NAMM 2018Celemony announces ARA 2 - Plug-ins and DAWs mesh even better

At NAMM 2018 Celemony today announced Version 2 of the ARA (Audio Random Access) Plug-In Extension. The ARA interface extension allows plug-ins and DAWs to communicate more comprehensively with one another and therefore work better together. Now Celemony is announcing a new version, ARA 2, which has even greater possibilities.

With ARA 2, the exchange of information between DAWs and plug-ins is even more comprehensive, which makes additional applications possible. The new ARA 2 specification allows, among other things, the simultaneous editing of multiple tracks, the transfer of chord track information between the DAW and the plug-in, seamless clip borders that make the manual setting of crossfades superfluous, Undo interlocking with the DAW, and much else besides.

To profit from the new possibilities, both programs – the DAW and the plug-in – must support the ARA 2 specification. Fortunately, ARA 2 is considerably more flexible and can be integrated more easily into a multitude of DAWs as well as supported by a very wide variety of plug-ins. What features then become available depends, of course, upon the specific plug-in and DAW in each case involved; one pairing may allow only simple sound editing, another perhaps even automatic tempo and harmony adjustments.

Celemony is holding out the prospect of the spring release of a version of Melodyne with ARA 2 – the beta-testing has already begun. ARA 2 was developed in collaboration with established as well as new ARA partners. The first implementations have already been announced: one development partner, Presonus, for example, is currently working on a version of Studio One featuring the new technology and also Cockos has announced ARA 2 integration for Reaper. Apple, with its Logic Pro X 10.4, has already presented at the NAMM show ARA support based on ARA 2.