Installing AU Lab

[jesse]

For those who may not know about it, Apple includes a powerful AU plugin host called AU Lab when you install the XCode Development package. It is worth having if you need a good mixer and host for software instruments and effects. It allows you to build your own mixer with inputs, outputs, instruments, effects and busses. It also records, receives midi, generates midi clock, and offers a performance meter.

You can find the XCode developer tools on your Mac OS X Install DVD. Once installed you will find AU Lab on your system drive at /Developer/Applications/Audio/AU Lab.

[Coop4Music]

How does AU Lab fare against Logic, specifically for live performance? I know that Logic obviously has more flexability, but AU Lab would be lighter on CPU?

either way AU Lab is an awesome freebee

[arzezak]

I dont think you can compare AU Lab to Logic. They are very different creatures. AU Lab will just host your AU plugins (in a mixer environment) and eventually, you could record whats happening there. Logic, it's all of that plus sequencer, etc.

I personally use both of them. AU Lab just seems so light on the CPU and simple. If i will be using SooperLooper plus, for example, Guitar Rig, i'll go with AU Lab.

Greetings from Argentina,

Ariel.

[Coop4Music]

considering AU Lab recieves MIDI, and I use SL primarily with Reason and vsti's, it looks like I'll be downloading this tonight. This means I won't need that MIDI router program I've been fumbling w/?

[jesse]

considering AU Lab recieves MIDI, and I use SL primarily with Reason and vsti's, it looks like I'll be downloading this tonight. This means I won't need that MIDI router program I've been fumbling w/?

That is correct, it makes both audio and midi connections much easier to handle as it is all saved in the AU Lab session. I would generally recommend it over JACK for this reason, just to make your life easier.

jlc

[Coop4Music]

So... i've been having a tough time getting a hold of AU Lab. I know it's free, but I only have Tiger 10.4 and I guess I have to have 10.5 to use the Xcode tools that are available from Apple?

Does anyone know of a direct download link? or could someone zip the install file and share it?

I'd really like to get SL going with AU rather than Logic.

[pboy]

So... i've been having a tough time getting a hold of AU Lab.

I can email it to you! Just tell me if it's still of interest (noticed your post is from two days ago)

[Coop4Music]

That would be awesome! PM sent!

I'm sure I'll have a million more questions once I get AU Lab going. I'm hoping it's a bit more streamlined than the other DAW's or standalone/Jack/MIDI router. I'm most familiar with Pro Tools, but there's no RTAS. I have both Logic and Ableton Live, but can't figure out how to route them the way I need

AU Lab... be my savior!

[pboy]

I mailed you the AU Lab archive. I don't remember if it supports Intel CPU Mac's so you might start by looking into that if you're running a modern machine.

Over here I do prefer Logic as the host - when running the looper as the sync slave (usually I do the other way around: set the tempo by my playing in the looper and have the host slave sync to keep other plug-ins on the beat, but this context works best using Bidule as the host). The way you should set it up in Logic is to open the AU plug-in as an "AU MIDI Controlled Effect" and fetch the audio input by side-chain. Here's a detailed Logic Looper set-up you just can't go wrong with:

1) Hold down the left mouse button on the Input slot of an Instrument Channel Strip.
2) Navigate to the lowest line and choose the version of the plug-in you prefer.
3) In the upper right corner of the plug-in window, hold down the left mouse button on the side-chain slot. Chose either the Audio Track you are using as an input or a Bus to which you send your inputs (if using many inputs; like if keeping many instruments/mics connected for instant playing).

A word of warning though - there's something fishy in using SL AU as a multi output plug-in. At leas at this very moment, it may have been fixed when you read this. The reason to use that version would be to send different loops to different busses and fetch them to dedicated Aux Channels in the mixer. YOu can then mix there levels in Logic and use Logic's effects differently on each loop channel. That's a good way to improve your looping rig's overall sound.

[Coop4Music]

awesome break down, exactly what I was looking for. I'm going to try this when I get home. What version of Logic are you using? I'm on Logic Studio 8. It seems as though with every set up I've had some issue... Logic can't find SL (or I can't find SL in Logic), Ableton Live can find SL and do flawless MIDI assigning but can't find Reason... and I haven't given AU Lab a try yet. Thanks again for sending it to me! I will indeed pass on the favor to whom ever might need it. I can't get over how small of a file it is, especially for being such a flexable program!

A couple more questions on the topic...

Can AU Lab record a stereo mix of my set?

