Is it possible to install both macOS x64 and macOS ARM64 versions on the same machine at the same time? And if so, how?
There are a few reasons I would like to do this
Compare the performance of the two versions. I’m especially interested to see if the ARM64 can support larger patches, given that x64 only supports a single thread.
I want to begin exploring the ARM64 version, but not all plugins are available yet, and I want to be able to continue access to my old patches that use plugins that have not yet been compiled for ARM64.
For a while I have been rack free arm and rack pro x86 and that worked well for me too. Once Andy’s cf100 and entrain are in the library though I will move pro to arm
The only thing a bit funky is the apps have the same bundle id so double click gestures in finder are a bit luck of the draw
easy, just append x64 and arm64 to the binaries and be done, user folder is same, plugins are in separate folders (installer takes care of that) I have both running fine
depends a bit on host… hosts should not care about filename, rather pluginId
Id suspect hosts that supports both architecture may well have an issue loading two plugins with same pluginId from different files (though they’d support it from a universal binary)
but if your host is running host arm OR intel (rosetta) exclusively it may work, as it’ll fail to load the other architecture anyway. but ymmv depending on host.
I hope that a future version of VCV will support universal binaries (standalone, plugin and module), this makes life quite a bit simpler for end users.
as for OP, I really do thing the VCV library needs to incorporate ‘architecture’ support as a primary attribute - so users only see modules in the library they can actually use.
I get the ideal is all modules are cross compiled for everything, and over time Im sure this will happen (to some extent), but there are always going to be some modules that are unavailable for various reasons.
I get its tricky to ‘retro fit’, but even if defaulted incorrectly, at least going forward things would improve.
The thing I don’t get about this scheme of installing two versions (x64 AND Arm versions of VCV rack) is this: When you open VCV as a VST in a DAW, how does it know which version to use?
Well… I just spent several hours trying to fix the problem of having Both ARM and Intel versions of VCV 2 Pro. It works find for Standalone, But I can find NO WAY to have DAW Plugins that will support both Versions. It seems like an odd bug! My strategy was to not only change the name of the App (with _X64 and one with _ARM added to the app names in Finder), but also to try changing the Plugin filenames as well, so that I can have a file “VCV Pro 2_X64.clap” and “VCV Pro 2_Arm.clap”. I tried the Same for VST’s But once I do that, Neither plugin opens in the daw. With CLAP … I just get an error and with VST2 or VST3 It just spends an eternity loading the plugin (never happens) .
My guess on the reason for this is that The VST plugin files point to the same library… no matter which plugin is called from the DAW which conflicts with the core code base.
It would sure be nice to get this fixed! I was hoping to be able to have Instruo modules available in my DAW Plugin,
Yup, that’s my understanding as well. The VST/AU…/whatever DAW plugin points to the Rack installed in the default location. So you can switch by renaming the Rack x64/arm64 directory/app to the default name (with the DAW closed, obviously), but there’s no way you can use both at the same time. But that might actually be fine, because I don’t know how many DAW’s allow you to happily mix plugins of different architectures in the same session (someone’s probably gonna yell “Reaper”).