AUv3 Delayed Until Audulus 4

We’ve been beta testing Audulus AUv3 for iOS and have run into a significant number of problems that must be fixed - enough that it warrants delaying it until the release of Audulus 4.

Audulus is uniquely difficult to fit into the AUv3 format, and we want to make sure that the release of the AUv3 is perfect out of the box, rather than half-working with the promise to improve it later. We had already made the decision to delay MIDI out until Audulus 4, which would have meant the MIDI AUv3 effect would have been released then anyway too.

I know this must be disappointing to people who were hoping to see it in Audulus 3, and I know the more cynical response might be that we’re delaying it to incentivize people to buy Audulus 4 instead, but that is simply not true.

Audulus 3 has gotten more and more significant updates than pretty much any music app out there. Since the initial release of Audulus 3, we’ve delivered many new features that users have wanted, including multichannel audio, SVG support, a huge library of modules (not to mention the new redesign still forthcoming), and more.

The fact is though, it’s time to switch gears to work on Audulus 4. The longer we work on improving 3, the longer 4 is delayed. There will be so many new features to Audulus 4 that even if we released AUv3 for Audulus 3, you’d still want to buy 4 (if just for the MIDI out alone).

We’re so thankful and proud of the usergroup we’ve developed here at the forum. It’s so valuable to have your input, and so many of the modules in the released version of Audulus and the upcoming reface are really a collaborative effort with all of you. We think you deserve tools that work perfectly and have the most features as they can right from the start, and that’s why we really need to push AUv3 to Audulus 4.

And don’t worry - it will be in the initial 4.0 version! This isn’t vaporware - we currently have it running on our iOS devices, and it works, but it’s missing features and has some bugs that need to be worked out.

Let me know if you have any questions below, and thanks for your patience!

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Will the AUv3 be available to Audulus 3 users eventually, or will development of Audulus 3 stop once Audulus 4 is out?

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The way the Apple stores work, to update Audulus 3, it needs to remain for sale, so unfortunately no - we don’t want people to accidentally buy 3 just so we can update it for people who don’t want to upgrade or can’t at the time it comes out.

:frowning:

So basically there will be no forthcoming upgrades to Audulus 3.

No midi out and no AUv3?

Not for iOS - there still will be library development though, which is essentially adding features! :slight_smile:

Well it’s good to have clarity.

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For me, I am most interested in CPU consumption. With the setup I have going, the ideal Audulus would be able to handle MIDI in and out. I like the fact that BM3 has Ableton Link, and that it hosts AUv3’s. But I am sure it uses a lot of overhead. I stopped arranging in Ableton because the quality of the AUv3’s at the price point for iPad is amazing. I also got excited about being fully self sufficient, portable and off-grid.

As I started to use Audulus more, I stopped bothering with a DAW and stopped being interested in iOS apps. Now I like the idea of having things broken out, and Audulus seems to play a super fun role of being a master routing brain. I didn’t really go in with any of this in mind. But I am totally enthralled with everything now. IMHO, this idea of a gear routing brain – as well as a synth language – fits well with handmade instruments, pedals, custom cases, etc.

Right now, I am not producing like I could be, because I don’t have midi recording quite settled. The CV recorder seems important, and @stschoen’s MIDI recorder is too (but it freaks out with CPU). I feel like this stuff really could take off. I wish I was smarter and could make more of what I need.

Thank you so much to all of you for your help and inspiration. Audulus 3 may well go down in the franchise history as the good 'ol days. :smile:

When Audulus 4 does come out, I will probably pick up one of those Midi Fighter Twister’s, so if going without AUv3 helps 4 come along sooner (MIDI out) thats fine.

One thing though. If you have sequencing all set up with hardware and you run Audulus standalone, how do you functionally just loop record jamming out on a synth patch? Is anyone doing this without a DAW?

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Until Audulus has a MIDI recorder built-in, I’ve found that using something like BM3 provides a good way to manage the MIDI recording/looping etc. I’ve also had pretty good results with the free Nord sequencer. As you point out, there is definitely overhead involved in running an IAA/AU host. At this point the options available within Audulus are pretty limited since we don’t really have a good way to store data. I haven’t done any testing, but I would bet that something like BM3 uses less CPU than the MIDI recorder I put together. The big drawback to IAA is the 2 channel limit. I like the idea of doing it all within Audulus, but I think we need an expanded toolset to make that possible.

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What is the thinking on Audulus 4 release timing? I know it’s far too early for an exact date, but do you have an idea of what season it’ll probably be released?

Thanks!

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All I can say is it’s definitely going to be in 2019. We are currently working with Papernoise to hammer out the aesthetics. Once that’s done, we’ll be ploughing into feature development :slight_smile:

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I like that guy. Did he work on Audulus 3? Also, will it be a radical departure from the current look of Audulus?

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He did work on Audulus 3 and no, it won’t be radical - it’s more like putting a “pro” polish on Audulus. Things will look less toy-like and more tool-like. So far things are looking a bit like they’d fit in nicely with Logic plugins, but they’re not in any way a copy of the visual style.

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Hi Mark, thanks for the update. This thread specifically mentions Audulus AUv3 hosted on iOS. Over on this other thread I had been asking about the present status of Audulus 3 AudioUnit for MacOS.

Are your comments on this thread also applicable to the MacOS version?

FWIW, Audulus AU limitations became a non-issue for me now since I’ve actually had good luck running Audulus 3 standalone on MacOS and connecting it w/ other standalone MacOS apps (e.g. Max/MSP, Logic) via the 3rd party commercial Loopback utility (instead of hosting Audulus as a plug-in within Max/MSP). But I’ll save that story for another thread as it’s no particular help for iOS folks here.

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Yes, since we’ll be delaying AUv3 for iOS, it will also be delayed for Mac. Ironing out the problems with the iOS version will help with implementing the Mac version :+1:

Thanks!

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I’ve often used soundflower for the same purpose.

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Thanks for these tidbits!

I’ll post some more details about my Loopback-Audulus config on another thread sometime soon.

Soundflower is similar in concept but now released as open source on GitHub. This page describes some common history between Soundflower and Loopback. I’m not sure if they actually share any code. Per my understanding Soundflower is a kernel extension and requires an additional frontend app.

Loopback’s ease of use was selling point for me. It lived up to the promise. The note about “take your chances” on the Soundflower developer page didn’t sound like where I wanted to spend time right at the moment… though I had used it quite successfully on some much older Macs in my studio (SoundFlower included UI and was maintained by Cycling 74 back then IIRC).

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Apologies for getting so far off topic here but if we’re talking about inter-application audio routing, I should also mention Jack (Jack Audio Connection Kit). Also a GitHub project now. Another possible solution which I didn’t explore… call me lazy! :smirk_cat:

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The software is already overwhelmingly astounding. The notion of a new version is simply mind-melting

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I’m sorry guys, I must say it. I was waiting for midi out, from first audulus, before second and third versions of audulus, there were always promises about that. After these years of waiting, I have setting up all my work in max msp. I think, that main power of audulus is in ios. And better choise could be android version to cover these platforms, then mac and pc, on which are other more powerfull options. I didn’t change my opinion that audulus is amazing software and commes always with lifesome updates, but everytime, when I visited forum, there are always talking about UI. I think that audulus was very nice an useful from begining. But, sure, beside nececery UI ajustments, I would give priority to these core functions during that long period of time.

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