DIGITSTER.COM

NEWS

Reminiscence

02/02/2020 - After a half year of providing audio units - there was not so much time for reminiscence yet - we have shipped 25.000 free pieces but sold very very few. There is even a really strange (but raising) trend noticeable lately: more and more refunds are asked by people, refunds for lowest budget software, that costs a few bucks but possibly took years of development hours in sum and did not even compesate a small percentage of the real costs yet.

( B.t.w: Some of those glory 'refunderers' still continue using the software afterwards - by backing up it prior - which is qite a fatal gap in the Apple distibution / refund practice. Because developers do not have any control over it. They do not even get a reason for the refund, being even able to improve the app or correct an issue. This is in fact a kind of rape by conception. Real customer satisfaction should be achieved differently. )

All creativity suffocates underneath.

Nobody actually can make a living with that. And nobody can see a future with that. In fact, not even latest devices for development can be sold with that, despite of the fact that developers must pay a rent and eat something too. Future becomes nebulous this way. And deepest existencial fears arise.

People expect perfect working software, livetime support and continuous updates, otherwise they will become quite aggressive (collectively), because once, they bought something for 5 dollars from you ( even if you get only a 2-third percentage of that out into your pockets finally ). If we look at the hit lists on the other side, we see allot of crap. Crap that is not really working and crap that was not updated since years, suffering in functionality this way. Crap, that we banned silently from our devices, not asking for a refund. But it strangely sells, like crazy...

It's now time to think about all that.

We did remove all free products from our distribution, because it's obviously a total waste of energy and resources. They won't come back. 50.000 free pieces p.a. do bring absolutely nothing in a messurable result. People are not willing to compensate this generousity and this entire effort. They also won't stay true therefore. They just grab what they can get for free and went to the next dor. Support cannot be expected from people. But merely the developers have to deliver support, for livetime and for free and immediately! This is strange and a subject of a potential collapse.

( If people want feature rich software, they shall think about fund raising as an alternative. If the budget is sufficient, the prioject can start, otherwise it gets disbanded - without a risk for anyone. If they are not willing to pay in advance, they most likely will not pay ever. )

We surely don't want to shove everyone together, but finally, the bottom line is the overall result.

MIDI Module Unit / Player Unit - Legacy Statement

With our new Audio Unit we are in legacy with the huge amount of classic GM Tone Generators by nearly all major synthesizer equipment manufacturers. Think of the Yamaha MU series or the Roland SC series, EMU Proteus or sound cards like the Soundblaster AWE and Gravis Ultrasound, which were one of the very first computer based (ISA) sound cards available, able to perform MIDI files on a desktop computer with sample based wavetables in realtime.

The General MIDI (GM) Standard is also widely implemented into Arranger Workstations of all music equipment providers today. General MIDI is important for the portability of virtually millions of available Standard MIDI files, floating all around.
Remarks: One of our very first MIDI synthesizers was the Yamaha XG 100 ISA sound card, which is still running today on a nearly 30 years old desktop computer! So this project really was made out of our heart blood and we still love this sound and all the possibilities with that.

Evolution???
However, there are always users, that may ask, why porting 80s technology to the audio unit format?
We think, that with the raise of the VST (Virtual Studio Technology) Standard in the 90s of the last century, music equipment and especially MIDI more and more degraded to just ridiculous simple “single task production paradigms”, which also resulted in certain inefficiency with music production. And definitively a lost of creativity.

Most of the new developers were not able to build on the fantastic foundation, that MIDI and the music industry had provided already and terribly failed to adopt the core standards of the music technology consequently to the new DSP world.
So multi-timbre synthesizers on a desktop computer became extremely seldom due to a complexity that just could not be mastered by the new generation of developers, most of them did not even come from music production area...

This process of degeneration is still actively in progress today with the raise of the touch screen based mobile devices, which reduce the possibilities of audio production just again in the same manner. The result is a drastic degradation of creative potential and very efficient traditional music production techniques, which also got it’s impact on the 'musical tastes' of these times.

The most impressive melodic compositions are still from the 80s, where the MIDI standard was involving and in it’s full blossom.
However, we hope that MIDI and its complex possibilities will survive and maybe will come back once again, and

raise like a phoenix out of the ashes...

Please do not misunderstand this 'thesis'. MIDI is a quite 'old' (but genious) technology, that's true. But currently it is not even realized in small percentages on the latest software for mobile devices but rather degraded to rudimentary fragments of it. Although, a functional code base is still provided to build on...
For instace: MIDI synchronisation just does not work on mobile devices at all, because of missing integration and knowledge of MIDI sync mechanisms into audio hosts. Rather the wheel will be re-invented by smart maketers, depending on propietary third party software, like Ableton Link, Korg WIST ... and all such superfluous (because not working either) nonsense, insted just implementing MIDI correctly into audio streaming apps and develop the open standards further. Such approch will ignore any evolution and lose all heritage, leaving the users with maximum confusion.

01/24/2020 - Lately we started the release of our MIDI SWEET Series.
( We just continue with our useless, emotional unstable, dumb-ass-made shit this way. ^^ )

But we also want to thank all our faithful users and customers for their constant loyality and the many kind words in their personal emails to us.
And their active financial support. We have got so many new ideas and enthusiasm out of this.

