Plug-in Updates Sticky Topic

[James Steele]

Not sure when these dropped because I haven't had much time in studio lately, but Softube plugs including console one updated to 2.6.4.

[James Steele]

Vienna Ensemble Pro updated to v7.3.4328 (DP-specific fix included)

v7.3.4328, May 14, 2025
Added
• Auto-Migration for Kontakt plug-ins for VST3 (Kontakt 6-8) and Audio Unit (Kontakt 7-8)
Improved
• Plug-in scanning is now much faster and more robust
Fixed
• Validation issues for a large number of 3rd-party plug-ins
• Crashes related to audio engine latency calculation
• Loading projects with non-existent outputs can crash the audio engine
• Copy/Pasting could lead to channel audio graph routing issues
• Undoing 'Remove channel" would insert the channel at the wrong position
• Automation saved for disabled parameters would not reload correctly
• Automation parameters for plugins in disabled channels would not load correctly
• Automation destination parameters with the same name could lead to conflicts (values were mixed/added)
• Matrix Mixer mixerstrip panel not responsive to mouse events, and not reflecting actual matrix mixer settings
• Improved channel configuration support for Vienna Ensemble Pro AU plugins
• Logic Pro: On rare occasions, not all surround channel configurations were picked up
• Pro Tools: Situational AAX plug-in crashes when loading certain projects
• Digital Performer: Output bounces were out of sync

[mhschmieder]

I ran the huge list of Softube updates the other night, and had to keep deleting-as-it-went as it claimed "out of disc space" even with 100 GB free, but it didn't give the option to redirect the installer files or to opt out of VST2 and Digidesign formats, so those required immediate deletion due to the bizarre way that the Softube installer counts available disc space.

[mhschmieder]

Thanks for the VE Pro update news. I pulled up Vienna Assistant earlier this week and didn't see it, but am glad they have fixed several of the issues that had discouraged me from launching it as regularly anymore or from daring to give it its first run on my new Mac Studio.

I'll have to check, but I seem to recall it doesn't run as VST3 yet.

The other oddity in that regard is Superior Drummer, which still requires the VST2 plug-in for the standalone version to run, even though they've had a working VST3 plug-in version for years now.

[mikehalloran]

I ran the huge list of Softube updates the other night, and had to keep deleting-as-it-went as it claimed "out of disc space" even with 100 GB free, but it didn't give the option to redirect the installer files or to opt out of VST2 and Digidesign formats, so those required immediate deletion due to the bizarre way that the Softube installer counts available disc space.

With all SSDs, TRIM and/or Garbage collection need time to prepare cells to accept new data. Not noticeable when you have plenty of space on your drive but can cause a bottleneck when the drive has less than 15% free and you are doing large installations.

This used to drive me nuts with Native Access and the IK license manager. Even though the destination was an external drive, both downloaded to my system drive, then ran the installers. NA would purge the installer files but it would still take up to 36 hours till all that drive space was free. IK stores the installer files and if you don’t know where to look, they stay there taking up space doing nothing. Since I went to 8TB onboard, this is no longer an issue but my iMac Pros were 2TB and 4TB running about 95% capacity.

Lessons learned…

[mhschmieder]

I ran the huge list of Softube updates the other night, and had to keep deleting-as-it-went as it claimed "out of disc space" even with 100 GB free, but it didn't give the option to redirect the installer files or to opt out of VST2 and Digidesign formats, so those required immediate deletion due to the bizarre way that the Softube installer counts available disc space.

With all SSDs, TRIM and/or Garbage collection need time to prepare cells to accept new data. Not noticeable when you have plenty of space on your drive but can cause a bottleneck when the drive has less than 15% free and you are doing large installations.

This used to drive me nuts with Native Access and the IK license manager. Even though the destination was an external drive, both downloaded to my system drive, then ran the installers. NA would purge the installer files but it would still take up to 36 hours till all that drive space was free. IK stores the installer files and if you don’t know where to look, they stay there taking up space doing nothing. Since I went to 8TB onboard, this is no longer an issue but my iMac Pros were 2TB and 4TB running about 95% capacity.

Lessons learned…

Maybe I should have gone for 2 TB like my 2017 iMac if I had known this, but I was trying not to incur unnecessary expense as I plan to continue purging stuff. But thanks for alerting me about NI and IK, as I have only partially reinstalled NI stuff (atop the straight-copy from the old system) and haven't done IK at all yet on this new box as I recall.

TT, VSL, and other vendors, have not yet been an issue, but they let you say where things go (though not what formats to leave out). I did independently update Kontakt 8 as a sanity check, but don't yet know if FM8 and Absynth are mothballed and will need to be in Rosetta until that too is dropped.

At any rate, unlike on my old system, the Softube updates ran lightning fast, as did all the Korg installations. I haven't tried Arturia yet, as that entails dozens of independently managed installations and multiple confirmations and logins.

[mhschmieder]

Even after deleting my current copies, I cannot get the five library updates to install for Massive X Factory Library and four of the Abbey Road libraries. I spent ninety minutes altogether, using the AI assistant at NI's help desk, deleting all prefs, numerous system settings, etc., but even after receiving a link to direct downloads after all else failed, the .iso files produce DMG files that refuse to install even with "open" on the .pkg file, saying it could not verify free of malware.

The downloads site has Mac-specific installers for the Kontakt 8 and Massive X plus Komplete Kontrol updaters, and those all worked (unlike in Native Access), but the library updates are handled in this different way, although it doesn't really seem different once you force open the .iso file and then manually launch the installer from the desktop. It doesn't matter if I use NI defaults or my custom external drive location for the library location.