Can AU Lab be sync'ed as a slave to SL as well?



awesome info here, thanks again. I'm so glad we've got a forum now!

[pboy]

What version of Logic are you using? 8< 8< 8< 8<
Can AU Lab record a stereo mix of my set?
Can AU Lab be sync'ed as a slave to SL as well?

I use Logic 8x. And MainSTage. And WaveBurner.

Check the AU manual for recording capabilities. But you can also use plug-ins to snag the stream at the output to render it as an audio file on the drive. SilverSpike offers such a plug-in, but I personally use Bidule for that - Bidule's File Recorder module. Another method is the application Audio Hi-Jack Pro. It simply hi-jacks any audio stream on your Mac. I also use it for recording telephone interviews over Skype, awesome little app from http://www.rogueamoeba.com/.

[Coop4Music]

great info. I'm going to have to try Audio Hi Jack Pro.

I've been having issues with getting it to work with AU Lab, but I only tried briefly. I'll post again when I get it working/get stuck

[arzezak]

A couple more questions on the topic...

Can AU Lab record a stereo mix of my set?

Can AU Lab be sync'ed as a slave to SL as well?

AU Lab can record your stereo mix and in lossless formats!! Go to Preferences -> Recording.

I dont think it syncs to an au plugin, altough you can sync the plugin to a tempo on the transporter window of Au Lab.

[arzezak]

I was wrong. AU Lab can be synced as a slave to SL.

[nolroos]

For everyone who doesn't want/need to install the Xcode stuff: AU Lab.app (version 2.0.0, this is from my Leopard install DVD).

[micmee]

I am attempting to use AU Lab and sooperlooper with a Presonus Inspire (in Snow Leopard - MacBook 2.16).
The plugin displays as an effect in AU Lab, but when I click 'open GUI' and the sooperlooper UI displays, it says 'not connected'.
I am totally clueless as to how to solve this problem. I've also tried using Jack and other random stuff to no avail... The jack 'routing' options don't display sooperlooper in the list - only system capture x4 and system output x2 (I assume this is Inspire-driven)...

Any ideas? I just wana get looping....

[jesse]

This usually points to some kind of network misconfiguration. SL actually uses OSC to communicate between the GUI and the engine (whether AU or Jack) and is sometimes sensitive to your system's network configuration. Can you run the Console utility (Applications->Utilities->Console) and look at the console.log for output when you try to start SL. Paste that to me, and we'll continue troubleshooting.

[enjolis]

I download xcode from Apple but this version won't install under 10.5. Does anyone know where I can download one that'll work with 10.5. Thanks!

[micmee]

This usually points to some kind of network misconfiguration. SL actually uses OSC to communicate between the GUI and the engine (whether AU or Jack) and is sometimes sensitive to your system's network configuration. Can you run the Console utility (Applications->Utilities->Console) and look at the console.log for output when you try to start SL. Paste that to me, and we'll continue troubleshooting.

This is what I get (Using Jack):
[0x0-0x7e07e].net.essej.slgui[12566] slgui: our URL is osc.udp://vc-*IP*.umts.vodacom.co.za:18647/
" execing: '/Applications/SooperLooper.app/Contents/MacOS/sooperlooper -q -U osc.udp://vc-*IP*.umts.vodacom.co.za:18647/ -p 9951 -l 1 -c 2 -t 40 -m "/Users/*username*/.sooperlooper/default_midi.slb"'
" slgui: spawned new engine
" cannot connect to jack
" cannot connect to audio driver
" cannot initialize sooperlooper
" slgui: remote looper is at osc.udp://vc-*IP*.umts.vodacom.co.za:9951/ version=1.6.14 loopcount=1 id=1270198249
" but treating the engine URL as
" osc.udp://:9951/

Thanks for your help

When I try run it as an AU in AULab, all the console will output is 'SLAU cleanup called' when I refresh the plugin, but SL shows 'not connected' and then after a few seconds usually displays a 'Lost Connection...' error message. I would most like to use it in Logic 7, but it doesn't find the component on startup. (UPDATE - The '...aufix' component I downloaded validates, but still doesn't connect).

[jesse]

OK, it appears that SL is trying to use your your external hostname as the address, and is probably having trouble connecting due to firewall issues? You don't connect to the internet through a router that gives you a local network IP, I take it? Either way, SL is clearly not doing the right thing... I really need to just make the default mode to just use localhost and nothing else by default, because that is by far the most common case.

I would try to manually set your hostname in Preferences->Sharing and try again....