So we will still continue and just ignore these folks in some fora, desperately trying to destroy our business with misinformation and affective propagated disliking, just for the sake of not understanding anyone or anything, except their own ego, maybe. There are hanging loads of such sort out there, who do not even have a clue of what music making or design or coding stuff is all about. They are just trolling, driven by their own inability to be successfully creative.

They shall have fun, playing their dirty down-town games, as we are no longer interested to even reading their
pseudo-intellectual thin-hot, it becomes quite boring. It's obviously just unconsciously masked frustration - and envy.
God knows how to judge this.

01/16/2020 - Update 1.8 for JAX Unisonic rleased today. This update fixes a endering issue.

Along with this update we released 2 diagnostic tools from our MIDI SWEET series.

01/11/2020 - We released JAX Convolutor PRO today!

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/jax-convolutor-pro-au/id1494157807

Why we wrote JAX Convolutor?

We could do a 'True Stereo'* Convolution, yes yes yes, technically, with ease, BUT...
(* Please do not mismatch! JAX Convolutors are STEREO processors, which means there a 2 independent convolution channels involved. 'True Stero Convolution' is an atrificial approach that uses 4 or more channels IR files for one reverberation with nearly NO control over the resulting reverberation stereo image. )

This was not our goal at all. Our goal was and still is to deliver a *creative* real stereo convolution engine, not a thing that most authentically recreates static original spaces with scientific demands. We are conscious that some people may not understand such new approach. Our convolutor has a realtime parallel stereo processing engine, which takes stereo input and produces dynamic stereo output. This means, the stereo result can be adjusted and automated in realtime.

So it is actually better to use 2 instances of a stereo convolutor (for that artificial construct 'True Stereo'), than trying to build that into one instance on iOS. Because iOS (very obviously) throttles the CPU usage for single instances. and this approach would require allot of CPU...

We wrote JAX Convolutor to be able to create new spaces. spaces that are unheard yet, and finally, spaces that fit perfectly into a mix.
Other convolutors, that aim to re-create original spaces, are puristic and do not fit into a mix at all. They work exclusively for their own beauty.
This is, why users continuously are asking for frequency modifiers and editable envelopes with convolution reverberators.

Think twice, create ones. Manual.

PS: The development and maintenance costs for JAX Convolutor were and are quite huge. We don't believe, that these will become compensated ever.

01/10/2020 - We will ship the first public release and an update for the JAX Convolutor PRO today.
The version notes can be found here. The manual is here.

01/08/2020 - We shipped the latest performance & maintenance update version 1.8 for our free JAX Convolutor PE to the distribution channels. Version history can be found here.

video: anylyzing CPU hit paradoxon with single instance

01/07/2020 - Why convolution loves larger buffers

JAX Convolutor uses the FFT/iFFT approach for performing realtime convolution. Anyone who has used FFT before, knows, that there must be a certain sufficient audio buffer collected, before the analysis / resynthesis can be performed. These buffers are commonly always a power of two samples large (i.e. 512, 1024, 2048... samples). A realtime audio process provocates conflicts with that, if it forces the rendering buffer sizes down too much. Then the audio processor would be required to perform the FFT/iFFT and all the accumulation to much often. This causes heavy CPU impact. Optimizations will have not much effect on that.

One solution is to collect the buffers internally and then raise the block calculation merely, if the buffers are filled completely. In the meantime all the samples are delivered that are available and already processed. This is a so-called circular buffer approach, which will introduce a clear latency but usually will improve the performance. It ensures the audio stream continuosity but the processing continuosity will actually become fragmented. So you will notice oscillating spikes in the CPU hit, as the frames are processed uneven.

But iOS also permanently produces large CPU spikes for other reasons, even if the audio processor ensures continuous flow. This is strange as these spikes are caused by the system and obviously inavoidable nor are they controllable. I guess this has much to do with memory and power management. An audio unit cannot influence this, probably not even the host applications.

iOS is not very good in handling all this at current state and the AUv3 framework also conceptionally has many pitfalls and misconfigurations that prevent the entire audio system to become highly performant. For instance: An AUv3 Audio Unit is not even able to change the samplerate on the fly or react to samplerate changes by the host, as this property will be set at *initialization time of the unit* to a fixed value (for allocating neccessary resources), and thus, the audio unit is responsible for creating its *own output busses*. Otherwise the AUv3 programming interface would actually define apropiate initializers prior initialization, if the audio unit should take over such paramerters from the hosts.

Host developers actually shall please explain to me, how dare they ^^ to expect to call up their stupid sample rates! Sample rates are defined by the audio units (as these do all the rendering), not by the hosts. Hosts have to ensure sample rate conversions internally or via AudioGraph mechanisms. That entire audio system on Apple devices is built on that, it is in heritage of AudioGraph, which usually ensures all sample rate conversions in realtime automatically with so-called format converters. Period.

But this system leads to the fact that on iOS every audio unit can define its own exotic sample rate, which must resampled on the fly by the realtime audio process or (at least) the 'good' host. This is inefficient like hell but the only way it makes any sense under these conditions.

Another rant: A while ago, in a forum, where a developer claimed to his users, an Audio Unit cannot allocate memory while operation because this is 'forbidden' for suspicious reasons, I immediatley proved it wrong. This has caused much confusion in that forum and finally I left that stupid discussion because there was completely missing insight. It is absolute NONSENSE to claim such stupid things, as a convolution processor or a sampler for instance, (in fact anything, dynamically loading and allocating resources) would not be possible with AU, if such idiotic claim was true! Such rumors, based on illiteracy, regualry drive me crazy!

