Organization of Audio Units

[Simian]

I have noticed that, at least for me, Digital Performer sometimes organizes loaded Audio Units much differntly than other sequencers. The two I am using for comparison are DP7 and Ableton Live 6. Let me explain:

For instance, the TAL freeware AU VI's. Digital performer will put some outside the TAL sub-directory , whereas Ableton will put them all inside the same sub-directory. I am aware that Digital Performer and Ableton both are reading information contained inside of the Audio Unit metadata.

So I guess this give me a few questions, that someone who is deeply invested in DP might know the answer. First of all, why would these two sequencers interpret the meta info differently? Is there a way I can open, an dlook inside the audio units to possibly see, or even edit the information so they respond the same? (Maybe DP is using case sensitivity, and the other isnt? - wild guess here)

I am happy to include screenshots for those who believe that would help. What I am looking for, though - is a deeper understanding of just exactly how Audio Units embed info and are detected by a DAW.

Even if you don't know the answer- pointing me in the direction of, even a fairly technical resource is awesome.

Share what you know about how Audio Units really work and integrate into the DAW! thank you friends!

[MIDI Life Crisis]

FWIW, I could not get thru your question because of the distracting avatar. You might want to reconsider if you are looking for responses - or not.

Welcome to the forum.

[Simian]

Thanks for the warm welcome.

Do you have any useful insight about my post? I know its a fairly technical topic, I thought this might be a good place to start.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

You might contact the VI mfg but, since your problem is with free VIs, I doubt you'll get much traction there. You never know, maybe you will. Developers don't always check every VI for compatibility and are not aware of an error in their code, or they might already have a solution. Then again, you might just be S.O.L.

Alternately, if it really bothers you, you might consider hosting the VI externally in something like Plogue Bidule. Not the best solution, but it's a starting point.

As for the warm welcome, I really could not concentrate on the post. If my comment annoyed you, then certainly you understand exactly.

[bayswater]

My TAL plugins all appear in the same folder. But I've seen what you are describing. The T-Racks CSR plugin does not appear with the rest of the T-Racks plugins in the IKM Multimedia folder.

Fooling around with the metadata is probably a bad idea, and pointless if there are updates to the plugins. Organizing by maker is odd -- by function makes a lot more sense to me. Why would you select a plugin first on the basis of who sold it to you, rather than what it does?

You can organize them any way you want in DP using clippings folders of frequently used plugins.

[stubbsonic]

I think this might be a cool feature request for a (near) future DP update. I.e., in the Preferences/AU manager, all a user organize AU's by type/function-- even allowing one plug-in to exist in two sub-directories. For example, a TAL reverb might exist both in a reverbs folder and a TAL folder.

I'm going to look into using the clippings folders.

[Simian]

Hello, thanks for the responses thusfar.

I hope it is clear I am not referring particularly to just the TAL plugins. I own a number of plugins, most of which I paid for. I pointed out the TAL plugins as an example, simply because they are free and could allow someone to reproduce the 'problem', easily.

I know that in Digital Performer there is the option of clippings. I hope you understand that I am asking a more fundamental question - where does the metadata the DAW reads really come from? I am asking not just for myself, but for lurkers and webbies (which I have been here for years actually) who are wondering the same thing.

It is not just the TAL stuff, I came across an instance of another user who had a similar situation with an Arturia VI. The thread is from about three years ago, here at motunation.

Here is the thread: http://www.motunation.com/forum/viewtop ... 26&t=49859

The thing is, I find confusing is that if DAW x reads the same metainfo as DAW y, why are they responding differently?

Consider the two images below:



and:


There are actually a few differences. For one, yes, the TAL noisemaker is not in the TAL flyout in DP, but it is in Ableton. Of course the MAS plugs are not loading in ableton, but the two MOTU AU ones I have, MX4 and Symphonic are both named differently in Ableton then they are in Digital Performer. In each sequencer, one has the MOTU: prefix, and the other does not. A small thing, but it would be nice if I could reliably anticipate or dictate how they would be named in both sequencers.


So I've been looking around out there for answers as to where this metainfo comes from. When I open a compnent in text wrangler (such as the TAL stuff) I see a plist file. It looks like this:




Its an XML dictionary of key value pairs, but none of these seem to be what either sequence is directly reading to gets its display name from.

I any case - in the past I have authored VST plugins with middleware, such as Max/Msp and similar tools. Soon, I would like to experiment with AU authoring also. Maybe then I will find my answers.

I am currently going through this guide: https://developer.apple.com/library/mac ... ntals.html when I can, to see if it enlightens me any on the subject.

I also came across this program : http://audio-unit-manager.en.softonic.com/mac Which I have not had a chance to try out yet, but might be useful. I will update if it works.

Edit: I did not find the audio unit manager program useful.

[mcarm22]

Hi,

Sorry to resurrect the old thread, but you guys might be interested in this http://www.auganizer.com full renaming and organizing of your Audio Units without the need for rescanning.

[stubbsonic]

Does look pretty useful. I guess the OP's original question holds, which is whether that app would work with DP since DP seems to interpret the info a little differently than other DAWs.

I noticed DP8 is showing a full AU picker rather than a hierarchical menu as before. That may be a pref I've overlooked.

[bayswater]

I noticed DP8 is showing a full AU picker rather than a hierarchical menu as before. That may be a pref I've overlooked.

Also a very flexible organizer with customized categories, and it does VST and MAS formats too.