Will users get SOAKED by developers for M1 native versions?

[James Steele]

Just wanted to kind of throw this out for discussion. I recently ordered a Mac Studio M1 Max and should get delivery on August 24. I've been attempting to pave the way for the transition from my MacPro5,1 12-core. I also had this idea that I wanted to run DP 11.11 and all my plugs COMPLETELY NATIVE! I don't care about other types of apps, but I want DP and my plug-ins running all native for Apple Silicon.

Now I'm wondering if that's possible?

For example, using the app Pluginfo, I can see many of my plugs are not yet AS native. MODOBass for example. I have the first version. I'm happy with it, honestly. Out of curiosity I figured I'd mosey on over to IK Multimedia's site and look at my options. I have no choice to upgrade to MODOBass 2 for $199 in order to get native AS support. Ouch!! I thought it might be half of that. Nope. I guess buying it new is $349!! I know it comes with more basses and a bunch of cool features (that to this point have not compelled me to upgrade), but native Apple Silicon support *IS* compelling to me! What to do?

So the gist of my post here is I feel like as this transition is happening with Macintosh hardware and many of us are desiring to refresh our studios to be viable for the next several years... developers kind of have us over a barrel now. Whereas I had been content to sit on an older version of a plug-in and not upgrade, I'm strongly motivated now. I can foresee some developers might release an upgrade where the ONLY substantial enhancement is native Apple Silicon support and be able to charge a pretty decent price for that. Or, they could soften the blow, and throw a few new features in with the hefty upgrade price.

I guess I may just have to be patient and go with Rosetta 2 for a while until we're further into the proliferation of Apple Silicon Macs and watch for sales on upgrades, etc? It just seems like for early adopters, paying out for all the upgrades to native versions of plug-ins may be pretty price. Potentially as much or more than the new hardware!! I have to give kudos to UA and other developers who have quietly just updated to native versions. I noticed all my UAD-2 plugs are native... of course I'm going to have to spring for TB Satellite hardware to continue to use my UA plugs. None of the ones I own have native "Spark" versions available.

[cuttime]

I'm still waiting for NI to get their asses in a row. I'm kind of mystified that Arturia's stuff works perfectly on AS at this point, and has for a while, but NI is in a holding pattern. There are lots of little utilities that have been compliant for a good long while. Izotope is a joke at this point; I think they just want me to subscribe to whatever sale they offer so they can sell me the same stuff over and over.

Rosetta 2 works pretty well, but is not as seamless as first advertised. Some plugs work great, others no so much. I think that it may be only about a year before MacOS stops supporting Intel altogether.

I can only hope that the MOTU gurus keep abreast of all of this so I don't have to do all the work.

[HCMarkus]

MODO Bass 2 is required to get AS Native support. But a less-known fact is the FREE Version of MODO Bass 2 (CS) will allow owners of MODO Bass 1 to use all of their models.

I bought MB2 before I understood this fact (that IK asserts was made public when MB2 was announced. But I missed that detail).

So, unless you need the extra features MB2 provides, you won't need to pay to get AS-Native operation.

As for NI, thank goodness Kontak 6 is AS-Native. It is the only NI plugin that is.

[Michael Canavan]

As mentioned NI are the big stragglers, even IK are doing OK, with workarounds for Modo Bass 1 etc. iZotope and PSP are mainly there, Soundtoys, Arturia, Fabfilter and dozens of other companies are native. The other stragglers here are Audio Ease, VSL, Akai/In Music in general, and Reason.

[James Steele]

MODO Bass 2 is required to get AS Native support. But a less-known fact is the FREE Version of MODO Bass 2 (CS) will allow owners of MODO Bass 1 to use all of their models.

Nice!!! I did NOT know that. So you just install the free version and on a drive where there's already an installing of MODO Bass 1? Hmmm... would be nice to know if there were just the support files necessary and didn't have to put ALL of MODO Bass 1 on a new machine first and then install MODO Bass 2.

[James Steele]

As for NI, thank goodness Kontak 6 is AS-Native. It is the only NI plugin that is.

I wonder if Komplete Kontrol is? I'm not in the studio so don't feel like firing it up right now to check. I would think that would be a priority... however I imagine since it's a shell type thing, if you load a non-native VST into Komplete Kontrol then it would need Rosetta 2. Hmmm...

I did order a 2TB NVMe drive and and enclosure today. The enclosure supports TB and USB3, so I can go ahead and copy my sample libraries over to it and then have an extra 1TB of space and start using it *now* with my MacPro since I have a USB3 card installed.

[tremo]

So you just install the free version and on a drive where there's already an installing of MODO Bass 1? Hmmm... would be nice to know if there were just the support files necessary and didn't have to put ALL of MODO Bass 1 on a new machine first and then install MODO Bass 2.

I can't answer the second part, but yes, if you have a default install of MODO Bass 1, MB2 (CS) automatically "sees" all your existing basses when you run it. Since it uses the Custom Shop model, you have all the MB2 basses shown across the top with lock icons. You can buy individual new basses, but at $70 per, probably better to wait for a sale...

[HCMarkus]

One thing about not installing older versions... some plugins may not automatically pull newer versions when the original is no longer present. Pretty sure I have run into this, but don't recall specifics.

