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AudioGridder

AudioGridder
AudioGridder by Andreas Pohl is a Virtual Instrument and a Virtual Effect Audio Plugin and an Audio Plugin Host for macOS, Windows and Linux. It functions as a VST Plugin, an Audio Units Plugin, a VST 3 Plugin and an AAX Plugin. It can host VST Plugins, Audio Units Plugins and VST 3 Plugins.
Product
Version
1.2.0
Server/Plugin: Windows 7+
Product
Version
1.2.0
Server: macOS 10.7+ (Intel/Apple), Plugin: macOS 10.7+ (Intel/Apple)
Product
Version
1.2.0
Plugin: Linux 64-bit (Experimental), Plugin: Linux 64-bit
Instrument
Formats
Effect
Formats
Can Host
Instruments
Can Host
Effects
Copy Protection
None
Open Source
MIT

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AudioGridder is a network bridge for audio and MIDI, that allows you to offload the DSP processing of audio plugins to remote computers running OS X or Windows. This can come in handy when mixing complex projects or running CPU intensive instruments for instance. AudioGridder comes with a plugin and a server and can host VST2, VST3 and AudioUnit plugin formats. Plugins can be accessed across the network: simply run the AudioGridder server on a remote machine and connect your DAW using the AudioGridder plugin. This allows you to add remote insert chains or instruments into your DAW's signal paths. The DSP code of the loaded remote plugins will be executed on the remote machine and the remote plugin UI's will be streamed over the wire. With AudioGridder you get an experience very close to hosting the plugins directly in your DAW but not using your local CPU.

Features:

  • Hosting of VST2 / VST3 / AudioUnit (macOS only) plugins.
  • AG Plugin available as VST2 / VST3 / AAX / AudioUnit (macOS only).
  • Effect & Instrument plugins.
  • Latency compensation.
  • Sandboxing (chains or single plugins).

  • 32/64-bit float processing.
  • Audio over network.
  • Midi over network.
  • Streaming of plugin UIs.
  • Local control of remote plugin UIs.
  • Unlimited remote effect plugin chains.
  • Generic Plugin Parameter Editor.
  • Automation.
  • Plugin search.

Compatibility:

  • Server: macOS 10.7+ (Intel/Apple), Windows 7+, Linux 64-bit (Experimental).
  • Plugin: macOS 10.7+ (Intel/Apple), Windows 7+, Linux 64-bit.
  • The server supports AudioUnit (macOS only) and VST2/VST3 plugins.
  • The plugin is available as AudioUnit (macOS only) and VST2/VST3/AAX.

Latest User Reviews

Average user rating of 4.83 from 6 reviews
AudioGridder

Reviewed By alienimplant [all]
March 10th, 2024
Version reviewed: 1.2 on Mac

Well... color me impressed. I just got this up and running in Windows 11 on Parallels, so that I could continue working on an old song that uses a plugin no longer supported in Logic on Mac. It works flawlessly and with zero configuration on the windows side other than installing the VST and running the AudioGridder Server. Beyond that, it's an Audio Unit in Logic like any other. The only thing I wish is that it supported VST1 as Vienna Ensemble Pro does or did (VEP is broken in Parallels on ARM chips). There are a lot of legendary ancient plugins lost, but I will still get a ton of use out of VST2s and VST3s that are no longer being maintained. Andreas, I recommend removing the address requirement for PayPal donations. It isn't needed and might dissuade would-be donors.

Read Review
AudioGridder

Reviewed By faultyline [all]
November 23rd, 2022
Version reviewed: 1.2 on Windows

if you are looking for an alternative to VSL this is a great piece of software and FREE at the moment.

definitely recommended (using 1.2 beta 15).

Read Review
AudioGridder

Reviewed By doja [all]
March 9th, 2022
Version reviewed: 1.1.1 on Mac

Just trying this on a single Mac (MacBook Pro max) and it seems to work well except for weird cursor behavior. When I move the cursor over the audiogridder plugin in Logic, it jumps to the window showing the instrument outside of Logic (which must be the audiogridder server) rather than letting me deal with the instrument in the audiogridder plugin in Logic.

