diff --git a/deps/Makefile b/deps/Makefile
index 8037a9b..764e00d 100644
--- a/deps/Makefile
+++ b/deps/Makefile
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ endif
 BASE_FLAGS += -I$(abspath ../include)
 BASE_FLAGS += -I$(abspath ../include/simd-compat)
 
-ifneq (,$(findstring true,$(DEBUG)$(NOSIMD)))
+ifeq ($(NOSIMD),true)
 BASE_FLAGS += -DCARDINAL_NOSIMD
 endif
 
@@ -325,6 +325,7 @@ endif
 SURGE_CXX_FLAGS += -DJUCE_DSP_ENABLE_SNAP_TO_ZERO=0
 
 # required by JUCE
+ifneq ($(NOSIMD),true)
 ifeq ($(WASM),true)
 SURGE_CXX_FLAGS += -msse -msse2 -msse3 -msimd128
 else ifeq ($(CPU_ARM32),true)
@@ -332,6 +333,7 @@ SURGE_CXX_FLAGS += -mfpu=neon-vfpv4 -mfloat-abi=hard
 else ifeq ($(CPU_I386_OR_X86_64),true)
 SURGE_CXX_FLAGS += -msse -msse2
 endif
+endif
 
 # possibly use fftw?
 # ifeq ($(shell $(PKG_CONFIG) --exists fftw3 fftw3f && echo true),true)