Published October 29, 2020 / Updated April 29, 2021
Apple has started to move away from Intel-based x86/x64 CPU solutions to instead use a custom-designed, RISC-based solution (aka “Apple Silicon”), now known as the M1 Chip. This coincides with the release of macOS 11.0 Big Sur, which supports both Intel and Apple Silicon hardware.
PreSonus Support for Apple M1 Macs is now available for some specific PreSonus hardware.
To see our full list of devices and their current compatibility with M1 Silicon Macs, please see the article here: https://support.presonus.com/hc/en-us/articles/360051407452-Apple-Silicon-M1-Computer-Compatibility
Starting with Big Sur macOS 11, Apple introduced Rosetta v2, which allows applications to run in an emulated mode. Our tests revealed performance problems when using our software with Rosetta v2 (emulation mode). PreSonus is working on developing native applications for these new Apple M1 machines available in early 2021.
What you should know about our products on Apple Silicon Macs thus far:
Apple has retired their old method of custom device driver support called Kernel Extensions (also referred to as KEXT files) in favor of a different way of supporting connected devices called DriverKit. KEXT files meant for Intel machines will not load on Apple M1 Silicon machines.
StudioLive AI-Series mixers and rack mixers will not work directly connected for audio recording /playback over 1394 with M1 Apple Silicon Macs. There are no plans to develop a driver to enable 1394 to connect to these machines.
Universal Control running on M1 Mac will control an Ai / RM mixer running on the same network. For audio recording / playback, the mixer will need to be connected to a support Intel based Mac or Windows system.
We will continue to support Intel-based Macs. StudioLive Ai will continue to be supported on the Windows 10 platform. Contact the PreSonus sales team for information on how to get into a Series III mixer which will be supported on M1 Macs.
This limitation for 1394/KEXT support with M1 Chips also affects the use of Rational Acoustics’ SMAART® software, as it is a FireWire service for the StudioLive AI / RM series of digital mixers. SMAART® software uses a firewire stream for the room analysis and firewire is not supported for AI/RM on M1.
- StudioLive 32Ai
- StudioLive 24Ai
- StudioLive 16Ai
- StudioLive RM32Ai
- StudioLive RML32Ai
- StudioLive RM16Ai
- StudioLive RML16Ai
- StudioLive CS18Ai
Read more about Rosetta v2 emulation here:
https://9to5mac.com/2020/06/22/arm-mac-apple/
macOS Big Sur Compatibility for the current Intel-based Macs can be found HERE.