So, if you open an old project file that used, for example, MODO Bass 1, and only MODO Bass CS or 2 is on your drive, you may get a missing plugin situation that you have to manually correct.

[Michael Canavan]

I forgot to answer the question, so far only Waves needed it's WUP plan to be active to get the native Apple Silicon versions, IK allow you to use their free versions of Modo Bass 2 and Sample Tank 4 to load your earlier version content, Soundtoys, Fabfilter, DMG, UVI, Arturia, PSP, Plugin Alliance, iZotope etc. etc. all have not charged for updates to Apple Silicon.

NI updated Kontakt to Apple Silicon without a fee, who knows how it will go with Reaktor, Maschine, Traktor? etc. etc. Audio Ease IMO will likely release new versions of Speakerphone and Altiverb since they're long overdue for upgrades, but Barberabatch and Snapper were released as free updates to AS.

The AS website list a dedicated guy has created should be mentioned. Tracks all native AS software for audio. https://asaudio.tech

[James Steele]

One thing about not installing older versions... some plugins may not automatically pull newer versions when the original is no longer present. Pretty sure I have run into this, but don't recall specifics.

So, if you open an old project file that used, for example, MODO Bass 1, and only MODO Bass CS or 2 is on your drive, you may get a missing plugin situation that you have to manually correct.

Ahhh… that’s a good point. It reminds me that it’s sometimes a good idea to add the name of a preset in notes field of a track in case that happens and I can’t remember what was loaded.

I guess I’ll install both on the new Mac when it gets here. Don’t know why I’m suddenly so worried about disk space. My boot drive is only 256GB on my Mac Pro. The Mac Studio will have 2TB set up as two volumes (like you did) with a boot/apps volume and a DP projects volume. I have a few PT projects but I could just put them in a folder on the DP Projects volume. Although since volumes can change capacity dynamically, seems like it would be bo big deal to create 3 volumes: Boot/Apps, DP Projects, and PT Projects.

[James Steele]

Audio Ease IMO will likely release new versions of Speakerphone and Altiverb since they're long overdue for upgrades, but Barberabatch and Snapper were released as free updates to AS.

My guess is it will come with a paid upgrade to Altiverb 8. Or maybe we'll get lucky, but Altiverb 7 has been out for a while now. I'm a registered owner of version 7, so I imagine the upgrade won't be as steep as the MODO Bass to MODO Bass 2 upgrade.

[Michael Canavan]

Audio Ease IMO will likely release new versions of Speakerphone and Altiverb since they're long overdue for upgrades, but Barberabatch and Snapper were released as free updates to AS.

My guess is it will come with a paid upgrade to Altiverb 8. Or maybe we'll get lucky, but Altiverb 7 has been out for a while now. I'm a registered owner of version 7, so I imagine the upgrade won't be as steep as the MODO Bass to MODO Bass 2 upgrade.

Altiverb 7 came out ten years ago. I would bet it's a paid upgrade, since it's overdue. I own Speakerphone 2 as well, and I would love a native Apple Silicon version. I think it's been out almost as long.

[James Steele]

Altiverb 7 came out ten years ago. I would bet it's a paid upgrade, since it's overdue. I own Speakerphone 2 as well, and I would love a native Apple Silicon version. I think it's been out almost as long.

Wow!! I had NO idea it had been THAT long since Altiverb 7 was released! I remember that I limped along for quite some time running Altiverb 6 with 32 Lives and finally popped for the upgrade. After 10 years, I hope whoever coded it is still available to update it, or that it was documented really well. I'm not saying it will happen here, but I wonder how many plug-ins just may not make the jump?

[James Steele]

MODO Bass 2 is required to get AS Native support. But a less-known fact is the FREE Version of MODO Bass 2 (CS) will allow owners of MODO Bass 1 to use all of their models.

I bought MB2 before I understood this fact (that IK asserts was made public when MB2 was announced. But I missed that detail).

So, unless you need the extra features MB2 provides, you won't need to pay to get AS-Native operation.

I just installed the free version of MODO Bass 2 and indeed I can access all the MODO Bass 1 models. The downside is it seems that MODO Bass 2 cannot open MODO Bass 1 presets. In fact the file extensions are different: ".mbp" for MODO Bass 1 presets and ".mb2" for MODO Bass 2 presets.

I don't have that many presets, but the workaround isn't that daunting. You have to open both MB1 and MB2 side by side and then select your PRESET in MB1, then load the correct MODEL in MB2, then start going through the parameters a page at a time and making MB2 match what was set in MB1. I encountered a parameter or two in MB2 that didn't match up with MB1, but by doing that just now and switch between the two on a soloed bass part, I was pretty much able to match the sound and then save the preset in MB2. So good news there. I can go totally native and use my MB1 models and presets without having to pay $199. I very well may do it at some point, but kudos to IK Multimedia for allowing this functionality. Although, honestly, I wouldn't have thought of this had you not said something.

[HCMarkus]

In making the Pre-Order Announcement, IK conveniently neglected to mention the CS/MODO Bass 1 compatibility. Clearly, it is not something they are advertising broadly. That said, since I pre-ordered, I think I paid about $110 (after using some credits I had with them), so the damage was not severe.

Glad it is working for you James.

For folks who haven't used MODO Bass, I'd encourage you to give the free CS version a try. Well worth the effort IMO.