Problems loading Magenta's DDSP-VST into Max

Definitely Human 's icon

Hi everyone,

I've been trying to load Magenta's DDSP-VST (https://magenta.tensorflow.org/ddsp-vst) into Max using vst~ and am running into some problems. Wondering if anyone can help.

When I promt vst~ with the "plug" message and find "DDSP SYNTH.vst3" and "DDSP EFFECT.vst3" in the file browser both are greyed out and are unable to be loaded. Max can not load them. All my other VSTs are able to be loaded with no problems.

I believe this is because both "DDSP SYNTH.vst3" and "DDSP EFFECT.vst3" are recognised as a "bundle" under file kind as opposed to a "VST plug-in".

Does anyone have any ideas? Greatly appreciate the help if anyone does.

Jean-Francois Charles's icon

Mac? Windows?
After installation, does the plugin appear in the list of plugins (left sidebar)? If yes, what happens when you drag & drop on a blank Max patch? Error message?
Does the plugin run fine in a daw (which one)?

Definitely Human 's icon

Mac, apologies for not mentioning that in my first post.

It does, yes, and after dragging it in I get the error message "no format AudioUnit exists".

I've been using it in Logic and it's been working fine, no problems.

testcase's icon

Is it an m1 Mac?

Roman Thilenius's icon


isn´t that this message you only get when you have AU set as "preferred format" for the vst~ object?

i believe otherwise a corrupted vst or vst3 bundle would still load, no matter if on PPC, intel or M1.