Following the recent decision by iZotope not to update the older Exponential Audio reverb plugins to run natively on Apple Silicon, some users have been bemoaning the loss of these excellent reverbs and what they will need to do with their projects. However, this isn’t the first time users have felt abandoned by software developers pulling the plug on products. In this article, we look at the broader reasons developers discontinue software and offer some practical advice on how to best protect yourself from this.

A Total Recall Problem

The problem is that we have become dependent on being able to recall a DAW session including all the plugin settings - total recall. This requires that we still have access to all the plugins we used in a session that we may have created many years ago.

In audio history, this is a relatively recent problem (especially if you are as old as me). It all started before DAWs were around. SSL introduced Total Recall on the SL4000E console in 1981. Total Recall enabled the user to save and recall the settings of every rotary control, switch across every console channel, and store it in a dedicated computer. When recalling, the display shows the position of the knob and where to re-set it to. SSL’s Total Recall enabled bands to mix in different studios, and as long as they had a tape machine and an SSL with Total Recall, they could re-create their mix exactly.

As DAW developed the concept of total recall became much easier as now everything was in software, rather than having to track hardware controls and so we have come to depend on being able to recall sessions with a couple of clicks of the mouse. But it only works if you still have the DAW software and all the plugins used in the session. As you will see, there are several reasons why plugins and other software might become unavailable.

Brand Acquisitions

The first reason we are going to look at is brand acquisitions. There have been a couple of acquisitions in the recent past that are good examples of how an acquisition can result in plugins becoming unavailable.

Back in February 2022, we reported that Meta, the parent company of Facebook, announced that it had acquired Greek audio plugin developer Accusonus in a deal valued between €70 and €100 million. At the time of writing, the Accusonus website is still live with a home page announcing…

“Thanks for your support!

Accusonus is embarking on a new adventure!

We are grateful for your support throughout our journey!

If you have purchased an Accusonus product before March 4, check out our FAQs.”

Digging around the FAQ pages one of the questions is - Can I still use the ERA Bundle and Voice Changer?

“We will sunset the ERA Bundle products and Voice Changer early next year. Until then, we will be releasing compatibility updates and offering email support to any existing customers.

You will still be able to use the ERA Bundle products even after next year; however, we will not be providing support, maintenance and updates.

The products will stay at the final version of ERA 6.2.00 & Voice Changer 1.3.10, so no further product development will take place. Thus, the plug-ins will not be tested in newer systems (Windows and Apple OS) or when compatible DAWs/NLEs are updated.”

But why would Meta spend between €70 and €100 million on a small plugin developer? Although very little has been published on what plans Meta has, it is clear that they have not bought the plugins, as clever as they are, they have bought the intellectual property and the skills of the very clever people behind them - CEO, Alex Tsilfidis and CTO, Elias Kokkinis.

As a result, of this acquisition, effectively, Accusonus is no more, yes existing owners and subscribers can continue to use their Accusonus tools, but there will no longer be developed or kept up to date. Users are effectively on their own. With the ongoing development of the computers and operating systems, it won’t be long before owners can no longer use some or all of their Accusonus software and plugins.

But this isn’t the only time the social media platform has got involved with an acquisition of an audio software developer. Back in 2017, Facebook bought immersive audio company Two Big Ears, and as a result, bizarrely they made their newly acquired technology free as a part of their Facebook 360 Spatial Workshop.

However, in May 2022, Facebook announced this on the Facebook 360 Spatial Workstation Facebook Group…

“We began providing the Audio360 suite (the Spatial Workstation and Rendering SDK) for free to external and internal developers and sound designers in 2016, and the suite of audio authoring plugins has been used to create 3D immersive spatial audio for thousands of immersive videos, from scrappy student projects to Emmy Award-winning work such as Henry. We provided the suite for free to ensure that content creators had excellent and easy-to-use authoring tools at a time when such tools were a rarity.

Fast forward almost six years, and this need is now abundantly served. Many alternatives now exist, including Dear Reality dearVR PRO, Blue Ripple, NoiseMakers, AudioEase, the IEM Plugin Suite and Gaudio Lab Works. In short, the need for our Audio360 suite has been obviated by the emergence of a vibrant ecosystem of tools.

For this reason, we’re today sharing with you that our support for the Audio360 suite will end on May 16, 2022. After this time, the suite will no longer be available for download, and our direct support of the suite will end. However, the team will continue supporting external downloads of the Audio360 Encoder application for preparing 360 videos for upload to Facebook, and it will be available on Windows and macOS for the foreseeable future.

