In this article, we show you how to monitor the progress of the AAX plugins you use with Pro Tools for Apple Silicon Native compatibility with the latest version of the excellent free app from Pete Gates - PT Prefs 2.
Pro Tools Coming For Apple Silicon Soon
As reported in our article Pro Tools Coming For Apple Silicon Soon, on September 28th 2022, Avid put out several messages saying this;
“Now that this important Pro Tools 22.9 release is done, the Pro Tools team is focused on delivering native Apple Silicon Support (M1 and M2) in the near future for customers on active subscriptions and support contracts.”
This indicated progress was being made on a fully native version of Pro Tools for Apple Silicon based Mac computers.
Some were sceptical of our suggestion that a fully native version could happen as soon as the end of this year. However, we now know that developers have an Alpha build of Pro Tools for Apple Silicon and are testing AAX versions of their plugins now.
Pro Tools Plugin Developers Testing Apple Silicon Builds Now
As we laid out in our article, Pro Tools Plugin Developers Testing Apple Silicon Builds Now, we know from developers we have spoken to that the Alpha build is pretty stable. Some have their entire plugin catalogue already working and ready for Pro Tools when it ships for Apple Silicon.
One developer told us;
“We’ve had initial versions of AAX Universal Binaries across the portfolio for a while. They have been ready and waiting for Avid’s first Apple Silicon native release for some time, so we were pleased to find they ran first time. Performance of the beta has been surprisingly good, and we look forward to continue testing throughout the coming weeks. We’re anticipating being ready to go on day one, if not before.”
It’s also likely that some plugin developers will start to release their updated AAX plugins that are compatible with the Apple Silicon versions in the coming weeks and months. One told us that they were being encouraged to do so by Avid. So expect to start seeing Universal Binaries for AAX plugins starting to appear before the Silicon version of Pro Tools, although, of course, the Silicon versions will not run until Avid has released a Silicon version of Pro Tools.
We also understand that when released to customers, Pro Tools will be a universal binary application. As with all universal binary versions, Pro Tools will run natively by default. In this mode, any Intel versions of the plugins will not load. The user will not be informed of this but instead will find the Intel versions missing. If users need to run older Intel versions of plugins, they will need to run Pro Tools in Rosetta mode. This is standard with all DAWs, such as Logic, Studio One, and Cubase, for example.
How To Get Ready
You can start getting ready for the Apple Silicon version of Pro Tools by checking your plugins and where necessary, retiring any Intel-only versions of plugins.
Check our Apple Silicon compatibility guide for more information.
As things develop, we will, of course, keep up to date with progress. However, our advice is always to refrain from updating your software if you are in the middle of a mission-critical project. We will be testing the new Apple Silicon compatible version of Pro Tools as soon as we get our hands on it.
How To Check Progress On Your Plugins Yourself
In September, we revealed that Pete Gates had announced on the PT Prefs thread on the DUC the public beta release of an Apple Silicon compatible version of his very popular free PT Prefs app, which simplifies the process of trashing the Pro Tools preference files. This process can resolve specific problems that occur with Pro Tools.
PT Prefs 2 Features
It's a Universal Binary, so runs natively on Intel & ARM64
It requires macOS 10.10 Yosemite minimum
Plugin reporting now only reports active plugins
Plugin reporting now only reports AAX plugins
Plugin reporting now reports plugin architecture - Intel/ARM/Universal
Plugin reporting can now export an Excel of the installed AAX plugins
The main window is resizable - for the plugin list
It only supports 64-bit Pro Tools installations now
It is the highlighted feature that enables Pro Tools users to check the status of their AAX Plugins. Please note that PT Prefs 2 only checked AAX Plugins. It does not check AU and VST plugins, but it does enable you to check the status of your AAX plugins used with Pro Tools.
When you select the Plugins tab in PT Prefs 2, it will take a little while to scene your AAX plugins folder, but once scanned, the tab will populate with a list of all your AA Plugins. As well as the plugin name, it also lists the version of each plugin as well as the ‘architecture’ of each of your AAX Plugins.
Intel 32/x64 shows that the plugin will run on both the older Intel-powered 32-bit code machines as well as 64-bit Intel-powered computers.
x64 shows that the plugin will only run on 64-bit intel-powered computers. It will run on Apple silicon-powered computers using Rosetta 2.
Universal shows that the plugin will run natively on Apple silicon-powered computers via Rosetta 2 using the x64 code on Apple silicon-powered computers or using the x64 code on 64-bit intel-powered computers.
Universal is the only option that will run natively on Apple silicon-powered computers.
You can sort the list so that it lists all your plugins by architecture, as I have done in the screenshot above. As you can see, I don’t currently have that many AAX plugins that can run on an Apple Silicon-powered computer yet. However, anyone running the alpha Apple Silicon version of Pro Tools will see a significantly longer list of Universal coded plugins.
Also, you may have more plugins that are already Apple Silicon compatible than I do.
It also does mean you need to get Apple Silicon compatibility, you have the latest version of each plugin installed, and you can check whether that latest version is Apple Silicon Native compatible by using our searchable Apple Silicon database.