MacOS: Very old VST instrument GUI is blank in v3.4.4 on Apple silicon

Help, Support & Bugs
1

I’m still clinging to Camel Audio’s Alchemy, thanks to Renoise’s bridge. With macOS Sonoma on Apple silicon (M1 and M3 Pro), Alchemy’s GUI is blank in Renoise v3.4.4, but worked in earlier versions. Disabling Metal and turning off the HiDPI support setting does not help.

I tested various configurations…

Alchemy’s VST GUI works (is shown correctly) on:

  • Renoise v3.3.2 running on Intel + Monterey / Ventura / Sonoma.
  • Renoise v3.3.2 running on Apple silicon + Ventura / Sonoma (via Rosetta).
  • Renoise v3.4.1, 3.4.2, and 3.4.3 running on Apple silicon + Sonoma.
  • Renoise v3.4.4 running on Intel + High Sierra (in a VM).

Alchemy’s VST GUI does not work (is a blank window) on:

  • Renoise v3.4.x running on Intel + Monterey / Ventura / Sonoma.
  • Renoise v3.4.4 running on Apple silicon + Sonoma.

The AU GUI works on v3.3.2 in all configurations, but none of the others in v3.4.x. I really only use the VST, so I’m not bothered by that–just sharing more information if it helps diagnose.

I can work around this by using an older version of Renoise to configure the VST instruments first, then exporting/opening them in the newer version for composition. My primary configuration is Apple silicon + Sonoma, so at least I can just bounce between v3.4.3 and v3.4.4.

2

It is likely that an update to the Mac OS SDK within Renoise has broken this. We have to update the SDK regularly to fix other problems.

Apple is really bad at backwards compatibility and there is nothing we can do about it.

The only way to get all these old plugins to work properly is to use an older version of MacOS. The version they used to work on.

3

Yeah, that makes sense. I knew my days of limping Alchemy forward would be numbered.

Thank you for the response!

4

i dont know if you know this option too. you can bootcamp windows and then run vmware fusion to boot the bootcamp, running both systems on disk at the same time. video crashes on me sometimes, and it’s harder to do with vbbox and UTM. -i was having issue wwith apple dropping support for 32bit, with running akaizer

5

I have a VM with High Sierra (which uses the SSD that was in my old 2011 MacBook Pro), so I can kick it old skool when I need to. :wink:

6

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