One of this year’s most anticipated apps for the music making world is Wave Machine Labs’ Auria, with its traditional looking user interface, 64-bit architecture, 48 audio tracks, VST effects, and much more.
Chris Miller from WaveMachine Labs was kind enough to answer a few of my questions on this very promising looking iPad app.
What was the inspiration/motivation behind developing Auria?
The mobile recording community was in need of a professional-grade recording app.
How long has Auria been in development for? And how many are on the team that worked on it?
Auria has been in development for a year, done mostly by our President, Rim, and with lots of contributions from the PSP team.
Auria’s UI looks more like a traditional DAW system than any other iPad multitrack apps before it, what was the thinking behind taking this approach?
Auria is meant to be a serious, professional app. We tried to recreate as close to a fully functional DAW on the iPad as we could.
Multitrack recording is obviously dependant on the audio interface available to users. Which model(s) have you had the best success with?
A list of tested and compatible interfaces is available at our website, auriaapp.com.
The specs state it’s possible to record up to 24 tracks at once. What hardware have you been able to do this with?
So far, the most we’ve gotten to record at once is 18 (limited by the interface), but the software supports more.
Why hasn’t VST been done in DAW apps for iPad until now? Was this particularly tricky to implement?
It wasn’t particularly tricky; it just feels that the requirement that all code be pre-loaded (and therefore not technically plugins in the sense that they’re not cross-platform) onto an Apple app has disenfranchised Plugin developers to developing version for the iOS platform.
What sort of limitations (if any) are there on the number of effects plug-ins and mix bus routing you can do per track?
Plugins add a few percentages of CPU each, but with the ability to freeze tracks, the effects can be printed and the plugins removed to free up processing power.
How many plug-ins will ship with Auria, and can you provide details on the plans to offer more in the future as in-app purchases?
Auria will ship with a handful of plugins built in, and there will be 10-20 available for in-app purchase. We will certainly add more with future updates.
Will Auria offer support for virtual instruments?
There will not be any MIDI or VSTi support in the first release.
I’m guessing there’s a good chance we’ll be seeing a version of Drumagog available at some stage, yes?
Drumagog will be available as an in-app purchase.
Are there any differences between the existing PSP plug-ins and the versions available in Auria?
There are slight differences, mostly to make them simpler and more efficient for the iPad.
What sort of compatibility is possible between Auria and external DAW software?
Auria supports full AAF Import/Export, so session data can be exchanged between Auria and virtually every major DAW.
For people who work with other iPad music apps, what type of support does Auria offer? AudioPaste? External syncing? WIST (Wireless Sync-Start Technology)?
Auria supports AudioPaste.
There looks to be a comprehensive list of audio editing options. Will you be able to scrub back and forth over single and multiple tracks of audio?
Scrubbing is not an option in this release.
Is the rendering of stereo mix downs done in real time, or faster?
Faster than real time.
Have you noticed any performance differences in running Auria on iPad 1 and iPad2?
The iPad 1 has been limited to 24 tracks, but other than that it’s pretty similar.
Is Auria Optimised for the new iPad?
Auria will run the same on the new iPad.
Wave Machine Labs Auria still doesn’t have a confirmed launch date. When it was first announced, it was expected to arrive in the first quarter of this year, which expires this weekend, so we should be expecting to see it appear in the very near future. For the latest on Wave Machine Labs Auria, head to the official site - auriaapp.com
