Muse Research has announced that its UniWire audio and MIDI networking technology is now available to the public in beta form. The company is showing its UniWire technology in booth 1109 at the Winter NAMM show in Anaheim, and expects the final VST version to be released in February. The company's UniWire technology allows you to connect your Receptor hardware plug-in player directly to your laptop or desktop computer using only a single Ethernet cable, and get complete integration of MIDI, audio, and remote control data to and from the Receptor. In doing so, UniWire allows you to run your plug-ins on Receptor but control them as if they were running inside your host computer. UniWire is a free upgrade to all Receptor customers, and is compatible with most VST hosts on either the Mac or PC.
UniWire lets you run plug-ins on Receptor as if they were in your host computer
Receptor has established itself as an ideal way to use plug-ins in a live performance situation while needing to avoid the unpredictability of standard computers. Now with UniWire, it is possible to leverage that power and stability in the studio, allowing you to distribute the processing load between your host computer and one or more Receptors.
Essentially, UniWire serves as a way of running plug-ins inside of Receptor, but allowing you to control them as if they were running inside your computer. UniWire consists of a host computer plug-in created by Muse Research and a software upgrade to Receptor that enables the UniWire networking capabilities of Receptor. UniWire provides you with 32-channels of audio between your computer and Receptor using a standard 100baseT network connection, as well as providing each plug-in with its own MIDI port (16 channels). Additionally, Receptor's Remote control software lets you view and control Receptor's graphical user interface over Ethernet using your host computer.
UniWire: unified, complete integration over a single cable.
To enable UniWire on your computer, simply install the UniWire plug-in (available free to all registered Receptor customers) and then connect a Receptor to your Ethernet network. The plug-in will automatically recognize all the Receptors on the network, and once assigned, all you need to do is either assign MIDI data or audio tracks to that plug-in with your host software. The UniWire plug-in will transfer the audio or MIDI data over to Receptor where it is processed or created, and the audio results are sent back over Ethernet and delivered just as if it were a native plug-in running inside your computer. Since most audio / MIDI sequencers provide automatic plug-in delay compensation, the audio results will come back perfectly in sync with the rest of your project. It's as if your computer just got remarkably more powerful just by adding on a Receptor and installing the UniWire plug-in.
Distributed processing made easy… need more power? Just add more Receptors!
Computer animation companies have long used the notion of distributed processing where high-load CPU tasks are shared among multiple CPUs in a network. With Receptor and UniWire, it is possible to use a network of Receptors as a computational array, dividing the plug-ins among the various Receptors and having the results all returned to the host over Ethernet. And UniWire is completely network aware, meaning that you have access to all Receptors throughout a production facility, allowing you to access any units that are idle for use in a central location.
Of course, each Receptor is still an entirely independent, stand-alone plug-in player, therefore it can be used locally either with the front panel controls, a local mouse, keyboard, and monitor, or using a local computer connected to Receptor over Ethernet.
