ValhallaRoom 1.5.1 Released. New Electric Blue GUI

[valhallasound]

what is windows? screw them and give us some maclove first! hehe just kidding, but i AM looking forward to being in the mac minority for ONCE! even if just for a week or two

Well, Macs may be in the minority for total computers out there, but as far as people doing audio on computers, it is about half-and-half, with maybe a very slight majority being Mac users. This is backed up by the usage patterns of my free plugin, ValhallaFreqEcho (which has large enough download numbers such that statistical anomalies are less likely), as well as discussions with other plugin developers in public and private.

For me, the Mac just happens to be the platform I develop on, do my initial audio testing on, and so forth. I do like the ability (with Soundflower) to pipe any audio source into VST/AU hosts. Xcode is not necessarily a better development environment than VisualStudio, but I am more used to Xcode's quirks at this point (except for how long builds take in Xcode as opposed to VisualStudio).

Sean Costello

[NAS]

what is windows? screw them and give us some maclove first! hehe just kidding, but i AM looking forward to being in the mac minority for ONCE! even if just for a week or two

Well, Macs may be in the minority for total computers out there, but as far as people doing audio on computers, it is about half-and-half, with maybe a very slight majority being Mac users. This is backed up by the usage patterns of my free plugin, ValhallaFreqEcho (which has large enough download numbers such that statistical anomalies are less likely), as well as discussions with other plugin developers in public and private.
Sean Costello

Actually that is a total nonsense
What you mean to say is that, there tend to be slightly more mac users download yours and other peoples mac plugins than windows plugins, that has zero whatsoever to do with the numbers of people using macs for audio work
In fact it would have much more to do with less plugins being available on mac for one (Especially freebies) and also the fact that about 90+% of people making music on a PC have never visited a site to download a plugin beyond piratebay

I understand the point you are making but you did state it wrongly, now go do the windows build FFS

[valhallasound]

In fact it would have much more to do with less plugins being available on mac for one (Especially freebies) and also the fact that about 90+% of people making music on a PC have never visited a site to download a plugin beyond piratebay

I understand the point you are making but you did state it wrongly, now go do the windows build FFS

Are you starting to understand why I'm doing the Windows build second?

The total number of people that are using audio on either platform is something that would be impossible to prove. We could argue that the vast majority of people making audio on Windows machines are using pirated DAWs and plugins. Similarly, we could argue that there are 10s of millions of Mac users who are creating music solely within the tools that came with their Mac (i.e. GarageBand), or with the plugins that come with the DAWs they have purchased. Since none of us have the ability to prove or disprove these statements, I have no interest in engaging in such debates.

All I am interested in are users of my software that are accessing things via the official channels. In this area, OSX plugins are in the lead, with Windows being a significant enough minority to warrant attention. I'm not going to spend my time or money figuring out copy protection methods that end up penalizing the user - I'd rather spend that time creating new algorithms. However, as time is my scarcest resource, I need to allocate it with care. It makes more sense for a variety of reasons for me to release the Mac plugins as they are done, and then port to Windows.

(Note: as these projects approach completion, my caffeine blood level approaches near toxic proportions, and my crankiness tends to spike as well. I'll be more chipper in a week or two.)

[samsam]

Sean - if you can be bothered, any thoughts on this:

"With commercial plug-ins, it is very rare for the plug to be a true AU. Almost all commercial plugs use some sort of compatibility layer or wrapper to create the AU, and you are nearly always better off using the VST, given the choice between the two. " (Chris on Analog Industries blog).

This is not an attempt at trolling, it's just that the non backwards-compatible update to AD Eos AU has got me replacing it with the VST in all my tunes and has got me thinking about the bigger picture of VST v. AU (I use Live, so free choice as to which format I use).

If you can't be arsed to get into a public debate, no worries, just interested

[valhallasound]

"With commercial plug-ins, it is very rare for the plug to be a true AU. Almost all commercial plugs use some sort of compatibility layer or wrapper to create the AU, and you are nearly always better off using the VST, given the choice between the two. " (Chris on Analog Industries blog).

I think that most commercial cross-platform plugins do use a wrapper layer. In my case, I use Juce. Unlike the Symbiosis wrapper that Chris is currently using (which is supposed to be quite nice from all that I have heard), the Juce plugins don't start life as a VST, or AU or RTAS. There is a specific Juce plugin format, that is then wrapped into the other plugin formats.

My plugins actually start life as a generic DSP format, which I then wrap into whatever format I need. Generally speaking, I start work with a GUI-less AU or VST, which is wrapped around my module-format, and I then port this to Juce when I am further along in the development phase.

So, in my Juce-based world, it isn't true that VSTs have an advantage over AU.

What is true is that the VST 2.4 specification is the lowest common denominator in the current audio scene. The Audio Unit specification, in theory, allows for many features that aren't possible in VST 2.4. However, I agree with Chris in that Audio Units are VERY poorly documented by Apple. So there isn't a lot of incentive to find out what the special AU features are and take advantage of them. Plus, Apple produces the sketchiest AU host out there, Logic (from a developer's perspective, as it turns up the majority of bugs), so it is debatable about how closely they follow their own standards.

