KVR Audio

lnikj · Post by **lnikj** » Thu Nov 13, 2014 12:56 pm

As I come to contemplate a new Mac as my MBP gets ever longer in the tooth, and increasingly flaky, the issue of Retina screens comes up.

My day job (s) are a mixture of web design, image editing and photography and software developers here have been busy over the last couple of years updating their software.

I have not been aware of much movement towards Retina/HDPI optimisation in the audio community thus far. It does not appear to be a priority and I suspect, like 32/64 bit, many plugins and hosts may never be updated.

I have poor eyesight and find many plugin interfaces challenging already, the prospect of them being even fuzzier on a Retina screen if I were to purchase one makes me concerned that some may become unusable by me altogether. First world problem, I know.

I wonder if we could collect together in this thread information on Retina/HDPI ready audio/music software/plugins. I will collate and update this first post as and when anything comes in.

Thanks

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EDIT 22/12/14: Thanks to C.Bennett, who actually has a Retina screen and has been able to test some of these plugins, I have reordered this into two sections - Confirmed Retina/HDPI and Resizeable Interfaces.

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### HDPI ###

DAWs

- Ableton Live 9.1.6 and above
- Apple Logic Pro X
- Bitwig Studio 1.2 (forthcoming)
- Cantabile
- FL Studio 12
- Presonus Studio 3

PLUGINS

Full HDPI plugins

- Cytomic The Drop
- Cytomic The Glue
- FabFilter Pro-MB
- FabFilter Pro-Q 2
- FAW Circle 2
- FXpansion Strobe 2 (forthcoming)
- Native Instruments Replika
- Plugin Alliance (Variable levels of support in plugins - more details welcome!)
- Sinevibes plugins
- Tritik TkDelay
- U-He Hive
- U-He Bazille
- U-He Satin (ships with replacement images - HD UI Images.zip)
- ValhallaDSP plugins

Partial HDPI plugins

- Madrona Labs Aalto (HDPI except dial animations limited for speed issues; possible future OpenGL fix)
- Madrona Labs Kaivo (HDPI except dial animations limited for speed issues; possible future OpenGL fix)
- U-He Diva (Everything is HDPI apart from the knobs. Possibly an oversight by U-he. Bug reported.)
- U-He Presswerk (Everything is HDPI apart from the knobs. Possibly an oversight by U-he. Bug reported.)

### RESIZEABLE INTERFACES ###

DAWs

Scalable (Vector)

- Flstudio 12 Beta
- Tracktion

PLUGINS

Scalable (Vector)

- Inear Display plugins (deprecated)
- Izotope Iris 1 & 2
- Melda plugins
- Squareheads Nora
- Synth1
- The Mangle

Scalable (Bitmap)

- 112db plugins (normal, large)
- D16 LuSH 101
- Discovery Pro (3 sizes)
- GForce ImpOSCar 2
- Rob Papen Predator (normal, large)
- U-He Ace, Filterscape, MFM 2, Ubhik, Zebra 2

Gonga · Post by **Gonga** » Thu Nov 13, 2014 1:15 pm

Forgive me for jumping in where I don't belong, but I know that most PC users, home audio bedroom producers included, run 1920 x 1080 monitors. Most of these are low (27") to moderate (23") pixel density / resolution. The only audio folks I know who have the highest density displays, such as the Dell or Asus 1440p or 4/5K monitors, are gamers, though I suppose there may be more graphics artists among us than I have previously realized. Most audio people who need more real estate go the multiple-monitor route though methinks.

So you're asking for a larger, higher-density version of plugins I take it? Or perhaps the option of different resolutions? It sounds good to me, though I only dream of 1440 because I would need G-Sync with that and that costs $1500 atm.

lnikj · Post by **lnikj** » Thu Nov 13, 2014 1:28 pm

Gonga wrote:Forgive me for jumping in where I don't belong, but I know that most PC users, home audio bedroom producers included, run 1920 x 1080 monitors. Most of these are low (27") to moderate (23") pixel density / resolution. The only audio folks I know who have the highest density displays, such as the Dell or Asus 1440p or 4/5K monitors, are gamers, though I suppose there may be more graphics artists among us than I have previously realized. Most audio people who need more real estate go the multiple-monitor route though methinks.

At the moment the question is likely to be of more relevance to Mac users than PC users; all MBPs now ship with Retina displays, and the latest iMac does too. As time goes on, and prices for the displays drop, then I think you will be seeing more and more of them on the PC side too.

So you're asking for a larger, higher-density version of plugins I take it? Or perhaps the option of different resolutions? It sounds good to me, though I only dream of 1440 because I would need G-Sync with that and that costs $1500 atm.

I think higher density is the word here.

U-He offer different display sizes but I haven't seen how U-He's plugins look on a Retina display when scaled up; if I use the higher scaling on my display though then aliasing is clearly visible.

I suspect plugins that use vector graphics, such as Valhalla's or The Mangle will look fine on a Retina display but again I haven't seen them myself.

