Plugin developers are now testing with Apple Silicon builds of Pro Tools. We have the details.
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 skeptical 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.
This does not mean that a macOS Silicon version of Pro Tools is releasing in 2022, Avid have not confirmed this, but it does mean that progress is moving at a pace.
What Is An Alpha Build?
An Alpha build of software is usually a feature complete version of an application but it may have significant bugs that need to be ironed out. This is the first stage of testing before it is released to the beta testing team. Once it is approved for beta it undergoes more ‘real world’ testing to try and replicate as many possible permitatations of use when released to the public. During the beta stage, the team submit bug reports and any issues they think require attention before the software is released. Often a beta team will receive numerous updated versions of the beta software before it is finally deemed ready for release. This version is called the the Release Candidate (or RC) and will be the version the public will download. However, even at the last moment, changes may be made, for example there are two RC versions of the latest macOS Ventura release, as it’s possible that Apple found last minute things that needed changing.
What Do We Know?
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.
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 compatibilty 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.