KVR Audio

Crandall1 · Post by **Crandall1** » Fri Jan 20, 2006 11:58 pm

Hey, all:

I've put up a lengthy post on my blog, explaining our plans for transitioning the Audio Damage catalog to Universal Binaries and 64-bit Windows. You can read it here:

http://www.analogindustries.com/

If you'd like to comment directly to Adam or I, or ask a question regarding the Transition, I ask that you do it on the Analog Industries site, because I don't normally read this forum, and I'd like all the questions and answers to be in one spot for future reference.

Chris Randall
Audio Damage, Inc.
http://www.audiodamage.com

lex_strooder · Post by **lex_strooder** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 5:31 pm

Crandall1 wrote:because I don't normally read this forum, and I'd like all the questions and answers to be in one spot for future reference

www.analogindustries.com wrote: ...but the thought of the KvR community writing a Wiki is like the kids from Lord Of The Flies being put in charge of the Encyclopedia Brittanica.

..whatever this info is in your interest or not... i just like to post it here...

Crandall1 · Post by **Crandall1** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 5:46 pm

Case in point.

Chris Randall
Audio Damage, Inc.
http://www.audiodamage.com

Angus_FX · Post by **Angus_FX** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 6:02 pm

Chris -- you're not kidding -- when are the host and OS developers going to stop wasting all our time f**king around with the platform and actually give plug-in developers a chance to develop something new and innovative? I just gave the Emapple devs a piece of my mind over this (they still can't resist screwing around with Logic's AU support in ways that will break compatibility with existing plug-ins), from the sound of things VST2.4 is nearly as large a bump in the road and, I'm speculating, a lot of existing things may not work with the next release of Cubase.

Crandall1 · Post by **Crandall1** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 6:35 pm

Arne put up an interesting bit about this in his blog, if you didn't catch it.

http://arne.knup.de/plog/index.php?op=V ... 4&blogId=1

It's a little unnerving when one of the devs of the host we've hung our hat on says something like that. But with MacIntel only working with VST2.4, I think you're correct in as much as a lot of free and abandoned plugs will cease to be usable for the OSX platforms, and will just go away. AFAIK, the Windows side of Nuendo/Cubase will still be able to host pre-2.4 VSTs.

Chris Randall
Audio Damage, Inc.
http://www.audiodamage.com

shamann · Post by **shamann** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 9:38 pm

Just read through Arne's blog. The thing that struck me is that he's predicting the transition to take 3 to 4 years, but as is Apple's habit, that will likely fall at exactly the time they'll decide to make another major transition.

Angus_FX · Post by **Angus_FX** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 6:15 pm

What Arne missed is that a VST-Windows to VST-MacIntel or AU-MacIntel adapter is within the bounds of technical feasibility. Not easy, not going to happen tomorrow, and not going to bring about 100% compatibility (probably 50-80% if we're lucky), but not impossible.

shamann - you're not wrong there.. Apple will have to go 64-bit at some point, and that will break the plugs again.

kuniklo · Post by **kuniklo** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 6:55 pm

You really have to sympathize with people trying to make a living writing plugins these days. Not only is it a competitive market with a high piracy rate, they have to support three or more plugin formats on each of several platforms. I'm sure it costs valuable development time that could otherwise be spent adding features and developing new tools.

The frustrating thing from the musician's point of view is that none of these formats seem to really offer any tangible real-world benifits over the others, so it's just a confusing hassle. AU in particular seems like a big waste of time, since it's been a shifting target ever since it was introduced, is poorly and inconsistently documented and implemented, and so far has brought absolutely nada to the table in terms of new music-making possibilities.

If I were writing commercial plugins today I'd be sorely tempted to ignore the Mac completely.

shamann · Post by **shamann** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 7:06 pm

kuniklo wrote:If I were writing commercial plugins today I'd be sorely tempted to ignore the Mac completely.

I can't help but think you're right, but the biggest trouble is that such a high percentage of the plugin buying public are using Macs.

Crandall1 · Post by **Crandall1** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 7:18 pm

Yeah, there's the rub. Our customer base is about 65% OSX for products that only have VST, and 75% for products that have both VST and AU. Does this mean that there are more OSX musicians than WinXP ones? Not really. I believe it means that OSX users are more likely to buy plugins. The professional musician is, by and large, a Mac user, and he's the one that's going to buy plugs. Hobbiests tend to lean more towards free plugs, and tend to use PCs.

(Proof of this: our freebie, FuzzPlus2, is about 65% Windows to 35% OSX, and its downloads are well in to the 5 figures, so this is a good example.)

Whether it's harder to do one or the other for a developer is a matter of taste. Urs will tell you that VST blows and AU is the only way to go. I'll tell you the opposite. It depends on what you know to begin with. It's annoying that Apple keeps changing shit up, but it's just as hard to deal with the myriad Windows hosts, not all of which agree on how to host a VST plug.

The hardest thing of all is supporting both formats. I don't even want to imagine what the developers that also have RTAS/TDM and MAS are going through.

Chris Randall
Audio Damage, Inc.
http://www.audiodamage.com

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