Author: audioapps_admin

JAX MIDI : Control Pad (super universal release)

Some of our discontinued items from the legacy MIDI SWEET Series will get an upgrade for supporting super universal releases in our JAX MIDI Series now. MIDI SWEET series is completely discontinued.

JAX MIDI Control Pad, a super universal release (iOS, iPadOS macOS, visionOS), is available as ‘aumu’ AudioUnit (AUv3) app extension and loadable by host apps, which support instrument audio units and routing MIDI events.

JAX MIDI Control Pad is a visual XY control pad, specifically designed for touch screens and allows to configure and generate up to 2 MIDI controller values (at ones) based on finger movement. It can be connected to all MIDI controller receiving mechanisms, that support it, including external MIDI devices.

This video demonstrates a more or less complex MIDI routing setup, where a MIDI Monitor and a synthesizer is connected for touch input of realtime MIDI controllers from JAX MIDI Control Pad. (The MIDI monitor is merely for demonstration purposes to visualize the stream.) The MIDI stream for controller movement is generated by JAX MIDI Control Pad and forwarded to the MIDI monitor. The monitor passes then thru everything, also note events from the keyboard and the generated MIDI controllers from the JAX to the synth. Controllers can be assigned and also particularly switched off. The setup and the values are saved with a preset, if the host supports saving user presets.

JAX Selective Range (SR) : Reductor (super universal release)

We want to announce the successor of our (discontinued) JAX Decimator : the JAX Selective Range [SR] Reductor. Super universal releases are available on iOS, iPadOS, visionOS and macOS (Apple Silicon).

Our selective range series audio processors apply effects to a selected frequency range, which gives much greater and more professional possibilities for creative sound manipulation.

JAX [SR] Reductor delivers parametric rate and bit reduction and a bi-directional resonance filter, which can excite the sound and add some decent character to all kind of audio and even entire mixes. It also can invert, boost and pan the selected frequency range.

The SR effects are like an entire new philosophy and a new way to extend classic effects for modern sound productions without the necessity for creating complicated multi-band mixing bus setups. All parameters feature assignable MIDI control.

Existing customers of our legacy JAX Decimator (purchased version) are entitled for getting a free promo code for the purchased app of the new JAX [SR] Reductor. Please contact us.

JAX Spectro : Isolate (super universal release)

JAX SPECTRO : Isolate is released on the Apple AppStore and available (as super universal with one price) on iOS, iPadOS, visionOS and macOS.

JAX SPECTRO SERIES AudioUnits (AUv3) are special spectral processors, which divide the audio stream in 128 frequency bands. These bands are chromatically mapped and visualized consequently in the scale of musical semitones across the entire MIDI notes range. These tools are useful for musical analysis and processing.

JAX Isolate is able to filter the audio stream in realtime based on specialized FFT algorithms with ultra sharp slope up to a single isolated semitone. Tonal ranges can be filtered out of the audio stream (bandstop) or isolated (bandpass) this way. The tools come with a graphical 128 sliders frequency control and a tonal range selector.

JAX Dynamics : Gate (super universal release and update)

We released JAX Gate, the third item in our Dynamics Series and the first update (version 3.6) is already integrated. The update fixes preset naming and integrates a new preset management dialog.

Super universal releases are available on iOS, iPadOS, visionOS and macOS (Apple Silicon).

A note to our new JAX preset management: 

A host app cannot surely assume, where the presets of a plugin / app extension (AudioUnit AUv3) are stored. Each audio unit can define and manage its own private space for handling and storing user presets. The host does not know and also has no possibility to call up the correct location of the user presets from the audio unit, as these presets are handled as pure data inside the AudioUnit framework, with no path information at all.

Some hosts do a guessing game here or assume the user presets are saved in a certain (predefined) directory on disk, inside a local private space of the audio unit. However, this assumption is wrong. 

Our audio units have to ensure correct preset handling on all supported platforms (macOS, visionOS, iOS, iPadOS and tvOS) and therefore this storage location is private and only known and accessible by our audio units. In our opinion this is a critical savety concern. So we will not allow any host application wildly accessing and modifying our audio units private storage spaces (i.e. for saving user presets).

( For instance the app AUM on iOS obviously tries to save user presets of any 3rd party audio unit by accessing it’s private storage space directly. This is not supported by our audio units and ( besides being a private storage space access violation ) will result in having no effect. )

We implemented a preset sharing option inside the new preset management dialogs, which makes it possible to share user presets manually across all supported platforms with explicit import and export functions.

JAX AudioVisualizer (update)

We submitted update 1.3 to the Apple AppStore today. This update adds 8 new shaders as promised.

Some thoughts for extension

I think, we will overwork the entire concept.

At the beginning we merely had the simple idea to provide an easy to use audio visualizer based on the AudioUnit framework, which can select different prepared shaders and apply several audio analysis results to the rendering of visuals via parametric control in realtime…

But now I can see the huge potential of this and want to apply a more complex concept. So we probably will introduce a second dynamic texture layer, which can blend with the first. This significantly will increase the possibilities. Both shaders will be independently in their parameters and computation.

But this will require to specialise the shaders even more. These must support true alpha transparency and additionally all commonly used graphics composition blend modi on the shader level. This all will increase the current parameter set significantly, of course.

The performance of the Metal framework is excellent and 2 layers should work without any problems according the GPU/CPU usage. ( You may have recognized already, that the audio unit is using CPU around 1 percent at current state and so outperforms any other realtime visualizer we have seen yet. )

A later extension ( PRO version? ) also could integrate a shader coder environment, meaning a text editor and just in time (JIT) compiler, where the user can put in own code, which then is validated and compiled in realtime to a new user created Metal shader. This shader coder, of course would user Apples shader language consequently, which is somewhat different than the commonly used GLSL language and also more strict regarding memory sharing and usage.

The significantly increased parameter set probably also would require a new parameter editor and so on. So maybe this all is for a “PRO” version of the JAX AudioVisualizer.

A third step could be a MIDI based parameter sequencer, which allows to create a complete timeline driven storyboard with the entire system for controlled playback.