I have the various permissions/access set in Settings/Privacy etc. Must be some other basic thing I haven't done right?

Read Review
AudioGridder

Reviewed By dermage [all]
October 15th, 2021
Version reviewed: 1.2b6 on Windows

Audiogridder is the best addition to a DAW which you never knew you would need. But if you got it, you ask yourself why this isn't available in DAWs natively yet.

I'm using it with Ableton Live and it made my Computer so much more powerful.

Review is based on 1.2b6, although also 1.1 has most features, but is not as good to use on a local computer.

positive.

- sandboxing plugins (if plugin crashes, DAW does not crash).

- offloading work to other CPU cores (if you have a 4+ multi core processor), and this really works. I can load more plugins than ever before, especially on the master bus.

- offloading work to other computers.

- plugin chains within a single instance.

- open source.

- it's free.

negative.

- introduced latency is still quite high (it's by design because of the roundtrip time/renderning overhead), but I maybe this could be imrproved in future versions maybe a bit.

- no commercial product available (that means you have to hope the developer has an interest in supporting the product for a longer time and keep it compatible with previous versions).

- uses free JUCE framework with added overlays when loading (minor negative point).

All in all the pros outweigh the contras, but still it is unclear how long it will be supported. I encourage people to donate to the developer, even small amounts, to keep him working. Since this is the best thing that happened to multi-core CPUs/heavy DAW processing since a lot of years.

Read Review
AudioGridder

Reviewed By TITANAsx [all]
February 10th, 2021
Version reviewed: 1.1.0 on Mac

Great application, very stable the last version. Definately i will support it on future releases.

Read Review

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Comments & Discussion for Andreas Pohl AudioGridder

Discussion
Discussion: Active
musicgreator
musicgreator
9 July 2020 at 2:39pm

It's very promising and already works well to some extend. I think this will be the tool of my choice.

apohl79
apohl79
17 January 2021 at 6:31pm

Thanks. We have new release coming up soon.

sekrit_studios
sekrit_studios
20 September 2020 at 5:46am

WHERE are the VSTs installed (Server or DAW system)???

At Which Step???

apohl79
apohl79
17 January 2021 at 6:30pm

VST is installed on the server. You can access it with the DAW plugin.

pestomusic
pestomusic
30 January 2021 at 12:01pm

So I just had a glance at your homepage as well as the github profile but I am not sure: does this mean I can run the server on mixed platforms (e.g. one Mac, one Windows machine) and use those on a Mac DAW with the plugin? Like having a "Windows Outboard" in a Mac (or Linux for that matter) DAW?

apohl79
apohl79
7 February 2021 at 12:35pm

Yes you can. You can also access AU plugins running on a Mac server from a DAW running on Windows or Linux.

bhcmusicgroup
bhcmusicgroup
3 February 2021 at 10:52am

When I realized that SoundGrid system was only proprietary at the software level and that the machines were just custom made intel workstations, I became most excited about the prospect of building out my own DSP network. However, I was shocked that there wasn't any soundgrid alternatives commercially available, but a double shocker once I tracked down AudioGribber discussions deep into a pc audio forum where they speak so technical, It might as well be klingon!

I am most thankful for this being opensourced as this will enable so many within the music creator community access to a tool and solution to overcome the financial barrier to acquiring current industry grade workstations. i APPLAUD this effort!.

apohl79
apohl79
7 February 2021 at 12:37pm

Thanks! :-).

dermage
dermage
25 March 2021 at 10:54pm

just discovered this awesome tool. quite stable (only a few GUI things depending on the VST used) but nothing serious.

thanks for your time and effort to offer this for free.

will definitely donate as long as I use it.

will there maybe be an option (if the Server is not available) to load the actual VST in the plugin, to not be always relying on an available server?
Also it would be possible to host the Server on a multi core machine on the same computer (maybe in a VM) to offload processing from the DAW's threads.

apohl79
apohl79
19 April 2021 at 3:55pm

Yes, you can host the server with VM, for example, parallel. Just keep in mind that it uses your main CPU power as well. Ideally, use a slave PC is a better solution.

