I have tried using AA's plugins in my new Mac Studio but cannot seem to run Audio through it cause the software just wont work. It only displays the GUI (except SALT.- It just shows a black square) but without audio. I have to bypass to let the audio pass through.
Does anyone have the same problem with the new mac studios? Or do you think it's the new OS Sequoia 15.4's problem?

Have you reached out to their tech support and not received any assistance? wouldn’t it make more sense to talk to them first considering how your use case is probably an exception rater than the norm? (most producers will not have the m3 ultra since the m4 max is probably a better fit in most sound studios).
If you do reach out to them and receive an answer please update us on what they have to say.

I will say that there are way too many unknowns in your current post to answer the question.
starting from full hardware specs, software versions, what size project, number of channels, codecs used, what you can see in logs and the console when you try to run the plugins etc etc etc.

Yeah I’ve already addressed them with detailed reports. They don’t know the problem either. But they are looking into it but just taking time. I just wanted to know if there are any of you guys out there with the new M3 ultra having the same problem.

That's bad news.
I'm waiting for my m3 ultra arriving in two days.
Bought it to use Aqua's extensively.

still we would need more details then a general “are you having problems with M3 Ultra and aqua…. again too many variables at play here… software problems are never straight forward. one incremental version could be responsible, or something else you have open at the same time.

I am curious why did you by the ultra over the max? what is your usercase?

Of course. I'm still communicating with AA and i'm can't disclose the details but they still are not able to figure out. I sent over my project files after several attempts of their solutions. It's only AA's entire library that isn't working.

The Ultra is able to handle more tracks than the M4 Max and single core performance isn't as important than multicore since i'm handling with hundreds of tracks rather than one track with like 100 plugins. However, I think libraries like Pop Brass would gain more advantage than the Ultra cause it relies a lot on single core performance (sudden boost of CPU while performing with the VST). Also, the Video Graphics improvements is a plus while recording with 4k , 8k materials simultaneously.

Yeah I was waiting for that too.. :( Would test it out if it actually worked lol

My usecase are aqua plugins by acustica audio.
Mainly mixing inside REAPER. So I'm ok with a buffersize of 2048 and make use of REAPER'S anticipative effect processing (prerendering each track before put together by the realtime audio thread). So I don't worry much about latency.

My M3 Ultra 32core, 4TB, 256GB unified memory arrived and aqua's are working on my side.
Aquarius crashed several times by installing multiple libraries at a time. I opened a ticket about that.
I did a complete fresh install.

In my first testing I maxed it out with 900!! aqua plugin's running on 225 tracks (4 instances each {StrawPre, Teal, SandUltraEq, SandUltraComp}) by adjusting buffer settings inside Reaper for having no dropouts and snappy graphics fully utilizing all 32cores. That's insane!

BUT !!:

- It took FOREVER to duplicate tracks.

- at a certain plugin count (about 600, I guess) aqua graphics start to break. Meters, Eq graphics in ultra versions do not respond properly while knobs still respond and adjustments take place in the audio. Opening a plugin's GUI works properly in an acceptable amount of time. Even with 900 instances.

- loading such a project takes FOREVER. To be precise 3 hours and 47 minutes .
After about 60 Tracks with 4 aqua's each (=240 instances) it starts to go up to a huge amount of time for loading a instance.
I mean, we are talking about 165GB of unified memory for 900 instances.

- CPU utilizing meters inside REAPER, activity monitor and istats start to max out at about 240 instances. Maybe the issuse comes from REAPER or aqua's are reporting wrong values, while REAPER's core percent per track is pretty accurate.

As you already said, it's highly dependent on the DAW, specific plugin's in use and buffer settings.
Other DAWs will perform differently.
So that means, this is a very specific user report, only related to REAPER DAW along with aqua's and it comes down to the question: are 900 instances of aquas a real world scenario?
Well, in my opinion at least it shows greatly the downsides.

Attention is needed from acustica audio's side to improve the issues of breaking GUI and memory loading time.
Hopefully REAPER devs show some attention on loading time too, other than that it's the right choice for maxing out core utilization. Really, really good!!
But, if I understand it right, what Justin is saying about the AFXP in interviews, there is still room for improvements on their side.

Please, Acustica and REAPER devs, IMPROVE THIS!!

Buy a m3 ultra or a m4 max?
In my opinion, if low latencies are needed, you could benefit from the higher single core rate of the m4 max, because in my experience pre rendering all these tracks (each its user thread) and then sum them up on the real time thread needs big buffers to do it without dropouts with high core count cpus.
We are talking about double the price of a machine, because memory load could be huge.
Is it worth it? IMO not at the moment. Of course, meant in relation to aqua's.

Please, Acustica and REAPER devs, IMPROVE THIS!!

That's it for the moment and I will go on with testing.
Next will be a test project with vsti sample libraries.

Short update in relation to my last post about loading aqua plugins on a mac studio, m3 ultra, 256 GB unified memory:

- Aquas are starting to break loading properly at about 40-45 GB unified memory. Tested with several aqua plugins.
That seems like a bug. Why is it needed to load the exactly same samples/vectors of multiple instances into memory?

- This also happens in logic pro, not only in reaper. It's the same behavior for both DAWs.

Anybody else experience this behavior?

- Did a VSTi test with Kontakt8 to go over 50 GB unified memory by simulating a orchestral kind of project. It's working fine. Kontakt does a great job by reusing memory for multiple instances, which made it harder to get over 50 GB of memory . It's well done from NI side.

On "tutti" parts with a buffersize of 128 CPU spikes are extreme. This comes form kontakt having zero latency. A playback mode inside kontakt, which would add a buffer, would help against that. Or is it already possible in kontakt? For this the m4 max will do a better job with it's greater single core performance to handle these spikes.
Of course, a buffersize of 256 performed much better, because the utilization is more even. Changing AFXP settings inside REAPER did not make a big difference.

My Mac is a 28 core and my problem is that none of the AA plugins work. None of the buttons function nor do the audio pass through. Now I know that the 32 core works, but I want to know if it’s a 28 core Mac ultra problem or not.