Pro Tools Public Beta: December 2022

[Sonopolis]

I just wish they'd implement hybrid ARM/Intel capabilities like in Logic or Reaper. Running x86 plug-ins bridged on ARM would save us so much hassle in the transition. But I guess this will not happen.

[Eric Lambert]

Originally Posted by Sonopolis

I just wish they'd implement hybrid ARM/Intel capabilities like in Logic or Reaper. Running x86 plug-ins bridged on ARM would save us so much hassle in the transition. But I guess this will not happen.

Have you heard that they are definitely *not* going to employ a hybrid system?

[Sonopolis]

Originally Posted by Eric Lambert

Have you heard that they are definitely *not* going to employ a hybrid system?

No, just a guess based on the time it took to release anything at all and the quality of this year's releases.

[Eric Lambert]

Originally Posted by Sonopolis

No, just a guess based on the time it took to release anything at all and the quality of this year's releases.

I think you're probably right. Though I do hope it's not the case -- that there's a hybrid system -- because without it we'll have a major delay in truly Native operation.

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by Eric Lambert

I think you're probably right. Though I do hope it's not the case -- that there's a hybrid system -- because without it we'll have a major delay in truly Native operation.

Be careful what you ask for. It's arguable the delay could be longer to a truly native system if there is hybrid support for Intel plugins (which I also don't think there will be)... in part because there is then less pressure on plugin vendors to move now, and maybe in some cases where plugin vendors just can't move/don't have engineering resources etc. they could drag things out promising it will come in future. A cleaner/faster cut over with plugin vendors showing their support or not I think overall helps. Same was true for RTAS to AAX, while overall that was painful, Avid could have, at significant effort, supported RTAS legacy plugins running in a separate wrapper/process, and in my opinion chose wisely not to, I expect that would have been a worse stability problem than the already not great migration to AAX was. (What Avid seemed to fail to do back then/maybe could not afford to, was aggressive fund (pay NRE/Non-Recurring Expenses) plugin vendors to do the work. Who knows what Avid is doing now.

Supporting legacy Intel only plugins may not help you get to a "truly native" operation, which by definition would not have any Intel plugins running. I suspect trying to do all this also is likely to inject a lot of technical problems/stability issues, and having a less stable experience on Apple silicon native is not going to help speed up users transitions to that. Apple has resources and engineering talent to throw at projects like doing this in Logic Pro, Avid I suspect just does not.

[Eric Lambert]

I suppose there are advantages and disadvantages to each scenario. I'm not feeling squeezed with PT/Rosetta, so I'm ok to wait, though I do dream of moving past Rosetta.

[Darryl Ramm]

Yep. I these things are hard to know. What would help is Avid writing third parties big checks, but that's not going to happen.

I am super curious to see the performance on native silicon. I returned a loaner M1 MBP, and damn that was nice even with Rosetta, and am waiting to buy something new.

[JFreak]

^ so long as macOS is hybrid, PT will be too

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by JFreak

^ so long as macOS is hybrid, PT will be too

No. You are not following how "hybrid" is being used here. In the context of what we are talking about the question is will Pro Tools be hybrid or not, meaning will it allow Intel only AAX plugins to also run concurrently with Apple silicon native AAX plugins in an Apple silicon native Pro Tools port, the same as Apple has done in Logic Pro. And that's not clear at all, I doubt it will happen, but it sure is a technical possibility if Avid wants to do the (deep and invasive) engineering.

[Sardi]

Originally Posted by JFreak

^ so long as macOS is hybrid, PT will be too

There’s a big difference in a Universal Binary application and an application that supports Intel code within a seperate shell.

IIIRC, Apple did the legwork for AU and developers can utilise this in their hosts. The VST implementation I believe is done by each manufacturer but as pointed out above, Reaper has done it. Studio One and Bitwig are two others that come to mind, but I can’t recall if that’s AU or VST.

Either way, AVID will have to have their own solution due to having their own AAX format, assuming they go down that path. I’m hoping they do. Stability wise, I agree it will throw a spanner in the works, but in theory, the plugin crash should be sandboxed which is better than what we have now in that it takes down the whole application.

We shall see. Not long now.


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