Any hope for us Mac guys?

[Dr.J]

With the upcoming version of Breakaway Live, you’re starting to infringe into the world of DBX DriveRacks. If the newest version pans out, I would consider a fair value at around $2,000 per unit. This would undercut the closest competitor but still provide a great value to those running multi-speaker systems. I would also look at a computer controlled processor, eliminating all but the basic front panel controls.

[Leif]

quote :

With the upcoming version of Breakaway Live, you’re starting to infringe into the world of DBX DriveRacks.

Absolutely. In most cases, you’ll be able to just run Breakavay Live instead.

quote :

If the newest version pans out, I would consider a fair value at around $2,000 per unit. This would undercut the closest competitor but still provide a great value to those running multi-speaker systems. I would also look at a computer controlled processor, eliminating all but the basic front panel controls.

That would indeed be a bargain! Unfortunately, economic realities make it very difficult. When writing software, I can through everything but the kitchen sink in there with very little penalty. I did not write the Speaker EQ code specifically for this project, in fact I wrote those modules years ago! Adding it in was really just a matter of writing the user interface.

Hardware is different. To do it in hardware, you’d have to actually ADD physical things to do it! More DSPs, more I/O etc etc. You don’t have heaps of CPU power left over like you do in a PC.

Here’s an idea for you. Buy or build a cheap PC with 7.1 on-board audio. Install Windows XP. Install Breakaway Live. Install nothing else. There’s your speaker controller, for well under $1000.

///Leif

[Anonymous]

So… still no hope for us Mac guys then…?

😥

[Leif]

Mayasecret, I’m not sure what to tell you. The simple truth is that if I was to switch platforms today, it would take me at least a couple of years of hardcore work to get anywhere near proficient as a programmer on the mac, and then a couple of years to build any kind of decent code base.. That’s four years. And during those four years, I would not be able to do any actual work (i.e. develop products) — development would stand completely still while I arbitrarily change platforms..

Just for reference — the Breakaway *core* is not four years old yet.. I wrote it in 2006, so that makes it three years old. It has received several major upgrades since then, and I’ve done a multitude of projects around it — several for Linear Acoustic, the four public Breakaway products (personal, live, broadcast, broadcast asio), a karaoke jukebox, and 20 other things I can’t think of at the moment..

I get too many new ideas all the time to have that kind of time to spend idle. I’m afraid I’m gonna be stuck in Windows for the foreseeable future.

///Leif

[Anonymous]

[quote author=”Leif”]

quote :

With the upcoming version of Breakaway Live, you’re starting to infringe into the world of DBX DriveRacks.

Absolutely. In most cases, you’ll be able to just run Breakavay Live instead.

quote :

If the newest version pans out, I would consider a fair value at around $2,000 per unit. This would undercut the closest competitor but still provide a great value to those running multi-speaker systems. I would also look at a computer controlled processor, eliminating all but the basic front panel controls.

That would indeed be a bargain! Unfortunately, economic realities make it very difficult. When writing software, I can through everything but the kitchen sink in there with very little penalty. I did not write the Speaker EQ code specifically for this project, in fact I wrote those modules years ago! Adding it in was really just a matter of writing the user interface.

Hardware is different. To do it in hardware, you’d have to actually ADD physical things to do it! More DSPs, more I/O etc etc. You don’t have heaps of CPU power left over like you do in a PC.

Here’s an idea for you. Buy or build a cheap PC with 7.1 on-board audio. Install Windows XP. Install Breakaway Live. Install nothing else. There’s your speaker controller, for well under $1000.

///Leif[/quote]

The thing is that DSPs powerful enough to run BA Live are very cheap and nothing beats the reliability and ‘just works’ aspect of dedicated hardware, not to mention very fast boot times. I’d tell you to look at Leif’s demo of BA on a Sharc board but it appears he’s removed it. Given everything I’ve seen looking into this it appears as though a 2 channel hardware device can be sold profitably for far less than $2000 and that is even with a small color display for the GUI. It would just take deep pockets and cooperation from all parties involved to make it happen.

Stuart

[Leif]

I agree Stuart, it’s feasible possible to run just the Breakaway core, like we were talking about. But, Dr. J mentioned speaker management, like you’ll be getting for free on the windows version of Breakaway Live. It’s just not that easy to do it in hardware. Just imagine how many biquads we have to run to implement all the parametric eqs for all the possible speaker outputs.. Eight outputs, up to twelve PEQs for each, plus 6 bands of loudness-eq which must also be applied to each.. So that’s 18 by 8 = 144 biquads. That’s NOTHING for a cpu, but you’ll probably burn several DSPs on it. The whole "DSPs are better than CPUs for digital signal processing" has not been true since the late 90s. (Coming from the guy who implemented a 5-band compressor in a Cyrix 6×86 133 MHz in 1997) 😀.

///Leif

[Anonymous]

[quote author=”Leif”]I agree Stuart, it’s feasible possible to run just the Breakaway core, like we were talking about. But, Dr. J mentioned speaker management, like you’ll be getting for free on the windows version of Breakaway Live. It’s just not that easy to do it in hardware. Just imagine how many biquads we have to run to implement all the parametric eqs for all the possible speaker outputs.. Eight outputs, up to twelve PEQs for each, plus 6 bands of loudness-eq which must also be applied to each.. So that’s 18 by 8 = 144 biquads. That’s NOTHING for a cpu, but you’ll probably burn several DSPs on it. The whole "DSPs are better than CPUs for digital signal processing" has not been true since the late 90s. (Coming from the guy who implemented a 5-band compressor in a Cyrix 6×86 133 MHz in 1997) 😀.

