A big drop for owners of Macs with Apple Silicon: Madrona Labs has updated their innovative plug-ins as Universal Binaries. The developer reports a 30%+ boost in voice count compared to the Rosetta 2 Intel versions.
Universal Binary support is available for both VST2 and AUv2 – no VST3 yet, sorry. (AUv2 + VST2 however is fairly compatible across macOS DAWs.)
From the developer:
All of Madrona Labs’ software instruments have been updated to version 1.9.5, bringing native Apple Silicon support for M1 and M2 Macs. The new versions are Universal Binaries, which support both Apple Silicon and Intel processors. Users with Apple Silicon computers should be able to run 30% more voices or more, as compared with the previous versions in Rosetta 2 emulation.
Aaltoverb already had Apple Silicon support. Windows users are supported as before. The updates are free.
The three updates – Virta, a “patchable toolbox” for translating voice/instrument-to-synth, Kaivo a semi-modular combining granular synthesis and physical modeling, and Aalto, their flagship patchable semi-modular. Madrona Labs is definitely a favorite for such goodies, right up there on a short list with Applied Acoustics Systems (AAS) for advanced patchable synthesis tools from independent makers.
https://madronalabs.com/products/aalto
https://madronalabs.com/products/kaivo
https://madronalabs.com/products/virta
Here’s “That New New” by SassyBlack remixed with Virta: