Audio Units

Audio Units (AU) are a system-level plug-in architecture provided by Core Audio in the operating system OS X, iOS developed by Apple. Audio Units are a set of application programming interface (API) services provided by the operating system to generate, process, receive, or otherwise manipulate streams of audio in near-real-time with minimal latency. It may be thought of as Apple's architectural equivalent to another popular plug-in format, Steinberg's Virtual Studio Technology (VST). Because of the many similarities between Audio Units and VST, several commercial and free wrapping technologies are available (e.g. Symbiosis and FXpansion VST-AU Adapter).

Use

Audio Units allows sound file audio time-scale/pitch modification (e.g., timestretch), sample rate conversion, and streaming over a Local Area Network. It also comes with a set of AU plug-ins such as EQ filters, dynamic processors, delay, reverb, and a Soundbank Synthesizer Instrument.

AU are used by Apple applications such as GarageBand, Soundtrack Pro, Logic Express, Logic Pro, Logic Pro X, Final Cut Pro, MainStage and most 3rd party audio software developed for OS X such as Ardour, Ableton Live, Amadeus Pro, REAPER and Digital Performer.

Competing technologies

Digidesign's Real Time AudioSuite
LADSPA, Disposable Soft Synth Interface (DSSI) and LV2 for Linux
Microsoft's DirectX
Steinberg's Virtual Studio Technology

External links

OS X Core Foundation

Core Animation Core Audio Core Data Core Graphics Core Image Core Location Core OpenGL Core Services Core Text Core Video

OS X

Versions

Applications

Automator Calculator Calendar Chess Contacts Dashboard Dictionary DVD Player FaceTime Finder Game Center Grapher iTunes (version history) Launchpad Mac App Store Mail Messages Notes Notification Center Photo Booth Photos Preview QuickTime Reminders Safari (version history) Stickies TextEdit Time Machine

Discontinued	Front Row iChat iPhoto iSync Sherlock

Utilities

Activity Monitor AirPort Utility AppleScript Editor Archive Utility Audio MIDI Setup Bluetooth File Exchange Boot Camp ColorSync Configurator Console Crash Reporter DigitalColor Meter Directory Utility DiskImageMounter Disk Utility Font Book Grab Help Viewer Image Capture Installer Keychain Access Migration Assistant Network Utility ODBC Administrator Screen Sharing System Preferences System Information Terminal Universal Access VoiceOver

Discontinued	Software Update Remote Install Mac OS X

Technology and
user interface

AirDrop Apple menu Apple Push Notification Service AppleScript Aqua Audio Units Bonjour CloudKit Cocoa ColorSync Command key Core Animation Core Audio Core Data Core Foundation Core Image Core OpenGL Core Text Core Video CUPS Cover Flow Darwin Dock File Quarantine FileVault Fonts Gatekeeper Grand Central Dispatch icns iCloud Inkwell I/O Kit Kernel panic Keychain launchd Mach-O MacRuby Menu extra Metal Mission Control OpenCL Option key Preference Pane Property list Quartz QuickTime Quick Look Smart Folders Speakable items Spotlight Stacks System Integrity Protection Uniform Type Identifier Universal binary WebKit XNU XQuartz

Deprecated	Carbon

Discontinued	BootX Brushed metal Classic Environment Rosetta Spaces Xgrid

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Wednesday, May 04, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.