///Leif[/quote]

Okay so how much more demanding is the new BA Live on a CPU usage basis than the current version?

How much is reasonable for a 2 channel hardware version of the current version of BA Live?

Stuart

[Anonymous]

Dear Breakaway Team,

First, I cannot believe that I have finally come to a place where I can make contact with the creator of Volume Logic for iTunes (Mac). I have been absolutely pulling my hair out in frustration over the fact that VL is dead since I upgraded from OS X Tiger to SL (it won’t accept my registration info from 2007). I have been tracking the Volume Logic Wikipedia page religiously on a weekly basis hoping to find some news about a fix or a new version or something completely new. Tonight, I discovered that the wiki added a blurb about Breakaway Audio Enhancer for Windows, and provided the link, which led me here.

With that said, I want to express how much I loved VL and I still use it in extended demo mode (15 minutes) from time to time just to remember how great my music and movies sounded when played through iTunes.

Since switching to Snow Leopard, I desperately needed a replacement for VL… I searched high and low, asked many questions on various mac message boards… the only solution I could come up with was to use a program called Hear. I have been using Hear for a few months… and I have to say, I find it to be quite awful (no offense to the creators of that app) compared to Volume Logic. What I really hate about Hear is that it’s AGC/limiter/compressor function does not seem to work near as well as VL did. I wanted Hear to raise the level of the soft sounds to a reasonable level, and keep the really harsh high levels to a reasonable level. VL did this perfectly, plus VL also did some magic to make everything sound completely alive and kicking. Also, Hear has all these bells and whistles that I just don’t need or want… I just want the simplicity of VL back for iTunes… even if it is an entirely new program that works on whole system audio, and not just iTunes… I don’t care… as long as it is created once again by the great Leif and his team.

Leif, I beg of you… please Sir… would you please think about revisiting the Mac platform once again. I know from my research that VL was one of the most revered and most missed applications for Mac audiophiles, home theater users, or just anyone who tried your program and fell in love with it by chance. It was the best program for doing what it was designed to do, and nothing else… not Hear or the SRS iWow apps comes close to matching the sonic perfection that Volume Logic once provided me.

Please, if you ever had any doubt in your mind that VL was not popular or desired by Mac users, listen to me when I say that it is quite the opposite and that there is a big demand to have a fully supported VL back in action.

VL was the best… I think your work is tremendous, and I really hope you strongly consider supporting Mac again very very very soon!

Thank you for your time in reading this.

Sincerely,

Patrick

[JesseG]

There actually IS a port getting worked on for OSX. Not sure on the status since the guy originally working on it has had some health problems recently, but it’s *maybe* in the process of getting ported by another friend of Leif’s that *might* be moving into the area where he lives in Thailand now.

So… maybe visit back once every few weeks, and check it out. Don’t click a hole in your refresh button too large. 8)

[Anonymous]

I, too, would love Breakaway for Mac. Volume Logic was the best app I ever used on the Mac. It simply did what it said it would do, elegantly at that.

[Anonymous]

I registered here just to request a VL-like product for max OSX. It was one of the first software products I bought on my Mac and it made listening to music on my desktop speakers a remarkable experience. Please bring it back!

[MIX724]

i don’t like cracks but ‘ll be your solution a this moment.

Gr,

Ma

[Anonymous]

I used VL on my Mac for years. I was very unhappy when it was dropped. I hope you will soon release a version of Breakaway Audio Enhancer that will run on Mac OS X (10.6.3).

[Anonymous]

Have you tried this? You need version 1.3.2L for this.:

Quit iTunes
Download iWOW (updated for Leopard) Demo and install
Quit iTunes or dont start iTunes….
Drag the iWOW plugin out of /Library/Audio/Plug-ins/HAL/ to the desktop
Ctrl Click iWOW plugin (show package contents)
Goto Contents/MacOS/ (you should see iTea.)
Ctrl Click VolumeLogic plugin (show package contents)
Goto Contents/MacOS/ (you should see iTea.)
Replace the iTea located in the Volume Logic plugin with the one from iWOW on the desktop.
Download the Latest eSR SDK
Mount the eSellerate Embedded SDK and look in the "eSellerate Libs" folder for "EWSMacCompress.tar.gz"
Go to /Library/Audio/Plug-ins/HAL/VolumeLogic.plugin
Ctrl click and choose "Show Package contents" and open the folder "Resources"
Replace the "EWSMacCompress.tar.gz" with the one from the eSR SDK dmg you just mounted

That did the trick for me. But I too hope that Breakaway will soon be available for Mac. There is for me no alternative yet to VL.

[Anonymous]

I feel like I could have written most of these posts myself. I too feel so strongly about my love for Volume Logic and so on. I’ve been able to keep it running over the years somehow, but with each new iteration of iTunes I fear I’m going to lose it and it makes me dread upgrades.

So, please add my voice to the chorus who wants a Mac version of Breakaway. It really seems like an ideal thing, since it’s annoying to me that only iTunes gets to benefit from Volume Logic, but my whole system would be improved by Breakaway. I can imagine how the Preference Pane would work now. I’d want to exclude certain apps, but most I would want to include for sure.

Fingers crossed it manages to find release sometime!

[Author]

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