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Sonoma -- safe to come out? [partial solution]

JohnG

JohnG

Senior Member
[Edit: I quickly discovered, by following advice below, that removing one set of plugins -- u-he's Uhbik plugins -- solved the issue. They are not Silicon Mac ready. However, there really isn't much of an "issue" in the first place, with no problems audibly arising. Moreover, u-he assures us that they are getting there with the update and are testing new versions. Plus, they sound great and are fun]

Even though it was released what feels like a loooong time ago, I think I'm still reading about problems with Sonoma and audio software (Native Access and Kontakt, just to mention two it seems I've read about pretty recently).

Sadly, [on my M2 Silicon Mac Pro], my Activity Monitor has the dreaded "AUHostingCompatibilityService" note next to VE Pro and Digital Performer, my two main workhorses, indicating that an OS update is needed for them to be happy. I'm in the middle of a project but it's a long one, so operating like this seems like a bad idea.

What else is going to break?
  • Sibelius Ultimate 24.3.1.3317
  • SINE 1.2.2
  • Spitfire players (Abbey Road, Appassionata strings, Hammers, (others I can't think of)
  • Kontakt 7.9.0 & Native Access
  • East West Opus (no PLAY libs left -- all using Opus)
  • u-he synths: Tyrell, Zebra, Diva etc.
  • Soundtoys, u-he effects

Or would you recommend enduring the "compatibility" mode and slog on until the dust settles even further?
Click to read more...
 
Last edited:
JohnG said:
SINE 1.2.2
Spitfire players (Abbey Road, Appassionata strings, Hammers, (others I can't think of)
Kontakt 7.9.0 & Native Access
u-he synths: Tyrell, Zebra, Diva etc.
Soundtoys, u-he effects
Click to expand...
I don't have all of these (no Tyrell or Diva or uhe effects), but do have the others, and am not having any issues currently (Sonoma is up to date), though Native Access required some serious attention a couple of weeks ago and I've not yet ventured beyond Kontakt 7.8.1. Kontakt has sporadic issues with the interface flickering if you move the gui from one screen to another. Since you are only using one screen it might not pose an issue, and in any case it works perfectly fine, or as well as it ever does, otherwise.
 
Maybe I didn't understand you, but the "AUHostingCompatibilityService" is not about Sonoma : it's an Apple process that translate the AudioUnit plugins that are not compatibles with an Apple Silicon chip into ones that are. It's a kind of real time Rosetta (by the way, I don't think it's about apps like Digital performer, it's about the plugins you use in it).
So upgrading to Sonoma will not change anything with that.

Regarding compatibility, I'm running plenty of plugins with Sonoma and I don't have any problem.
But it's true Native Instrument seem to have some troubles with their last versions with Sonoma.
I didn't update anything NI related since few months (I even use Native Access 1) and I don't have any problems, but you may have problems with NI plugins recent versions, especially Kontakt 7 and Native Access.

Personnaly, if your machine is running fine, I would advise to keep it like it is. You don't need Sonoma...

Regarding the "AUHostingCompatibilityService" process, you just need to wait for some plugins to be native Apple Silicon (or update them because they are already native)...

Edit : to be more precise, on my M1 Pro running Sonoma, Sine, Spitfire players, u-he synths and soundtoys plugins are working like a charm... I don't know about the most recent Kontakt 7, Native Access, Sibelius and East West...
 
Is this an Apple Silicon Mac we're talking about?

Do VE Pro and Digital Performer show up as "Intel" in the Kind tab of Activity Monitor? <these are your apps.

Does the "AUHostingCompatibilityService" also show up as "Intel" in the Kind tab? <these are your plugins that are not Apple Silicon native.

(None of these things indicate a need for an OS update by-the-way, just that macOS is running these processes through the Rosetta 2 translation layer needed for x86 apps.)
 
Sorry -- should have said in the original post. "Yes" to the Silicon Mac. Just started using it.

Calagan said:
you just need to wait for some plugins to be native Apple Silicon (or update them because they are already native)
Click to expand...
I just reinstalled everything directly from scratch (yes it took for-ever), but over several weeks, so it is possible that some are not yet updated.

Thanks everyone. I'll wait.
 
Right, so from this screenshot:

The apps VE Pro and DP are running natively on your Mac.

Inside those apps you are running AU plugins which are either not updated or do not support running natively, thus AUHostingCompatibilityService is providing the Intel translation layer.

