FabFilter's comment on AAX DSP

[John McDaniel]

Can anyone parse this in terms of the AAX vs AAX DSP issue? What's between the lines here? Simply unwilling to take on the task or truly impossible?

We've just completed a careful investigation of AAX-DSP, and our unfortunate conclusion is that at this point, it's not possible to do a simple port of our native plug-ins to AAX-DSP.
Our plug-ins use advanced and complex processing techniques that don't translate well to the somewhat limited resources provided by the HDX cards (both CPU and memory-wise). Making AAX-DSP versions would only be feasible if we would recode the processing from scratch, and even then we're not sure we could match the features and audio quality in the native plug-ins while also allowing a decent number of instances per chip.
In other words, native systems are massively powerful nowadays and our plug-ins have been designed to take full advantage of these possibilities. This is great, but makes it harder to scale them down to a more limited architecture.
So for now, we will not start working on AAX-DSP versions of our plug-ins. Perhaps in the future if the HDX platform becomes more powerful, we might reconsider. We will of course continue to develop and improve our AAX-Native plug-ins including 64-bit support in the near future.
Cheers,
Frederik (FabFilter) - Apr 2, 2013

[mesaone]

What happened:

We did a cost-benefit analysis, and have come to the conclusion that DSP is not worth the R&D.

Then the spin:

DSP is less powerful than native, so our decision actually benefits you!

My takeaway:

As long as they continue to improve their plug-ins, CPU footprint will presumably decrease. FabFilter Plug-ins are pretty effin' great, and I don't think lack of DSP is a dealbreaker for many FabFilter customers.

[DetroitT]

Obviously willing or they would not have researched it.
What FF's I have work great in 11.

Not impossible but not going to happen.
Seems to be a pretty clear description above.

The combo of Native and DSP is a win win for single card users.

[Drew Mazurek]

That comment was 11 months ago.

I wonder if his thoughts have changed knowing that 11,000 HDX systems have now been sold?

Either way, it's a pretty hard dig on Avid's choices with regard to chips, infrastructure of HDX.

I translated it to, we're happy servicing the HUGE native market and aren't interested in making headway into high end post or music.

[roberts]

There are plenty of options for people that need AAX DSP plug-ins. For what Fab Filter charges for their plug-ins there are lots of AAX DSP ( and they sound better too) options that cost far less than the FAB Filter plug-ins.
I have demo'd FAb Filter McDSP & Softube blow FF away.

[Sam C]

Originally Posted by roberts

There are plenty of options for people that need AAX DSP plug-ins. For what Fab Filter charges for their plug-ins there are lots of AAX DSP ( and they sound better too) options that cost far less than the FAB Filter plug-ins.
I have demo'd FAb Filter McDSP & Softube blow FF away.

One mans..... I think Fab Filter are among the very best, including support and training videos. I have and like McDSP too.

[Peter Duemmler]

I love the Pro-Q, best UI I have seen for an EQ and it sounds great IMO.
Timeless is VERY deep, a nice addition to Echoboy and H-Delay.

[Eric Lambert]

Originally Posted by Drew Mazurek

I translated it to, we're happy servicing the HUGE native market and aren't interested in making headway into high end post or music.

I'd wager that every "high end" post and music house is incorporating native plugins to some degree. How DSP number-crunching makes anything high end is beyond me. FF works fine as they are and, given the task involved in transcoding, they're content leaving them that way. As am I.

[Drew Mazurek]

Originally Posted by Eric Lambert

How DSP number-crunching makes anything high end is beyond me.

Me too. Just speaking about WHO is mostly using AAX DSP systems based on what I see.

[RaySoul]

Originally Posted by Drew Mazurek

I translated it to, we're happy servicing the HUGE native market and aren't interested in making headway into high end post or music.

(?)


So, you think the "HUGE native market" using FF isn't making music? And/or records? Hmm...

CLEARLY, we both read FF's statement differently...