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Betas of my AUv3 apps for iOS on M1 and x86 macOS
I've put beta versions of my iOS AU's up on my website. These are pretty much the iOS versions, but they aren't the actual iOS apps. They are Catalyst ports of the apps to macOS. This means that they can run on x86 based Big Sur as well as the M1 Macs.
They install like iOS apps and not like AU components. I have them located in an Applications directory in my Home folder. (They can also go in the main Applications folder and probably other locations too.) The app itself is the manual just like on iOS. But, after the app is installed, AUv3 hosts that enable sandboxed Audio Units should see them. This includes Logic, MainStage, GarageBand, and Reaper in my testing so far. You may need to open the doc app first before the system registers that the AUv3 is there.
The release isn't public yet. I figured I'd put them up here early for anyone that wants to try them out instead of using the method of grabbing them from iOS. I also thought that devs might want to test how it works. This is a bit weird, but it is really easy to port iOS plugins to this format. So, it's an easy way to avoid enabling the iOS on macOS usage without the bugs that are there when using iOS AU's directly in macOS. It also lets you distribute them any way you want and not only on the Mac App Store.
The apps are signed and notarized by Apple. So, installation should work if you have the third party dev thing enabled. The links are
http://www.neonsilicon.com/Downloads/CuSnP.zip
http://www.neonsilicon.com/Downloads/GyroVibe.zip
http://www.neonsilicon.com/Downloads/LRC5.zip
http://www.neonsilicon.com/Downloads/PDA.zip
Any feedback is much appreciated.
A couple of additional notes:
LRC5 is failing auval now for some reason I can't track down. Auval just ignores that parameters I set. Enabling it in the Plugins Manager lets it run and I haven't had any issues with actually using it.
Sharing from the presets manager doesn't work for some reason. But drag-and-drop of a preset shared from the iOS version onto the presets window will import the preset into the Mac version.
These are all free and assuming that this works, they'll stay that way just like the iOS version.
Comments
@NeonSilicon Here's what I'm getting in Logic on an M1 Air. All pass validation except LRC5. The ones that pass seem to work as they should.
A huge Thank You for these.
I've recommended LRC5 several times in the past and my personal favorite is CuSnP, the kind of resonator that's missing inside Drambo
OT: One little thing about CuSnP: There is an "Apply to all strings" button in the parameter dialog.
What do you think about global knobs acting as offset adjusters for the current values on all strings?
I have in mind: Coupling, Sustain and maybe Balance for all strings so that they can be modulated from outside easily?
@NeonSilicon Awesome. Did you end up getting the Mac Mini? Was curious about your experiences with it.
Yeah, that's what I get too. LRC5 should work if you mark the checkbox "use" for it in the plug-in manager. It fails it because Logic (auvaltool) thinks that it can do channel mappings of 1 to 8 inputs and outputs even though I specifically have it marked to only do mono-mono, mono-stereo, and stereo-stereo. I think there must be a mismatch in the compiler or framework setting, but I haven't been ale to find it yet.
Thank you for the nice comment. It means a lot to me. I really need to rework the UI for CuSnP. It's the way it is because I wanted to play around with SpriteKit. There are a ton of parameters when you add them all up. I'd love to be able move most of them to a global setting, but my experiments with different instruments as inputs lead me to believe that I can't get it to work completely satisfactorily. The UI as it is now though is clunky. Maybe move the string settings to a global group that applies to all the strings, and then have a detail pane that would allow fine tuning of the individual strings from there? If I could make the fine tuning work as an offset, then the modulation of the global parameters might work naturally. I'll have to think about it and do some experiments. Thanks for the suggestions!
I did. I got the bottom line Mini. The M1 flies. I think one of the big things about it is that the little cores handle lots of the housekeeping work from the OS and it frees up the big cores to do the audio or compilation or whatever user tasks are going. It is actually nice enough that I've been very tempted to replace my iMac with the Mini. The only problem is that replacing the screen on the iMac with something equivalent would cost more than I want to spend. I'm going to have to wait until the iMac dies to replace it as my main machine. The Mini lives in the living room hooked up to my TV so I can record on it and do testing with it. It's great for this setting because it is completely silent. I still haven't heard the fan run a single time. These really are going to be nice machines for audio work.
I have so many thanks and so many quesyions.
Is 8GB RAM big enough for your app projects?
Is it buggy?
Are M1 Macs suitable for coding newbie wants to build some auv3 gadgets and only knows entry level C?
I love CuSnp too. I like to feed CuSnp with drum beats, and it sounds like plucking strings.
It's the best one since i couldn't find another resonator with multiple voices on ios to compare with.
But maybe some scales could be loaded on the right, and also pitch and fine tuning for each string in a row since strings don't have to be that long.
And maybe on & off buttons of strings could be controlled by corresponding midi note on&off like playing a real instrument.
Also also also 24dB level is really not necessay ,and it really hurts ears. 6dB is quite enough in my opinion.
Cool!
I'll do some more work inside Drambo, where I can map up to 16 AUv3 parameters (maybe more in the future) for external control (modulation, p-locks, sequences).
