Mac AU's

[Gersh66]

Hello all, I'm new to music making and am looking for some good AU's. I know there is a thread for VST's, but haven't been able to find one for AU's!

Thanks!

[itroitnyah]

Do you mean like DAWs, or am I just stupid and don't know what AUs are? I googled it and it came up with australia.

Logic Pro. That's a daw for mac (although if you hackintosh you may be able to get it for windows, although it's sorta complex and I don't know much about hackintoshing)

[the4thImpulse]

Do you mean like DAWs, or am I just stupid and don't know what AUs are? I googled it and it came up with australia.

Logic Pro. That's a daw for mac (although if you hackintosh you may be able to get it for windows, although it's sorta complex and I don't know much about hackintoshing)

Here's a brief copy pasted history:

Steinberg, the developer of the VST format, is extremely helpful and offers complete documentation for developers on how to build VST plug-ins, but they never offered any host documentation. In other words, each application such as Live, that supports VST plug-ins, would basically have to reverse-engineer the format to determine how to host plug-ins. Steinberg did this to give their own host applications the advantage, and true to form, no other VST host offers as compatible or seamless a VST plug-in experience as Steinberg's own applications.

So Apple developed the Audio Units format in order to develop a truly, completely "open platform." There are public, posted CoreAudio documents for both plug-in and host development. Don't confuse "open platform" with "open source"—open source means anyone can add to the code, but Audio Units are a completely Apple-owned format. However, Apple isn't keeping the hosting documentation secret, to give Logic an advantage. It's available for everyone.



From my experience most vst's have an AU counterpart and vice versa so I don't think its absolutely necessary to have a separate thread for AU, but perhaps an separate section in the VST thread.

[itroitnyah]

So AUs are just vsts that can be used by both mac and windows? That actually sounds really stupid, because if you're jumping from a mac to windows, you can bring your third party vsts with you.

[HMage]

AU is just a different plugin format, from my experience, since I use Ableton Live that can use both AU and VST on my mac, AU are more stable, rarely crash, and eat less CPU.

The downside of AU is that it's OSX exclusive — ableton projects using AU won't load properly on Windows and stuff will be missing. So when I collab I deliberatedly have to use VST version of everything. (Some stuff doesn't have a VST version though, so I need to find a replacement).

But yeah, AU and VST are so interchangeable that you don't even need to worry about having an AU version of your favourite plugin — if the plugin supports Mac, 99% chance it'll support AU.

[Lavender_Harmony]

Depends what you're looking for. KVR is a good place to look, you can search by plugin format, and there's pretty much everything you'd want.

[Gersh66]

Maybe I was just reading wrong, but when ever I tried to open any third party VST, they never would on my computer. So when I researched it, I read that Mac can only run AU's. Is there something I'm doing wrong that won't let the VST's open? And I'm running ableton

[itroitnyah]

Try downloading the mac version of the plugin, if available. Pretty sure that isn't the problem, but Lav can tell you so. Otherwise I'd be confused, and Apple would be capitalist bastards if they didn't allow vst formats, only au formats, lol.

[HMage]

Maybe I was just reading wrong, but when ever I tried to open any third party VST, they never would on my computer. So when I researched it, I read that Mac can only run AU's. Is there something I'm doing wrong that won't let the VST's open? And I'm running ableton

You need a mac version of plugin. Windows version won't work. That's probably why you're not seeing it.

My Mac Ableton runs mac VST plugins just fine.

Another possible cause — you're running 64-bit ableton and the plugin you're trying to run doesn't support 64-bit DAW's. 64-bit in Ableton is very very immature and was added only a month ago, so I'd recommend to stay away from 64-bit ableton and keep using 32-bit one if you want peace of mind.

[the4thImpulse]

Maybe I was just reading wrong, but when ever I tried to open any third party VST, they never would on my computer. So when I researched it, I read that Mac can only run AU's. Is there something I'm doing wrong that won't let the VST's open? And I'm running ableton

Make sure you are using MAC '.dll' VST plugins. .dll's are built for specific operating systems, windows plugins do not work on mac interchangeably.

[ChocolateChicken]

If you're using Logic Pro, it will ONLY accept AU's. This is because Apple likes to have efficient software by fully integrating and optimizing the program.

If you're not using Logic Pro, then you should be able to use vst's. Simple. But pretty much every vst has an AU version anyway so you're pretty much good to go.

[JayB]

Plugins are stored in these folders:
AU: /Library/Audio/Plugins/Components/
VST: /Library/Audio/Plugins/VST

The extentions are either .component or .vst.

Its hard to tell which AUs are to recommend - because most of them are mentioned in the VST Thread (stuff like Sylenth, Massive etc.).
What I love to use which seems to be AU only is MDSP Live Cut, a random glitcher with crazy, surprising, uncontrollable effects.

[Gersh66]

I had a bunch of VST's that were .dll and .vst but were unclickable. I'll try moving them to a different folder and see if ableton can read them.