On latest iOS devices you can't even change the systems or apps samplerate, because it is fixed to 48000 Hz. From an engeneers standpoint that is ridiculous and dilettantic. On my old iPad Pro first generation I can switch the samplerate to whatever I want. The result is, that many )if not all) actually do handle samplerates on the new devices wrong.

However, you have to live with all that. I guess, Apple wont change it. It even becomes more worse lately.

Apples mobile operating systems do limit the usage of the processor cycles heavily for allot of reasons. As soon some app or plugin is using a higher performance demand, even in realtime, it will end up in glitches and crackles. It will be throtteled down. This is unavoidable. And this is unthought. Performance detectors are not working correctly.

I wished there was an global option on the iOS devices at least, where the user can decide how he/she wants to use it.

video: anylyzing CPU hit paradoxon with multiple instances

01/06/2020 - HEAVY UNUSUAL AUDIO PERFORMANCE ISSUES ON iOS

We are searching intensively for performance bugs in our JAX Convolutor engine since some days now. But there is no!

We made several advanced tests with circular buffers and optimized fixed internal i/o buffers, which introduces latency (test wise). As soon you lower the rendering buffer sizes with most AUV3 host applications, the higher the extreme CPU peaks become, regardless what you do with the code. Over-proportionally. This behavior is everything but normal. A fixed circular buffer should keep the performance nearly constant regardless which host buffer size is switched!

Our convolution engine (the exactlyy same codebase) uses on an quite old 2012 Mac Mini with a 128 seconds stereo IR a maximum of 3% CPU. THREE PERCENT! On iOS this is with the same configuration on a latest iPad Pro around 20 to 40 percent !!! (buffersize 1024), up to 90% (with 256 samples) in AUM...

So iOS is either buggy like hell or there is a heavy audio system misconception/misconfiguration on Apples mobile devices running. Multi threading and multi core seems to be completely missing with this. This phenomenon raises exponentially with higher performance demands.

However, we reduced the CPU hit as much as even possible with the current implementation of the JAX Convolutors. The latest update will come soon. More is just not possible, unless something fundamental has changed on iOS/iPadOS for audio processing. We tested on the latest devices, and it seems there is no POWER at all in that latest CPUs, it is just ridiculous. It feels like building on a single core 1990 desktop computer.

Apples high performance Accelerate Framework (we use that now) is told to be hardware-optimized and we additionally used excessively 16 bytes alignment (to prevent memory issues) and NEON optimizations additionally all over the code. It is useless, if the system (obviously) throttles the audio performance artificially. This is not just a suspicion. This is a fact. There must be something totally wrong.
By the way: NEON brought significant performance improvement (up to 50 %) compared to normal FPU operation!

01/04/2020 - CPU QUITE HIGH : INTEREST QUITE LOW

As soon JAX Convolutor PE will went out of the TOP 200 for the free (music) apps in the Apple App Store, we will REMOVE this distribution. JAX Convolutor PRO is suspended then and probably even DISCONTINUED. The interest is too low, the rants are too bad, CPU too high and we won't waste any more time on this. We must concentrate on new projects, projects that can make a living for us.
This was also probably the last time, we did any free release at all.

01/03/2020 - Insights: The JAX Unisonic

ATTENTION: Do not (unintentionally) send MIDI data on channels 1 to 8 when using JAX Unisonic, as it will be interpreted as realtime automation in some hosts (i.e. Nano Studio 2)

We do not know, why users desperately try to compare JAX Unisonic with competitors products. It is a quite unique effect and such was and is its initial concept. Unisonic (as the name suggests) is at very first an Unison / Ensemble / Super Chorus generator. With some options for further tweaking (octaving, harmonizing). It was specifically made for support of polyphonic and transient audio material. So also drums may be situable for processing for instance. It is not so good for voice harmonizing, as the chipmunk side effect would render everything to a comedy.

Insights:
There are currently basicly 4 fifferent pitch shifting concepts in general. Most of them are time domain pitch shifters. Unisonic uses one of these, a delay based pitch shifter. Because this is good for all kind of input, although it also linearly shifts the formants with the pitch but has lowest latency of all. There are furthermore overlap/add and granular methods in the time domain. These are better for solo voices because these allow to correct/preserve the formants. The next one is the so called phase vocoder, which uses the frequency domain (FFT/iFFT) approch. It also generates the awful chipmunk effect by default and is not well suited for harmonizers (even because of its static latency). Real harmonizers always need formant correction and a pitch detector to work correctly. Thus, they won't work with any polyphonic or transient material at all. But these concepts (with obligatoric pitch detection) do introduce very large latencies too, which lies in nature of things and makes them very difficult to apply in realtime. There are also some hybride ones. This all is quite a complex science, just more than for instance a convolution processor, which is conceptually always the same and quite clear.
Not to forget here, another category of audio effects, which tangents the game: vocoders. Vocoders use cross modulation in the time and/or frequency domain and can achieve harmonizing effects quite well. But these tend to be artificial, which may be the main reason for their invention and (at all) their artistic usage.

So the "which sounds better?" does not apply here. Rather than always looking for development battels ( who is the best!? ) we want unique products and not to design any clones of existing competitors products, but useful effects, that are not available yet. Effects, that are born out of our minds and understanding. We probably made a little mistake and implemented the additional tempo delays because of user requests (to add the obvious features of a competitors product this way). However, we think it is now a useful addition though.

