Propellerhead Software’s iOS future will be exciting: rack extensions will not only run in Reason but also in the browser, on mobile and hardware devices!
Many have wondered in recent months how it goes on in the music app landscape. So far, many music companies do not take into account the overhead of transforming plugins into iOS apps/versions. With the relatively new AUv3 standard, however, Apple has steered the future of music apps in the right direction. In November, the Propellerhead Software CTO held a keynote at the JUCE audio developer conference, talking about exciting news about iOS apps. In the near future, new rack extensions (PE’s own plugin format) will have code that is compatible for iOS apps.
So developers could very quickly turn RE instruments, effects… into mobile apps. The Europa Synthesizer is a good example: it’s available for the rack extension format, plugin and also iOS. I think it’s very good move from PS in the right direction. In detail informations, you can find in the video below where Magnus Berger talks about building rack extensions.
Video Description
Rack Extensions, the native plugin format in Reason, was designed to run on any future architecture, in any kind of host. Get a detailed glimpse of the design goals, behind the scene technical decisions, and get an understanding of how we are able to move plugins rapidly between platforms with zero effort from the developer even long after the plugins are released.
The talk is cross-disciplinary and will cover a broad range of subjects, all the way from sandboxing, LLVM bitcode manipulation, referential transparency, declarative retained mode UIs, 2D vs 3D modelling, to WebAssembly and where Meltdown/Spectre fits in all this.
More information here: Propellerhead Software
Ok, then can we assume Propellerhead will buy back Figure and Take from Allihoopa? Otherwise, count me skeptical. Plus, Europa isn’t on iOS except within Reason Compact. Why not standalone, like Thor? Which needs an upgrade, by the way. I’ll believe it when I see it.
The news doesn’t matter for musicians without any date of release. Plans plans. good, but let’s do it.