Just total curiosity, but I’m wondering when/if Wavelab Pro will be running native on M1 Silicon macs vs. through Rosetta 2. This isn’t a ploy to pressure, because I realize this is not an easy task, but it would be fun to see how fast rendering times might be when running natively.
It runs fine under Rosetta 2 for the past 6 months, so I’m thrilled with it.
BTW, if users are curious as to whether your apps are running natively on an M1 mac or through Rosetta 2, in Activity Monitor under the CPU tab, there’s an architecture column. “Intel” means the app is running inside Rosetta 2, while “Apple” is M1 Silicon Native.
Thanks! Even until then, Rosetta 2 is doing a great job with the Intel version for now. As for performance, it’s roughly the same on the M1 as my Intel 2020/2018 Mac-mini with the 3.2Ghz iCore7 (6-core) with an eGPU. However, if I don’t use the eGPU on the legacy 2020/2018 mini, the M1 blows it away.
I personally haven’t had any issues with plugins. However, I do suspect many will be slow to switch to Native M1 Apple Silicon. If you’re thinking of purchasing an M1 mac, I would wait until Wavelab is natively supported, because I don’t think you’ll see much improvement, otherwise. That said, the M1 is faster than my 2020 Intel 6-Core i7 Mac, 32GB RAM, until I add on my eGPU, which takes the video load off the CPU. Then, they’re roughly the same performance.
Just curious if there’s any new updates on native M1 support. I’ve been using WL 10 and 11 on a couple of M1 Minis and everything is pretty great. Anxiously awaiting native support.
My understanding is, it will be a bit longer, but it runs smoothly with no real issues through Rosetta 2 as you said (which requires no user intervention). Only if you’re using very intense oversampling plugins should it cause any problems on the M1. I use it on the M1 now, too.
I believe the complexity of converting WL to natively support the M1 Apple Silicon has a couple of options (that I’m assuming even with non-Steinberg software):
Convert to M1 using a conversion “team” who probably don’t understand the architecture of WL as well as the developer, or,
Let the developer get the process and additional technology fully validated before attempting to work in that direction. Then to dedicate time to do that.
A hasty example: Cakewalk, when owned by Roland made a valiant attempt to finally run natively on Intel Mac OS. It ran, but crashed often and cost Cakewalk so much lost time and resources that they abandoned the effort’s future. They made the version free for use, but with no future, interest wasn’t there. So, it never again ran on Mac OS. Their problem was, they waited too long to start, but then decided to ramp it up last-minute because they were too busy fighting support/bug issues, and they were incidentally losing money. Meanwhile, they were being hounded for new features (probably by Roland). Gibson bought them and didn’t even bother with Mac OS after that. They had supposedly bigger plans.
Anyway, long-story-short, they know we want the M1 native support, but I personally think they’ll be careful not to casually or hastily just jump in and cause too many problems when we’re all doing pretty well at the moment. I think the process will be decisive and calculative.