We want Audulus 4 to be the best it can be, and it has become apparent that we can’t achieve that while spreading our development time between four platforms.
As you can imagine, porting software is not the most fun or creative type of coding, and it has taken a considerable amount of time away from development of more and better Audulus features.
Audulus is written primarily by one person - Taylor Holliday. Though we sometimes work with outside contractors for specific features, we don’t have the time and resources to hire someone to maintain the Windows/Linux version.
We know this must be disappointing to our Windows/Linux users, so we will be offering free upgrades to Audulus 4 on Mac or iOS for any user with a valid Audulus 3 Windows/Linux license.
As much as I would love to see A4 available for all platforms, I think this is a very wise move. The audio and graphics architectures on the various platforms are so different that porting the app is a major undertaking. iOS and macOS are close enough that supporting both of them, while not trivial, is a least manageable. It will make it much easier to maintain compatibility between platforms and allow @Taylor to devote his time to feature development rather than maintaining four separate versions of the code. I was glad to see the Windows update posted and A3 for Windows is still a remarkable product, but I think in this case less will definitely be more.
Yikes. Pretty disappointed as a windows user, with no iOS devices. I can’t say it isn’t reasonable given Taylor’s resources, but that’s a huge personal blow. Audulus is hands down the best modular software for DSP prototyping on windows. Will I be able to open A4 patches in Windows A3 to copy over algorithms? The paywall for quality DSP learning resources just got way higher. If only I hadn’t just gotten a 16GB Windows 10 machine specifically for A4 and VCV, the latter of which is totally obfuscated from a development perspective outside of C++. Audulus made it fun to use something close to pure math for synthesis, and Pure Data and Max are atrociously designed in the division between audio-rate and control-rate messages. I was really hopeful for Audulus and just spent 5 hours prototyping this morning. I’m not opposed to saving up for an iPad but it seems the Pro is the only serviceable platform given Audulus’ demand on CPU, which is more or less the cost of an Elektron box but far more flexibility. Just don’t have the pocketbook for that. Not frustrated with Mark, Taylor, or the community, just disappointed to hear the news. Processing this…
Yeah, I was really hoping to use Audulus primarily on Windows as well. I am grateful that at least the PC version will be brought up to the same version number as the Mac Version. And if the ability to directly modulate knobs is removed entirely from Audulus 4, I may never update my windows OS to keep Audulus 3 stable on it.
So you‘ll be keeping the legacy version, when Audulus 4 is released?
As a software developer I‘m always interested in having my people use the latest software. Otherwise I have to provide updates for different versions, which is more workload.
Audulus 3 will proably be removed from the App store somwhere in the future, if there aren‘t any developers who‘ll maintain it.
Also I believe that the forum is interested in only discussing about and supporting the newest version (in the long run).
I hope that the community survives these changes. I can‘t afford the time changing the platform (I‘m not interested in paying 2000€ for a Laptop only running Audulus 4).
Or would you work in a complex IDE without any content / community to answer your questions?
The network effect is crucial on this community driven software projects.
A language is dead without any speakers (well okay, I‘ve learned Latin in school…).
Maybe Tyler decides to open source his software, so the community can solve the problems itself. There‘s no difference in your earnings if you have software which nobody buys and software which is free.
If you bought it, you can still download it. You just won’t be able to buy it new. I just downloaded Audulus 2 the other day and it still runs on my Mac.
Unfortunately no - it would be almost as much work creating a Windows version as it would be making patches backwards compatible since there’s a lot of new efficencies being introduced in 4 that change the way it runs. People will still be able to open 3 patches in 4, just not the other way around.
Understandable re opening patches. I figured it would be a pipe dream. Very nice to bring 3.6 to parity and very generous to offer free crossgrades. I commend Taylor on the openess and agility to do what it takes to keep Audulus stirring. Will the 3.6 installer overwrite my current installation or should I uninstall first?
