Rax!, Wanna' play with Apple's Units? Options

[Levon River]

I'm busy playing with a marvelous little program I just discovered on VersionTracker for OS X called "Rax." It's a virtual rack for Audio Units! It provides on-screen controls for Apple's included AUs (reverb, delay, etc.), uses any MIDI source available to your system, and even allows you to load SoundFonts! Right now I have a Banjo SoundFont converted from an Akai disk loaded, drenched in Apple's reverb and digital delay, controlling it all with muMIDI. What a hoot.

May be the most fun you can have with your clothes on.

Great little program. Get it and play!

this program is inspiring: i should finish reading the os x system books and core audio books and get to work on some instruments to stick in this puppy. levon, did you try using rax with airsynth? it feels like there is a noticable latency (but maybe my attack time was just too long )

really, i am glad to make some sounds in os x for once. i dont have the money for logic4.5 (and i dont really want to use live and reason). it feels like we are on the brink of a giant wave of audiounits created by independent (noncorporate) developers. i wonder what type of sequencing environments will be coded specifically for coreaudio which could diversify the os X audio software pool

[Levon River]

this program is inspiring:

Ain't it, though!

i should finish reading the os x system books and core audio books and get to work on some instruments to stick in this puppy.

Do *that*.

levon, did you try using rax with airsynth?

Not yet; having too much fun loading Soundfonts. Incredible: it's like this thing is a SoundFont player just on a complete "Oh, by the way..." basis. Really quite a piece of work.

it feels like we are on the brink of a giant wave of audiounits created by independent (noncorporate) developers.

We can sure hope. Didn't you finish those books yet?

i wonder what type of sequencing environments will be coded specifically for coreaudio which could diversify the os X audio software pool

I say "revolution...now!" I personally think all the Big Boys on The Block have gotten too big for their britches--all of 'em. I'd give my money *any* day to an enterprising independent coder out to slay the giants, and let the "Let them eat cake" crowd (I don't want to mention any names, but their initials are Steinberg, Logic, ProTools, and Mark of the Unicorn) eat their damned dongles.

Of course, I also wound up in the Assistant Principal's office a lot.

[Levon River]

BTW: If you haven't already, go by and pick up destroyfx's audiounits for additional ways to fritter away hours in Rax that could be spent in the honest pursuit of raking leaves:

http://smartelectronix.com/~destroyfx/audiounits.html

A jaw harp positioned on the stage of a symphony hall is an awesome, awesome thing.

If you haven't already, go by and pick up destroyfx's audiounits for additional ways to fritter away hours in Rax that could be spent in the honest pursuit of raking leaves:

actually i just did this.

i am taking an electroacoustic music class in school right now. we are using csound, and i've been working on a plan for an object-oriented music composition program to provide more abstracted control than typing out the parameters for every single note (maybe thousands of them in one 15 second sound clip). so im asking myself: why dont i just do this all in objective c and use audiounit instruments (auis) and fx instead of csound orchestras, since aus have coreaudio's wonderful latency, and csound implements real-time as a hasty (and glitchy) afterthought

the sad part is that i will spend so much less time making music by trying to make programs to make music with

[Levon River]

the sad part is that i will spend so much less time making music by trying to make programs to make music with

Yeah, but if you make programs to make music with, you can think of it as making music vicariously.

I posted just the other day in the Audio Units thread about how satisfying it was, without Logic, to have a simple AU host in the form of Synthtest, an app that first opened up the Apple sound-font synth and AUs. But now with Rax as well (which is much more 'consumer' oriented; SynthTest is aimed primarly at developers as a simple AU host), oh happy day.

On a side note, thanks, LevonR, for posting to Version Tracker as well; I recognised your name there, and decided to give Rax a try.

[Levon River]

I posted just the other day in the Audio Units thread about how satisfying it was, without Logic, to have a simple AU host in the form of Synthtest, an app that first opened up the Apple sound-font synth and AUs.

I did see your post, lutefisk, but the link to Synthtest in your original post was broken, so I couldn't find it. I've since tracked the little bugger down, but it was after I had found Rax. Synthtest is certainly not to be slighted--at *all*. It's quite a program too, and I've been enjoying it. Thanks for the pointer to it.

But now with Rax as well (which is much more 'consumer' oriented; SynthTest is aimed primarly at developers as a simple AU host), oh happy day.

I'm wid *you.* Tickles me no end to see these clever independent programs popping up.

BTW, I saw on "another" discussion board in a poll about the future of plug-ins that it was running something close to 90% for Audio Units. VST was hardly a blip on the screen. Apple may have tripped up and fallen onto something. Verrrrry interesting...

On a side note, thanks, LevonR, for posting to Version Tracker as well; I recognised your name there, and decided to give Rax a try.

Oh, please send all your thanks to the programmers! It'll give 'em a boost. Don't be squandering any on me.

[gdoubleyou]

More OSX audio stuff at

http://www.osxaudio.com/