This is not an attempt at trolling, it's just that the non backwards-compatible update to AD Eos AU has got me replacing it with the VST in all my tunes and has got me thinking about the bigger picture of VST v. AU (I use Live, so free choice as to which format I use).

In general, I think that Audio Damage's move to the Symbiosis framework is a good one. I know of other plugin developers that pay far less attention to backwards compatibility, so Chris' decision to make a change that breaks preset compatibility is something that obviously wasn't taken lightly.

If you can't be arsed to get into a public debate, no worries, just interested

Chris Randall and I give each other a hard time via Twitter, so this is fairly softball.

[mandolarian]

Ok. You have your Mactotal loyalty. We Winders folks understand that.

But, let's just say, we Winders folks, also appreciate that good dark-roast caffeine at near toxic levels isn't cheap. And let's say we would pay DOUBLE the Mac-rate to assist you in getting fully toxified if it would push up the Winders release. Would that help with your scariest resource allocation strategy?

[samsam]

"With commercial plug-ins, it is very rare for the plug to be a true AU. Almost all commercial plugs use some sort of compatibility layer or wrapper to create the AU, and you are nearly always better off using the VST, given the choice between the two. " (Chris on Analog Industries blog).

I think that most commercial cross-platform plugins do use a wrapper layer. In my case, I use Juce. Unlike the Symbiosis wrapper that Chris is currently using (which is supposed to be quite nice from all that I have heard), the Juce plugins don't start life as a VST, or AU or RTAS. There is a specific Juce plugin format, that is then wrapped into the other plugin formats.

My plugins actually start life as a generic DSP format, which I then wrap into whatever format I need. Generally speaking, I start work with a GUI-less AU or VST, which is wrapped around my module-format, and I then port this to Juce when I am further along in the development phase.

So, in my Juce-based world, it isn't true that VSTs have an advantage over AU.

What is true is that the VST 2.4 specification is the lowest common denominator in the current audio scene. The Audio Unit specification, in theory, allows for many features that aren't possible in VST 2.4. However, I agree with Chris in that Audio Units are VERY poorly documented by Apple. So there isn't a lot of incentive to find out what the special AU features are and take advantage of them. Plus, Apple produces the sketchiest AU host out there, Logic (from a developer's perspective, as it turns up the majority of bugs), so it is debatable about how closely they follow their own standards.

This is not an attempt at trolling, it's just that the non backwards-compatible update to AD Eos AU has got me replacing it with the VST in all my tunes and has got me thinking about the bigger picture of VST v. AU (I use Live, so free choice as to which format I use).

In general, I think that Audio Damage's move to the Symbiosis framework is a good one. I know of other plugin developers that pay far less attention to backwards compatibility, so Chris' decision to make a change that breaks preset compatibility is something that obviously wasn't taken lightly.

If you can't be arsed to get into a public debate, no worries, just interested

Chris Randall and I give each other a hard time via Twitter, so this is fairly softball.

Thanks for the reply Sean, interesting (for me) stuff.

[b-pole]

what is windows? screw them and give us some maclove first! hehe just kidding, but i AM looking forward to being in the mac minority for ONCE! even if just for a week or two

[ObsoleteAcc99]

[DELETED]

[SuperFly76]

I'm looking forward to the windows release!

[valhallasound]

Update: The beta testers have been getting back to me with feedback. There are a few issues that I need to deal with. A quick summary:

- Audio Units: seem to work fine in all hosts I've tested (Logic 9, Live 8, Garageband, Reaper). Both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of ValhallaRoom are working well.
- RTAS: works well in Pro Tools 8 and 9.
- VST: Cubase 5/6 and Studio One are not finding the factory presets, which are located in the system directory. I need to track down this bug. There are also a few bugs with multiple instances of the VST in Reaper and Studio One, but these hosts can use the Audio Unit, which has no such issues. Everything works great in Live, but I need to hammer out the other VST host issues before release.
- Installer: I need to update it to put a blank user preset directory in the proper folder, and test the installer in 10.4/10.5.
- Website: The wife and I need to finish up some changes, test them, and push the new site up.

I'm currently predicting a Tuesday release for the OSX versions of ValhallaRoom, and will post updates here.

[airon]

Are you doing an Audiosuite version for Protools as well ?

That's what I sorely miss with Aether.

[SuperFly76]

Update: The beta testers have been getting back to me with feedback. ...

Well, I'd suggest telling them to turn their monitors down and keep the mic pointing away from the speakers. Or, better yet, just use closed back headphones when monitoring.

BaDump Pssshhhhhh.



















Thank you. I'll be here all week.

[SuperFly76]

Whoops.... Double Post!

[mandolarian]

Update: The beta testers have been getting back to me with feedback. ...

Well, I'd suggest telling them to turn their monitors down and keep the mic pointing away from the speakers. Or, better yet, just use closed back headphones when monitoring.

BaDump Pssshhhhhh.

But, this is not the time of the release cycle to tease the gods of Valhalla. Your punning little mind will soon feel the wrath of toxic caffeine hipsterics.