[Lavender_Harmony]

Maybe I was just reading wrong, but when ever I tried to open any third party VST, they never would on my computer. So when I researched it, I read that Mac can only run AU's. Is there something I'm doing wrong that won't let the VST's open? And I'm running ableton

Make sure you are using MAC '.dll' VST plugins. .dll's are built for specific operating systems, windows plugins do not work on mac interchangeably.

They're .component files, not .dll's. If you don't know the right answer, please don't post misleading info like this -_-

[the4thImpulse]

They're .component files, not .dll's. If you don't know the right answer, please don't post misleading info like this -_-

Enlighten me, because what I wrote is how I understood it to work.

[Lavender_Harmony]

I had a bunch of VST's that were .dll and .vst but were unclickable. I'll try moving them to a different folder and see if ableton can read them.

You need to specifically download AU or Audio Unit plugins which are said to be compatible with Mac OS X. These can be packaged as .pkg installer files, .dmg files which are mountable images. The plugins themselves are the .component files, and if you get these, you put them in Mac HD > Library > Audio > Plug-ins > Components.

They're .component files, not .dll's. If you don't know the right answer, please don't post misleading info like this -_-

Enlighten me, because what I wrote is how I understood it to work.

There.

[the4thImpulse]

They're .component files, not .dll's. If you don't know the right answer, please don't post misleading info like this -_-

Enlighten me, because what I wrote is how I understood it to work.

There.

So Mac's don't use .dll's at all?

[froggy]

So Mac's don't use .dll's at all?

Nope, there are files that serve the exact same purpose but nothing with the .dll extension. The .vst and .component extensions exist to make it easier to tell audio plugins apart from other DLL-like files.

[HMage]

So Mac's don't use .dll's at all?

Nope, it's exclusive to Windows. No other operating system uses it.

[the4thImpulse]

So Mac's don't use .dll's at all?

Nope, there are files that serve the exact same purpose but nothing with the .dll extension. The .vst and .component extensions exist to make it easier to tell audio plugins apart from other DLL-like files.

Ah, thanks for explaining that, I should have not taken my friends word to heart so blindly (and posted it here too).

[Gersh66]

So instead of looking for .dll or .vst, I need to find either dmg's or components?

[HMage]

So instead of looking for .dll or .vst, I need to find either dmg's or components?

Just go to official site of the synth and download from there.

To get you started:

Sylenth1 (demo) — http://www.lennardigital.com/modules/downloads/
Zebralette (free with Zebra demo) — http://www.u-he.com/cms/zebra (on the right)
Diva (demo) — http://www.u-he.com/cms/diva (on the right)
Alchemy (free edition) — http://www.camelaudio.com/AlchemyPlayer.php
TAL-Noisemaker (free) — http://kunz.corrupt.ch/Products/TAL-NoiseMaker
TAL-Bassline (free) — http://kunz.corrupt.ch/Products/TAL-BassLine
TAL-U-No-62 (free) — http://kunz.corrupt.ch/Products/TAL-U-No-62
Microtonic (demo) — http://soniccharge.com/download#microtonic

[Gersh66]

Ok. Thank you sooo much everyone!

[froggy]

Just to try to get some of these technical details straight:

Windows VSTs (.dll)
- Windows only
- Ignore these

Mac VSTs (.vst)
- Mac only
- Will work with either Cubase or Ableton
- Go in /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST

Audio Units (.component)
- Mac only
- Will work with either Logic, Garage Band, or Ableton
- Go in /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components

Disk Images (.dmg) & Installer Packages (.pkg)
- Containers that hold .vst and/or .component plugins for manual or automatic installation
- Disk Images will often contain an installer .pkg file, which will put the .component and .vst files in their place automatically

Tl;dr: if you're using Logic/Garage Band, look for .component files. If Cubase, look for .vst files. If Ableton, either will work, but make sure to put them in the right folders (installers will do this automatically)

Hope this is still helpful, I was going to post this a few hours ago but got interrupted

[Gersh66]

Just to try to get some of these technical details straight:

Windows VSTs (.dll)
- Windows only
- Ignore these

Mac VSTs (.vst)
- Mac only
- Will work with either Cubase or Ableton
- Go in /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST

Audio Units (.component)
- Mac only
- Will work with either Logic, Garage Band, or Ableton
- Go in /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components

Disk Images (.dmg) & Installer Packages (.pkg)
- Containers that hold .vst and/or .component plugins for manual or automatic installation
- Disk Images will often contain an installer .pkg file, which will put the .component and .vst files in their place automatically

Tl;dr: if you're using Logic/Garage Band, look for .component files. If Cubase, look for .vst files. If Ableton, either will work, but make sure to put them in the right folders (installers will do this automatically)

Hope this is still helpful, I was going to post this a few hours ago but got interrupted

Tl;Dr For the whole tread. Thanks!