Planning switch to Apple Silicon Mac

[Phazma]

The time is coming to update my old intel Macbook to a new M1 or M2 machine.

As I want to take full advantage of the faster and more powerful processor I am wondering what the best way to run Reaper and plugins is.

To my understanding Reaper is ARM-compatible and the 10.15+ version of Reaper is the one to run on newer Macs. But when it comes to plugins, most should be ARM-compatible now but some still aren’t.

Is it correct that if I want to use any non-ARM plugins I should run Reaper via Rosetta?

Do I lose some performance/speed/stability if running Reaper and plugins via Rosetta as opposed to native?

If there are only few plugins left that aren’t ARM-compatible yet, is it a wise choice to avoid using them and search for ARM alternatives, as was the case back then when transitioning from 32bit to 64bit plugins/software?

[Wallaby]

M1 MacbookAir, Reaper 6.79, tons of plugins all over the place.
All works fine, no crashes, no dropouts or glitches.
Fast and proper.
But ! I do install AU plugins only.
I deleted all VST VST2 VST3 etc.
The system has only AudioUnits plugins and since then no more crashes happens.
If the plugin is not made for ARM it won't install, then look out for newer versions.

[poulhoi]

Originally Posted by Wallaby

M1 MacbookAir, Reaper 6.79, tons of plugins all over the place.
All works fine, no crashes, no dropouts or glitches.
Fast and proper.
But ! I do install AU plugins only.
I deleted all VST VST2 VST3 etc.
The system has only AudioUnits plugins and since then no more crashes happens.
If the plugin is not made for ARM it won't install, then look out for newer versions.

Not sure what the problem with VSTs was on your system. My Macbook Air M1 runs VSTs of any format totally fine. Haven't really used Reaper with Rosetta though, so I can't speak on that.

[Phazma]

So can Reaper on M1 Macs be run with both ARM-plugins and non-ARM-plugins?
If yes, is there any downside to running Intel based plugins on an M1 system? Or in other words, what is the advantage of developers updating their plugins for M1? More stability?

[mlprod]

Originally Posted by Phazma

So can Reaper on M1 Macs be run with both ARM-plugins and non-ARM-plugins?
If yes, is there any downside to running Intel based plugins on an M1 system? Or in other words, what is the advantage of developers updating their plugins for M1? More stability?

1. Yes
2. Less performance and possibly bugs, can be rock solid though. Usually the older the buggier.
3. The opposite of the above.

If you run x86 plugins (they are rare now though), do use AU versions since you get rid of the annyoing extra bridging window.

[Phazma]

Ok, I think when I setup the new computer I will do a cleanup anyway and just install the plugins which I actually use and get the ARM versions whenever available. For plugins I need but which are not available as ARM versions I will look for alternatives and if I can’t replace them, download the AU version. Guess that’s the most stable way to run things and Rosetta shouldn’t be neccessary.

Btw regarding AU plugins, would it be a better choice to run even ARM plugins as AUs on newer Macs, or is VST3 still the way to go whenever ARM versions are available?

[/AND/]

I was wondering this too: are x86/x64 plugins bridged automatically by Reaper or by Rosetta 2 in the background? And is any substantial latency introduced by this?

[EpicSounds]

When I have the option I ONLY install VST3, or sometimes CLAP. The times I tried bridged AU plugins its been really buggy, but I'm thinking of iZotope RX7 plugins, and I've since updated to v9 with native support.