RE:  porting VE Pro to Apple silicon

I’ve been playing with this idea for a few days on a new MINI. VEP 7 is working under Rosetta and doing a good job bridging to Vi’s and other plugins that don’t like the new silicon. I have also tried the ARM version of Reaper with similar results. Pro Tools 20.11 is also running (under Rosetta), and again VEP 7 works as a bridge to Intel servers.

This is all promising, but the results will be much better when the plugins are ported to Universal Binary. Combining native-ARM DAWs and Rosetta plugins is working, but has a significant hit compared to running 100% native.

Moving all Vienna Symphonic Library software to Universal Binary is undoubtedly a large project, but porting VP 7 plugins would be an excellent place to start. This would help large numbers of musicians transition to the new Macs. I know many music producers who initially became interested in VEP to help bridge their transition to 64 bit when many of their plugins were still 32 bit. The same type of interest could be generated today by helping to bridge to the new silicon.

I actually did try synchron Pianos on my Macmini M1 16Gb, and I didn't notice any difference with my MacBook Pro 2019 i9 32Gb.

Only problem is my Audio interface has not yet a reliable/supported ASIO audio driver for silicon macOs, then I can't say if latency and buffer parameters are correct. But loading was fast and playback fine with 64k (overload with long sustain pedal reaching more than 300 voices) and perfect with 128k buffer, and my Kawai VP-1 was very responsive and natural to play.

All the rest of VSL software is running surprisingly good as I'm reporting in another post.

fatis,

this is good news! This also means that licenser works without problems, right?

I am using lots of vst within MainStage (intel Mac). I am wondering if, on an M1 mac, it is possible to run rosetta-based VSTs within a native app like MainStage. Have you tried this?

BTW, perfect choice: VP-1 with synchron pianos! To my eyes there is currently no better solution!

@mat123 said:

fatis,

this is good news! This also means that licenser works without problems, right?

I am using lots of vst within MainStage (intel Mac). I am wondering if, on an M1 mac, it is possible to run rosetta-based VSTs within a native app like MainStage. Have you tried this?

BTW, perfect choice: VP-1 with synchron pianos! To my eyes there is currently no better solution!

Yes no problems on my system with the elicenser: all working fine, including steinberg licenses I have on the same key.

Yes native Apple audio software is running a bridge (kind of sub-rosetta) for VSTs and AUs. When it creates compatibility issues, you may still run the whole app in rosetta mode, and it will increase even more the number of viable plugins (e.g. my VOCALOID-5 works only if the host is running in Rosetta, it's common for the plug-ins with large and non standard GUI etc.)

Yes VP-1 and Synchron pianos is a top combination, I really love it:  I had and used several digital pianos but this is the closer-to-real feeling I ever had.

I have tried the Synchron Piano on the M1 MacBook Pro - it will play but the sound seems off somehow and there is a latency that I did not get on my Intel Mac. So I am anxiously waiting for VSL to issue a native apple silicon player.

Yesterday, I tried Synchron Pianos on M1 MacBook Pro.

elicenser worked without problems.

Installing and starting Synchron Pianos was no problem either.

But first, with macOS 12.2.0, I couldn't select USB-MIDI in Synchron Piano Preferences while USB-MIDI worked well with other software such as garage band.

After updating macOS to 12.2.1 this bug immediately disappeared. Unfortunately, the update broke my external aufio interface (Behringer XR-18).

Using the internal audio instead, I felt there is a small latency that wasn't there with Intel, just as WilliamMcVey has reported.

Let's see what further updates will bring...

Intersting to notice that both of you have Powerbooks.

I didn't experience your issues (but some small incompatibility with the missing Driver of Steinberg UR22C), but I'm using a Macmini.

I'm using it for some weeks now, and stressed a bit the system, and all sounds good up to now.

Let me make clear that the performance of synchron piano on the M1 macbook is good! The latency is there, but it is small, I'm just very exacting.

What bothers me more is that my audio interface does no longer work after the macOS update. 

quick update:

I don't know, what finally did the trick, but some updates later, Synchron Bösendorfer (both grand and upright) works just perfect on my M1 MacBook pro!

Hi mat123, 

Thanks for posting, glad to hear that!

Best, 
Paul

Hi Paul ,

I`m also trying to find out that if I upgrade my mac mini to the newest mac mini M1 would it be working without a glitch in the sound of the full library of the Steinway D 274? Could you please let me know if there is an answer to it?

Thank you very much!

Hi, 

So far, we have only heard great feedback for the MB Pro, but of course it also depends on the latency you'd like to get. 

I didn't have a chance to try it yet, but maybe another user can chime in here?

Best, 
Paul

Hi Paul,

I'm about to try it on the MBPro M1 but I'm curious to know if you guys have tested on the Mac Pro 2019 on Big Sur

Thanks

Marcello 

Just bumping this, are there any updates on this? I'm really looking forward to Synchron on apple silicon, and I see that QT 6.2 LTS has been officially released.

Hi dallparton, 

I'm also eagerly awaiting the ARM versions, and it will be one of the first tasks after we have finished the transition to iLok. As iLok ARM support is still in beta stadium, we will also have to wait for iLok to be ready for reliable ARM support. 

Thanks for your patience, I'm sure it will be worth it!

Best, 
Paul