Xhun Audio LittleOne : version 4.x Released

[Tj Shredder]

I am a professional, but had no choice with Catalina due to having to get a new Mac recently.

Have you tried a VM? It would work, but no, not seriously, its easier to replace the little one.
A VM is good though for just loading old projects if you need to get back for whatever reason...
Both, Parallels and VMware are almost as efficient as direct (you can configure how may cores they should use...)

[xhunaudio]

Hi !

Sorry, for a number of reasons I'm currently unable to fully reply - I'll do it soon

No one here wants to leave customers behind ! No hate against Applers ! Peace !

I'll explain in a few hours my thoughts. Feel free to post yours here if you want...

Then, if also (optional but definitely not required) we want to start a fair discussion about 3rd party companies strategies (and what's behind and why we always should adopt a critical spirit to what they say), it will be welcome !

[dionenoid]

How long is the sale going to be ?

[Russell Grand]

I had Little One way back when. It must've been version 1-something. These days, I feel there must be better virtual analogs out there, but to be fair, I haven't tried Little One in years...

[JerGoertz]

I had Little One way back when. It must've been version 1-something. These days, I feel there must be better virtual analogs out there, but to be fair, I haven't tried Little One in years...

I have most of the recent VAs and think LittleOne 3 goes toe-to-toe with all of 'em on sound quality.

[Russell Grand]

I had Little One way back when. It must've been version 1-something. These days, I feel there must be better virtual analogs out there, but to be fair, I haven't tried Little One in years...

I have most of the recent VAs and think LittleOne 3 goes toe-to-toe with all of 'em on sound quality.

That's cool, Jer, maybe I'll give the newest version a try.

[xhunaudio]

How long is the sale going to be ?

This sale is valid until February 2nd.

...which means February 3rd, for the usual latecomers

[JerGoertz]

You shouldn't have said that!

[xhunaudio]

Ok I'm finally here !

Eheh, there would be really, really so much to say, but realistically - I'll try to go to the central point directly.

At first, there's no hate against Apple Users, Mac owners or a rant against Apple itself. Also, my intentions are to go to the central point of the matter, but if you have questions and want to go deeper in this, feel free to post all the questions you want !

Probably (for its lenght) it will be a multi-post reply from me. Let's start.

Every developer uses a framework. All my products are built using an optimized, hand-tuned (by me - it tooks me several months to complete) version of an existing open source framework (not JUCE but similar). This let me produce very solid software with no graphics or DSP glitches etc. Full vompatibility with Windows (all 32-bit and 64-bit OSes from XP up to 10) and with macOS (from when it was known as OS X) up to Mojave 10.14.1. Great of the merits go to all the original developers of WDL/IPlug (Cockos and Schwa) and Oli Larkin (WDL-OL/IPlug).

On the macOS side, LittleOne and ResonHeart are built with this framework to be fully compatible with macOS Mojave (and IronAxe version 2.x and other products under development were meant to be compatible with that previous "macOS approach/concept" in mind). When I released each of them, Apple's official operating system was macOS Mojave. My products never broke (and will never break !) compatibility with Mojave and previous (seven Mac operating systems from 10.7 to 10.14). If you use this OSes, you'll be able to use my products for lifetime. Always.

If this scenario would continued to be the same today, we would live happily ever after.

But something happened (and its name is NOT just "Catalina").

Continues...

[xhunaudio]

You shouldn't have said that!

Ok, that means Feb 4th...

[xhunaudio]

Part 2

As well as any other independent company, Apple has its own legitimate "Strategy" (in this case, which road to take to make more and more money) and "Tactics" (all the actions to accomplish its Strategy). It's all 100% legitimate what they do.

So, Apple Inc. released a completely *NEW OPERATING SYSTEM* (sorry for the capital letters but it's important for anyone to understand this). Catalina is not an update, it's an OS *UPGRADE*. To simply put, Apple (they admit it, but again : it's their legitimate Tactics) intentionally broke compatibility with *ALL* 32-bit and 64-bit apps, plugins, drivers, etc. ever existed for OSX/macOS. If a developer wants his/her app to run on Catalina (and successors, from Apple's own words) it is MANDATORY for him to modify all his binaries development/deployment in order to accomplish Apple's new OSes (Catalina, Catalina+, Catalina++++) requirements.

This *first* requirement is called "Notarization" (Apple's terminology). This whole process is not clearly documented by Apple (tons of threads have been opened on devs communities) and - as a consequence in some cases - it requires your softwares to be developed and built according other (Apple's) rules. And also a lot more limitations are coming in the months/years to come - for example the mandatory use of more recent versions of Xcode and also pointing to their sdk10.9 (minumum).

Continues...

[xhunaudio]

Part 3

Unfortunately, also a simple thing like "a newer version of Xcode" is not a matter of "just download and install it". WDL/Iplug has an excellent compatibility on Windows - and on macOS too if you use Xcode 4.