You have to have a server running to host the plugins to run in AG.

dermage
dermage
19 April 2021 at 4:25pm

yeah, I asked that intentionally.

I have a 16 core CPU and my DAW can't (or won't) use all cores by itself. Usually because of sidechaining only 2 cores can be used by the DAW itself.

When I now use another core which is free on the same machine (by affinity) I can run bigger sessions. Of course a bit of latency is introduced, but that's no problem for me in mixing/mastering.

I don't get it why DAWs still don't allow to process a track on more than one core. Probably the synchronization of data across cores is hard to implement, but this would be the solution for so many problems in these times where core counts are getting higher but not IPC.

musicgreator
musicgreator
19 April 2021 at 5:04pm

I also noticed when hosting plugins on AG on the same machine, I can have way more instances than in Reaper (DAW) itself. I tested this mostly with plugins in series, because that's where dropouts usually happen at some point. AG seems to be able to handle way more plugins without dropouts than Reaper, perhaps because it can be set to greater buffer sizes? Bit I distributed the plugins by 8 plugin instances per AudioGridder Plugin. I didn't put AudioGridder Server on a virtual Machine, I accessed it by typing in 127.0.0.1 as the server address in the AG plugin.

musicgreator
musicgreator
19 April 2021 at 6:04pm

I just successfully switched an AG instance between local server and another machine. Seems no problem as long as the plugin name and format is the same on the other machine.

It would be great to be able to perhaps set some sort of rule how to search for different versions of the plugin on different machines. Let's say I have VST versions on one machine, but Audiounit versions on the other, AG could load the AU version on this particular machine. Would be a great feature for cross platform compatibility etc.

dontstealfocus
dontstealfocus
6 May 2021 at 8:09pm

Thanks apohl79 for your awesome program! I've discovered it not so long and in my tests and it works really good! I have some minors issues and it will be could if you can look into them for your future releases:

- i'm using it on Local mode (version 1.1.1) on win 7 64-bit, and the position of the inserted plugins in AGridder is never remembered (always opens on the left corner of the screen).

- plugins inserted on AGridder don't stay on top of the other windows, when using them as soon as i click somewhere else on my DAW there dissapear and go to the bottom of the openned windows.

- when reoppening a session that had AGridder, Algouth the loaded plugins are remembered and work fine, AGridder is blank like when you first start it without plugins. And if i close it's window and reoppen it now it shows the loaded plugins correctly.

- the loaded plugins steal focus of the keyboard, so pressing the spacebar don't start playing the DAW.

All these tests concern mostly the VST format(DAW used was Fl Studio 20) and the results were the same with Protools 12 but after having load AGridder in a very heavy Protools session with a very CPU heavy plugin that session won't load anymore, so will report perhaps later if needed for the aax format.

Thanks again for this awesome solution given freely, tha'ts very generous.

mhelin
mhelin
15 September 2021 at 10:40am

Would it be possible to compile the server into 32-bit Windows app? That would work as nice bridge between 64-bit DAW and older 32-bit plugins.

rasta777
rasta777
16 May 2022 at 6:52am

HOW DO I GET THE BETA VERSION.

dermage
dermage
16 May 2022 at 9:29am

It's at their latest release page.

Btw b7 and 8 have just been released.

Frankie.T
Frankie.T
31 December 2022 at 8:12pm

This tool is awesome!!! I'm just trying it these days and if it works as it seems i will donate to the project with great pleasure!!! Guys remember to donate if you use it, it's a great way to support the development in both economical and morally way.

I just have a question. I noticed on Fl Studio if i make automations they are not compensated as it should, so in example the automation start and end little before than it should. If i export the project the automations doesn't work as they should, i.e. if i start a low pass filter to go from 10% to 100% (where 100% is no filtering at all) it happen the WAV to be strucked for the rest of the song at 70% i.e. so it seems to skip some automation points.

I hope you can fix it. I'm using the latest version (beta 15).

Thank you.

THIS POST HAS BEEN REMOVED

dungle
dungle
8 November 2023 at 4:05am

At present, the audio outputs of the instrument plugin are Stereo, followed by 3 to 64 Mono. Is it possible to have multiple outputs preconfigured as stereo pairs?

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