At the 2018 NAMM Show, Celemony announced version 2 of the ARA (Audio Random Access) plug-in extension.
The ARA interface extension allows plug-ins and DAWs to communicate more comprehensively with one another, so that they can work together more efficiently. Now Celemony is announcing a new version, ARA 2, which has even greater possibilities.
With ARA 2, the exchange of information between DAWs and plug-ins is more comprehensive, which makes additional applications possible. The new ARA 2 specification allows the simultaneous editing of multiple tracks, the transfer of chord track information between the DAW and the plug-in, seamless clip borders that make the manual setting of crossfades superfluous, Undo interlocking with the DAW, and more. The features then become available depend upon the specific plug-in and DAW.
ARA 2 is now in beta-testing, but several companies have announce plans for support, including:
- Presonus is working on a version of Studio One, featuring the new technology;
- Cockos has announced ARA 2 integration for Reaper.
- Apple is supporting ARA with its Logic Pro X 10.4.
It’s not clear to me what the implications of this are. It is intriguing that new functionality can be offered with this.
Numerology’s developer is often running into limitations with how plugins are hosted and what can’t and can’t be done between DAW and plugin. I suspect he’ll be looking at this pretty carefully