AAX
More info
- Owner
- Avid
- Released
- Type
- Audio plugin format
- License
- Proprietary
Avid Audio eXtension — the only plugin format Pro Tools will load, and the reason every plugin vendor builds the same code one more time.
Avid introduced AAX in 2011 alongside Pro Tools 10 to replace two older formats: RTAS, which ran on the host CPU, and TDM, which needed Avid's DSP cards. AAX covers both from one codebase — AAX Native on the CPU, AAX DSP on HDX cards. Pro Tools 11 went 64-bit in 2013 and stopped loading the old formats at the same time, forcing studios to replace their entire plugin collection in one go.
Where VST, Audio Unit and CLAP can be built freely, AAX requires a developer agreement with Avid and code signing through PACE. In practice every commercial plugin therefore ships three or four formats of the same code, and AAX is the one with the most paperwork.