The future of CoreAudio and AudioUnits - a real concern

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SixStringGeek
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Re: The future of CoreAudio and AudioUnits - a real concern

Post by SixStringGeek »

Michael Canavan wrote:they need to maintain their proprietary standard to at least their competitors levels. :mumble:
So what is missing in the AU spec that the other specs have adopted?
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Shooshie
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Re: The future of CoreAudio and AudioUnits - a real concern

Post by Shooshie »

SixStringGeek wrote:
Michael Canavan wrote:they need to maintain their proprietary standard to at least their competitors levels. :mumble:
So what is missing in the AU spec that the other specs have adopted?
Not sure if it's missing in the spec, or if it's just that nobody actually does it, but in AU they've only got about 16 input and output channels, compared to about 64, each, in MAS, and I don't know if AU accepts "send" inputs (MIDI or audio) or not, but I sure don't see many plugins that use MIDI inputs OR audio inputs to drive a sidechain channel. DP's Dynamics plugin is so simple, by comparison. You just click the button, apply an audio channel, and it's side-chaining!

There are some other things, but I can't think of them right now. Maybe someone else will remember one or two. Seems like we were talking about some of these recently, with the announcement about VSL's adoption of the MAS format.

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Michael Canavan
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Re: The future of CoreAudio and AudioUnits - a real concern

Post by Michael Canavan »

Au's can do side chaining, I have a few that do. What it doesn't seem to be capable of is sending MIDI to other instruments. In VSTi's 2.4 even I can set up a drum track in a drum machine plug in then send the kick pattern to another VSTi. This is useful with proprietary drum libraries, for experimenting etc.
Plus VST3 shuts down all CPU use in a plug in when that plug in is not receiving a signal among other things. Here's their 'what's new' list.
https://www.steinberg.net/en/company/te ... /vst3.html

Granted some of these are things where VST is catching up to AU, but not all for sure, and VST3 has been around for a long time. I was a bit disappoint that Logic X came out without an AU update, I figure when it happens it will be likely tied to a paid update to Logic....
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Re: The future of CoreAudio and AudioUnits - a real concern

Post by Shooshie »

Ah, you just reminded me of one of the VST3 features we were discussing the other day: Note Expression. That seems to go beyond MIDI, and anything that goes beyond MIDI (if it's productive) is something I want to become universal. I hate the antiquated MIDI protocol and its channelized, stair-stepped 128 degrees of everything. It was fine for 1980, which was before anyone guessed that someday we'd be using that to express orchestral textures, classical, jazz, and even pop expression where loudness, pitch and timbre are subjugated to movement in which the controller is discernible, and all notes in a channel must respond to the same controls. Well, pitch bend is high-res, but I'm not sure whether pitch editors are. Anyway, the standard needs improving, and I'm for anyone who pushes ahead with that!

Note Expression at least takes care of the channelized part. It allows control of each note independently, though it still apparently uses 128-stepped controllers. Of course, we'll require new hardware controllers to get beyond 128 steps.

We're at a point now where the MIDI interface may be superfluous. We can send control wirelessly or through ethernet, and input directly through USB. It's possible (I do it fairly regularly) to work within the box, where except for note input, one could work without ever sending a MIDI signal out of the computer. So why are we using it at all? If we want to see a new standard emerge, maybe plugins are a place to start.

But I'm getting off-topic, or at least on the fringes of it. Still, it merits discussion elsewhere.

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Re: The future of CoreAudio and AudioUnits - a real concern

Post by mhschmieder »

I don't want to double-post, so will simply link this newer discussion to the slightly older one that was more relevant to the new posting I just added tonight after discovering a VST3 dependency that renders the AU version of a particular plug-in "invisible" to DP:

http://www.motunation.com/forum/viewtop ... 14#p518714

I don't have time to spend on such issues as my day job is hyper-technical and quite challenging and overtime-oriented. I may check back on this topic over the holidays though to try to suss out where Apple is with AU in El Capitan at this point, as a possible future indicator.
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