Ableton Forum

Hi, whoever can help.
I'm shortly going to be buying a Macbook, 1.83ghz, intel core duo etc.

My question is, do NON-universal binary plugins work with this, within Ableton Live?

Any all round advice on this subject would be extremely helpful before I go spending money!

Many Thanks

DaddyRich wrote:My question is, do NON-universal binary plugins work with this, within Ableton Live?

To answer the question ... No.
Intel = UB (Universal Plugins required)
PPC (G4/G5 etc) = Non-Universal Plugins or UB (Most UB support either PPC/Intel processors)
Ableton Live supports either UB/PPC. Depending on what hardware you install it on (That means ableton + included plugs will work fine, but as said above any third party plugins must be UB if you use an Intel)
Hope this info helps.

Great, thanks for the quick response.

So basically, I need to only be looking at plugins that are compatible with a universal binary!

Do you know of any freeware universal binary plugins?

I'm weighing up the options of getting a 2nd hand mac with more software options versus the amount of time I will have to wait with the macbook?

Cheers

No problem, and you are right...
For Intel Machines, look for any plugs that are UB (Universal Binary is meant to be either PPC/Intel. They are always Intel compatible though, so thats what you need to look for when buying or checking out freeware plugins for Intel Macs MacBooks/MacPro etc).
Basically you should find more and more UB plugins are getting released now, with big names like NI having just recently got most of their plugs updated as well.
Also there are plenty of free UB plugins too, because again most of the developers are now making all their own stuff compatible with the Intel Processors.
Question...is there anything in particular that you want to use thats not UB ?
I am still using PPC but Intel processors are very good and just keep getting better, I wouldn't worry...before long everything thats released will be UB only.
I think you can get some free UB's from http://smartelectronix.com/ and also if you look on kvr they have a list http://www.kvraudio.com/ .
I hope this helps.
d.