MuTools

syntonica · Post by **syntonica** » Tue Sep 20, 2016 4:34 pm

The CPU difference may be the OS itself! I will try booting from El Capitan and seeing if there is a difference there.

antoniaz · Post by **antoniaz** » Tue Sep 20, 2016 4:50 pm

I have checked today on iMac/El Capitan with Mulab 7.1.7 a dozen of my best VSTs that previously were not usable due to the "white window" issue.
All such VSTs are fine now, no white rectangle left on closing the plugin window !
The new Cocoa support brought by the 64-bit version seems solving that issue.

I can't comment yet about performance, but it does not seem a critical aspect, at
least on my side.

Congratulation to Jo for the big step forward for Mac musicians !

p.s. what about future VST 3 support (or AU by the way) ? I have just one plugin (S-Gear) that I can not use on Mac with MuLab since no VST2 available, but it's a very good one...

syntonica · Post by **syntonica** » Tue Sep 20, 2016 4:51 pm

Nope, no difference. The 64-bit version is still eating more CPU cycles. It may be the compiler needs a flag switched, Cocoa vs. Carbon, or some of your new code needs some optimization. (Hopefully, it's the first!)

MuTools · Post by **MuTools** » Tue Sep 20, 2016 5:20 pm

syntonica wrote:Nope, no difference.

No difference between what? Sorry i'm a bit confused now about what you're comparing.

The 64-bit version is still eating more CPU cycles.

If that's the case it will be in the UI thread (so no impact on the audio) and it will be Cocoa related.

It may be the compiler needs a flag switched

It already uses highest optimzation for speed.

Cocoa vs. Carbon

Yes it may be part of the explanation. But that's OSX, i can't help that.

or some of your new code needs some optimization.

I'll double-check.

MuTools · Post by **MuTools** » Tue Sep 20, 2016 6:02 pm

antoniaz wrote:I have checked today on iMac/El Capitan with Mulab 7.1.7 a dozen of my best VSTs that previously were not usable due to the "white window" issue.
All such VSTs are fine now, no white rectangle left on closing the plugin window !
The new Cocoa support brought by the 64-bit version seems solving that issue.

Thx for your feedback!

I can't comment yet about performance, but it does not seem a critical aspect, at
least on my side.

It's not about the audio, it's in the UI thread. So that's indeed less critical, but i took another look at it and i agree with syntonica that it needs some more attention. It can't just be the carbon-cocoa thing, the difference is too big. Will research it.

Congratulation to Jo for the big step forward for Mac musicians !

Thx! It was a tough step, invested money and a lot of dev time. Hopefully the right choice. Mac is an important platform towards musicians. Windows users can also benefit from the fact that MuLab is used by more people, a bigger community = more creativity & exchange.

p.s. what about future VST 3 support (or AU by the way) ?

No such plans atm, sorry. The most of all i'd welcome a new platform-independent open-source modern future-proof no-nonsense well-defined sound/music plug-in format supported by (almost) all developers & manufacturers.

antoniaz · Post by **antoniaz** » Wed Sep 21, 2016 8:31 am

As open standard so far I'm aware of LV2. Not sure it is competitive with VST, VST3 and AU. What's your opinion ? Of course the plugin market seems far from taking an open path, but in perspective who knows...

MuTools · Post by **MuTools** » Wed Sep 21, 2016 9:13 am

I'm not yet familiar with LV2, had a quick look, looks interesting. Do you know whether it also supports "polyphonic operation"? I mean, the ideal plugin format also supports adding eg a new oscillator type that can be used in MUX' PolySynth. With VST that's practically impossible.

MuTools · Post by **MuTools** » Wed Sep 21, 2016 9:28 am

Good news on the MuLab for Mac 64 bit story: I found the reasons for the high CPU usage in the UI thread. Oh man Apple can sometimes be so strange/erratic

Anyway, besides loosing many hours to analyze this, the good news is i found a solution and it makes a huge difference! Now M7.1 UI performance is even better than M7.0. Update coming soon.

Side note to the Windows users who may feel penalized by these Mac works: (and to myself sometimes criticizing Mac) The Mac dev tools includes a very interesting analysis tool with which an app can be optimized. Yes Mac can be great, it's a wonderful tool! I will use this tool to also further optimize code parts that are common to both platforms, so also here the Windows users benefit from these Mac works.

bibz1st · Post by **bibz1st** » Wed Sep 21, 2016 9:56 am

I wouldnt worry about windows users too much, its not like it's unusable as is.

antoniaz · Post by **antoniaz** » Wed Sep 21, 2016 11:04 am

I just used a few LV2 plugins in the context of the Mixbus DAW. I have not looked at specifications,
maybe will read something in the near future.

MuTools · Post by **MuTools** » Wed Sep 21, 2016 11:22 am

Here is a new MuLab 7.1.8 for Mac 64 bit: http://www.mutools.com/galaxa/mulab-7-1-8-osx64.zip
How to install: Replace the current MuLab 7.1.7 .app file with this new version.

This new version fixes a couple of issues, especially a too high CPU consumption in the UI thread. Thanks syntonica for highlighting this issue, you were right to focus on it. The very reasons of it are odd design decissions in Cocoa, but hey it is what it is and MuLab now deals with it. This version runs much better than M7.1.7 and also better than M7.0.47. Please keep on testing and jamming with this new Mac version and let me know any remaining issues. Thanks!

runaudio · Post by **runaudio** » Wed Sep 21, 2016 11:31 am

Window's users not getting much

MuTools · Post by **MuTools** » Wed Sep 21, 2016 11:35 am

Yes you are. The Mac version just catches up now. And as mentioned in earlier posts in this topic, the Windows version also implicitly gains from these Mac works.

Taifunk · Post by **Taifunk** » Wed Sep 21, 2016 12:35 pm

Thanks for the new good news Jo!

Users of all platforms will be really happy with this new release.

Also Mux plugin will benefit from these further developments,or I'm wrong?

MuTools · Post by **MuTools** » Wed Sep 21, 2016 12:45 pm

Yes indeed one of the reasons i decided to go for these Mac works is to step in the direction of MUX VST for Mac. M7.1 is an important step forward in that direction.

MuTools

KVR Audio

MuLab 7.1.30