Xcode 5 started showing some incompatibilities preventing a correct compiling under some circumstances (today Xcode is at version 11). Then, in the months/years to come, there will be more and more restrictions from Apple like the already announced, completely dropped support for libraries like OpenGL ( a de facto graphics/CGI standard from 30 years ! ). Probably in the mid-term we'll see also the rise of their app store as the only way to distribute software for Apple hardwares. And finally their move to ARM-based CPUs.

Claims apart, their CPUs are way less performant than Intel/AMD, but - hey, we're in 2020 ! - also if they are way less performant, in *absolute* terms their CPU are fast enough to accomplish and execute 99.9% of all the tasks required by the average-user workload, just fine. Don't forget that the Pro Audio industry *as a whole* is about the 0.4% of world's GDP (results from 2004). Average-user rules, from their perspective.

Continues...

[xhunaudio]

Part 4

We are passionate. Apple simply is not. No rage or criticism, it's just a fact !

The Pro Audio industry is an anomaly. If you are here, it's for a reason. Due to the (relatively) small $ amounts involved, it's a "non-attractive" industry for the financial capitals. So, only the passionate ones (who more, who less) are here - to stay. And I couldn't be happier for that

But from a financials colossus perspective, things are completely different. As financial and international press reported, Apple revenue for Mac (all computers running OSX/macOS) is about $25 Billions. Apple's revenue for iPhone only is $141.3 billions. iPhones alone financial value is 6 times all the Macs together.

After knowing that (and being NOT a computing passionate company !), Apple simply decided to transform all Macs in to iPhones. The first thing Apple did, is to close the macOS development team, so enforcing the iOS dev team. Today macOS is deployed by a handful of iOS devs, with a much lower priority than iOS. That's how things are, sadly. They *legitimately* imagine a future where (in theory) they offer a computer (tablet, desktop, smartphone, watch, etc. ...including cars) with a built-in iOS-like operating system and an app store. On the app store you'll find what's strictly necessary to accomplish your tasks.

Do you want to become a pop-star? You get Logic and you're done, period. Do you want to become a popular Hollywood filmmaker? You get Final Cut and you're done, period. Everything to give you the illusion you can be whatever you desire. Everything provided under a bell jar, exclusively at their own conditions.

Why it doesn't work (to put it simple) ? Because of the completely missing alternatives and because experimentation any any sort is not allowed ! It is ok for the simple average end-user but for engineers, physicians, pro-audio lovers etc. it is a completely non-sense - and the fact they don't understand that, just means Apple's "vertices" have literally no direct knowledge and experience of what computer science is - that's the point.

So, if you want to build your bell-jar "trap" , the first thing to do is to get rid of the small developers and their unpredictable (in the good manner) behaviour.

Continues...

[xhunaudio]

Part 5

So, I wish you could understand that from a good-faith, small-developer perspective, joining Apple in its vision (...?) is an impracticable road.

To make one of my products compatible with Catalina, I have to deeply re-tweak the framework I use (fully compatible with all other previous macOS versions, instead). And to make it compatible with Catalina+, I'll have probably to change the framework itself and recode all again. And to make it compatible with Catalina++, having no OpenGL support, I'll have to re-change framework again (consider that also JUCE, the most popular framework, has no support for this feature at now - for what I remember). And then it's time for the ARM-CPU Mac, so I'll have to buy a new Mac hardware ! And so on...

Companies like Yamaha/Steinberg (!), Roland (!), Korg (!) , etc. took months to upgrade their existing softwares for Catalina - they also announced not to upgrade to Catalina for the moment, or all their previous softwares will not work - and they also have teams of talented engineers with the only task to make softwares compatible with Catalina.

Result : I'm a small dev, 10 years in the future and I didn't made a single feature update or any single new product. I spent my whole time/life tweaking legacy software to run on the new Macs, with Apple always introducing new restrictions...

Continues... (Almost finished )

[xhunaudio]

Part 6

To conclude, to completely understand what's going on, I had to make a brief recap of the recent past and a description of what will follow.

I'm in this industry exclusively because moved by passion - and respect for all musicians and competitor companies - and during the latest 10 years I always felt the moral duty to keep supporting my customers.

LittleOne version 1 users upgraded to LittleOne version 2 and later to version 3 without spending a cent, I offered the upgrade free of charge just because I previously promised them that, as my thank you for their day-one support.

It's my intention to keep providing support to everyone and possibly to give a working version for Catalina users in a reasonable timeline, realistically in the limits of my possibilities.

I'm sorry for the very long posts (!), I tried to be as synthetic I could. But I think it's mandatory to give a full overview of the topic. I have to think to what to expect years in the future, in order to move my first steps today.

For any questions, considerations, insults (I hope not ), I'm here !