Apple Silicon Plug-in compatibility

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Apple Silicon Plug-in compatibility

Post by johnny h »

Firstly, I have to congratulate Apple on the new Macbook Pro 16. While I bought the machine primarily for the CPU performance, the rest of the machine is done so well!

The display is astonishing - heard a few people whinge about the 'notch' but it integrates into the menu bar perfectly well and it feels like you have way more screen space than the old 15".

What is very disappointing is how few companies have updated their plugins to be native compatible. Native Instruments, Softube are some of the big names that have failed to update their products 18 months after the transition announcement. Pretty disgraceful behaviour.

Thought it might be helpful to list which plug-in manufacturers have decided their customers are important, or not.

Winners list:
Bitwig
U-he
Soundtoys
DMG Audio
Valhalla
Waves

Wall of shame:
Native Instruments
Softube
Korg
D16
Lexicon
Acustica Audio (they claim compatibility with some of their plugins but I can't get native to work at all)
Sonarworks

I'm sure there are plenty more .. feel free to add.
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Re: Apple Silicon Plug-in compatibility

Post by IAA »

Could do without the pejorative headings for me, leave that to the rest of the internet! :D
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Re: Apple Silicon Plug-in compatibility

Post by Forum Admin »

Thanks for that Johnny H. Our friends over at Production Expert have a database of Plug-ins/hardware that's compatible with macOS Monterey (released October 18th 2021) that is worth consulting:

https://www.pro-tools-expert.com/monter ... ty-chart-1

Did your MBPro 16" M1 come with Monterey installed or Big Sur? (I'm still on Big Sur on my own M1 MBPro 13")
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Re: Apple Silicon Plug-in compatibility

Post by johnny h »

Forum Admin wrote: Wed Oct 27, 2021 3:53 pm Thanks for that Johnny H. Our friends over at Production Expert have a database of Plug-ins/hardware that's compatible with macOS Monterey (released October 18th 2021) that is worth consulting:

https://www.pro-tools-expert.com/monter ... ty-chart-1

Did your MBPro 16" M1 come with Monterey installed or Big Sur? (I'm still on Big Sur on my own M1 MBPro 13")

Thanks, that is a useful link in itself but I was talking about Native vs Rosetta translated. I think it's surely time that the major manufacturers recompile their plug-ins to make the most of the power available. The Apple transition is almost complete - only the high end iMac and Mac Pro are still stuck on the archaic x86 chips!

The MBPro 16 did come with Monterey unfortunately, I would normally never run a brand new OS but you can't run an OS older than the hardware.
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Re: Apple Silicon Plug-in compatibility

Post by Forum Admin »

johnny h wrote: Wed Oct 27, 2021 4:45 pm Thanks, that is a useful link in itself but I was talking about Native vs Rosetta translated.

OK, in which case this Does It ARM? website database might prove of value; there's a category for music/audio apps but only a few VIs and plug-ins are included:

https://doesitarm.com/kind/live-product ... rformance/
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Re: Apple Silicon Plug-in compatibility

Post by Guest »

Can’t you just use AUs Johnny, Rosetta is pretty inconsequential if you use AUs. All automagick.
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Re: Apple Silicon Plug-in compatibility

Post by James Perrett »

I see that Eventide now say that their plug-ins run natively on Apple silicon. However, they say that AAX plug-ins won't be updated until Digidesign update their software.
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Re: Apple Silicon Plug-in compatibility

Post by RichardT »

johnny h wrote: Wed Oct 27, 2021 4:45 pm
Forum Admin wrote: Wed Oct 27, 2021 3:53 pm Thanks for that Johnny H. Our friends over at Production Expert have a database of Plug-ins/hardware that's compatible with macOS Monterey (released October 18th 2021) that is worth consulting:

https://www.pro-tools-expert.com/monter ... ty-chart-1

Did your MBPro 16" M1 come with Monterey installed or Big Sur? (I'm still on Big Sur on my own M1 MBPro 13")

Thanks, that is a useful link in itself but I was talking about Native vs Rosetta translated. I think it's surely time that the major manufacturers recompile their plug-ins to make the most of the power available. The Apple transition is almost complete - only the high end iMac and Mac Pro are still stuck on the archaic x86 chips!

The MBPro 16 did come with Monterey unfortunately, I would normally never run a brand new OS but you can't run an OS older than the hardware.

It’s not simply a matter of recompiling code unfortunately. Here are some words from Steinberg:

‘Releasing a Universal version of Dorico that takes full advantage of the new ARM architecture will require more time. Dorico is a complex application with many dependencies, both on third-party technologies and on components built by other teams within Steinberg, including some – like the audio engine – that have been extensively fine-tuned and optimised for Intel processors, and which will require additional work to get the best out of the new ARM platform. We are planning to release a Universal version of Dorico in the future, but it is not planned for the current version, Dorico 3.5.’
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Re: Apple Silicon Plug-in compatibility

Post by MarkOne »

The M1 based products have been on the market for over a year, and I’m pretty sure all the major vendors had A14 based development platforms a good 6 months before that. None of this should have been a surprise.

It does seem odd that while the likes of Waves can transition over a vast portfolio in that time the likes of NI seem incapable of doing so.

It’s not like this architecture is going away, within 18 months pretty much the entire Apple range will be Mx. Mind you it was the same moving from Motorola to a intel, and the world survived.

And although NI say “limited” compatibility and tell you it only works in Rosetta mode, Kontakt is working ok here. And it may have some UI glitches, but Softube Console1 is ok here too,
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Re: Apple Silicon Plug-in compatibility

Post by johnny h »

I agree. I've no doubt it's a lot more complicated than clicking the 'compile' button for Apple Silicon, but nevertheless 18 months is plenty of time, and some companies big and small have managed it - from the likes of DMG Audio, Bitwig and U-He to Waves and Adobe.

The fact that huge, rich companies like Native Instruments have precisely zero plugins working in native .. it says what their priorities are.
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