The Audio360 Encoder (currently part of the Spatial Workstation package) will be independently available for download on or before May 16, 2022. We anticipate that it will work with an ordinary installation of ffmpeg.”

It is interesting to see from the comments to this post that despite Facebook’s suggestion there are now enough alternatives to their free tools, users are asking that the software be made open-source so that the community can keep it alive, especially as several comments suggest that there are still things that only the Facebook 360 Spatial Workstation can do.

Will Facebook agree to this? We doubt it. They bought the Intellectual property and experience from the clever people behind Two Big Ears and opening up the software will be effectively giving away the intellectual property they spent money acquiring.

Moving onto iZotope’s acquisition of Exponential Audio back in April 2019, the announcement said…

“The acquisition of the Exponential Audio product line which include the R4, PhoenixVerb Surround and Symphony.”

What iZotope bought was the intellectual property and Michael Carnes’ knowledge and experience. It was clear that iZotope chose to acquire the iZotope product line to fill a gap in their product range - reverbs and then to develop their own take on reverbs with products like Neoverb and Dialog Match.

With the Exponential Audio acquisition, all the products were moved to iZotope, meaning that Exponential Audio plugins continued to be supported, albeit by iZotope rather than Exponential Audio. However, as we reported recently, there a number of the Exponential Audio products will not be supported natively on Apple Silicon powered computers when iZotope posted this on their Facebook page…

“Stratus and Symphony will be patched for M1 Native support later this year. All other EA (Exponential Audio) products will not be patched and will only run in Rosetta mode.”

This has caused some consternation amongst loyal Exponential Audio users who want to switch to an Apple Silicon powered computer, but if they do, ultimately they will no longer be able to use their favourite reverb plugins.

A Common Thread

There are some interesting parallels between these three acquisition examples. They were all about intellectual property and expertise, rather than specific products, but have resulted in users no longer being able to continue to use their preferred tools and left with a choice of using different products as well as the challenges of what to do about legacy sessions. Problems that are not restricted to just these three acquisitions.

Major Hardware Changes Or Developments

History is littered with examples of where platform changes have resulted in software no longer being supported and, worse still, not working at all. Platform changes are all about the product life cycle of Introduction - Growth - Maturity - Decline.

In addition, there is no doubt that technology is moving forward at a pace. As a result, brands are constantly developing newer and better products, taking advantage of new technology meaning older technology becoming obsolete more quickly.

Alternatively, the more positive way to look at this, is what is called product iteration. For more on this, check out our article Why Do Brands Kill Off Perfectly Good Hardware? We Investigate. These hardware changes include challenges like CPU and DSP chip changes…

DSP Chip Changes

Changes in DSP chips have been one of the biggest causes of discontinued plugins and audio processing software. In the Pro Tools world, the transition from TDM/RTAS to AAX, caused by Avid’s change of DSP chips with the release of Pro Tools 11 and the HDX DSP cards in 2011, resulted in a number of plugins not making the change.

For example, plugins like Avid’s Cosmonaut Voice that was an excellent radio comms simulation tool. Then there was the dropping of Soundtoys Pitch Doctor, which my opinion, was the best pitch correction software around at the time.

However, probably the largest casualty of this platform change was the decision made by Waves not to release all their plugins in the AAX DSP format. Waves eventually decided only to support AAX Native and chose not to release any of their plugins in AAX DSP, despite having supported TDM plugins (the predecessor to AAX DSP). 

CPU Platform Changes

Over the years, we have seen changes in computer CPU platforms. With Apple, we had the change from the PowerPC processors to the Intel processors back in 2005. More recently, we are seeing some software not making the transition to running natively on Apple Silicon, like iZotope’s Exponential Audio reverb plugins.

What About You?

These are just a few examples of various changes that have resulted in discontinued audio software and plugins. Do share your experiences and the software and plugins you miss as the result of changes like brand acquisitions and changes in CPU and DSP chips.

A Common Thread

Have you noticed that there is a common thread through these situations? They are all business decisions. All software developers are businesses, they need to make a profit to continue and sometimes have to make tough decisions that will be unpopular with some of their customers.

Technology develops, and brands wanting to flourish move forward, develop and take advantage of faster, more efficient technology that is easier to use. As brands look to the future, they have to look at each product, determine where it is on the product cycle and consider if it is worth it, in business speak, will they get a return on their investment. Some brands will look at the ROI more broadly and consider how the choice will impact their brand reputation, but ultimately it has to be a financial decision.

How Do We Protect Ourselves From This?

All these occurrences will continue to happen, so we should consider how best to protect ourselves as the aim of total recall forever is an unrealistic expectation for all the above reasons.

