Attention Ableton: When will Live 5 support Mactels?

dave999z · Post by **dave999z** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 3:31 am

Dear Ableton,

Please answer some important questions for us...

1. Is Live going to run via Rosetta (the MacTel's PowerPC emulator)? If so, will it peform well enough to actually use?

2. Is a Live update imminent that will run natively on the new Intel Macs? If so, will it utilize the dual processor core on the Intel chip (aka will it support multithreading)? Most importantly, when?

Thank you in advance for any information you can provide!

(Other forum users, please make your interest in obtaining answers to these issues known here.)

Cheers!

pearsonart.com · Post by **pearsonart.com** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 4:45 am

I'm a little surprised that Ableton didn't make an anouncement of compatibility today. Look through the artist section videos and many of them are using a mac. I think this also includes Henke.

I'm very concerned about emulation via rosetta. This may not be an accurate analogy but audio apps would not run via classic emulation in OS X. Many wouldn't launch and the others couldn't access hardware. Doesn't this sound like the case with rosetta?

We should expect Ableton to fully embrace the intel Macs. They have internal mac users and artist endorsements who have probably already pressed the issue. It's only a matter of time. How long depends on whether or not they've been using a developer kit machine.

kenn michael · Post by **kenn michael** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 7:13 am

I'd guess that they are well on their way to a Universal Binary version of Live... We might want to wait until NAMM before asking for announcements...

ultraschall · Post by **ultraschall** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:11 pm

I already tested live with a lot of vst/au plugins on an intel developer machine under rosetta. performance was very good. i had no problems at all.

polyslax · Post by **polyslax** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 3:16 pm

ultraschall wrote:I already tested live with a lot of vst/au plugins on an intel developer machine under rosetta. performance was very good. i had no problems at all.

Cool, still would be nice for the Abes to make an official statement.

mcconaghy · Post by **mcconaghy** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 3:24 pm

polyslax wrote:
ultraschall wrote:I already tested live with a lot of vst/au plugins on an intel developer machine under rosetta. performance was very good. i had no problems at all.
Cool, still would be nice for the Abes to make an official statement.

Wouldn't expect a statement before NAMM. Look for lots of Universal logos everywhere after January 19th.

zanlyons · Post by **zanlyons** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 3:24 pm

loads of software is already universal. Wacom drivers and dfx Vst plugins have been universal since last year I can't really see an excuse for Ableton or any software developer making us wait. I hope we don't end in with the same limbo period as the classic-osx switch.

pearsonart.com · Post by **pearsonart.com** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 6:10 pm

If wacom and others are already universal, how do we know that ableton isn't as well?

That might make sense. Did version 5 come out after the intel announcement? If it came before, could they have known anyway? I seem to remember some news about the audio engine being rewritten for version 5?

By the way, I'm finishing a new batch of skins but will hold off on releasing them until I can test compatibility with the next point release. They are the best batch yet. I actually wrote these from scratch as opposed to earlier versions made by pasting existing color codes.

I begin painting a new show this weekend. It's for VAC in Boise, ID. Opens March 3rd and runs for 8 weeks. I have another show in Nashville this October at Tag Art Gallery. I'll also have some work in a group show in Chicago this summer.

I've finally decided to purchase the full version of Live 5, more or less making an official "switch" from Tracktion as my main host. (Was holding off on that to make sure that support for intel mac was included in version 5. I think it's safe now.)

James

gomi · Post by **gomi** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 6:33 pm

pearsonart.com wrote:If wacom and others are already universal, how do we know that ableton isn't as well?

Get info on the Live.app

if it is universal the architecture field will display Intel, PPC

pearsonart.com · Post by **pearsonart.com** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 6:55 pm

show package contents

contents/MacOs/Live

get info

kind: "Unix Executable File"

gomi · Post by **gomi** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 7:15 pm

pearsonart.com wrote:show package contents

contents/MacOs/Live

get info

kind: "Unix Executable File"

no on the Live.app it, not the contents.
That will always say unix executable.

if it doesn't show you what architecture it is then it's PPC ONLY.

update to quicktime 7.04 and then get info on the quicktime app to
see what i mean.

LOFA · Post by **LOFA** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 7:42 pm

From what I gather, the only applications that will not run universally on pcs will be generally apple apllications that have been "made to work with the top-modern G5 architecture" (OK, not a specific quote.) This means that only apple will erally profit from selling universal updates.

I am bitter and don't have a lot of time to think about this right now, but as I understatnd it, rosetta should handle generally eveything else that can be run on a PC.

buzzcock · Post by **buzzcock** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 8:00 pm

Given the stats posted by apple in the Universal binary section, GarageBand is expected to see a 1.6X performance bump on the new intel duo 2ghz iMac vs. the old G5 2ghz iMac. That's an Apple product WITH universal binary. I'm not sure if GarageBand supports the two processors in the intel duo, but I have to assume it does, being that it is an Apple product (someone correct me if I'm wrong). So even with all that optimisation, there is "only" a 1.6X bump in performance.

Given that logic, since Live as it stands does not support dual or dual core processors, nor is it a universal binary, and instead would have to run under PPC emulation (Rosetta), it's my expectation that Live will run worse on the new iMac than on the old, if it even runs at all.

Pitch Black · Post by **Pitch Black** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 10:38 pm

Well then, we'd better hope the Abe's come back from holidays soon and get stuck into coding for a Universal native Live...

I know Herr Henke USED to play off a Mac...

buzzcock · Post by **buzzcock** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 10:56 pm

Pitch Black wrote:Well then, we'd better hope the Abe's come back from holidays soon and get stuck into coding for a Universal native Live...

AND dual core support!