Changelog
What changed,
version by version.
Every version of Shadow Rack: what's new, what works better, what we fixed - and whether you can install it right before a show.
One app, three modules
Shadow Rack is now one app with parts you buy separately: Rack FX, Rack IEM and the WING Extension. You activate it once on each Mac, it checks the licence in the background, and it never switches anything off in the middle of a show.
New6
- ALLModules – Rack FX (the plugins), Rack IEM (the in-ears) and the WING Extension. Without Rack IEM there's no IEM layer; without Rack FX the app is the in-ears only; without the WING Extension a WING is an audio interface like any other.
- ALLActivation – the first start opens an activation window: Activate in the browser signs you in at shadowrack.eu and activates this Mac; a Mac without internet is activated with two files. Three Macs per licence.
- ALLThe licence is checked at every start – in the background. Shadow Rack starts at once with the licence stored on the Mac and only asks shadowrack.eu afterwards. Without internet it works for 60 days.
- ALLSetup > Licence – who the licence is for, this Mac, and every module with a switch: you can switch a module off on this Mac (it takes effect after a restart), Check again after you buy more, and Deactivate this Mac frees its seat.
- ALLYou hear at once when a licence is taken away – deactivated on the website, refunded or revoked: the app tells you, keeps running, and asks for activation at the next start.
- ALLThe names – Shadow Rack is the whole system; the logo reads SHADOW RACK with the module in red.
Known issues4
- IEMDistance from the head changes the picture, but not the sound yet.
- IEMChanges in the in-ears can't be undone; ⌘Z undoes the rack's last step.
- IEMDROPS in the IEM layer resets the rack's counter.
- WINGWithout the WING Extension, Setup still shows the WING control section and calls a WING "The Wing over USB".
Docs written for this version
Modules: FX, IEM and WINGActivating Shadow RackLicence: this Mac and its modulesVersions and updatesRack IEM: 3D in-ear mixes
The in-ears join the rack. Every musician hears the band placed around their head – the drummer behind, the guitar on the left – and sets their own mix from their phone. And a few things for the rack: the WING's knobs follow the EQ band you touch, and many more channel names get the right icon.
New15
- IEM3D in-ear mixes – every source placed around the head (direction, height, width) and played binaurally into the musician's in-ears; 3D, STEREO or MONO to compare.
- IEMThe IEM layer – FX | IEM on the top bar (⌘3), with MUSICIANS, MIX and SOURCES.
- IEMAn engine of its own – the in-ears run in a separate process. If it ever crashes, a guard brings it back in a fraction of a second, and it keeps playing while Shadow Rack restarts.
- IEMROOM – early reflections and a short tail for each musician, so the band sounds around the head, not inside it.
- IEMThe rack's channels in the in-ears – after their plugins, so the singer hears the same vocal as the PA.
- IEMThe scene and a small mixer on MIX – the source you pick gets a big panel (direction seen from above, height from the side), and LEVELS shows the level of every source in this musician's mix.
- IEMStereo pairs as one instrument – both sides move together, Alt-drag sets the width.
- IEMMusicians' phones – each musician sets their own mix on their phone: a page served by the in-ear engine, a QR code to open it, nothing to install.
- IEMWorks with any interface – + INPUT picks the interface's inputs by their own names.
- IEMIcons and colours for musicians and sources, like on the rack's channels.
- IEMThe session holds everything – the in-ear mixes too; New session starts from scratch.
- WINGRack IEM on a WING – desk channels heard raw in the in-ears next to the rack's channels; each musician's USB return named, coloured and set to stereo on the desk.
- WINGThe knobs follow your EQ – the WING's FX knobs follow the EQ band you touch in the plugin's window (Waves F6, FabFilter Pro-Q 3 / 4): that band's FREQ, GAIN, Q, and DYN (Pro-Q) or RANGE (F6).
- FXSetup > MIDI – the WING control switch with its status, and any other MIDI controller: the connected ones, + LEARN, the list of what's learnt.
- FXSetup > About – the version and when it was built, this Mac, the interface with its sample rate and buffer, and a report to copy for support.
Improved2
- FXIcons from channel names – about 560 words and phrases instead of about 120, Polish and English, desk abbreviations included.
- FXThe New York SEND marker – drag it back to exactly where AUTO would put it, and AUTO comes back on.
Fixed3
- ALLShadow Rack crashed after New session (and at every start after that).
- FXThe tablet showed a white page after Shadow Rack restarted.
- IEMNEW LINK showed the old QR code and address.
Docs written for this version
Rack IEMMusiciansOne musician's mixSourcesThe musicians' phonesRack IEM on a WINGThe WING joins the rack
Shadow Rack learns to talk to a Behringer WING: routing in one press, a safety switch on the desk, the desk's names and colours, and the desk's custom controls running the rack. The rack itself gets a mixer, New York buses, sidechain and a tablet remote.
New21
- WINGRouting the way the desk shows it – every WING channel, aux, bus, main and matrix, laid out like the desk's own routing pages: banks of 8, the signal path, the USB pages. One press of RACK puts a channel through the rack.
- WINGThe safety switch – the desk's ALT switch puts every channel straight back on DIRECT. If Shadow Rack crashes, its helper switches the desk to DIRECT within about 2 seconds and then starts the app again.