There are some lessons we can learn from previous audio software products being discontinued. Back in 2017, Gibson, the then owners of Cakewalk announced…

"Gibson Brands announced today that it is ceasing active development and production of Cakewalk branded products. The decision was made to better align with the company’s acquisition strategy that is heavily focused on growth in the global consumer electronics audio business under the Philips brand.”

At the time, in our article The Critical Lesson All Of Us Should Learn From The Cakewalk Closure we advised Cakewalk owners not to panic, to download the latest version, consider their next move, create a moving workflow and take their time. When we widened it out to look at the lessons, all DAW users could take from Gibson's decision to drop Cakewalk, and Russ Hughes gave this advice…

“The critical lesson all of us should learn from the Cakewalk closure is don't rely on one platform. We all want to work in a streamlined fashion and keep our workflow lean, but in reality, just as relying on one client is insane, depending on one piece of software is too. Now some of you will have little choice as you work in studios or post houses with workflows built around Pro Tools. I appreciate that, but you can still learn a second DAW; if nothing else, it makes you more flexible and, in some cases, more attractive to would-be hirers. In the current employment conditions, that is a wise move. Post users might consider learning Nuendo or DaVinci Resolve 14 With Fairlight Audio.

If your workflows are less dependent on one piece of software, then I suggest, like me, you acquaint yourself with at least two DAWs. I use Pro Tools and Studio One and have a passing acquaintance with Logic and Reaper.” 

Moving away from DAWs to cloud storage, we are advised to always store all our data in 3 places, with one of those being off-site. These days off-site often means cloud storage but what happens when the cloud storage company closes down? Back in 2016, Copy, a cloud-based storage and sharing service, announced they were closing their cloud storage service, and we asked whether we should trust our sessions to the cloud.

The cloud does what it promises, enabling us to store and share data with few issues. However, features and performance are part of the story; knowing our data is safe and secure is another part. A consistent service we can build a trusted workflow around is essential for professionals.

Our advice is to do the following…

• Make sure all of your data is backed up locally on at least two physical drives.

• Don't store any sessions only in the cloud. If for no other reason what happens if you lose internet connectivity, then you can't open your session.

• Don't rely on one cloud service. All of them are trying to get your business, so use at least two services.

• Use services like Mover to copy entire cloud services between one another - this service enables you to move all your data, for example, from Box to Dropbox, in three easy steps.

But one of the easiest ways to protect ourselves is to archive our sessions.

Archive Sessions

Backing up sessions to more than one location is, of course, essential. The accepted wisdom is that backing up to three locations, one of which is off-site, is the sensible minimum. While backups happen during production, archiving fulfils a slightly different role, future-proofing access to your sessions regardless of access to any particular plug-ins or even DAW.

I am going to show you a process for burning in plugins and stems in Pro Tools, but the principles should be easily transferable to your favourite DAW.

Archive Tracks

The Commit Track feature in Pro Tools now provides a very powerful archiving workflow, enabling you to archive your session and keep all your options open. 

I am going to demonstrate it on one track, but you can repeat it on every track in the session. 

It may seem a little odd but I try always to put what is effectively a dummy plug-in in the first slot. What I mean by this is a plug-in that isn’t doing anything. This way when I use Commit up to this plug-in, what I end up with is a Consolidated track with no processing.

So in this example, I have a Trim plug-in in slot 1. In the Commit Tracks to Insert dialog window, I make sure that the top Commit option is set to Track, don’t render automation, set the Source Tracks to Do Nothing and click OK. What I end up is a track with the audio consolidated as well as the original track.

On the source track (in this example Sally Vox, create a new playlist. I name this one with the suffix ‘original’. Now holding down the Control key to constrain sideways movement, drag up the audio from the .cm track below onto the ‘original’ playlist and rename the audio file with the same suffix as the playlist, so in this case, the file is called ‘Sally Vox.original’. Now delete the empty .cm track, and bypass the first plug-in on the source track. 

Now move on to the second plug-in, select ‘Commit Up To This Insert’, in this case, Sonnox Oxford Dynamics. From now on there is no need to select Consolidate Clips as that has already been done. Commit the track to include the second plugin and create another playlist on the source track; in this case, I will use the suffix ‘Oxford Dynamics’. As before drag the committed track’s audio up onto the new playlist, delete the empty .cm track and Bypass the 2nd plug-in. 

Move onto the third and if necessary, the 4th plug-ins repeating the process until you have a playlist with a consolidated file for each plug-in. The original playlist with all the edits and plug-ins is still there too.