Much better for harmonizing is our upcoming product JAX Octa Powers, but also there will be a rather unique, more universal concept behind.

We really whished, users would read the included manuals. ^^

02/01/2020 - JAX Convolutor PE was getting a performance update today. We shipped version 1.7 to the App Store, one day after initial release. Please note, that JAX Convolutor has a true stereo processing convolution engine. We cannot give any guarantee that it will successfully run on all available devices.

ATTENTION: YOU *MUST* OPEN THE MAIN APP ONES AFTER DOWNLOAD, INSTALLING THE IR PRESETS. If you discover an empty IR tree view while working with the audio unit, you did not open the distribution app to install the included set of IR files prior, which is a required, automated procedure.

We understand, that performance is a crucial factor with realtime audio. The first version of the JAX Convolutor PE used all possible 'white hat' optimization techniques, meaning optimizations that are *legal* and do not alter the quality of the convolution, merely the rendering efficiency. Optimizations, that require a deep undersatnding and expertice with modern computation strategies.

JAX Convolutor is a real stereo processing unit and does *full, high quality* convolution on both stereo channels separately. This needs some performance, even if it is thought to be used with very large IR files and also experimental stuff, like recording, creating and loading own IR files on the fly. We spend months for optimizing this and entered even the floating point vector processing world with this and even developed a special technology (Selective Range Convolution - S.R.C.), that implements an additional Filter directly into the convolution kernel with reduction of the CPU hit at same time.

However, we got some marginal feedback from users, saying that our audio unit is *useless*, because their devices were not able to run it without CPU overload. If it does not work for them, it is just crap! And we are rendered to be stupid, bloody beginners, unable and retarded...

Now, with version 1.7 we have entered the 'black hat' optimization strategies, to give these people the ability to run JAX Convolutor PE too. There are many possibilities to 'optimize' a convolution processor in a way, that effectively alteres the quality of the output. We guess, that most competitor products (which obviously have much better performance printed on their spoilers) use excessively such 'black hat' optimizations and possibly other dirty tricks too, to get that 'magic' performance.
But: This is not what *we* wanted.

Our strategy is now to give both options to the users, by adding some switches to the upcoming JAX Convolutor PRO, that enables to select the render strategy of the convolution, keeping higest possible quality this way - on one side - and improve performance while reducing the quality - on the other side.

To be continued.

HAPPY NEW YEAR !

01/01/2020 - we were very bussy these last days of the old year, due to the fatal shutdown of our JAX Unisonic - because of an update ^^.
We removed the app temporarily from access, as it would have traced your installed (and working) copy of the audio unit to useless crap (and make some of you really very angry this way ^^) .
There was an uspecific problem with this release, that strangely prevented the audio unit to load - despite the fact, that we did test everything carefully prior the release, but sometimes ... well shit happens...

We hecticly left all new-year partys and used the time, compiling several new builds for internal testing and finally published the version 1.5 in a flash manner. So the latest version was shipped to the App Store at silvester night and made available for download shortly after. Here is the version history for the current JAX Unisonic release with all the details of the changes.

Note: JAX Unisonic is currently available with intro price. Regular price is 16,99€. There is one more update in progress, which adds a new (alternative) Pitch Shifter Mode (FFT, phase vocoder) and a preset browser. It will ship in mid January 2020, terminating the intro pricing this way.

We also released JAX Convolutor PE for free to make people happy again. It is our gift for the new year for all of you!

JAX Convolutor PE is in pre-release state and allows to use all functions of the upcoming JAX Convolutor PRO, except the loading of own IR files. We want to test performance usability with this. ( Please understand, that this audio units had a development time of many months and we *must* earn something with the upcoming PRO release to compensate at least a small fraction of the entire development costs. You can get really creative with this version of the unit and we hope, your device is strong enougth to run some of the included IR files and you will get a hint, what convolution is all about. )

12/31/2019 - I am not a stupid person, but I actually have some difficulties to undersatnd, how it can be, that a perfectly working App and Audio Unit becomes completely useless crap, after it passed the App Store validation processing!

We were curious and deinstalled all our original apps from the development devices (which worked correctly) and downloaded our own JAX Unisonic with a promo code. The downloaded app unexpectedly does not work at all, the loading of the audio unit just fails without any useful hint. We also tried to analyze and debug this strange behavior, but with not much result. (Apples generated crash reports on iOS devices are quite useless so far and here everything is appearing inside the systems audio thread.)

The more strange it is, that Apple aims to check all releases until they are given free for distribution. At least it always lasts several days until they manually unlock the development submissions. So the app actually must have been worked fine with this check, otherwise they would not have been released the app but rejected !

However, we have stopped the distribution of our JAX Unisonic V. 1.3 now to prevent the generation of just more of such damage and crap on all sides. A new version was compiled and submitted to the App Store tonight 4:14 A.M (European Time). This usually will take (again) days until it is available to our users, as there are obviously loads of people at Apple very bussy with modifying the binary code and/or meta data and drawing everything useless.

(We took now out the option to give Apple the possibility to recompile our apps ( which is always switched on by default !!! ).

Please cross all available fingers and such for getting back the JAX Unisonic V1.4. !
To compensate our users, we will provide a free release of another tool next weeks.

