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?

No. Even if they theoretically would work running under Rosetta (don't know?) in practice they would be too slow to do anything useful with.

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

Although I don't own a mac I am interested in this post as a friend owns one who I am collaborating with. Am I right in saying a Universal Binary plugin is the mac equivelant of a VST?

I understand VSTs aren't mac compatible also, is that true?

You can run various PPC plug-ins on an IntelMac (Microsoft Word etc.) - it's just that because it's running under a kind of emulation it's no good for the semi-pro software we are all using (Logic, Live, Final Cut etc.). However programs like Photoshop CS2 run fine for me even though they are not UB.

Also, non-UB plug-ins will not open within a host.

However, I use the following plug-ins as they are now UB (got my Macbook Pro at the right moment!) -
NI Massive
NI Guitar Rig 2
NI Reaktor 5
NI FM8
NI Kontakt 2 (to open libraries EastWest QLSO Gold and Colossus)
Audio Damage plugs (Discord, Dub delay etc.)
iZotope Phatmatik Pro
Audiorealism Bassline
Novation BassStation
CamelCrusher

Loads of free ones: www.dontcrack.com

Just a list FYI. There are more available, and I run these all within Live btw.

barstu wrote:Although I don't own a mac I am interested in this post as a friend owns one who I am collaborating with. Am I right in saying a Universal Binary plugin is the mac equivelant of a VST?

I understand VSTs aren't mac compatible also, is that true?

There are VSTs and AUs which I find to be exactly the same performance wise. They just need to be UB to run within a host. Also, you need the Mac version of a VST, but both can be opened in Live.

I think my mates mac is an olden days pre intel jobie. I assume there is no way he can use plugins for that?

barstu wrote:I think my mates mac is an olden days pre intel jobie. I assume there is no way he can use plugins for that?

If it's Universal Binary then it will run on both IntelMac and the old PPC.

...and he can of course use all non UB plugs too. Basically, with an old mac you can use all available Mac plugs.