Audio Unit Support Improvement
Just to put it out there in a dedicated thread:
Audio Unit support needs special attention. The sequencer and note repeat functions are awesome, but workflow dies when some Audio Units crash and won’t restore without rebooting my iPad. I have been using GarageBand mostly because of AU stability. I look forward to significant improvements in this area...even if I have to pay for the update.
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AU is a bit of a mess right now, birthing pains, then growing pains, added to B3 having timing and transport issues (B3s fault or individual AUs fault nobody knows, but B3 will need to work around it) added to Apple being a complete bunch of so and so's when it comes to documenting anything.
It will get there eventually.
left BM3 for a while, but returned a few days ago and started sketching out a track.
the session has samples in 3 banks and just one AU instrument track. After saving a number of versions i hit the dreaded problem, AU instrument will not load. Even after resetting the ipad a number of times I just couldn’t get the instrument back. had to unload and reload and few times. then saved to a new session but still get the problem.
the AU environment is a mess right now and just so frustrating.
I really do want beatmaker 3 and the ios platform to work but it does beg some questions - - are the developers making the software to complex to work together?
when it comes to technical issues i'm reluctant to name a specific AU plugin because, as @5pinlink mentions, who knows where the problem lies (host, plugin or the AU API?) and in the past it's been different AU plugins that have caused problems for me.
If you do get repeat behaviour on AU plugins, make sure to find the relevant thread in compatibility for that particular plugin and make a note of it, if it isn't B3s fault we have the thread to point the plugin developer at
Most developers will be happy you found the issue, rather than it festering.
Just thinking, because @5pinlink you have a stable platform and experience few problems or crashes with AU plugins maybe if i flip your suggestion around and ask you “if there is one single AU synth plugin that you know always works for you, can you share this.”
Maybe you can share not just 1 app, but 2 or 3. Whilst i have an extensive list of AU synths I don’t have them all (and, with the current stability issues i am very reluctant to invest in anymore apps), so sharing 2 or 3 will give me a good go at trying to find a stable platform and i will see if i can adjust my workflow to one of your AU synth recommendations.
i don’t mention specific problem apps by name for a few reasons. however the MAIN reason is... mentioning on this forum an app that you THINK has a particular problem when actually the app is fine and there’s something else funky going on could have an unwarranted affect in the apps revenue.
We all want these app developers to make money, if they make money then they will likely continue to support the app as the ios platform grows in credibility. I’m not educated enough to determine whether the problem lies within the host, the plugin or the AU framework or something else, and a lot of people will use this forum for app recommendations, i do for sure. If i find an app has too much negativity about it i won’t buy it. but this may be an unfounded concern because the app, for example, may work perfectly fine in Aum or Cubasis.
i would suggest a better method is to directly message the developer, then you can open up a dialogue where the developer can ask relevant questions, furthermore the issue isn’t likely to get lost in the many other discussion replies and threads going on in the forum.
Anyway, i look forward to hearing more about your 3 go to (and most stable) AU synths.
I would suggest you are wrong, if you dont mention names, then how can the issue be verified by others ?
If it stops B3 users buying an app because it doesn't work with B3, so be it, there is little point a B3 user buying a plugin that doesn't work in B3.
The reason i dont have issues with AU is because i am very selective with purchases based on these very comments in this forum, rock solid synth with B3, Poison.
If I can recommend you one synth that seems rock-solid in BM3 to me it's Poison-202.
But I would say there is definitely some problem, maybe MIDI related, that you get different result when re-opening the project (I know it because of the recorded sounds are simply different).
I like to use Moog Model 15, as for the stability, it's completely fine, a bit CPU hungry so I would recommend at most 2 instances per project. But I have a problem that if I open a project later, the sound is often different. But this may be because of the nature of modular synth - you usually don't really know what is going on there, so it's better to just record while tweaking the preset and forget about saving it for later
Also I like BramBos Troublemaker, I love the acid bassline sound and the simplicity, paired with rozeta bassline it's an endless source of fun
Unfortunately, rozeta plugins are not working correctly in BM3 right now, so I avoided them, but when I tried it recently, I haven't found any problem (expect of some "phantom notes" that were triggering randomly also when everything was stopped and midi inputs removed, but this may be some completely different bug)
Long story short - if you want to buy some AUv3 synth, ask here and there will be definitely some user of it who can confirm if it plays nice with BM3. Even if not, it's quite rare that the AUv3 synth would not work in BM3, only MIDI AUv3 are affected currently.
BM3 definitely has a couple of known AU bugs. One with Rosetta which Bram has talked about here and other forums and the other with the first AU parameter missing from apps like Moog Model 15 and quite a few others. The beta corrected the missing AU parameter bug way back in the spring. Too bad we haven’t seen an update since January.
Bram’s explanation on why Rozeta no longer works in BM3.
https://intua.net/forums/index.php?p=/discussion/6781/attention-beatmaker-3-0-10-rozeta
I am noticing some improved with how Audio Units are working. Neither BM3 or AUs have crashed yet. I’m happy for that. Now if we can reduced CPU usage. Moog’s Model 15 is causing some clicks, pops, and stutters in BM3, but not in GarageBand.
Overall I’m still optomistic for evolution at Intua.
If you haven’t already, check your latency settings in B3. Higher settings will help reduce crackles.
I am still getting a lotof strange behaviour, specifically with audio damage effects, i can run a whole bunch of the same effect, but if i run two different effcts, the ui of B3 grinds to a snails pace.
I am still getting some random crashes from unloading AU too.
I'm running the 11" iPad Pro 3rd gen, at 256 buffer. There should be not reason for me to go any higher with more latency. There needs to be some optimization by the developers.
Gen 3 has serious issues with CPU spikes right now in B3 and Cubasis as confirmed so far, may need an IOS fix to sort it out.
There are indications that the spikes are caused by the CPU coming out of cpu throttle mode and going into full power mode. That’s a bit of a curse for the fast Pro models, since they less often need to tap into their full power than the “regular” or older iPads (which will run at their top speed almost all the time).
Other than keeping the cpu busy all the time there isn’t a silver bullet “optimization” for developers around this issue yet.
Wow @brambos !!
If that's true, it sounds like Apple has optimised for things like gaming, and this could prove tricky to solve for intermittent DSP / pro audio performance.
Perhaps we need a big 'Turbo' button, like you used to find on old Pentium PC cases in the early 90s??
Hey those extra 33mhz in turbo mode made a real difference!
I did say that this would need an Apple fix, and good luck with that !!!
I have hope that apple knows the iPad is continuing to make moves in the music making realm so they'll do what they need to improve things for us. In the meanwhile, who wants to whip up a quick little AUfx that keeps the iPad in full throttle?
Youre kidding right, can you imagine the bitching and whining, my ipad overheats, my ipads battery dies in 42 seconds, my ipad melted my hand off haha.
The star that burns brightest though...