Native Instruments Apple Silicon M1 Compatibility

Kaiwan_NI · 2022-01-13T17:38:30+00:00

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Apple began transitioning its Mac lineup from Intel processors to its own Apple silicon M1, their new generation of processors, in late 2020.

While our product team has spent much of last year optimizing Native Instruments products to work with the new processor, the development of an M1-based version is still a work in progress. At the moment, you can run most Native Instruments products in the Rosetta emulation mode.

~~We're dedicated to making our current products fully compatible with the new Apple Silicon Macs without having to rely on Rosetta 2 and are excited about the capabilities of this new platform.~~

Update: All our current products included in KOMPLETE 14 are now compatible with Apple Silicon native M1.

For a list of all products, see https://bit.ly/n1silic

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Comments

Justin Lebeuf

It's good to hear there's finally some traction on native M1 support. I've seen a lot of back and forth on the merits of native support ("Rosetta works fine", "Rosetta is buggy or uses too much RAM", "why add support for existing customers", etc) but the simple fact is it's becoming difficult to get a new Intel based MacBook (phased out entirely in new MBs) and without native support NI is alienating new customers who would have to dig up an Intel or take the performance hit with emulation. I've been looking at pulling the trigger on a MacBook (getting tired of high DPC latency with windows based laptops) but it seems I've missed the boat on selection and M1 is all that's reliably available (with customization). As a K13 Collector's owner, I'm basically stuck between an old windows laptop that can't handle the newer NI instruments or a newer portable rig that can't run NI reliably in general (sounds kind of common for NI plugins to have some UI or recall issues on Rosetta). Until M1 is natively supported there'll be that trade-off. I know someone personally who passed on NI due to this.

That's really great to hear there's tangible progress towards native support.

Kaiwan_NI

Thanks @Justin Lebeuf for sharing your experience. We're aware many people are in the same position as you so we're trying to ship this new update asap. Saw you joined our Kontakt beta test already. 🙏

ArconomX

I'm running a Mac Mini M1: Kontakt stand-alone runs, but the VST plugins don't work using Ableton Live.

Cadiz

I’m assuming that you’re using the Ableton Live 11.1 beta? You have to run it in Rosetta mode as the NI plugins are still Intel only

GoKeez

I’m running Apple Silicon M1 iPad Pro with 16g RAM and I can’t get Maschine or Kontakt to install! Somebody heeeeeeeeelp!!!😩😂

Jokes aside, I’m going to keep screaming this from the roof tops. I get it, NI doesn’t want to develop touchscreens on their devices like MPCs crumby ones. Don’t have too or change the hardware for users who don’t care about touch. Apple did all the heavy lifting and no one’s gonna come close so why not just port M2 over? Very least stop ignoring your own software (imaschine). In meantime, make mk3/micro class compliant so we can control what’s there in iMaschine already. No one wants to tap on glass all day and you guys have already made the best midi controllers just need you to turn on the lights with a firmware update (class compliance). Thunderbolt can probably power mk3, jam and a keyboard freeing us from the wall. LFG!!!

FYI, Moog, Roland, Korg, Steinberg, and others are already doing this very well. Love you NI! Please step up your M1 compatibility game. The future awaits and I believe you guys have the best eco for it. I know you know because iMaschine and Traktor were great apps when you cared about them.

Kubrak

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/599#Comment_599

I am not a betatester...

Why, do you think, AS port of Kontakt would need less memory than Intel/Rosetta 2 port? I may be wrong, but I would not expect any decrease in amount of RAM needed. Unless there is some kind of wild hack to handle M1 memory differently.....

Tony Jones

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/1178#Comment_1178

I thought this was the main reason to want M1 versions over Rosetta in that M1 will use the new memory architecture better. Last year when I got my M1 Macbook even things like the anti-virus killed the memory management. I'm still waiting for One Drive client to get ported as well (office has been done).

I understand several manufactures (at least Spectrasonics, and I think Arturia though I may gave mis-remembered) have reported far higher instance counts once they port their apps across from Rosetta.

mushanga

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/1178#Comment_1178

Hi..I’ve read a lot about “unified memory” - processes and tasks are supposed to run much more efficiently, requiring less RAM. So I wonder whether this also impacts the way DAWs and plugins function.

Kubrak

Kontakt will need about the same amount of memory regardless x86 or Apple Silicon, I guess. Most of the memory needed is memory for data. On Win part of RAM may be swapped on disc (mainly SSD) on Apple there is "unified memory" which is also swapping to SSD, but hopefully faster than on Win....

If 16GB of RAM will do on M1 in case when 40 GB of RAM needed on x86 is hard to say. Maybe yes, but still it is better to have enought RAM and avoid excessive swapping to SSD.

gunnga

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/160/apple-silicon-m1-compatibility

Hi Kaiwan ...

Just to let u know, i am a TRAKTOR user since FINAL SCRATCH era..... and i never be so frustrating as i am now, due to this delay about the fully compatibility with the M1 chip.... I dont know why all the others DJ softwares are ready for M1, and the TRAKTOR isnt !!!!!!! I know u have a great software developers team.... why it take so long ? Sometimes i think u are givin up from us..... Just remebering ROSETTA is only a emulation.... and i dont spent a lot of money on a M1 PRO to run the software thru this.... Several guys having audio glitches/drops doing simple things like opening browsers or something like that..... for this reason i refuse myself to use a so great software on a intel emulation app..... anyway..... please.... dont give up from us... because after mre than i am serious thinking in give up from you..... i hope not....

Father Bronques

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/585#Comment_585

Thanks for this opportunity, Jeremy!

Jeremy_NI

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/1400#Comment_1400

Welcome, thanks for participating in the Beta !

Alchymista

It´s 15 months since Apple comes with first M1 chips Macs … and great NI still says sorry we need more time … as many musicians with products depends on your platform I can say: Please do not ignore us and help us with something real …

Jeremy_NI

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/1505#Comment_1505

Hey Alchymista, welcome to our forum. We understand that you are impatient regarding native support for M1. No one here is ignoring M1 users. It is a lot of work and is a priority amongst all our developers. Please note that most of our products are already available and compatible in Rosetta mode. On a side note, it is not just a NI issue, check this regularly updated article on what is compatible and what is not with Apple Sillicon:

https://www.pro-tools-expert.com/apple-silicon-audio-compatibility-guide

The new beta version of Kontakt has native M1 support, that's real ;) If you want to join the beta, just let us know.

Alchymista

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/1567#Comment_1567

I'd like help you. So please join me to the Beta program. I works usually with Dorico, now at version 4 and latest Logic.

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