Ableton Forum

Hi all,
I've recently resurrected some very old gear, but which is all I've got at the moment, so I'm going with it:
2008 Mac Pro, High Sierra
2010 Macbook Pro, High Sierra
Akai APC 40

For the purposes of this post, I'll just focus on the 'properly updated' Macbook, since the 2008 Mac Pro requires some work to get to High Sierra, and as such isn't something I want to debug.

I have found and restored a set of around 40 Live 7 projects that rely heavily on a set of 32bit plugins: Cakewalk Rapture and Dim Pro; SampleTanks 2.2 and it's various flavors (miroslav, etc.) and izotope spectron/trash 1. And some others, but those in particular do not have 64 bit counterparts that I can find.

I installed Live 7, understanding that it's not going to work super well if at all, and was surprised to find it worked fine for simple project playback and APC integration. It does have some 'white background' plugin problems, but I've noticed threads that suggest others see this also, and switching from AU to VST seems to have fixed them so far.

So:
I obviously want to upgrade to Live 11 and want to know:
1. Am I going to 'lose' the APC40 when I do so; I've seen some threads that suggest the APC sometimes disappears, and I'd really like to avoid replacing it unless I have to.
2. How's jbridge with Live 10/11 (preferably 11) on High Sierra? It would be good, and less time-consuming, to have the 32-bit plugins work for a while so I can take my time transitioning the projects away from such old kit.

Question 1 is the more important, since I could leave live 7 on the system and still have a route for transitioning.

Thanks in advance.
- zevo

I would not suggest you even look at L11 on such old hardware. Prob wont work at all for older Macs.

You also cannot just "switch" from AU to VST, you would have to open every project and reload every plugin and preset from AU to VST because they are not interchangeable.

If in doubt, download the trial of L11 but I feel you will be very disappointed and throwing jbridge in the mix will only add to the pain. Stick with what you have and start saving for a new system, ditch the old 32bit plugs and focus on a new slate.