Details about packaging and distributing your AAX plug-ins.
Contents
The finishing touches
You've completed your main development work and your new AAX plug-in is nearly ready to ship! Now it's time to put the polish on your release.
Check and finalize page tables
After development has completed on your plug-in, we recommend that you check and finalize the plug-in's page tables using the
Page Table Editor tool. It can be easy to forget to update the plug-in's page tables after making changes to the plug-in's list of parameters or to other aspects of the plug-in during development. To check for problems, open and view the plug-in's page tables for every layout in the editor app. Verify that the plug-in parameters are arranged properly for each control surface and that the list of available parameters in each layout is correct.
Correct and complete page tables are an important part of the user experience for many AAX plug-in users, and your users will appreciate your attention to detail here!
Create factory presets
Each AAX plug-in may be bundled with a set of factory presets. These presets will be made available to users through the host application's plug-in preset management UI.
Plug-in factory presets are stored as .tfx settings files. These files can be generated from any AAX host application which supports plug-in preset management. For example, in Pro Tools it is possible to create a new .tfx settings file by following these steps:
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Create an instance of your plug-in in a Pro Tools session
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Manually apply the desired preset settings
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Choose "Save Settings As..." from the Presets drop-down menu in the plug-in window header
Once you have saved your desired factory presets as .tfx files onto your system you can package them with your plug-in bundle in *.aaxplugin/Contents/Factory Presets. Any presets found in this directory will be copied to the plug-in settings location for the running instance of Pro Tools when Pro Tools scans the plug-in on launch. See
.aaxplugin Directory Structure for more information about supported sub-directories within the .aaxplugin bundle.
The feature for automatically copying factory presets from the .aaxplugin bundle to the plug-in settings directory on the user's system is supported by Pro Tools 11 and later and by all versions of Media Composer with AAX plug-in support.
Plug-in installers for 32-bit plug-ins supporting Pro Tools 10.3.5 and earlier must copy the settings to the plug-in settings folder when the plug-in is installed.
These are the paths for plug-in settings used by Pro Tools and Media Composer versions which support 32-bit AAX plug-ins:
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Mac: /Library/Application Support/Digidesign/Plug-In Settings
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Win: C:\Program Files(x86)\Common Files\Digidesign\DAE\Plug-In Settings
The default paths for plug-in settings used by Pro Tools and Media Composer versions which support 64-bit AAX plug-ins are provided below. However, you should not use these paths in your installers since they may be customized using the host application's preferences (for example, the "User Media and Settings Location" preference in Pro Tools.) Instead, use the Factory Preset bundling system described above for installing presets for 64-bit plug-ins.
Default plug-in settings locations for 64-bit
AAX plug-in hosts:
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Mac: ~/Documents/Pro Tools/Plug-In Settings
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Win: C:\[user folder path]\Documents\Pro Tools\Plug-In Settings
For more information about using plug-in presets in the various AAX hosts, see the following pages in the documentation for each host:
Sign your plug-in
Pro Tools requires that all AAX plug-ins be signed with a digital signature. The certificate authority for this signature is PACE Anti-Piracy, Inc. and all AAX plug-ins for Pro Tools must be signed with the digital signing tools from PACE. See the
Digital signature section in the
Pro Tools Guide for more information about this requirement.
Building your plug-in installer
Your plug-in installer should place all .aaxplugin bundles into the system's AAX Plug-Ins directory:
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OS X: /Library/Application Support/Avid/Audio/Plug-Ins
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Windows (32-bit plug-ins): C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Avid\Audio\Plug-Ins
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Windows (64-bit plug-ins): C:\Program Files\Common Files\Avid\Audio\Plug-Ins
This directory is searched recursively, so AAX plug-ins may be installed into sub-directories. For example, you may install all AAX plug-ins into a new sub-directory labelled with your manufacturer name.
Installing Track Presets
The Track Presets feature in Pro Tools allows users to recall entire tracks, or entire sets of tracks, and to add specific track data such as insert chains, sends, and routing. For example, if a user doesn't know in advance what vocal chain they may want to use, they can begin tracking, and then instantiate a whole set of inserts with stored settings from an existing track preset by clicking on an insert selector and finding that preset.
You are encouraged to create your own track presets and provide them to users in your installers. For example, if you sell plug-in bundles then you may wish to provide users with Track Presets demonstrating useful combinations of multiple plug-ins from the bundle, or if your plug-ins involve some "boilerplate" routing configuration then you can provide a multi-track Track Preset with this routing already established.
Track Presets are stored in the Pro Tools documents folder. Use these locations for default installation
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Mac ~/Documents/Pro Tools/Track Presets
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PC: C:\Users\[username]\Documents\Pro Tools\Track Presets
This location is indexed automatically by Pro Tools.
All of the Track Preset files which you install should be added to a folder with the name of your company. This will ensure that your Track Presets appear as expected in the preset menus in Pro Tools:
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Pro Tools Documents Folder
A default tags dictionary is available from the
My Toolkits and Downloads page at avid.com. These are not the only tags you can use, but any of these that you do use will be increasing the value and usability of the default set included with Avid products. Using this shared dictionary will ensure that your users can quickly find your Track Presets.
Workflow Considerations
Testing your plug-in
The AAX Plug-In Burnthrough Grid document describes a number of test cases and workflows for multiple AAX plug-in hosts. This document is available for download as part of the AAX SDK Toolkit on the
My Toolkits and Downloads page at avid.com.
Selling your plug-in
Avid Marketplace
Avid may offer to sell your compatible products through our online store. We offer test tools and support services that will help you get your products to market with the highest quality whether you decide to offer them through our online store or independently. Registered developers can further register as Sellers, then work with Avid to add their solutions to the online store. Please visit your My Avid account and go to "My Developer Account" then to "Access Seller Portal" to explore this program or write to
partners@avid.com for more information.
Get your AAX Plug-In ready for sale on Avid Marketplace by following these steps:
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Explore the Avid Webstore - Review the Avid Webstore description and learn about this valuable and expanding offering. E-mail us at partners@avid.com with your questions.
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Sign up - Register as a Seller (sometimes referred to as a "vendor") by following the link from the "My Developer Account" page and selecting "Access the Seller Portal."
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Prepare your submission - Gather the plug-in and other information required to onboard as described in the Onboarding FAQ. Your experience will be easier if you collect these items in advance.
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Send us your Product - Submit your products and other required information for testing and publication on the Avid Store!
In-App Purchase
In-App Purchase provides a direct path to purchase your products from directly within the AAX host application. For example, when a user opens a session which contains unavailable plug-ins, In-App Purchase can be used to prompt the user to purchase the plug-ins immediately.
See
this article for more information about how to add support for In-App Purchase to your on-boarded AAX plug-ins. Additional documentation regarding In-App Purchase is available under the "In-App Purchase Tools" section of the
AAX SDK Toolkit downloads page in your avid.com account.