Black Hole Nova: AU Integration Support Proposal

sirdavidabraham

I'm glad the plumbing is there in terms of low latency (especially this!), AU extensions and apparently new IAA bug fixes. As long as Apple continues to maintain these I'd hope we'd have a good foundation for other visionary creative companies and independent developers to push the platform to the next level.

The App Store category suggested by @brambos would be a huge win. I have to think this is inevitable if the pace of iOS instrument innovation continues and begins to show up more in commercial successes by "name brand" producers.

This is part of the reason I'm bullish on Steinberg, they have the resources, experience and apparent willingness to make great things happen at scale for musicians on iPad, lifting many developer ships in the process.

brambos

I don't know that App Store editors are clueless so much as focused on mass markets while ignoring the collective potential of niche markets like music creation where there are more dedicated users.

I said that a bit tongue in cheek, but the point is that when you have a digital marketplace targeting niches can be a strategic advantage ("the long tail of eCommerce"). After all, you don't have to keep digital items in stock, all you have to do is give them a shelf of their own and your customers will help themselves.

Back in the 80s, Apple owed their existence to catering to the creative niches (DTP in those days) so they should know a thing or two about how to thrive in the liberal arts scene.

sirdavidabraham

@brambos said:

...remove the frustrations from the development process (proper documentation, more consistent dev-forum support, a formal feedback channel to learn from developers: needs + wishes + learnings)

I peaked in the coreaudio-api e-mail list recently.....97.3% Greek to me...but I saw Doug Wyatt respond to an AU question in there a couple days ago....maybe that's a better place than the developer forums?

[Deleted User]

Here's a basic outline in html of how having MIDI AU apps along with some other changes by Apple could provide more comprehensive, efficient, and flexible work flows using presets, templates, and automation. The html file you can download to your browser and read directly. Posting the outline seemed too long and didn't preserve the structure of the outline.

Specific implementation of these ideas could create a more robust iOS environment. They could also be applied to other control protocols such as OSC which might be more appropriate for more complex work flows provided there are options in place to use it which are currently very few.

The current state of iOS control is relatively flat reflecting its current mass media/browsing/social networking focus. Some apps such as Workflow: Powerful Automation Made Simple are starting to bring higher levels of scripting/automation and conditional flows to iOS. Multi app setups like Audiobus and AUM certainly have some elements of these and hopefully some of the ideas in the BlackHoleNova project can become part of their workflows.

OscarSouth

Just throwing in my opinion that AU extensions are a brilliant step in a positive direction and I'm glad that developers and users alike are being excited and inspired by them.

I hope that the negative mood towards AU units that seems to be developing specifically on this message board does not take hold more widely. When a new AU is released
I'm seeing ideas like 'AU vs IAA', 'AU vs AudioBus' etc. thrown around, but I don't think that this is the case at all. I believe that the more creative possibilities for developers and users, the more exponentially creativity will be explored and the more interesting and diverse our niche will become.

Everyone who is commenting on this debate has great and true insight into it, and the differences seem to be mainly based around different perspectives. I think that
and the future direction of iOS music won't simply be defined by what is available, but how what is available is used creatively to create even more practical creative possibilities. I can't see how this could be a bad thing. Audiobus and AUM are two shining examples of how this kind of creativity has brought about amazing new 'standardisations' of workflow in this area. I can't wait to see what the future will bring when you factor in the additional new possibilities being brought to the table!

sirdavidabraham

@OscarSouth said:
Just throwing in my opinion that AU extensions are a brilliant step in a positive direction and I'm glad that developers and users alike are being excited and inspired by them.

+1000

jbvdb

@brambos said:
Making something standalone opens up a huge can of worms, because as soon as something runs standalone, users will start demanding glitch-free compatibility with Audiobus, IAA, AU, Link, MIDI, AudioShare, AudioCopy, Dropbox and every other link/sync/share protocol ever invented by mankind. For me, personally, that would make a project unappealing to the point of "not worth the effort anymore". It would then become 10% fun and 90% chores (learning new APIs, fixing compatibility issues, disentangling incompatible standards that don't play nice together within a single app). In a nutshell: for me AU tipped the balance of the scales of the project from "ugh" to "yay".

This is exactly my problem with iOS, all workarounds all disjointed apps that don't always work together!