1&2 all work.
I don’t have hundreds of tracks in my songs so I can’t verify when it overloads but I’ve just copied and pasted 24 audio and 24 virtual instruments and the cpu meter shows 75% and the audio briefly jumps to 25% when I press play.

[Howdy Doody Time]

I use Waves plugins and UAD (which is partially hardware) Currently my Waves licenses are on a thumb drive, and I haven't tried the UAD box yet.

I have a MBP 13” M1 16GB of ram 1TB SSD running on Big Sur OS. I checked that my UAD Apollo x4 and Waves plugins v12 worked with it, usually they are on my intel iMac. The Apollo does have specific installation requirements. https://help.uaudio.com/hc/en-us/articl ... zMuMC4wLjA.
Korg, Soundtoys, Arturia, Native Instruments, Omnisphere, Plugin Alliance, Steven Slate, Eventide and Synthmaster 1&2 all work.
I don’t have hundreds of tracks in my songs so I can’t verify when it overloads but I’ve just copied and pasted 24 audio and 24 virtual instruments and the cpu meter shows 75% and the audio briefly jumps to 25% when I press play.

Brilliant! - Thanks MOF. I use a lot of the stuff you do, except I have the basic model 13" MBP M2, it has 8Gb and a miserable 256Gb SSD, but no problem, my original 2019 MBP Intel is looking after the main stuff. I downloaded MixBus32C version 8 and it runs Native Silicon, Nuendo 12 does too, but I'm leaving that alone until all the potential problems are sorted (I don't know of any yet) I'm dedicating the new MBP M2 Slowcoach Special, to looking after Reason 12, and watching movies on the move. Apple, by all accounts should never have released this computer, it's totally hamstrung by the pauperish memory and SSD space, and they used only one of the possible 2 NAND chips leaving an empty slot, which really slows down file transfers. Battery charging is an all night affair, but the battery lasts all day and well into the evening. It's like a Ford Escort 1100, with a Jaguar engine, and a moped carburettor!

[MOF]

You're welcome Howdy Doody Time, sorry to hear your M2 isn't that great. Sorry to rub salt into the wounds but mine charges pretty quickly. I'm wondering if your M2 has a fault. It's not unheard of, my Apple watch SE has stopped showing the time when I lift my wrist to view it and occasionally is very dim, something I'll be sorting out soon.