Why don't more developers create AUs as well as VSTs?

[Maadfoo]

, but then I realized that Sylenth is actually better than z3ta and Cakewalk sucks.

Most ridiculous post I've ever read, imo of course

[metamorphosis]

Not sure if this's been mentioned, but VST-to-AU wrapper here:
http://www.kvraudio.com/get/4187.html
free.
M

[Xenakios]

Not sure if this's been mentioned, but VST-to-AU wrapper here:
http://www.kvraudio.com/get/4187.html
free.
M

The original poster isn't asking about Mac VSTs versus Mac AUs, but about why there are so many more Windows only VST plugins...

[mcnoone]

Not sure if this's been mentioned, but VST-to-AU wrapper here:
http://www.kvraudio.com/get/4187.html
free.
M

The original poster isn't asking about Mac VSTs versus Mac AUs, but about why there are so many more Windows only VST plugins...

Yes and the answer is a simple one too.
More people use Windows.

I'm sure the options of using cross platform wrappers will improve in the future, making the point invalid.

I'm just glad we have some choices of platforms to choose from.
Some people, as posted in this thread, seem so against that.

[amiga909]

About the question: comparing data provided by our users, I guess AU is not more than 15% of the market and is not even the richest one (RTAS). 35% of mac users should be a correct percentage, but many of them are using cubase/live or PT. And the plugin market is a niche. I hope someone will be more accurate on numbers.

good point.

first: developing cross-platform currently only is an option if
- the plugin sales are high enough to pay back the effort to test and maintain on 2 systems
- the company can afford cross-platform dev. as a market-strategy to be known on all systems

for 95% of all plugins mac support is luxury, i reckon. if u got 10 mac users or 10'000 mac users. the effort for following OS + plugin format + host technology and uphold functionality is the same?


secondly: the argument about 'i've everything with mac, pc-only stuff is shit anyway':
imagine a rich kid living in Bel-Air LA. loads of beautiful, decent high-heeled birds to choose. the villa is always clean, nothing to worry, everything is nice.
only at night, the kid is tantalized by intense dreams. always the same pictures arise: wild, excessive parties in the poor regions of LA ... energetic raw sounds, sexy and yet classy girls, and open hearted minds ... paired with dirty warehouses, harlotry and the dangers of street life. just nothing to compare with the 'decently stimulating' upper-class amusement the kid is used to.
the morning after, the kid thinks: i'd love to go there. but if i go there i'd get stabbed or - even worse - laughed at by my Bel-Air maties! better dont tell anybody about my dreams!

[back to serious]
imho, if apple would have been clever, they wouldn't have done AU and urge the dev's to support yet another format (which additionaly may behave different on yet 10 other hosts).
they should have collaborated with steinberg and make the VST SDK multi-platform-compliant (not sure if possible for a C++ SDK).

[Ben [Camel Audio]]

Seeing as this point is being debated quite a bit, I thought our experience might be useful to others - the split amongst our customers is about 50/50 between Mac and Win.

[Muon Software Ltd]

My experience is similar to Ben's - more like a 50:50 split. In fact, in recent years, I think the mac sales have started to edge ahead.

To be honest, if you're seriously in the business of developing plugins you need to be on all possible platforms. Yes, there is an effort involved in the development and testing but once its done its pretty much done. Things like JUCE and even VSTGUI can make the whole experience dramatically less painful.

If you commit to the Mac platform you will need to retest (and maybe tweak) the Mac stuff every 18 months based on their current release cycle. No more than a couple of days work after each new OS/Logic release.

A Mac Mini can be had for 599 US$. You can hook it up to your existing monitor and keyboard with a cheap KVM switch or just VNC into it. A copy of Logic Express for testing and your total outlay is well under $1000.

On a three year payback period you would want to be selling just 300 US$ more of software than you did before for the investment to break even.

I would also (without wishing to stir up controversy) throw in two more things - Firstly, there is less piracy on the Mac platform in general so even over the long term you are likely to see healthier sales. Secondly, Mac users apparently spend more on software than PC users. Take a look at some of these links:-

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q= ... =&aq=f&oq=

Interesting reading for anyone involved in the business of software.

Kind regards
David Waugh
Managing Director
Muon Software Ltd
http://www.muon-software.com
http://muonsoftware.blogspot.com

[TristezaOrange]

Maybe Mac users spend more on software because their freeware options are so limited. Who knows.

[fceramic]

Also because Macs are not for the poor and the fact that a huge percentage of people in the creative industries use and own macs. I've worked in North America, UK and Scandinavia and know that this is the case.
A lot of PC users rage against this and say that PC has 80%, but keep in mind that the creative market is a tiny percentage of the population.

[Muon Software Ltd]

- or because there is less piracy...
- or because mac users, having spent more on their computers, don't mind throwing in a bit of software...
- or because Mac software is generally better and more polished than PC software...
- or because Mac owners have an "underdog" mentality and like to "support" their platform...

...who knows indeed. You could make up any number of reasons

Now I'm not saying that I subscribe to any of these memes - but my own conversion stats tend to show that Mac visitors to the website spend more in aggregate than Windows visitors. We get 50% of our revenue from 25% of our potential customers. Over the long term this trend has held up for us, and speaking to other established devs reveals similar long term historical trends in their businesses.

If anyone here is considering porting a Windows-only plugin to Mac, feel free to PM or email for a chat.

Kind regards
David Waugh
Managing Director
Muon Software Ltd
http://www.muon-software.com
http://muonsoftware.blogspot.com

[Zaphod (giancarlo)]

I'm speaking about the AU market only (not mac osx). It answers the initial question.

[Muon Software Ltd]

I can't think of an actively developed commercial plugin that is available for OSX in VST form that is not also available in AU form.

Anyone?

David Waugh
Managing Director
Muon Software Ltd
http://www.muon-software.com
http://muonsoftware.blogspot.com

[Xenakios]

I can't think of an actively developed commercial plugin that is available for OSX in VST form that is not also available in AU form.

Anyone?

AU or VST isn't the problem, it's dealing with Apple, Macs and OS-X. (If AudioUnits compared to VST is a serious problem for a developer, the developer has some deeper issues.)

[Muon Software Ltd]

AU or VST isn't the problem, it's dealing with Apple, Macs and OS-X

Agreed, anyone who has figured out how to write a VST plugin should also have little trouble with the other platforms.

How painful the PC->Mac transition might be really depends on how tied a developer is to platform-specific APIs - but for every relevant windows API you can think of there is a near equivalent on OSX. So once you've got to grips with both APIs its easy enough to write a platform-neutral wrapper class around that chunk of functionality that your application calls instead. You only need maybe six or seven of these tiny wrapper classes to cover the main bases. It isn't a lot of work really.

Also lets not forget that anyone doing this can simply ask for help right here in this forum, on the coreaudio mailing list or on the VST mailing list. There are also several jobbing contractors (myself included) that hang out here if a more commercial approach is needed. It needn't be painful at all.

Kind regards
David Waugh
Managing Director
Muon Software Ltd
http://www.muon-software.com
http://muonsoftware.blogspot.com

[Urs]

I can't think of an actively developed commercial plugin that is available for OSX in VST form that is not also available in AU form.

Anyone?

AU or VST isn't the problem, it's dealing with Apple, Macs and OS-X. (If AudioUnits compared to VST is a serious problem for a developer, the developer has some deeper issues.)

Well, anyone who is serious about business will see that investing in a little Mac and 3 weeks of a freelance developer will pay off in a month or two. If however the monthly revenues make this difficult to afford then maybe some other steps are required first. Speaking dry, a Mac version alone won't save the business.