Virtual rack software keeps tabs on Audio Unit plug-ins on the Mac

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — Audiofile Engineering, a premier developer of audio solutions for the Mac, has recently acquired Rax version 2 software from PLASQ, makers of Comic Life and other software tools. Rax is intuitive virtual rack software for Mac OS X. It enables musicians to easily organize and control their Audio Units plug-ins via a 16 channel virtual mixer and 25 virtual effects racks in a streamlined user interface with powerful on stage performance features.

“We are very proud of the work we have done in Rax,” said Cris Pearson, plasq CEO and Designer. “With our changing focus from audio to visual, Rax needed a new home to continue this work. Audiofile Engineering is the perfect place.”

A high contrast user interface makes it easy to see and control Rax while on stage. Each knob now features a pop-up “value bezel” which makes it easy to see the precise values of each parameter. The OnStage feature makes the important stuff big, and hides the rest. Organize racks into songs, and songs into sets. Build set lists and control them via MIDI and the Apple Remote for a seamless live performance.

Rax also boasts Visualizer support to assign and control a visualizer for each song in a set using MIDI and audio within Rax. Low CPU, high quality visualizers are supplied with Rax or users can make their own with the free Quartz Composer application included with OS X 10.4 – which is the engine powering Rax’s visualizers. Rax leverage the power of the computer’s GPU while the CPU processes audio.

“As one of the few, pure Cocoa audio applications developed at the time, Rax was a major inspiration for us in creating Audiofile Engineering,” said Audiofile’s Matthew Foust. “We’re absolutely thrilled to now have it as part of our catalogue.”

Rax is Universal Binary and is designed to take advantage of the power in the new CoreDuo based laptops, with the two cores working independently on visuals and audio.

Key Features
* Set and Song Support
* Control via Apple Remote
* MIDI file playback
* Notepad for each song
* 16 channel mixer
* 25 effects racks
* Live audio inputs
* Easy Audio Unit Preset Management
* One click recording
* High Contrast UI with OnStage fullscreen view
* Visualizer support with low CPU usage

RAX 2 is priced at $50. Download a 15 day demo at:
http://www.audiofile-engineering.com/rax.php.

About Audiofile Engineering
Audiofile Engineering is redefining the standards for Mac OS X audio software. Audiofile Engineering develops applications exclusively for Mac OS X and is leading the industry by creating audio tools for Macintosh-based audio professionals that fully utilize all of the core technologies in Mac OS X.

[tags]Audiofile Engineering, audio solutions for the Mac, Rax version 2 software, PLASQ software tools, virtual rack software for Mac OS X[/tags]