You can then repeat this for each track in the session.  You could also do all the first plugin slots on all tracks in one pass if you wanted to, but either way, you end up with a session where every track has multiple playlists, one for each plugin, and you still have all the plug-ins in place with their settings, but in the future, if one plug-in is not available, then you have an archive that is not dependent on that plug-in.

This technique is ideal for internal archiving so that you have access to the session at all levels depending on what you need and what plug-ins are available in the future.

Archive Stems Using Bounce 

If you use Aux tracks to create stems, then there is now a much easier way to create all the stem files often required in the Deliverable spec in audio post-production. Take a look at the session mix window above.  It is a basic TV documentary post session with Aux Tracks for each of the stems, Dialog, FXs, Music, Voiceover, and then the mix stem and M&E stem (music & effects for international reversions).

To create the stems we used to have to create record tracks fed from the aux stem tracks that took up a lot of routing and voices. Now we can use the Bounce feature to create stem files straight from the Aux stem tracks without all that complex additional routing and tracks.

Select all your Aux track stem tracks, hold down Shift+Alt and then right-click on any one of the selected tracks and choose the Bounce option.

This brings up a dialog box. From here you can choose what file format, sample rate and bit depth you need for the exported files; you can create mp3s as well as the main files if you need to.

You can set the location for the files to be placed or simply use the default Bounced Files folder inside the session folder. There is also a neat option to set the prefix that is added to the name of all the files about to be created to help maintain consistent file naming protocols. Remember to choose Offline and click the OK button to start the Bounce process. Once complete you will find all the appropriate files in the destination folder ready to be delivered.

If you are interested in this method, then do check out Julian’s excellent premium video tutorial Using Commit To Archive Pro Tools Sessions - Expert Tutorial for more detail on how to use Track Commit in Pro Tools to safely archive sessions that do not depend on still having all the plugins used in the session.

Retain A Working System To Support Out-of-date Products

Another option is to retain an old system to enable you to be able to open your old sessions with everything in place. However, this could be an expensive process to set up, although, with some planning, it could be possible to retain the old hardware, which, by that point, wouldn’t be worth that much on the second-hand market. Perhaps something to think about if opening up and reworking older projects is a likely part of your workflow. You would need to decide which is easier, maintaining an old system or archiving every session using AudioSuite rendering or Track Commit

Find Alternative Software Or Plugins

Archiving sessions by burning in plugin processing removes the possibility of depending on a discontinued plugin, but what about moving forward with new sessions? The reality is you will need to find alternatives to replace the discontinued software. 

Earlier in this article, we discussed the decision Waves made to only develop AAX Native versions of all their plugins and not to develop AAX DSP versions. At a time when DSP plugins were much more important than they are now, once the post-production community realised that Waves were not going to support AAX DSP plugins, people started to look for alternatives.

For example, in our article, Waves Plugins Post Production Users Struggle To Live Without we looked at some examples of Waves plugins that some of the post community still cannot live without, as well as examples we have found alternatives. 

Coming back to where we started, in response to our article, Exponential Audio - No Native M1 For Stereo Reverbs, there were a number of comments about finding replacements for their Exponential Audio stereo reverbs…

Frans van Nispen said “Already replaced my Exponential Audio plugins with alternatives. Got Fab Pro-R, UAD 480L, UAD Capitol Chambers and Seventh Heaven. I really liked R4 though. But look at the bright side: Two less companies to keep an eye on and pay upgrade fees for.”

Michael Costa “Last December I picked up R4 for $10. I though I'd won the lottery! It ALWAYS sounds great .... but now this (much rumoured) reality hits. Luckily Liquidsonics has taken over the mantle.”

Nate Hoffman “Phoenixverb has some of my favorite presets for post production mixing! Now to find replacements, definitely not from iZotope.”

David “I was hoping to avoid having to shell out for Cinematic Rooms by getting Phoenixverb. It's delicious, and it blends into and supports convo verbs so beautifully.

In Conclusion

There you have it. Whether we like it or not we will have to live with software and plugins being discontinued. It’s a fact of life. As with anything we cannot control, the best thing we can do is to be prepared. Like backups, they are only useful on the rare occasions we need them, which can make us complacent and not bother. But like backups, if we don’t have them and something goes wrong, then it is very difficult to resolve at best.

Our advice is to be prepared not to have access to all the plugins when you put up an old project and take the time when archiving to arrive a version of your project with the plugins burnt in, or have a fully working old system, that you can use to open up the old session.

The other takeaway is to try not to be too dependent on specific products, such that it isn’t the end of the world if you don’t have access to all the tools that have come across your desk over the years.

Whatever you choose, the mantra here is to be prepared.