I hope this isn't going to be a permanent situation with Native Access on Apple Silicon, and I also hope this isn't a side effect of following iZotope's instructions earlier tonight and merging the two accounts. I had lots of fun with iZotope updates as well, as its product manager gets confused very easily and status is often inaccurate. IKM was easy in comparison.

"Download Failed" is the Native Access message that started my fun journey tonight.

As for the library updates, I have a sneaky suspicion that the .iso files on the direct downloads page linked by the AI assistant in NI's chat tool, are super old and not compatible with current hardware and software. The release dates are listed as 2019 and thereabouts, which doesn't make sense if Native Access initially marked these as in need of update, as sloppy as the NI updater tools have been over the years (even after deleting preference files).

[mikehalloran]

I had all these issues and granting proper Permissions turned out to be the solution for most.

This solved the other. Have you made this change?

[Rick Cornish]

I had all these issues and granting proper Permissions turned out to be the solution for most.

This solved the other. Have you made this change?

I'm not seeing the "Anywhere" option on my machine. Any guesses as to why?

Screenshot 2025-05-19 at 1.09.43 PM.png (59.5 KiB) Viewed 427 times

[mikehalloran]

I had all these issues and granting proper Permissions turned out to be the solution for most.

This solved the other. Have you made this change?

I'm not seeing the "Anywhere" option on my machine. Any guesses as to why?
Screenshot 2025-05-19 at 1.09.43 PM.png

This is how it should look if are on Sonoma or earlier.

If Sequoia, you should be seeing what I posted. If not, only Apple can answer that.

[Rick Cornish]

This is how it should look if are on Sonoma or earlier.

If Sequoia, you should be seeing what I posted. If not, only Apple can answer that.

Yep… I'm on Sequoia. Both my M1 MaBook Pro and M2 Mac Studio (both on Sequoia) give me the same 2 options.

Curiously, there was a notice underneath this menu that I hadn't noticed before: To grant permission for my Apogee drivers to run. Once I approved and restarted, Apogee booted right up.

(I will add. note on this to the USB audio interface thread.)

[mhschmieder]

Same problem here; only the first two choices appear, and I have an admin account and am on Sequoia, but haven't yet run this week's updater, so maybe I should try that later tonight.

I spent hours on the Native Access issue today, as it bit me in a different way today, but a quick search shows that others may have faced the same problem, so I'll first check to see if there's a more appropriate topic to post to.

What I find most interesting, is that my new issues are specific to K8 and don't happen with K7 or earlier. K8 thinks I have no authorized libraries at all, even after I reregistered a bunch of them with Native Access on the new computer. It puts everything from NI in Demo Mode and dumbs down the available features, even if selecting via File View vs. Library View (the latter is broken in K8 anyway, but wasn't on my Intel iMac). I did the latest K8 update last night. This is my first use of it.

[mhschmieder]

OK, the other K8 posts aren't really similar enough to what I encountered today, and as this is a brand-new release, it may affect other people, but of course I had more than one variable at once due to the new computer.

If I open a DP project that has K7 or older as instances, and switch to K8, it goes blank. In times past, including early releases of K8, it would try to load the same settings and usually succeeded. I tried this with many categories and vendors and none of them carry through as of today, but there are worse problems that might be behind this, such as it thinking I don't own any libraries from any vendor.

An interesting side note is that switching a K5, K6, or K7 instance that contains a non-Player library such as HandHeld Sound's Flying Percussion, does not carry forward but is happy when I reload the library, unlike the ones managed by Native Access.

Libraries from Native Instruments themselves, such as Cuba, show up in Demo Mode and de-featured, and they reject all manual edits to settings, such as changing the mix levels, switching which preset ensemble is active, reverb or reverb level, etc. They do make sound though.

I have everything else working and up to date on Apple Silicon. Native Access is literally the only thing giving me long-term grief so far. Despite some minor hiccups with updates from other vendors, this has otherwise been my smoothest computer hardware transition ever, and I am now down below 840 GB of system drive usage (total usage, not just the accessible part).

I'm not sure whether to contact NI or if they ever respond. I can't imagine the problems I am facing are unique, and they seem related to the earlier problem reported a few days ago, where I got some installers through NI's installer cache after saying "No" to everything the chat agent had me try.

I also have Native Access set to "allowed in the background" and both NI agents set to open at login, just as the chat agent recommended and as I had done on the Intel iMac earlier.

I have Apple Intelligence turned off as I don't trust it. I wonder if Native Access is now dependent on it?

[mikehalloran]

If you cannot see Anywhere as a choice, there are many reports that this works—all of the pages where I found it had a step missing but I've corrected that.

Follow the order exactly:

1. Open up System Settings

2. In System Settings, navigate to "Privacy & Security". Leave Window Open in the Background

3. Open up Terminal (as separate window). DO NOT CLOSE System Settings

4. In Terminal, run sudo spctl --master-disable --> <Enter or Return key> Type Password when prompted --> <Enter or Return key>

5. In System Settings, navigate out of "Privacy & Security" Page (For Example -- Click on "Lockscreen"), then navigate back to "Privacy & Security"

6. In System Settings --> Privacy & Security Page --> Scroll Down to bottom --> Select "Allow Application From" --> Select "Anywhere" (the option will now appear) --> Type Password

7. Completed

None of the my three Macs required this and others report the same. Anyway, it should work.

Apple has a support on opening apps when Anywhere is not selected.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/102445

All of the pages I have found on this subject contain mistakes—Sonoma and Sequoia are not the same in this regard. MOTU does not follow all of Apple's rules so some modifications are necessary.

[mhschmieder]

Thanks Mike, that gave me the "Anywhere" option.

As I am way past bedtime, I'll try Kontakt 8 again tomorrow after work (in Standalone Mode, as I did today), to see if it corrects the "Demo Mode" issue, which just now got applied even to Spitfire libraries and not just to Native Instrument stuff.