I don't worry too much about the UI design but yes, accessing the parameters globally (as offsets) and individually sounds good. I'll think about it too.
Yesterday I've tried to build an acoustic guitar (using short pwm square pulses as exciters and putting Thafknar with guitar body IRs after CuSnP) and, like so often with physical modeling, I wasn't too excited about the result.
Lots of questions. Would it make a difference to "excite" only one of the strings and have the output of that string go through all the other ones, a bit like piano sympathetic resonance?
Or, even better, how about MIDI input that will enable one resonator for each Note On message so you don't have to worry about pitches anymore? That would also help mute strings in the guitar model.
Thanks for your reply! 😊
I’m gonna need this, then... can I try it without a mac or developer account? I’m a huge sucker for resonators
[...]
8 gigs has been plenty for me so far. I haven't seen the memory pressure go above about 60% when I've been monitoring it. I've done some pretty heavy stress testing like compiling LLVM with parallel compilation set to 4 threads and not see it struggle with RAM at all. It can easily handle my projects memory and compilation speed wise.
The caveats to note are that I haven't done heavy video work or anything with large sample libraries. The disk in it is so fast that you should be able to stream samples from disk and not see a problem, but I assume there are samplers that don't do that.
The OS and Apple apps are not buggy at all (well, no more so than Big Sur is on x86, which isn't bad there either really). I've seen a couple of issues with some 3rd party software. But, even there this is only with things that have multiple layers of dependencies that need to get sorted. And, this stuff is coming on fast.
The M1 Macs are as good as the comparable x86 Macs for coding -- better really. The M1 Air is a compelling dev machine, The x86 based Air really isn't great for programming. As far as coding AUv3's goes, they are fine to learn on. I don't use any 3rd party libraries though. I don't use JUCE or anything like that. So, I don't know the state of those libraries at this point. I did compile Faust from source and that worked great. It's worth looking into to that to do AU's with.
Thanks! There aren't a whole lot of resonant string effects out there. It's kinda weird because the algorithm isn't difficult or anything that makes it particularly hard to do. But, CuSnP is downloaded about 10 times less than the others, so that probably explains it.
The 24dB output level can be needed if the coupling and sustain are set very low or the instrument input is low. You might want to do this if you are looking for more of an attack boost or something like a slapback echo effect but with resonance. Yeah. it can get loud. My fundamental rule is always use a limiter at the end of your signal chain. I can't stress this enough with anything that can have resonances anywhere in the path. I used to put hard limiters internally to all of my effects, but I decided that that was too limiting for uses where people might want to drive into follow-on effects. It also doesn't really help solve potential problems anyway since a loud resonance can occur with coupling between effects. The best practice is really to put a limiter at the end of your chain.
I'll keep your suggestions in mind when I go to update the effect. CuSnP does take MIDI in for string tuning now. I might be able to figure out a clean UI setting to allow for its use directly on the strings.
It's available on the iOS app store. You don't need a developer account to use it on the Mac either. It is only available on the Mac or iOS and I'd say it's only about half available on the Mac at this point. I still need to verify that everything works alright before I'll consider out of beta.
[...]
CuSnP is definitely not the best way to get a good acoustic guitar. To get anywhere close to what I would accept as a good model of an acoustic guitar would require modeling of the filter network to get the coupling at both the fret and the bridge. It would also need a body model and a pluck model and probably a pickup model (or at least location).
It would definitely be interesting to have the strings feed into each others resonance. This would be much more realistic with strings that were tuned sympathetically to each other.
I could add directly using MIDI to set the strings. But, as you might guess from the overly complex tuning section, CuSnP was kinda designed for non-standard tunings. So, that would involve bringing tuning files and that sort of thing. It's definitely doable, but for my own use, it actually makes it more difficult to quickly setup a tuning and mess around with it. To put it into context, CuSnP was designed to emulate sympathetic strings when being used with a fretless guitar. I mainly use it with slide guitar now.
I haven't used Drambo yet. So, I don't know directly how you would use a sympathetic resonance type effect in it. Would it be like you would use a Karplus-Strong module in a Eurorack modular setting?
I'll try my best anyway! The "pluck model" can basically be freely designed using Drambo's shapers and the wavetable oscillator. There are delays, resonators, waveguides, filters and peaking EQs available too. Then add that instrument body IR. When adding all these up and if more fine tuning (including string pitch and mutes) was available, I can imagine the results becoming not too bad.
I mean, we have sampled guitars anyway but such a model allows for different kinds of dynamic expression, a new instrument that might stand on its own.
I can try that too by chaining two CuSnP and muting all except one string in the first and doing the opposite in the second instance.
That would be fantastic! Ideally, one key would enable one string at that pitch and mute it when the key is released (Note Off or Note On with velocity=0).
You can use AUv3 like any other modules, with audio and MIDI i/o if available on the AUv3.
AUv3 Parameters can be mapped by turning knobs and/or pushing buttons. In map mode, Drambo will listen to the parameter changes sent by the AUv3 and add these automatically to the module inputs: A knob for each parameter plus a modulation input at that knob so you can sequence or modulate the value(s) absolutely or relatively.
