Apple released its latest major update for macOS called macOS Big Sur (11.x) on November 12, 2020. This update continues to make macOS look and feel more like iOS, but the big change for us is that this is the first version of macOS that can run on a Mac containing an Apple Silicon processor.
Apple Silicon
These new processors are built in-house by Apple and replace the Intel-based processors that Macs have been using since 2006. Because applications are designed for a particular processor architecture, Apple have provided Rosetta and the Universal 2 file format to help transition from using the current Intel x86-64 applications to Apple Silicon arm64 applications.
Rosetta
Included in macOS Big Sur is a translation process called Rosetta which allows you to run Intel applications on Apple Silicon Macs. When an Intel application is first run on an Apple Silicon Mac, the following message is displayed requesting the installation of Rosetta:
Once Rosetta is installed, every time a new Intel application is launched, Rosetta automatically converts the application into an ARM-optimized version that can run on an Apple Silicon processor. This way Rosetta isn't doing any translation while the application is running, which is a major improvement on the original Rosetta from 2006 when Apple transitioned from PowerPC to Intel, which interpreted the code in real-time during application execution.
Ultimately the current Rosetta is a short-term fix as Apple will remove it in an upcoming version of macOS. Developers will need to provide Universal 2 builds of their applications to maintain compatibility with macOS.
Universal 2
Universal 2 is an application file format that contains two executable files: an Intel x86-64 executable to run on an Intel processor, and an arm64 executable to run on an Apple Silicon processor. The Universal 2 application format allow developers to release a single application file that can run natively on either type of Mac without the need for Rosetta.
When a user runs a Universal 2 application on an Apple Silicon Mac, by default the arm64 executable runs natively. However, you can select to run the Intel x86-64 executable by checking 'Open Using Rosetta' in the applications 'File Info' window as follows:
EdiApps running on Big Sur and Apple Silicon
The current versions of all of our applications are Intel x86-64 (64bit) applications. We are pleased to announce that we have completed testing our applications with macOS Big Sur using Intel and Apple Silicon Macs. All our applications are compatible with macOS Big Sur, using Rosetta on Apple Silicon Macs.
Now that Avid have released Pro Tools 2021.06 and qualified it to run with macOS Big Sur (11.4) running on an Intel and Apple Silicon processor, we tested our applications for compatibility. All functions of our applications performed as expected on both processors, including how they interact with Pro Tools. For details on Pro Tools compatibility check macOS 11 (Big Sur) Support for Avid Products and Pro Tools Operating System Compatibility Chart.
The macOS Big Sur and Pro Tools 2021.06 compatible versions of our applications are as follows:
Application installers can be downloaded from our download page.
During 2022 we will be releasing Universal 2 builds of our applications. The timing of this is mostly dependant on when third party software that our applications require have been released for arm64.
See our blog post EdiApps macOS Monterey Compatibility Info for a list of EdiApps that have been released with native Apple Silicon support.
Fixes in Pro Tools 2021.03
On Friday March 26, 2021, Avid released Pro Tools 2021.03. This update contains two changes or fixes that we requested for compatibility with our applications. Many thanks to Avid for implementing these.
The first update fixes an issue with the way Pro Tools was importing or creating a new session from an AAF created by EdiCue, EdiLoad or EdiMarker. In previous versions of Pro Tools, the AAF frame rate wasn’t read correctly when it was set to 23.976, 29.97, 47.952 or 59.94 FPS. Now with Pro Tools 2021.03, you no longer need to have matching AAF and session start times when importing the AAF, nor do you need to set the frame rate manually after creating a new session from an AAF created by EdiCue, EdiLoad or EdiMarker.
The second fix in Pro Tools allows it to import marker names from an AAF with up to 255 characters, the maximum characters the marker name field can contain. Previous versions of Pro Tools limited this to 31 characters.