Plugins load long and weirdly on Mac M1

Hi, using a M1 Mac and getting this issue: it takes longer than usual for a plugin to load, first it's greyed out in the insert slot, then it shows the loading animation in the plugin window. This goes for all plugins except the Logic native ones and that sucks.

 

Is it because they run under Rosetta?

 

Just checked fabfilter that are compatible with M1 and they are loading the same way, so it's something else. Apple plugins are loading the same way too.

Yeah i noticed that as well. I can't say it takes longer than it did tho, this just wasn't displayed.

Something has changed in logic, a crashing plugin no longer crashes logic instead a dialog pops up. Might something to do with sandboxing

Looks like plugins are loading in their own process. I expect this was a technical necessity for the M1 translation, otherwise running Logic natively, you'd lose all your non-native plugins (ie about 98% of them at this stage).

 

Now, Logic can run natively, but still load Intel plugins via Rosetta, which is no mean feat!

Yeah might be - but i was wondering why native plugins need that as well.

 

But there's something else - when running native, projects opens fairly quick and plugins keep on loading in the background, and the load is A LOT faster especially for native builds compared to same project in rosetta version.

Do you guys think M1 is worthy at this point? Or should it be trashed and replaced by Intel? What's your experience of M1 compared to Intel?

Intel is great if you want a loud room heater.

For me, I can't dump it fast enough (I'm just waiting on the MBP's...)

Intel is great if you want a loud room heater.

For me, I can't dump it fast enough (I'm just waiting on the MBP's...)

But there are MacBook Pros with M1.

But there are MacBook Pros with M1.

 

That's an entry level 13" M1. Not for me.

 

I'm waiting on the "proper" MBP's, which will be 16" M1X models.

Do you guys think M1 is worthy at this point? Or should it be trashed and replaced by Intel? What's your experience of M1 compared to Intel?

yea, i sold my intel macs

Do you guys think M1 is worthy at this point? Or should it be trashed and replaced by Intel? What's your experience of M1 compared to Intel?

 

the M1 is a huge step forward, no one is going back (at any rate, certainly not apple, who are making the M1 chips). it's the 2021 equivalent of moving from the power PC... to intel...

My experience with Logic in M1 native mode loading non-native plugins takes a long time, and I get a process that consumes 8GB of memory and 243% of my CPU while it is simply doing nothing,

 

If I put Logic in Rosetta mode and load the same plugins - no 8GB process - 15% CPU. I will put up with the slightly slower execution for the weird behavior of trying to mix native and Intel plugins.

Not all tho. Some plugins work splendidly, some do ramp up RAM and CPU for some reason, i noticed that as well.

I think M1 on DAW will be hit or miss with things like this for a while yet. Probably even the M1 pro bump later this year. Potential is certainly there though.

Agreed.

Is it because they run under Rosetta?

No

I converted my MIDIFX MidiOut to Silicon but yet I get this same issue.

 

After debugging I found out the issue. The handler which lets me know when MIDI is available to process, while it does get called when a MIDI event comes in, it's also being called constantly.

I logged the messages in every function in my program just to pinpoint where the issue might be, and even though I have a check to say, if nothing comes in just exit the MIDI handler event function which is working, the issue is it's getting called all the time with or without events. I wasn't paying attention to the log file size but before I knew it, it as at 200MB. Ouch.

 

So the issue with this is, the class library I was using from Apple, while I did get it to compile, it looks like I'll need to use the newer class library they have.

 

That's what I'm working on right now.