@NeonSilicon Glad to hear. Adding on to @cadetrim question, how is IAA apps on the Mac Mini? I’m wondering what “deprecation” means, but it seems to hint that you wouldn’t be able to route MIDI or audio, but the apps may work as standalone.
@NeonSilicon I've hacked a quick demo together for you. The title of the last CuSnP is wrong, it actually models the 6 open strings and I can adjust the symp. resonance intensity using the X-fader.
The "Pluck" is a hand-drawn shape that should remind a finger striking a string and the first four CuSnPs are for one string each (which would be unnecessary once pitch and mutes can be controlled via MIDI notes 😁)
Wow, your response is so fast and detailed.
I really appreciate that.
So weird CuSnp gets less attention considering the fun result it delivers.
I don't know if you are familiar with ableton.
There is a maxforlive devices called bcResonCtrl, which can recieve incoming midi chords and use it to control pitch of ableton built-in 5-voice Resonators. (Which has less voices, no panning and no timbre changing for each voice).
I learned that from the ELPHNT youtube video.
But since CuSnp has 14 voices, like said before, midi notes could be used to trigger on and off. @rs2000 We thought the same! haha.
Hope this would give you some ideas.
Many IAAs now are lack of maintenace. I highly doubt if they would work properly on M1. IDAM might be an option for those apps.
I really wish Animoog could go AUv3.
It's the same. And company name NESI. Might trigger some weird ios bug. Try rebooting and see.
That works surprisingly better than I expected. I'll have to do some thinking now. Maybe what's needed for this is a reduced number of strings that aren't aimed at resonance. Being able to set the MIDI channel per string could be useful.
I don't use Live, so I haven't seen how this works there. I actually saw the use of this type of resonator effect as a Doepfer module. Very very cool. It would also be pretty expensive to put together 14 of them.
LRC5 is by far the most downloaded. PDA and GyroVibe are close to the numbers of LRC5, probably about 75%. CuSnP is far behind those at maybe a tenth. I'd guess this comes down to how people use effects in GarageBand.
It should be there under CuSnP and NeSi as the manufacturer. It's actually an aumf type AU, but I don't think AUM sorts by this. AUM is the primary way I use it on iOS, so it should be working there.
I'm not surprised that you haven't used LRC5. If you've got a good EQ that you like, then there's not much reason to use a different one. I actually only released LRC5 because I use it with CuSnP and thought there should be a decent EQ available to anyone how would want to use it in any host.
No, I don't charge for these. I'll probably put out some music related apps soon that I do charge for, but these will stay free. I have some others planned to release for free too.
The string settings (Coupling, Sustain) are definitely necessary both for sound generation as well as for adjusting sympathetic resonance.
Why do you think MIDI channels are necessary? A large set of resonators spaced in semitone distance over 3..4 octaves and each enabled/muted individually by MIDI Note messages would be all I need for now.
I haven't actually looked, but I don't think IAA was ever supported on macOS. There are other solutions that do the same type of thing, but IAA apps would have to be rewritten to support this.
I'm mainly thinking out loud. I'm wondering what it would take to actually build an acoustic string instrument (with sympathetics). The issue with doing a large number of resonators is that they take up quite a bit of RAM each. It's probably doable for 4 octaves or so, but it would start to push the limits on some devices.
I've pulled the betas of the AU's off the website and replaced them with what I consider to be actual releases. I've done a bit of optimization in the UI to make them work better on the Mac. They are still all sandboxed AUv3 implementations. They are universal apps but require macOS 11.
All of the AU's are available (for free) on my software page: http://www.neonsilicon.com/software.html
Sharing doesn't work correctly out of the presets, but you should be able to do a drag-and-drop of a preset shared from iOS onto the macOS presets screen to get your iOS presets onto the Mac.
LRC5 still doesn't pass auval and I still don't know why. I actually rewrote the entire thing using my new way of writing the AU/Host interface that I know works and auval still doesn't read the channels correctly from the AU. LRC5 does work fine in the hosts if you just enable it anyway.
Please let me know if you find anything broken.
Hi @NeonSilicon - Thanks for these - it's great to have access to some of my favourite iOS effects on a Mac - although I can confirm they don't work in Ableton Live and FL Studio...
I found that I needed to copy the 'document' app files to my applications folder and run them once from there to get the AUs to be found by the OS.
@NeonSilicon I've installed the MacOS versions (M1 MacBook Air) but all I'm seeing are the Doc files, not the apps or plugins themselves.
I have a 42 inch 4K television on my desk with my little mini M1 and it is superb
I don't think a 42" TV would fit on my desk. What I would really like is about a 24" 4K. That would be ideal. The Mini does look really nice on the TV in the living room though and being able to sit on the couch and play through MainStage is great.
The plugins are in the app that is the doc files. You should be able to see the plugins in Logic or GarageBand when the documentation is installed. You may need to open the docs to get the OS to see the plugins too.
Thanks for letting me know that they work. Yeah, Ableton and FL don't do well with the new plugin format. I'm looking into a couple of paths to make them available as version 2 AU's and VST. I'll also try to get them ported to the Raspberry Pi if the VST path works.