12/30/2019 - We released Combi-Update 1.3 for the JAX Unisonic, a first maintenance update, which extends the unison effect with important new features. A second marginal update for this audio unitis still in progress, but at first we will concentrate on the JAX Convolutor PE and PRO releases next days.

RELEASED!

12/23/2019 - We just released JAX Unisonic, a special Unison / Multi Pitch Shifter effect and a first major update is in progress. The current manual can be downloaded here. The universal audio unit will get 8 panorama potentiometers, 8 new tempo delays and an (additional) alternative pitch shifting algorithm. Some MIDI magic will be added too. All new parameters are completely exposed to Audio Unit automation. The new release is scheduled for release in early January 2020. At the momemt Apple is not accepting any new uploads, the App Store is locked for new submissions.

JAX Unisonic is the little brother of the upcoming JAX Octa Powers, an 8 channel triple mode pitch shifter / harmonizer effect with 8 tempo delays and independent multi mode filters per channel. This Audio Unit wil go far beyond that, what usual 'harmonizers' can do. It, for instance, can be used as 8 channel pitched and filtered feedback delay effect for the creation of extremely widened artificial spaces.

As with all of our audio units, it does not come with a 1:1 copied static 'Windows alike' user interface from the 90's, as many other companies obviously do 'port in a kind of batch-convert'. We always spend loads of time for individually designed, streamlined touch screen optimized interfaces with free pinch2zoom, based on scalable vector graphics technology. The UI design, in fact, takes our most development time on the Apple platforms. ^^

JAX Convolutor Pro (Audio Unit)

12/15/2019 - We are sorry to inform you that the JAX Convolutor Pro release is delayed until January 2020.

11/18/2019 - We are happy to announce the release of our new Audio Unit (AUv3) for iOS and macOS:
The JAX Convolutor, a convolution reverberator. This is the first x-platform audio unit convolution reverb of new generation. It allows to import user defined impulse response (IR) files and is specially optimized for touchscreen usage.

JAX Convolutor uses highly optimized DSP up to low level Assembler (machine language), as you may expect from a professional grade convolution processor. Despite the missing multithreading features of AUv3, our unit is able to process even very large files with reasonable performance inside a single thread, multiple instances are supported, of course.

In our stress tests we loaded and processed up to 128 seconds !!! long IR files with ease. Such long files are b.t.w. ‘unreal’, because the physical laws do not allow such large spaces in nature. But users usually are trying to load the entire universe (with all that space) into their mobile devices ^^

"128 Seconds". The Size of a Universe.

Try to play for instance thru our “Universe!” preset, which uses a 32 seconds long IR file with the same name. You will not notice any remarkable difference in performance, compared to usually much shorter IR files.

We will place a pre-order schedule with 50% introductory price soon for the first release. Regular price: 19.99 €.
Release date: January 2020.

JAX Convolutor Pro (preview macOS). Provisional manual.

RELEASED!

11/12/2019 - Release schedule completed. The official macOS (Mac AppStore) version of the JAX Decimator has successfully passed the app store review process and will be released today.

11/11/2019 - iOS version of JAX Decimator was released (as scheduled) today! But the macOS version is in stuck by the Apple app review processing. If the macOS app is not available in the AppStore until tomorrow, we will provide a manual download here for a signed App package to satisfy our users.

You may downlad a signed (notarized) version of the macOS App as a zipped disk image (*.dmg file).

Just unzip the downloaded archive (*.zip file) if not done automatically, open the disk image (.dmg) by clicking on it, drag and drop the app to your applications folder. Open it for testing, the audio unit is registered automatically by the system for usage with all supporting AUv3 apps (GarageBand, Logic Pro X, MainStage and so on).
Note 1: Starting the app directly from the disk image may work but this will not properly register the audio unit for system wide usage.
Note 2: The download will not work from inside the included documentation resources on iOS for security reasons, You must open our website (https://midi.digitster.com) on the mac to perform the download.

GOING 'TRUE UNIVERSAL' !

11/07/2019

We are about to ship a major release with our new audio unit (AUv3), the 'JAX Decimator'!
This release is so important, because it opens a new aera for all of our audio units:

The availability on macOS, iPadOS and iPhoneOS.

Therefore we completely rewrote the AU code base of our audio units to support these 3 different platforms. This was much work, because just recompiling for other platforms with one click does not work for audio units. The core DSP code is shared between the units, so sound is identical with all releases.

The macOS versions will support macOS 10.13 and above ( available in the macOS App Sore ), the iOS versions iOS 12.0 and higher ( available in the iOS App Store ). ( So this is NOT a Catalyst release, which would require macOS Catalina. However, Catalina is fully supported with our units. ).

The audio units will be shipped with their own host app ( distribution envelope ) for testing out of the box. After downloading these are available to all hosts, actively supporting AUv3 on each platform. ( Special 'AUv3 mode' is not required / recommended due to performance reasons on the macOS. ) AUv3 units are sandboxed on all systems an may have limited access to resources and introduce short automation latency in AUv3 mode.

Please note, that AUv3 on the macOS is a relatively new approach ( and in some aspects fundamentally different ) and can be specially configured with Logic Pro X's plugin manager. They also load into latest versions of Apples GarageBand and MainStage 3 without any configuration requirements.

We will now successively update all of our iOS audio units, the JAF and JAX seies, to support the new distribution politics.

Our units remain to be exclusively available on Apple systems!