Cheers.

gamecat666 · Post by **gamecat666** » Thu Nov 13, 2014 1:46 pm

Could start collating a list I suppose:

DAWs:

Scalable (vector):
-Flstudio 12 Beta

Scalable (bitmap)
-Ableton Live

PLUGINS
Scalable(Vector)
-Synth1
-Valhalla plugs

Scalable(Bitmap)
- U-he plugins
- Rob Papen Predator (normal, large)

UltraJv · Post by **UltraJv** » Thu Nov 13, 2014 1:47 pm

Resolution vs screen size. They are both important and small screen size + high res can be difficult on the eyes.

lnikj · Post by **lnikj** » Thu Nov 13, 2014 1:52 pm

gamecat666 wrote:Could start collating a list I suppose:

DAWs:

Scalable (vector):
-Flstudio 12 Beta

Thanks for the list. FLstudio? Good stuff!

Loki Fuego · Post by **Loki Fuego** » Thu Nov 13, 2014 1:54 pm

112db plugins have XL skins, which look great on hi-res screen of my Samsung tablet (11.6", 1920x1080).

lnikj · Post by **lnikj** » Thu Nov 13, 2014 1:59 pm

Loki Fuego wrote:112db plugins have XL skins, which look great on hi-res screen of my Samsung tablet (11.6", 1920x1080).

I'll take that as bitmap. Cheers.

gamecat666 · Post by **gamecat666** » Thu Nov 13, 2014 2:00 pm

plugin - Vector scaleable - Madrona Aalto

aMUSEd · Post by **aMUSEd** » Sat Nov 15, 2014 9:33 am

You're missing the first DAW that pioneered scalable vector graphics right from the start - Tracktion - at the moment it's also much better on Mac than FL Studio which has a long way to go before it will be fully functional.

edit actually it doesn't look like the Mac FL Studio beta is even out yet and no date set for when it will be

george · Post by **george** » Sat Nov 15, 2014 10:03 am

Discovery Pro has 3 different GUI sizes. Retina support is still pending.

C.Bennett · Post by **C.Bennett** » Sat Dec 20, 2014 5:23 pm

Iris 2 is not retina/hidpi optimized. Jagged bitmaps everywhere.

impOSCar2, Predator and Discovery Pro both have larger GUI options, but they’re not retina/hidpi optimized. Still as jagged as ever.

Ableton Live 9.1.6 is finally retina optimized but the text rendering is a little soft. I believe this is fixed in the 9.1.7 beta.

Apple's Logic Studio is retina optimized.

lnikj · Post by **lnikj** » Sat Dec 20, 2014 5:30 pm

C.Bennett wrote:Iris 2 is not retina/hidpi optimized. Jagged bitmaps everywhere.

impOSCar2, Predator and Discovery Pro both have larger GUI options, but they’re not retina/hidpi optimized. Still as jagged as ever.

Ableton Live 9.1.6 is finally retina optimized but the text rendering is a little soft. I believe this is fixed in the 9.1.7 beta.

Apple's Logic Studio is retina optimized.

Great to hear from somebody who actually has a retina screen! I do not yet.

I will rejig how this list is organised to take into account your info. Probably won't be until tomorrow though.

Many thanks

C.Bennett · Post by **C.Bennett** » Sat Dec 20, 2014 5:38 pm

Unless you have a retina screen, it's really hard to know what's retina and what's not. I worry that a lot of plug-ins in your list aren't actually HiDPI optimized.

I'd avoid splitting the list into bitmap and vector based plug-ins as it doesn't really matter. Most vector-based plug-ins like Aalto and Kaivo will look great on any screen. Bitmapped based plug-ins like U-he's Hive and Bazille have been intentionally rendered at HiDPI resolutions and thus, look fantastic. I'd also avoid adding plug-ins that have larger GUIs. This doesn't mean they're retina enabled, it just means that the GUI will be bigger and everything will still look jagged.

I think it's good to list the plug-ins that look great on a Retina/HiDPI display and keep it simple

I'll try and double check the other plug-ins on your list and let you know. Thanks!

C.Bennett · Post by **C.Bennett** » Sat Dec 20, 2014 5:49 pm

I just checked The Drop and it falls into the same bucket as impOSCar2, Predator and Discovery Pro. It has larger GUI options, but they’re not retina/hidpi optimized. Still as jagged as ever.

I own a huge amount of plug-ins so here's my official list of DAWs and plug-ins that look awesome on a Retina/HiDPI display.

Full HiDPI plug-ins
—U-he Hive
—U-he Bazille
—All Sinevibes plug-ins
—All ValhallaDSP plug-ins
—FabFilter Pro-MB
—FabFilter Pro-Q 2

Partial HiDPI plug-ins
—U-he Diva (Everything is HiDPI apart from the knobs. Possibly an oversight by U-he. Bug reported.)
—U-he Presswerk (Everything is HiDPI apart from the knobs. Possibly an oversight by U-he. Bug reported.)
—Madrona Labs Aalto (Vector elements are hires but the bitmap assets are lowres.)
—Madrona Labs Kaivo (Vector elements are hires but the bitmap assets are lowres.)

Retina optimized DAWs
—Ableton Live 9.1.6 and above. (Text is a little soft in 9.1.6. Apparently fixed with 9.1.7 beta).
—Apple Logic Studio

Retina/HDPI screen optimised DAWs and Plugins (and/or those with resizable GUIs)