Juno Ju-X has announced the release of Hosting AU, a simple freeware Mac digital audio workstation which hosts AU plugins.
Hosting AU microDAW is a micro-sized Digital Audio Workstation for Mac OS X that hosts Audio Unit synth and effect plugins, comes with 4ch+1 mixer with ext-audio input, 24-bit recorder, Music-Typing kind of feature called “LazyKey”.
On the developer’s website, the application is marketed as the simplest DAW available today. Unfortunately, I’m not able to test Hosting AU because I’m a Windows user, but it certainly looks like a rather unique freeware tool for people who work with AU plugins.
So, why would one need a simple DAW such as this one? Applications of this kind are definitely useful for testing new plugins. Most of the time, you don’t really need to fire up your main DAW in order to test a new freeware plugin you’ve downloaded, since perhaps you just want to browse through the presets quickly. Programs such as this one are useful for such purposes, making it possible to easily test new plugins.
Also, when you have a musical idea in your head, a simple program such as this one can be used to record it as a quick reminder. You can load it up later on and start a new project in your main plugin host. I sometime use MuLab for this purpose, since I like the quick workflow it provides, as well as fast loading times which are a big plus when you need to work fast.
Hosting AU features a four channel mixer with the additional master channel. Each channel can host AU plugin chains. Basically, you can think of it as a 4-track recorder for the modern age. A simple tool which you can use to record new musical ideas. The program also has a ridiculously small footprint, taking only 500 kB of hard drive space.
Find more similar applications for Windows and Mac in our list of free VST plugin hosts.
Download
Hosting AU is available for free download via Juno Ju-X (389 kB download size, ZIP archive, standalone application for Mac OSX and above).