( Please understand, that despite the sharing compatibility, the macOS versions are completely separate products and must be sold and downloaded independently. Currently and unfortunately the App Store does not provide any X-Platform purchase capability. Possibly this will change in the future. )

Download the manual for JAX Decimator.

JAF MODEL ONE - DEMO IMPRESSIONS

( Only the free MODEL ONE is used in this demo and no external or additional sound devices or such.
The screams are completely synthesized by the instructions for the Bionic chip on an iPad Pro 12.9 in realtime ):

Download the manual for JAF MODEL One or for the complete JAF COLLECTION

10/01/2019 - JUST AN IMPORTANT WARNING

iOS/iPpadOS 13 and newer devices are just not ready for professional audio production!
DO NOT UPGRADE, if you have allot of audio projects with samplerates other than 48.000 Hz.

For some unknown reason the systems samplerate is fixed to 48.000 Hz and cannot be changed by DAWs anymore.
Some host may still ignore this and so produce continuous crackle with projects created in other samplerates, especially when audio units are used. This is an unbelievable fault in the latest versions of iOS and Apples devices and just not solved with numerous updates yet !!!

Note: These issues seem to be very device dependent too. While we are for instance able to switch samplerates on an iPad Pro 1st generation (iOS 12) with ease and freely, it is not possible on an iPad Pro 3rd generation (iOS 13) or an iPhone XR. This is finally NOT any EVOLUTION, this is just DEGRADATION.

The only solution would be to buy professional external sound interfaces for the newer generations of iOS devices. This reduces mobile music production experience significantly, again.

09/01/2019 - A small demonstration of a project in progress is on our youtube channel.

The audio units are part of our MIDISWEET series. The units basically allow to load entire MIDI files into audio routing environments and play these back with the multi-channel GM compatible sound module or even routing the MIDI tracks individually to any synthesizer app or other audio unit.

08/29/2019 - The free introductory offers for JAX !Make Louder and JAX Stereo Tool will end with 15. Septemnber 2019. Regular price tags for both Audio Units are 6,99 €. We want to emphasize with this, that these free apps have a certain value and are not just free 'crap'.

We generally will release some of our coming apps for a free introductory period, until issues are discovered and eliminated. This replaces 'beta tests' as these are too much time consuming and ineffective. We guess, that over 80 percent of so-called 'releases' on the iOS platform are 'just in a kind of beta state' and remain that even after years of selling without seeing any update ever.

08/28/2019 - As announced, the introductory price for the JAF Collection ends September 01. 2019. Regular Price tag is 16,99€.

JAF Model One currently is still free but this may change in the future, as the interest for our free Audio Units is far too low. The plugins do not even range in the top 200 music apps anymore and thus, free apps of such high quality are a waste of investment, time and resources, which merely would make any sense, if we had some advertizing ranging them in the top lists of free apps.

08/25/2019 - If you run into problems with expired PROMOTION CODES for the JAF Collection, PLEASE NO PANIC! Just contact us with the expired code, we will send you a new valid code then. Promotion codes generally have a validity of 30 days. This is a limitation by Apple. Once these are accepted, the download is valid for lifetime like any usual purchse with the exception, that you cannot make revieews for the downloaded products in the App Store (another Apple restriction).

08/19/2019 - The latest JAF & JAX updates are available for download in the App Store now.

08/18/2019 - The JAF series updates are (1.4) is on the way. We hope very much, that these are not delayed by App Store review process again. More info can be found in the version history.

08/16/2019 - We are sorry to inform you, that the JAX !Make Louder update 2.0 currently is DELAYED (rejected) by the App Store review staff. Release date: Unknown.

Unfortunately this happens quite often with our releases, as the staff notoriously is asking for videos demonstrating basic iOS features regarding Bluetooth MIDI. We have not the time to endless capture videos on devices, as this distracts us from user support, feature requests and future developments. Such behavior is even more confuse, as the Bluetooth MIDI feature dialogs are not developed by us, but entirely by Apple themself.

It does not make any sense forcing developers to endlessly demonstrate iOS system features, as the developers do not even have access to the code of this nor even any real chance to interact with these closed system processes directly. The feature is also merely an additional (not required) feature of our distribution apps. We will remove the feature from all our apps therefore completely, just to overcome these inacceptable barriers.

JAX !Make Louder 2.0 got new UI, parameters and DSP extensions.

08/15/2019 - We are about to upload the JAX !Make Louder major update 2.0 today. There will be a couple of significant extensions with this release, for the user interface, as for the DSP.

JAX !Make Louder is also still free currently, but this will change. The acceptance of free audio units by the users is quite not as we expected. Some of them may even think, these are worth nothing. But the development and maintenance of such audio units requires a significant amount of time, resources and expertice. The algorithms are mostly based on years of research and continuous evolution of algorithms. We want to point that out, by setting a regular *value* (in form of a price tag) for this plugin to 3.99€, becoming effective with September 2019. Excisting users will have it for free and for lifetime.

08/15/2019 - The JAX Stereo Tool got its third maintenance update today. It is available for download and installation. The version history can be seen here. Please note, that JAX ST. will be still free for an introductory period. This will change, as the effort to maintain such a tool is significant amount of work. We want to thank all users, actively reporting issues and transmitting whishes for improvements within the free introductory period. The regular price tag for JAX Stereo Tool will be 3.99€, entering effective state September, the 01. 2019. Excisting users will have it for free and for lifetime.

