Rax - 2.1.2

This is one of the most ridiculous pieces of software I have ever tried. I run clean system, no third party utilities whatsoever. Everything works perfectly on my MacBook Pro. I have been performing for over twenty-five years, heavily rely on music software for my gigs (experimental classical, electroacoustic) and am quite happy to use even the least expensive shareware programmes such as the marvellous Audio Hijack Pro. But when I see a piece of software which informs me on launch that my Audio Units "failed to validate and will be ignored" I begin to see red. Stay away from this terrible joke of a programme. Spend few more bucks, but get something really reliable and behaving the way software should. Fifty dollars for this? They should pay me fifty dollars for the time I wasted trying to launch that thing. Horrid. Zero stars, period.

If you don't have time to read this whole review, you should at least know that I used Rax for 2 days and it crashed more than 25 times.

Rax has really good features, but it ruined my gig. I have to stress that this software ruined my gig. I have about 10 "library files" with various setups that threw errors at some point, became unstable, and didn't ever reopen. My setups were not complicated. One of them was just two DLS synths. None of these setups would open once I got on stage, even though my equipment was setup exactly how it had been during sound check and rehearsals. The worst thing is that Rax wouldn't even work if I created a new library with DLS synths, even after a restart. Yesterday was a horrible time. I don't suggest buying Rax until it is actually usable.

Finally... a universal binary, interface overhaul, and a limited but interesting ability to host MIDI files as well as AudioUnits. Check out the demo tracks... you will be impressed with what Rax can do with just Apple DLS synths and matrix reverb. Add a sequencer and some spiffy AUs like Automat and the Expert Sleepers set, and Rax would be shareware music nirvana. As it is, it does all it used to do and a bit more, but now on your Core Duo. :D It also seems to be less of a CPU hog than version 1.2.x. Kudos to plasq -- I had thought this was abandonware.

Rax is all it's cracked up to be and more, although it still has problems with erratic CPU usage and some soft synths, including some that are listed as being compatible on the Granted web site. The docs are just okay and support seems to be non-existent. I hope these guys are still in business, since I liked it well enough to buy a copy. For what Rax is and does, you can't beat the price.

No problems anymore. It crashes when I quit it, but, seeing as how I was closing it anyway, that doesn't really matter. It's just another dialog box to dismiss.

I did notice that 1.2 was only crashing with certain AU instruments. Version 1.2.1 no longer crashes with those ones, so I'd say it's looking good now.