Where are the Promised AAX-DSP Plugins??

[Oblivion777]

Yes I know they support AAX-Native format now; but we are talking about AAX-DSP on this thread and that support is "coming soon" if we have specifically The Plugin Alliance in mind.

[Firechild]

Originally Posted by Oblivion777

Yes I know they support AAX-Native format now; but we are talking about AAX-DSP on this thread and that support is "coming soon" if we have specifically The Plugin Alliance in mind.

I don´t like this...again... the whole point when AAX was introduced was that the code was almost identical with DSP and Native...so I don´t get it why it is so hard to release both formats...well only time will tell...maybe dsp will come tomorrow...

[Cliffy_Boy]

If a small(ish) company like Softube, can code 20 plugins as both AAX Native AND DSP, in one installer, at the same price as each other, cheaper than the TDM version, within minutes of AVID releasing PT10 HD, not to mention Cranesong Phoenix, I have trouble believing the bigger plugin makers have any reason to delay.

Seems like Softube set the bar, showed its do-able, is charging a flat rate for the Native and DSP versions, and did it fast. The rest of plugin companies will have a tough time justifying long delays, or even the rumoured decision by some to not even support the DSP side.

If Softube, Cranesong and a few others did not act proactively, I would wonder if AAX was a tough transition. Obviously it's not.

[lennieh]

All to do with development framworks etc etc. I bet Softube and the plugin-alliance guys already have modern development frameworks that greatly simplify porting their code to different plugin formats.

A company like Waves may well have something similar given the rate at which they are now churning out new plugins, but are dealing with a comparatively huge portfolio of plugins, many of which have been around a long long time and may not have ever been slotted in to the more modern frameworks....

So for the smaller boutique developers the costs are much less, especially if their development methods are hot. The potential benefits to them of being early adopters are huge, all those guys with their HDX cards and hardly any software available, hardly even any Avid bundled plugins...

For Waves the potential cost is enormous, they must have close on 100 different plugins, some recent, some have been around 10+years... Though heaven knows they've probably made enough from WUP to rewrite the whole lot, they probably don't see the margin in that.

Much better to keep writing new stuff, to a large degree it's a novelty driven market, particlarly at the lower end of the price range. Take your basic compressor algorithm, tweak a few coefficients, do a nice GUI give it a funky name like munge-grunger and sell it for $49, get some producer dude to give you a snazzy quote and away you go. Why would you bust a gut taking all that old legacy code and trying to fit it into yet another plugin format when you can't even charge for it because most of the TDM users are all WUPped -up anyway???

[Cliffy_Boy]

Originally Posted by lennieh

Why would you bust a gut taking all that old legacy code and trying to fit it into yet another plugin format when you can't even charge for it because most of the TDM users are all WUPped -up anyway???

Because you have to. Just like PPC to Intel. Bottom line, while there are other DAWs that do the job, ProTools HDX is the undisputed professional format. If you want to be a supplier to the professional studios, you have to supply your product in the latest format. HDX is here to stay. TDM has seen its last sunset. In a year, people on the DUC will take about TDM like they do about the old MIX hardware. Unless you want to be a supplier of VST plugins, you will have to go AAX. Native and DSP. Its inevitable. Waves will without question port their plugins to AAX DSP. They are a supplier to professional studios.

[WernerF]

The main reason would be to not lose most of those legacy customers and their future WUP's for good. When 64 bit comes along non of it is gonna work unless it's been fully ported to AAX which, as has been stated, is pretty close to the same process for DSP as it is for Native. Not committing to that transition would, it seems to me at least, show up as a pretty bone headed business decision in the long run. Unfortunately so much corporate thinking is short term these days. Time will tell.

[Ghost In The Attic]

Originally Posted by Cliffy_Boy

If Softube, Cranesong and a few others did not act proactively, I would wonder if AAX was a tough transition. Obviously it's not.

The real question then is, why has Avid NOT done it for all of their plugins?

[WernerF]

You can ask that about a lot of their decisions in the last few years. It's not easy to rationalize lameness.

[Carl Lie]

+1 for the original intent of the thread. I posted about Softube because I'm happy they are available and good but that is no way an out for AVID.

C

[carlone]

Originally Posted by Oblivion777

I agree that Softube plug-ins are great.

But I don't quite get how do you know how Character or Cytomic AAX-DSP sound like as they are not yet available (unless you are a beta tester).

CharacterPT displays the following:
We're still testing ChannelStrip 3- it's not available yet, but it will be soon!
We're still testing Character- it's not available yet, but it will be soon!

Let me explain:
After the HDX events in LA I went to a demo with one of the Avid Reps at my dealer (RSPE). I took my drive and we loaded up a session on his rig. I wanted to see that my sessions would open fine (and they did).

Then we started checking out a bunch of other plugins that he had - he said some of them were beta but should be out soon and these stuck out to me because they sounded amazing and they were DSP (Phoenix, Channel Strip, Character, Tubetech, The Glue and Softube Summit).

He had others but these are what I remembered. I also liked the fact that many of these were not the same ole' plug-ins we've used for years but were new. I get the sense that in a few months there will be many DSP plug-ins and companies that don't get on board will find that other companies stepped up and raised the bar.