08/09/2019 - We are about to build a combi update 1.4 / 1.5 for the JAF series. 1.4 fixes some remaining user interface quirks and provides moveable modal boxes now. Update 1.5 concentrates to sound issues with some filters and also newly integrated DSP stuff. The reason for the update combination is, that regular App Store updates are so slowly proceeding that we mostly have a new update ready while the previous one is not even released by the review process.

08/08/2019 - We are just not satisfied with out JAF series. There are still some user interface quirks. Our UI design is based on pure scalable vector drawing. We developed our own complex library of controls based on hotspot detection, everything was developed from the scratch and with SWIFT 5. This makes all so complicated, as we do not want to use any third party controls or libraries. So we have to go the hard way, the long way...

The next update will hopefully fix most of these obvious quirks, so that we can concentrate more to the audio code. The core of the audio code is of course Objective C, C++ and much C. So yes, one needs to know at least 3 fundamentally different programming languages, to code Audio Units! And this is everything but easy.

08/07/2019 - We are working on the update for JAX !Make Louder. The released Audio Unit will get 2 new hot tube amplifier models and transform into a true vintage booster this way. The resizable user interface will be extended to cover new parameters with control.

08/05/2019 - JAF maintainance updates 1.3 are out now! You can update via App Store. Please read the version notes, because there are some changes, that may require to reconfigure existing projects.

08/04/2019 - Maintenance updates 1.3 for JAF series are transmitted to the App Store for review. The version changes can already be seen in the version history.

08/03/2019 - The MIDI SWEET series will start soon. The first released tools are MIDI Clock Sync and MIDI Monitor2, two useful Audio Units for MIDI Clock impulse generation and MIDI data stream analysis.

07/31/2019 - JAX !Make Louder was released yesterday. It's available in the App Store now.

07/29/2019 - We shipped a new free Audio Unit today. The app must go thru the App Store review process first, as always. It usally needs more than 24 hours to get an app into the App Store for distribution. More information can be found on the JAX product page.

But I just need a change,
Again.

"Stuck underwater.
I'm stuck underwater.
I just need some space,
My friend.
It's not what you wanted.
It's not what you wanted.
But I just need a change,
Again.
Help me out before I drown!
Save me now before I give up."

AUM parameter exposing will now (finally) come with the maintenance updates 3.

( We (too) love AUM. It surely was not our intention to blame someone or something. We just pointed out, that some implementations (as for instance requiering exotic code flags) will probably lead to unexpected disfunctionality, however, we found the problem out now.
We also have to deal with really harsh and unpolite criticisms by useres. All the time. )

NEW FEATURES, NEW BUGS

The second maintenace update is out! Due to the highspeed coding for the W:T:F! extension, of course there came new bugs too. Sometimes the model selector disappears unexpectedly, for instance when one wants to zoom into while the selector is open. Sometimes the selector is still 'silently' active after it even disappeared... well that's really all kind of W.T.F!

We will fix that with the next update. The way to a 'polished' and perfect audio unit is quite long and stoney. But in sum, all the hints from users, reports and reviews give us an idea for improvements and further extensions.

We really like AUM. For its clearness and scalability and all. But we have no clue, why our units do not work there. We tried everything. Currently the parameter automation and iteration does work correctly with other flagship host applications. If someone has a technical hint for us, why AUM refuses to work with us, so please tell us!

UPDATES

07/27/2019 - Our second maintenance updates are currently in review by the App Store Staff. The release should proceed today. We apologize for these delays, as this entire process is always very slow. The updates are ready since 2 days, merely waiting for being shipped.

W.T.F!

07/26/2019 - We are introducing the brand new W.T.F! button.

Now, that our audio units are really bad is well known in the meantime.^^ But many things that we've implemented to be 'features' are actually understood as 'bugs' ... uuuhgh!... by some users. The contrast adjustment overlay for instance, the touch slider menus for instance... it seems, that users are not even able to see the new horizonts of our intuitive 'pinch2zoom&move' technology too and so on...

The fact, that host plugin 'windows' can just be resized with nearly any flagship host app now and our audio unit interfaces additionally can be freely resized inside them, seems to be autside of the deep-frozen horizon of many, many, well, ...some users.

However, we react now - with a certain subsonic sarcasm - to that and have invented the W.T.F! button. Just to overcome at least one of these artificial 'issues' and so-called 'bugs' or 'design flaws', that were intended to be ,,, eerrmmm .. features!

So we still do not understand some rants that users are firing up into the universe. So we probably will also remove the entire 'contrast overlay adjustment technology' (scheduled for Nobel innovation price) next from our plugins, merely, that the users actually give us a break with that!

UPDATE 2 WILL BE TRANSMITTED

07/25/2019 - the second maintenance update for the JAF Collection, the JAF Model One and the JAX Stereo Tool will be transmitted to the App Store for review today. A preview of the changes can be seen in the version history and here.

JAF & JAX MAINTENANCE UPDATES 2

07/24/2019 - We are working with highspeed on second maintenance update for all of our released products. We actually have around 40° celsius temperature here in Germany, so dreamly splashing in the water falls out!

