ARC 4.0.0
We've been playing back the same commercial reference track in Cubase Pro 13.0.30 and Logic 11.0 with no plugins other than ARC4 on a bus sending to the stereo out. This is on a higher end Intel Mac running MacOS 13.6.7 (Ventura). Both DAWs use the same interface and the peak levels exactly match in both mixers during playback.
We noticed the audio output from the 4.0.0 AU plugin is markedly different (as in worse) compared to the 4.0.0 VST plugin. In the audio output from the AU plugin, bass/low end is missing, the audio is muffled and high end is lacking. We rendered the same audio excerpt to files in both DAWs with ARC engaged and then did the null test on the files. The 2 files do not null and the difference signal is not noise but clearly part of the audio (high end). The rendered files do however null when ARC is removed from the DAW mixers.
That led us to look at the reported latencies. Those are also different even though both the AU and VST plugins load the same setting derived from our measurements.
4.0.0 plugin, Logic = 53 samples (0 seconds)
4.0.0 plugin, Cubase = 11 ms (but sometimes 0.6 ms)
So we added 11 ms of latency in front of the AU plugin in Logic. Now the audio output from the AU plugin in Logic sounds closer to what the VST plugin in Cubase produces. Finally we ended up using the BlueCat audio Patchwork plugin to run the VST version of the ARC4 plugin in Logic. That produced the best audible match w.r.t Cubase compared to the hack of manually dialing latency into Logic.
It's not clear from the above numbers that either the AU or VST ARC plugins correctly report latency to the DAW, i.e., the readout in both DAWs may be incorrect.
ARC 4.0.1
The 4.0.1 plugin seems to change the bass response and clarity of the audio output for both the VST and AU plugin. The good news is the audio output from both plugins now sounds much the same. However 4.0.1 introduces a new issue; the audio output of both plugins changes noticeably after stopping and starting playback a few times in either DAW.
Manually re-loading the same preset in the ARC 4.0.1 plugin initially produces more bass and less high end compared to the 4.0.0 plugin. But after looping an audio section or starting/stopping playback a few times in either DAW, the bass response in the 4.0.1 plugin drops off and subsequently there is improved mid/high end. The audio output stays this way until the ARC plugin preset is manually re-loaded a few times - which brings back the bass'centric response.
For consistency, we went back to using the 4.0.0 VST version of the plugin in both DAWs.
The above has been filed in a support ticket, but so far no response.
