The Remix Plug-In Summit
Aug 1, 2003 12:00 PM, By Dave Hill Jr.
Are you part of Generation X? How about Generation XP? Or are you playing it retro and still driving that convertible classic OS 9.2? Regardless of how you grew up — or your software orientation — in the past couple of years, the audio industry has gone from chasing hardware and processor upgrades to nitpicking about plug-in formats, audio interfaces and operating-system versions. Reminds you of the sample-format wars, doesn't it?
Given all of the chaos, Remix decided that it's time to strive for processor peace, for OS harmony and for multiple applications to coexist on a single machine. In light of recent revamps of both Macintosh and Windows operating systems and improved plug-in formats, we asked delegates from some of the world's most highly regarded audio-software superpowers to put down their mice, rest their coding fingers and join us in the world's first Remix Plug-In Summit (held at our top-secret think tank).
Distinguished summit attendees include Steve Thomas from Cakewalk (www.cakewalk.com), Ed Gray from Digidesign (www.digidesign.com), Chris Adam from Emagic (www.emagic.de), Angus Hewlett from FXpansion (www.fxpansion.com), Stephan Schmitt from Native Instruments (www.native-instruments.de), Mateusz Wozniak from PSP (www.pspaudioware.com), John Epperson from TC Works (www.tcworks.de) and Bob Reardon from Waves (www.waves.com).
BAIT AND SWITCH
When Apple introduced its 2002 “Switch to Apple” campaign, who would have guessed that it also meant the switch from OS 9 to OS X? But the change didn't stop there. Some users can attest to then joining in the fall 2002 lesser-publicized “switch back (to OS 9)” campaign once it became obvious that OS X wasn't fully supported — and then back again to OS X once Jaguar (OS 10.2) arrived in winter 2002. Now that OS X has become a common residence for audio applications, users want to know how the application development is coming along.
“Apple's OS X and Microsoft's XP have significant advantages over earlier mass-market operating systems,” says TC Works' Epperson. “Apple has put a stronger emphasis on audio functionality than Microsoft,” Fxpansion's Hewlett adds. “From a user's point of view, OS X or XP, Mac or PC is a matter of preference and what you can afford. OS 9 contains a lot of ancient technology and the sooner it is recognized for the museum piece it is, the better. OS X is a nicer development environment than Windows, but I still use XP and Windows 2000 on a daily basis.”
Wozniak, of PSP, affirms, “Our plug-ins work smoothly under OS X, which, as an operating system, has proven to be smooth, stable and visually great.” Schmitt from NI, however, says, “It is a pity that Apple's CPU performance is always so far behind the Intel machines.”
Speaking of Apple, one distinguished attendee — Adam — is not only a developer but also an employee (since Apple acquired Emagic in 2002). Not surprisingly, Emagic's OS X experience has been a good one. Logic Platinum 5.4 for Mac OS X, released in October 2002, was the first host program with Audio Units support. “Emagic's range of instruments and effects aren't really plug-ins,” Adam says, “because they are integrated within the application itself as part of the Logic application. Therefore, neither the instruments nor the effect plug-ins require a special plug-in interface. All of the Logic instruments and effects were available for OS X from the outset.”
Regarding the transition from OS 9, Epperson says: “Apple's support for the transition to OS X was quite good. We even made a free version called SparkME to endorse its release.” Other representatives generally agree, though a few have gripes about added development costs due to multiple OS support (three or four instead of two), as well as porting versus carbonization. “Porting of specific software to a different configuration is always an extra effort,” Reardon explains. “Carbonization is a sweetener that Apple introduced to make the crossing easier.”
Nevertheless, some applications and plug-ins simply can't be carbonized. Schmitt explains: “Carbonizing is only a partial solution. NI had to do porting, where we had to rewrite lots of low-level code. This was expensive and time-consuming, but it had to happen.” Digidesign felt that the transition was fairly straightforward and avoided massive porting by developing what it calls “an internal ‘recipe’ for plug-in carbonization.”