[ The maintenance update is planned for transmission to the App Store in the next 48 hours. After this, it may last another 48 hours to be processed by the app review staff. ]

THE PROOOOVES

07/24/2019 - (srcsm wrn) There are actually several 'trolls' active, seriously claiming, we do ship and sell 'SCAMS' to the folks. Those also do post App Store reviews then, with zero points and massive frustrative bashing.
So we have uploaded 2 short videos, where we simply just open randomly some flagship host application and DO load our Audio Units ( THE 'SCAMS') into for operation. Just for the sake of demonstration of these our "SCAMS" in realtime... By the way, more of such our 'SCAMS' are shipped soon. The released 'SCAMS' also will be updated with the second maintenance update shortly, that's actually then a free 'SCAM Support Deluxe' (2 major updates inside 72 hours) from 'SCAM' INC. LIMITED.

THE 'SCAMS'

... well ... perhaps we will also consider to change the name of our series to ... ermm ...
'SCAM' and 'SCAM PRO' soon. ^^ But now, at first, we will purchase some caribic islands from all the millions, we have earned with or 'SCAMS' so far...

We (too) are deprecating IAA...

The [JAX] Stereo Tool released!

07/23/2019 - The JAX Stereo Tool, our visual stereo processing Audio Unit from the JAX [ Just An Extension ] series was released to the App Store. The technical reviewing process unfortunately lasted so long, that in the meantime we have built a first maintenance update for this audio processor. The update fixes usability issues and activates the "recover mono" and the "test mono" modi. These were disabled by accident in the initial release. We apologize for that !

[ The priority update is scheduled: 2019/07/23/24:00 for transmission to the App Store ] - Transmission proceeded - Released!

BETA TESTING & Apple TestFlight :

07/23/2019 - We are continuously looking for new beta testers. This gives anyone the chance to use our new apps actively before these are released. Active beta testers may profit from a limited amount of commercial app promotion codes, which enables them to use the released apps for free. You just need to download Apples TestFlight App from the App Store and contact us for beta test registration with a supplied email address. As soon a new beta release is available you will be informed by Apple and by us.

JAF Maintenance Update :

07/22/2019 - Dear User! We are currently working with highspeed on the first maintenance update for the JAF Collection and JAF MODEL ONE (mainly reported user interface issues and usability improvements). We apologize for these issues as we did not see these!
[ The priority update was scheduled: 2019/07/22/24:00 for transmission to the App Store] - Transmission proceeded - Released!

RELEASED!

THE JAF COLLECTION & JAF MODEL ONE

Exclusively available on iOS : Analog Modeled Synthesizer Filters.
Transforming your iOS Device into a Vintage Audio Filter.

" Droning, roaring, screaming, soaring.
It cuts through stuff as a razor or, likely, such as jackhammer.
Shakes your ears like wildest cattle.
Catch it! Tame it! "

We are very excited to announce the release of our JAF [ Just A Filter ] Collection series.

The JAF MODEL ONE is a free app that deliveres an analog modelled filter module as an universal app and an Audo Unit. (These are Apple exclusive audio connection technologies on their mobile devices platform as on the Mac OS.) The JAF COLLECTION is the commercial release and includes over 30 different unique sounding filter models inside one interface, including the legendary classic synthesizer-filter models of the golden age of analog sounding.

The app is now available in the App Store.

DEAR USER, A NOTE ...

Please, prior doing a rating or review : If you have found issues, plesase contact us for SUPPORT. We usually will reply to your mails inside 24 hours, we'll look at the problem and possibly do update the current version immediately.

PENDING RELEASE:

We are awaiting the release of the JAX Stereo Tool soon. Currently the app is reviewed by the App Store Staff. A first maintainance uptate is underway.

HOWTOS

How to use the included oscillators with JAF MODEL ONE & JAF COLLECTION ?

JAF MODEL ONE and JAF Collection include its own powerfull analog modeled oscillator section with unison. This simple fact transforms the filters into a unique and powerful sounding synthesizer, which can be remote controlled via MIDI note and control messages. The following video demonstrates the activation of the unison oscillators:

How to connect JAF COLLECTION to MIDI via Bluetooth ?

Establisching Bluetooth connections with the JAF MODEL ONE and/or the JAF COLLECTION is easy. Our apps can (optionally) publish and receive via Bluetooth MIDI connections. After a bluetooth connection was made, there will be a new MIDI port available on the receiving device, which can handle these MIDI messages. In the following videos we will use an iPad Pro 12.9 as the receiver and an iPhone XR as the Bluetooth MIDI publisher.

NOTE: JAF COLLECTION and JAF MODEL ONE are not limited to use Bluetooth MIDI or even MIDI at all, but these are additional options to exchange realtime MIDI data wireless between divices. So Bluetooth and network MIDI can make sense but we recomment to use wired MIDI connections for best timing and production stability.

1: Publish as a Bluetooth sender:

2. Connect to the sender and activate the newly created MIDI port:

The supported MIDI controllers are documented with the MIDI Implementation Chart inside the manuals.

Note: Our app releases are always 'universal', that means, you may install and use them on any mobile iOS device. But for productivity reasons, we surely recommend to use it on an iPad Pro in landscape mode.

Who we are and where we come from?
We are a small development team, sitting in Germany, Our goal is to release unique and useful audio tools with passion for the iOS and Mac OS oerating systems. If you need help or have offers and ideas, so please contact us per email. NOTE: We are continuously looking for BETA TESTERS, who have an whole battery of audio apps installed on their iOS systems. If you are interested, so please contact us! Public app reviewers who are interested in our developments can get our commercial releases from a limited promotion contingent.

© 2019 digitster.com | privacy policy | terms of use