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If Apple releases AUv4 apps that works for iOS and Mac OS…but AUv3 apps are obsolete…
Curious on everyone’s takes on this topic.
AU stands for Audio Unit. Version 2 was designed for Mac OS, while version 3 was for iOS but is now being integrated into the Mac OS ecosystem via M1 chips and the update last year.
But let’s say Apple says, “screw it…let’s do AUv4”. What’s stopping them from telling app developers to migrate their apps to the new protocol because they feel it’s more secure, or they did significant overhaul to their codebase to make it optimal?
And we can’t say that it’s impossible. We saw what happened with IAA apps and AUv3, but also with the original AU and AUv2.
So, I ask…what would you do?
Comments
I'm not sure that your premise is correct, AUv3 was never iOS-specific, and there has been support for them prior to Apple Silicon (e.g. FAC has had AUv3 Mac versions for quite a while, supporting Intel CPUs). If Apple would come up with v4 it would have to add features not present in v3, similar to what VST3 offers over VST2 or CLAP over VST, but it wouldn't be driven by architectural constraints or conditions. AU is an API, not a protocol.
More secure? You mean all those AUv3 Banking plug-ins? 😁
Yes, exactly. They can’t get our money if we already spent them on plugins 😂
Interesting. I didn’t know about FAC. I stand corrected on that. Thanks 🙏🏾
But the point remains. If AUv3 has been out for so long, why were plugins still released in AUv2 standards on the Mac platform. Is it a case of “don’t fix what’s not broken?” Or am I misunderstanding something crucial?
Because many developers relied on the JUCE and other frameworks do their cross platform plug-ins and that framework (JUCE) was late into the game adding AUv3 support...
Good analysis 😄
Also, AUv3 is not specific to M1 on MacOS. They can also work on Intel when properly ported.
Transitions like these take many often many many many years.
IAA was deprecated a few years ago and is still supported…and likely will be with us for years more due to the installed base. Given how new AUv3 is on MacOS (in terms of activity)…it seems unlikely there will be some new v4 anytime soon.
Why has adoption of AUv3 on Mac taken so long? Not much financial incentive till now. The availability of an increasing number of universal AUv3 seems to have spurred more Mac hosts (besides Logic) to have added support for AUv3.
Because profit margins are low, developers don't like to throw programming hours at adopting new standards till there seems good reason to do so.
Given how long Apple has tolerated IAA for so long I would say they'd let AUv3 continue for more than a decade after releasing AUv4.
Hopefully major DAWs on MacOS will integrate AU3 plugins to the full not just Logic Pro.
as far as i know apple announced auv3 in 2015 and juce added support in 2016:
https://thegaragebandguide.com/auv3-vs-inter-app-audio
https://github.com/juce-framework/JUCE/commit/70949aa0c6de95ed7814e97061a81aa1e27bcf80
up until recently only apple daws (logic, mainstage, garageband) and reaper64 supported auv3 (i know ableton just added support last year). i think this is one of the main reasons there's so few auv3 plugins published for macos.
another weird issue - for various reasons macos doesn't allow a plugin with the same identifier to exist as an auv2 and auv3. so if a developer already had an auv2 version out, they'd break their existing software by also releasing an auv3 (contrast this with vst2/vst3 which can happily live side by side).
also afaik you can't create a midi-only auv3 plugin on macos (you can on ios). auv2 supported this.
imho auv3 offers some good improvements. having plugins in separate processes/cores is a good thing for end users (it means you can use more cpu in a daw session and a plugin crash doesn't necessarily bring down the entire daw) but for developers there wasn't really any reason to port existing plugins over since auv2 works just fine.
“Shoot the hostage” - Speed
“42” - Hitchhiker’s Guide
“Take the cannoli, leave the gun.” - Godfather
If Apple changes things again it will be to sell more of those new Goggles to the 1%.