On the other side of the marketing fence, Microsoft's Windows XP has also modernized the Windows-based studio, particularly in terms of stability and audio-handling enhancements. “Windows XP features a cleaner GUI than 2000 or 98 and is based on the NT kernel, which means it's rock-solid and scales to multiple processors,” says Thomas of Cakewalk, a Windows-only developer. “Both Microsoft and Intel enable us to stay ahead of the curve on technologies such as DirectX.” Schmitt adds, “Apple tries to set higher standards for timing, latency and system-supported audio plug-ins, but XP is stable and very usable for music applications.” Epperson agrees: “Windows XP is a good choice for audio on the PC, but our developers do find that OS X is a bit more transparent due to its newness. However, newness always has two sides, and PCs are currently way faster.”
“From the developer's standpoint, it makes no difference which operating system you write for,” Adam says. “Ninety-nine percent of code is platform-independent.” FXpansion's Hewlett disagrees that all operating systems and platforms are equal: “Windows is a far better development environment than Mac OS 8 or 9, but, now, Mac OS X is significantly better, again, than Windows. Then again, Microsoft's new .NET development environment is rumored to be another big step forward in terms of developer-friendliness, capabilities and development speed.” Looking to the future, Microsoft's next major operating system upgrade, code-named Longhorn, is slated for 2005, a millennium in the software world.
THE BIG UNIT
So what do developers think of the Audio Units format? Is it a bright and shining beacon on the remix producer's (or recording engineer's) horizon or yet another frustration, added cost and monopolistic ploy by one of the bigs to stomp out the smalls? “Audio Units does a good job of cleaning up some annoyances with VST that should have been sorted out a long time ago,” Hewlett says. “But it's not a great deal better than any of the other formats.”
Of course, Apple — and therefore Emagic — feels good about the bright future of Audio Units. “Since July 2002, all major companies have either already released or committed to support Audio Units plug-ins.” Adam says. “This single standard will make it very easy to combine plug-ins and hosts. In addition, Audio Units plug-ins integrate perfectly in OS X, offer enhanced flexibility, can be dynamically changed during operation, allow for more advanced user-interface design and are brilliantly documented for both plug-in and host manufacturers.” Reardon cautiously adds, “The anticipated advantage is that the development, maintenance and evolution of this standard is within the hands of the platform creator, who should be highly motivated to make it successful and attractive for users to use and developers to develop for.”
Other companies are coping with but not yet thrilled by the prospect of developing for this new format. “We have built a wrapper-style connection from our plug-ins to Audio Units to ensure that all Spark, Native Bundle and PowerCore plug-ins automatically become Audio Units — compatible,” Epperson says. “If everybody would spend time working on just one format rather than coming up with alternatives, we'd already have the perfect format!”
“We don't see any benefit within Audio Units, save for the fact that it easily integrates into OS X,” Wozniak says. “From a plug-in developer's point of view, it is yet another format that we have to spend months porting our existing plug-ins to support.”
“In the end, the additional efforts of the plug-in developers have to be paid by the customers, but because Audio Units is young, it can become the most advanced,” Schmitt says.
PLUG-IN PLAY
The time and expense of supporting effects and instruments across VST, DirectX, RTAS, MAS, TDM and now Audio Units formats often prove to be too much for small audio-software development teams. Do keep in mind that although DirectX, RTAS, VST, MAS and Audio Units are native formats, they must be continually ported, updated and tested in order to survive in this wild and woolly (aka customizable) computer world. On the other hand, TDM is DSP-card-based, which has its own demands in terms of training and experience in developing for them.
Native Instruments and PSP vow that, for the moment, VST is the most complete and mature plug-in interface that is both easy to learn and portable to multiple operating systems. Wozniak explains: “MAS and especially RTAS are very complex due to platform and historical issues, which make them hard to learn and to port. TDM is similar to RTAS but requires DSP-coding skills. Audio Units is the newest and does not provide GUI controls. Compared to VST, DirectX utilizes complicated software interfaces.”
Epperson puts it another way: “Each format has its pluses and minuses. VST is easy to get into and multiplatform yet not that deeply documented. DirectX and MAS are better documented yet more difficult to grasp. TDM and RTAS are both Digidesign formats with lots of third-party documentation. Audio Units is as easy as VST but very new.”
Cakewalk, however, pledges its allegiance to Microsoft. “For us, DirectX is the most natural and easiest format to develop for,” Thomas says. “Our relationship with Microsoft means that we get the attention we need for tech-support issues or new-feature requests.”