- WINGLoop latency measured by itself – through the desk and back, shown on every channel.
- WINGNames, colours and icons from the desk – the WING's icons drawn as our own line icons, and a fitting icon guessed from the channel's name.
- WINGSEL on the desk opens the channel in Shadow Rack.
- WINGA speaker limiter on the mains – the WING's built-in Precision Limiter, put last on the main and set up for you by Shadow Rack.
- WINGNew York on a desk fader of its own – VOX NY, DRUMS NY as desk channels, in the USER 1 layer of the centre section.
- WINGThe desk's custom controls run the rack – three pages: FX (the plugin's knobs bank by bank, bypass, previous / next plugin), NAV (channel, plugin, adding, presets) and SHOW (SPEECH, PANIC, TAP, UNDO). The desk's buttons light up with the rack's state.
- WINGYour own knob mappings – LEARN on the knob strip under a plugin: touch a control in the plugin, then turn a WING knob.
- FXTwo views – MIXER (every channel across the whole window) and CHANNEL (one channel; the strips along the bottom switch between channels).
- FXMixer tools – select several channels and do something to all of them at once.
- FXInserts as tiles in the mixer: the plugin's name, its maker, a status bar (on / bypassed / missing), + ADD PLUGIN.
- FXNew York buses – a section of their own after the channels, a SEND key on every channel, one channel feeding several buses, SOF (sends on fader) in the mixer. Every copy lined up to the sample.
- FXThe mixer in sections – CHANNELS | NEW YORK | BUSES | MAINS; the strips get narrower so a whole show fits on the screen.
- FXPA alignment – the mains feeding the speakers play perfectly in time with each other.
- FXSidechain – a plugin's sidechain input fed from another channel: the SIDECHAIN key at the top of the plugin's panel, then SC: KICK in that channel's colour.
- FXTap tempo on T, for tempo-synced plugins.
- FXOther MIDI controllers – learnt onto the rack's controls; endless knobs are recognised by themselves.
- FXTablet remote – Shadow Rack in any tablet's browser (Setup > Tablet), its windows shown as they are, plugins included; ON TABLET puts the rack on the tablet's own screen as smooth 60 fps video.
- FXCrash reports kept – the newest 30, each naming the plugin that caused the crash.
- FXPlugin previews – taken quietly the first time a plugin is used, for its tile.
Improved7
- FXPlugins always as big as fits – plugins with a fixed size (Waves) are scaled up to the panel, sharp on monitors without Retina, and never break when they change their own size.
- FXPlugins open after updates – from the newest version of their file (Waves' new WaveShells).
- FXMeters like the WING's – yellow from -18 dBFS, red only for a real clip.
- FXDragging in the chain – the plugin lifts out and the others slide aside to make room.
- FXSetup > Audio redone – interfaces as a list (in use / not connected), sample rate and buffer as buttons.
- FXMenus without duplicates – a menu only holds what has no button right where it opens.
- FXA crash is blamed only where it really happened – a crash in a plugin's own window or thread is put down to that plugin.
Fixed4
- FXA channel fading back in could click (the fade was used up on a silent block).
- WINGClicks in the routing got lost when the desk's values refreshed.
- WINGDesk buttons sending their own light back were taken for presses.
- FXThe tablet could lose its connection when a big picture was only half sent over Wi-Fi.
Removed5
- WINGRACK / DIRECT buttons for the whole desk – the WING display on the top bar does that now.
- FXThe parallel lane inside a channel – New York buses of their own replace it.
- FXThe safety and performance switches in Setup – all cores and the restart after a crash are always on.
- FXThe Size button and fixed zoom levels for plugins.
- WINGReady-made knob maps – the WING's knobs only do what you program them to do.
The live plugin rack
The first version: a plugin host made for the stage from day one. You change plugins without a click, broken audio never reaches the PA, and if a plugin crashes, you're back in seconds.
New10
- FXYour studio plugins on stage – VST3 and AU, a channel strip for every input, the chain on the left and the plugin's window on the right, laid out like a desk.
- FXChanges without clicks – when you add, remove or move a plugin, switch between mono and stereo, undo or open a session, the channel fades out and back in over 12 ms.
- FXBypass without a time jump – a bypassed plugin switches to the dry signal delayed exactly like the plugin, so nothing jumps in time or phase. The plugin keeps running behind it, so switching it back in is just as smooth.
- FXBroken audio muted in the same block – if a plugin sends NaN, infinity or a sudden +24 dB, it's muted before anything reaches the PA, and the dry signal carries on.
- FXPlugin crashed? You're back in seconds – Shadow Rack starts again by itself with the same rack. The crash report names the plugin that caused it, and that plugin stays switched off (SWITCHED OFF) so the crash can't happen again.
- FXA hang counts as a crash – if a plugin freezes the audio for 4 seconds, the rack treats it like a crash.
- FXAutosave – the rack saves itself about 1.5 s after every change and every 30 s.
- FXYour own plugin list – nothing gets scanned by itself: you pick your plugins in Setup, and each one is checked in a separate process first.
- FXAll your cores – the channels are spread over the Mac's cores, and you see the delay and CPU load of every plugin.
- FXKeys: ⌘T adds a plugin, B / ⇧B bypass, ⌘⇧B BYPASS ALL, ⌘1 / ⌘2 the mixer / one channel, ⌘Z undo.