Again, this does not indicate a need for an OS update, rather an update for your plugins.

From your OP list they should all be running natively if updated to the latest versions.

I know for a fact Sibelius isn't updated, and I'm not sure what you're running inside VE Pro that's not native, perhaps check with their support for that. But every other plugin you listed have been updated.

Do check and update all your plugins. Running them through the translation layer kind of defeats the purpose of having an AS Mac...
 
It's also possible you did select "open with Rosetta" for VEP or Digital Performer (you can choose that while clicking right on the app and selecting "read infos").
When doing so, the apps are running entirely through Rosetta (it's useful when, for exemple, you need to open a session including non native vst plugins - AUHosting works only with AudioUnit plugins)
 
JohnG said:
What else is going to break?
  • Sibelius Ultimate 24.3.1.3317
  • SINE 1.2.2
  • Spitfire players (Abbey Road, Appassionata strings, Hammers, (others I can't think of)
  • Kontakt 7.9.0 & Native Access
  • East West Opus (no PLAY libs left -- all using Opus)
  • u-he synths: Tyrell, Zebra, Diva etc.
  • Soundtoys, u-he effects
Click to expand...
I can't speak to Sibelius, but I use most of the rest of those (u-he Zebrai (2 and HZ) of the u-he bullet). M1Pro MacBook Pro, Sonoma 14.4.1, Logic 10.8.1, Kontakt 7.9.0.

The only thing(s) I consistently have issues with are the particular combination of Sonoma, Logic, Kontakt, and my NI S88 MkIII. It is a (somewhat) edge case because of the keyboard but unfortunately continues to be a lingering issue even after NI certified Kontakt for Sonoma :-(

However, other than that I have had no consistent issues with any of the rest of that list. The occasional Sine misbehaviour, no problems with Opus, no issues with any of the softsynths or FX, Spitfire player behaves as well as it ever does, etc...

So, circling back to your OP - NI/Kontakt is still unfortunately the stinky pink elephant in the room. The recent snafu with Kontakt 7.10 and the fact that they have to hide 7.10.1 from Sonoma users doesn't inspire confidence. Wish I had clear guidance to offer in terms of upgrading your OS, but my magic 8-ball says "outlook cloudy - ask again later"
 
I don't know if this will help but you can run the VEPro AS server and VEPro Rosetta servers simultaneously.

**Leigh
 
Thank you all for this detailed insight! Excellent stuff. I think what I should do is see what happens if I go through VE Pro (where nearly all the plugins are located) and start 'turning them off' one by one. Meanwhile I can look at any SFX (Replika and one or two others) in the Mixing Board on DP and delete those, just to confirm that they are not the source.

I can report back if I get to the bottom of it.

Thanks again everyone!
 
Following up:

Digital Performer itself is fine. I had one instance of an u-he Uhbik effect in its mixing board, which when removed also saw the "compatibility" message disappear for DP. So one concludes that it was that plugin only that was running in Rosetta (not that it was causing any problems, but still nice to know). It appears that the Uhbik plugins date back from well before anyone was using Silicon Macs.

VE Pro Same story. Deleting the u-he Uhbik effects (which I really like, fwiw) also made the compatibility message disappear.

So, mystery solved. Not sure there's actually any need to delete those plugins, which are mostly reverbs. It's not like I was short on CPU or RAM or anything.

Thanks again for all the advice. Appears that "do nothing" will continue to work, so back to writing.
 
danstein said:
So, circling back to your OP - NI/Kontakt is still unfortunately the stinky pink elephant in the room. The recent snafu with Kontakt 7.10 and the fact that they have to hide 7.10.1 from Sonoma users doesn't inspire confidence.
Click to expand...
Yes, it's been a bit of a ride on that one.

In fairness to NI, the devs are now in touch with this community to help nail Sonoma issues down. Just today, I sent a stack of crash logs to NI (on request) so hopefully things are moving in the right direction.

And then we start all over again in a couple of months with the next MacOS..
 
Alex Fraser said:
And then we start all over again in a couple of months with the next MacOS..
Click to expand...
This right here is why I'm considering biting the bullet and installing Sonoma this weekend... I'm still on Ventura with both of my machines, and I wouldn't mind updating to a newer OS that's been vetted as stable so I can cruise on that for the next few years. If no other Sonoma horror-stories arise, I might bite the bullet and update this weekend. I shall report back if disasters unfold.
 
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