Hi all -
I was just considering if I should ditch my AUv2 exports and start using AUv3 instead.
My understanding is that in addition to being able to run on iOS, AUv3 has a few advantages:
- runs out of process, so wont bring down the DAW when crashing
- Better performance, generally a more stable format
- Better UI scaling, apparently
- most DAWs that support AUv2 now support AUv3
Is there any reason why I should keep the AUv2 around if I move to support AUv3?
Are there any major DAWs still supporting ONLY AUv2?
I understand that AUv3 builds MUST build a standalone, and that the standalone MUST be run (once) to register with the system before the plugin shows up in DAWs.
It seems a little odd to wrap my smaller plugins (like a simple filter or bitcrusher) in a standalone on mac, and then place it in the Applications/ folder (or a company specific subdirectory, more likely), but I guess this is fine.
Aside from that, though, does this mean that after installation I really have to direct the user to go find the standalone and run it? It just seems like I will get constant emails about that.
Finally, I have no wish to distribute through the AppStore, I assume they don’t mind ad hoc distribution for AUv3s? Any issues there? Any limitations?
Anyway, reaching out to hear what others think is the best practice nowadays, Thanks!
I don’t think the standalone has to be run before an AUv3 plug-in appears in the DAW. I’m pretty sure this is a myth. [edit: just checked with a free AUv3 from the App Store and it appeared in Ableton without me having to open the standalone]
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Users will end up with an app for every AUv3 plug-in in their Applications folder. (Unless you put the app somewhere else, of course. And you can bundle multiple plug-ins inside a single app.)
My main reason for not doing AUv3 on Mac is that no one else does it, and users expect a .component file that goes into a specific location. In other words, AUv2 is the standard on Mac, not AUv3.
It has been over 10 years since v3 was introduced and pretty much no developers have switched to it for Mac (except a handful that are iOS-first and deliver through the Mac App Store).
runs out of process, so wont bring down the DAW when crashing
On Apple Silicon Macs, Logic will also run AUv2 out-of-process. Other DAWs like Bitwig can also do this.
Better performance, generally a more stable format
I don’t know where you get this from but AUv3 is essentially still AUv2 under the hood from what I can tell.
Better UI scaling, apparently
I was under the impression that AUv3 was flexible here? I might be wrong.
Also note that an AUv3 runs sandboxed, so it needs special entitlements and so on to access local files, use the network, etc. With a plain AUv2 you don’t need to worry about this.
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Thanks for this!!
Glad to know we are mostly (all) not doing it … seems like 10 years on it would either have gone away or become the standard, but I guess it just stayed as the iOS think.
The sandboxing there is what I was wondering most about. I assume the special entitlements are no different than what we do for other standalone apps (use mic / access disk / etc).
Yeah I think it’s the same entitlements. It’s no big deal to add them, but you’ll probably forget and wonder why stuff in your plug-in isn’t working (ask me how I know). 
