Audio Units
Audio Units (AU) are a system-level
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). Celemony Software and PreSonus have also developed the Audio Random Access (ARA) extension, which works for both AU and VST, allowing greater integration between the plug-ins and DAW software.[1]
Use
Audio Units allows sound file
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
.Competing technologies
- Avid's Avid Audio eXtension (a successor to the RTAS format)
- Real Time AudioSuite(now obsolete)
- LADSPA and Disposable Soft Synth Interface (DSSI) for Linux
- LV2 (crossplatform successor to LADSPA)
- Microsoft's DirectX
- Steinberg's Virtual Studio Technology
References
- ^ "Celemony introduces ARA Audio Random Access - Extension for Plug-in Interfaces". KVR Audio. Retrieved 2018-06-05.