AU Studio

Built for Audio Unit enthusiasts and developers: audition plug-ins and presets, test MIDI setups, verify device validation, and see what each plug-in actually exposes.

AU Studio is a focused AUv3 host, not a DAW. Open installed Audio Units, inspect what they expose, and audition them without building a full session. Made for musicians, sound designers, and AUv3 developers who need a fast, honest test bench.

Use AU Studio to catalog the Audio Units already registered on your device, load supported AUv3 interfaces, and verify how each unit behaves in a compact standalone host.

Key features:

• Scan installed music devices, effects, music effects, generators, and MIDI processors.
• Filter the catalog by developer, type, search text, and built-in status.
• Load AUv3 interfaces when the extension provides a custom view.
• Fall back to a detailed inspector when an interfaces is unavailable.
• Inspect registry identity, four-character codes, version, sandbox status, validation status, MIDI support, busses, parameters, presets, latency, tail time, and state dictionaries exposed by the unit.
• Route external CoreMIDI sources to the loaded Audio Unit.
• Use the floating MIDI keyboard with note input, pitch bend, mod wheel, mono/poly behavior, and panic cleanup for compatible instruments.
• Audition audio-input effects with a host test tone or the floating media player.
• Load an audio file into the media player, view a waveform, scrub, play, stop, rewind, and loop through the host input path.
• Watch runtime CPU and memory while interacting with a hosted editor.
• Adjust host audio settings such as output route, sample rate, buffer size, and MIDI source enablement where supported by the platform.
• Includes a built-in manual for discovery, routing, troubleshooting, and developer notes.

What AU Studio is: A focused Audio Unit host for discovering, opening, auditioning, and inspecting installed AUv3 extensions. It helps you answer practical questions: Is the unit visible? Does it load? Does it provide an interface? What busses, parameters, presets, MIDI capabilities, and state does it expose? Does MIDI reach it? Does audio pass through it?

What AU Studio is not: It is not a DAW. It does not provide multitrack recording, clip launching, timeline arrangement, piano-roll sequencing, MIDI learn, parameter automation lanes, song export, mastering tools, or a built-in synth/effect engine. AU Studio does not provide its own Audio Unit. It hosts compatible Audio Units provided by other apps and exposes host-owned routing, auditioning, and inspection tools around them.

Discovery is based on the system Audio Unit registry. If an AUv3 provider app is not installed, not enabled, or not visible to the platform, AU Studio cannot invent it. Hosted interface behavior, presets, parameter meaning, MIDI mapping, and DSP results belong to each Audio Unit.