I think open sourcing the Windows version would defeat Taylor’s IP but maybe this will push a handy dev to create an inspired product, albeit restarting (a) community’s library expansion efforts, and starting from the ground up. In vein, I can’t stress how much of a market leader Audulus was for Windows and how clunky the others are. As a former Renoise user who switched to Reaper due to Renoise’s lack of updates in 5+ years, I was lucky to find a serviceable replacement, but I can’t help but think that there’s no replacement for Audulus. And the forum becomes a little tricky for Windows users who will lose the ability to engage in discussion on threads about patches they can’t use. I don’t mean to hyperbolize, just don’t see a way around it. Mark, I’m still not totally sure how the tag/category feature works on Discourse but is there a way you could open up a “Windows” tag for users so they could imply they are working with 3.6? I understand that the politics of doing so would get a little hairy with the segmentation of the user group, but it might be a nice consolation for Windows users so we could at least continue discussion for our own sake. And iOS users could at least answer questions and provide feedback without asking why Windows users don’t upgrade. Best case, Windows users continue development until we can make the switch to iOS, assuming my 3.6 patches will be compatible with whatever version is current when/if I do make that switch. Worst case, I switch back to Pure Data which is plagued with externals made by academic DSP devs from 10+ years ago, half of which are filled with broken code. Again, I’d like to reiterate that this a totally rational move on Taylor’s part and I’m very thankful for the tool he’s already given us.
In short, I’d like to continue my work in 3.6 and still be able to ask our Audulus friends about designs that I presume will age rapidly. I’m still learning. I just want to find a way to continue doing so.
I would have to talk to @taylor about this, but if it’s something people want and it would be helpful, I don’t see why not? People who have bought 3 can still have it on their Macs and iOS devices too, so it’s not like you’d be totally isolated. I just confirmed that Audulus 2 still runs on my Mac!
I haven’t really run out of ideas for Audulus 3 modules myself - most of what 4 will do is bring in sampling, MIDI out, and have some upgrades to workflow. A lot of what you can accomplish will still be possible in 3 for quite some time!
I for one am very disappointed that after waiting two years for the Windows Audulus 4 it will never happen. Such is life. I may check out the iOS Audulus 4 version when released.
Actually, the non-pro iPads (generation 6 I believe ) are quite similar in performance to the first generation of pro-iPads and several times faster than the pre 2017 non-Pro ipads. It gives a lot of bang for the buck.
These charts are useful for choosing Apple equipment, particularly used, as you can see the processing power of the older models can be very good. On Mac OSX you just want to make sure that you don’t get too old a machine that will not be supported for many more years
iOS - the iPad gen 6 is more powerful than iPad Pro gen 1
Too bad. Thought about buying the software for Win, and now it seems to be impossible to purchase it. How about selling the old Windows version 3 software at a really good price? Could be attractive for a lot of people, especially for learning purposes. (AAS does this with Tassman.)
I am just getting into the domain of modulars and have to look for alternatives now.
I just want to make a point about cost – take it with a grain. I used DOS and had a BBS (a pre-internet dialup host site, with connections to major databases through relays). Then Windows came along as kind of a overlay on top of DOS. From my view, Windows never really worked properly (sorry if you love it but I have always found it a pain). Sometimes I used Macs in the computer room/music room at school and they always seemed special, though very niche, since most of the games were available on PC and the piracy was a lot easier and more common, which probably drove the development of the hardware so fast.
Then the iPod came along and seemed to give Apple the momentum to properly market their design philosophies to mainstream consumers. We are currently still in this bubble (the iPod/Macbook bubble).
I have noticed that because of this bubble, you can find a lot of used mac gear locally. I tracked down 6 year old Macbook Pro that a graphic designer was selling (so it was fully loaded for his job), for a very reasonable price. I also found an iPad Mini 4 unopened in a box for a really good price – which replaced a fried iPod Touch that was also bought “used” brand new in the box.
Something to think about.
Too bad about Linux though. I have always wanted to just be a Linux person.
I would agree with you regarding Windows. Although my first personal computer was an Apple II (16K of RAM and a cassette player for program storage) and I owned an original Macintosh, I moved to PC’s about the time Windows was introduced. Cost was the primary consideration. Macs were and continue to be significantly more expensive than PC for systems with comparable specs. I would argue that this low cost coupled with a huge base of applications made the PC dominant. In fact you can probably trace it back to one program Lotus 123. This early spreadsheet sold more PCs than any other application. I spent the bulk of my professional career dealing with all the problems of Windows and I’m happy to be back on Macs. I still have a Windows PC, but when it finally dies I won’t be replacing it. My recommendation for used Mac hardware is try to get something at least one model year newer than the oldest system supported by the current version of macOS. Apple is pretty good about supporting their older systems and Mojave is the first version of macOS not supported on my 2011 iMac which is still running strong on High Sierra.
Linux is a very capable operating system, but very difficult to support. Each distribution is different and often hardware vendors have little or no interest in writing suitable drivers. I’ve used a variety of LINUX systems and they typically required quite a bit of tinkering.
