Steve Berkeley and the folks at Bias have been hard at work bringing multitrack audio editing to OS X, and the results are here: Deck 3.5 and its younger sibling Deck LE are now available, fully X native (also compatible with OS 8.5 and later). Demo versions are available from the Bias website. Pro audio mavens are still waiting for Pro Tools, Digital Performer, Cubase, or Logic to finally make the leap, and despite some confusion among newbies, software like Deck is not full-featured enough to be a competitor (nor is it intended as such, lacking MIDI capabilities). Deck is, however, a powerful multitrack audio recording and editing tool with support for up to 64 real tracks, full mix automation and breakpoints, 5.1 Surround capabilities, built-in effects and VST support, and lots of timecode sync and QuickTime features making it perfect for video production.
Here’s the bad news: BIAS hasn’t finished porting all the 25 included VST plug-ins to OS X. For those of you new to the audio world, VST is a standard plug-in format for adding software effects from reverb and EQ to virtual instruments. Each plug-in must be separately ported to OS X, and just as the lack of Photoshop filters is forcing many users to continue using Photoshop 7 on OS 9, even when major packages do make the switch, musicians dependent on plug-ins may still be waiting to cross that Aqua horizon.