PLUG-IN POLICE
The complexity and cost associated with developing for multiple plug-in formats is ultimately paid for by end-users and sometimes keeps the focus away from new product innovations. Recent calls for standardization, or at least a single plug-in format (like MIDI), would require clear organization and leadership but in the end may save everyone time and money. TC Works advocates “one common plug-in standard, which looks like it will be Audio Units on OS X and VST on the PC. Due to the many people using and developing for VST, we chose it for PowerCore.”
“Plug-ins and applications should connect together as seamlessly as MIDI gear so that customers can focus on creating music rather than deciphering the benefits of brand x plug-in format over brand y,” says Thomas. “Just as MIDI is maintained by an industrywide trade association, the MIDI Manufacturers Association, there needs to be a single industrywide plug-in standard also managed by the MMA. Presently, a group called the Generalized Music Plug-in Interface exists in the MMA. It is in the early stages of building a requirements document, with the long-term goal of establishing a single plug-in standard.”
Wozniak adds: “As developers, we would like to have as few plug-in formats as possible, but each with thorough documentation. This way, we would drastically increase the number of plug-ins that we could make and support.”
AHOY, MATEY
Any discussion about software development will include at least a couple of jabs at the prevalence of software piracy. “Unfortunately, people who illegally use software hurt the future development of the tools they ultimately want, benefit from and probably depend on,” Reardon says. “We have heard people make all kinds of excuses suggesting that it's okay to use unlicensed or cracked copies. Presently, it is one of the easiest forms of theft to get away with, but it's still wrong. Waves asks you to please support the people whose art is making the tools you use to make your art.”
In retaliation to widespread piracy, some companies have opted to make their own hardware. “Native plug-ins do not sell but get pirated widely,” Epperson says. “For us, it got to a point where we decided to discontinue the development of our soft synth Mercury, as everybody we seemed to know had it, but we hardly sold one.” Gray emphatically agrees: “When users buy the plug-ins instead of stealing them, they will be helping the companies that make them to keep innovating and creating great new products for us to enjoy. So if you like a plug-in that you hear and you intend to use it, buy it!”
In closing, each guest wishes to thank users who both buy and use their products to make music. “There are no shortcuts to attention to detail and years of development and testing,” Reardon says. “We believe that software-based signal processing is a real tool that isn't inferior to outboard gear and saves the customers money, setup and time without any compromise on sound quality.”
WRAP IT UP
Many Emagic Logic 5 and 6 users have been putting off the switch to OS X due to Logic Audio's lack of VST support. To help matters, FXpansion recently developed a VST-to — Audio Units adapter that, when launched, will search your hard drive for VST effects and instruments and then transform them to Audio Units (with a small shell attached). Most summit attendees have tried the adapter and are impressed with the results. “FXpansion's adapter works astonishingly well,” Chris Adam says. Cakewalk Sonar users should also check out FXpansion's VST-to-DirectX adapter. “It's a challenge to create a global wrapper that works for every VST plug-in on the market,” says John Epperson. “As far as we can tell, FXpansion's wrapper works well with our plug-ins.”
WANNA MAKE A PLUG-IN?
Many Remix readers have expressed interest in making their own audio effects and instrument plug-ins. Naturally, we tapped our panel of experts for some pearls of wisdom. Steve Thomas cheers: “Go for it! By creating a tool that has some never-before-heard sound or a fantastic UI, a small independent developer can really make their mark. We've made the DXi programmers kit [found at www.thedirectxfiles.com] dead-simple to use, so new developers can get into programming without having to be too involved with the ‘plumbing’ behind a plug-in.”
Speaking of plumbing, Wozniak asserts, “It is quite easy to start coding in VST for PC.” However, Schmitt points out that you may not need code at all: “Before learning C++, new programmers should try developing with our modular system Reaktor or Cycling '74's Max/MSP application. You can save a lot of time and have a lot more fun.”
Unanimously, the attendees concede that quality, innovation and careful planning (including product marketing) are imperative to succeed in today's oversaturated market. “Never underestimate the real power of algorithm, design concept or user interface,” Reardon says. And if you think developing for Pro Tools is out of the question, think again. “Digidesign receives many inquiries from individuals and companies with great plug-in ideas, all of which we carefully and confidentially consider,” Gray says. “We hope this Remix summit meeting will result in Digidesign getting to know some developers whom we haven't met before. Please give us a call or contact us at www.digidesign.com/developers.”
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