Ecosyste.ms: Awesome

An open API service indexing awesome lists of open source software.

Awesome Lists | Featured Topics | Projects

https://github.com/robbert-vdh/nih-plug

Rust VST3 and CLAP plugin framework and plugins - because everything is better when you do it yourself
https://github.com/robbert-vdh/nih-plug

clap framework nih-plug plugin plugin-framework rust vst3

Last synced: about 2 months ago
JSON representation

Rust VST3 and CLAP plugin framework and plugins - because everything is better when you do it yourself

Awesome Lists containing this project

README 

        
# NIH-plug



[![Automated builds](https://github.com/robbert-vdh/nih-plug/actions/workflows/build.yml/badge.svg?branch=master)](https://github.com/robbert-vdh/nih-plug/actions/workflows/build.yml?query=branch%3Amaster)

[![Tests](https://github.com/robbert-vdh/nih-plug/actions/workflows/test.yml/badge.svg?branch=master)](https://github.com/robbert-vdh/nih-plug/actions/workflows/test.yml?query=branch%3Amaster)

[![Docs](https://github.com/robbert-vdh/nih-plug/actions/workflows/docs.yml/badge.svg?branch=master)](https://nih-plug.robbertvanderhelm.nl/)



NIH-plug is an API-agnostic audio plugin framework written in Rust, as well as a

small collection of plugins. The idea is to have a stateful yet simple plugin

API that gets rid of as much unnecessary ceremony wherever possible, while also

keeping the amount of magic to minimum and making it easy to experiment with

different approaches to things. See the [current features](#current-features)

section for more information on the project's current status.



Check out the [documentation](https://nih-plug.robbertvanderhelm.nl/), or use

the [cookiecutter template](https://github.com/robbert-vdh/nih-plug-template) to

quickly get started with NIH-plug.



### Table of contents



- [Plugins](#plugins)

- [Framework](#framework)

  - [Current features](#current-features)

  - [Building](#building)

  - [Plugin formats](#plugin-formats)

  - [Example plugins](#example-plugins)

- [Licensing](#licensing)



## Plugins



Check each plugin's readme file for more details on what the plugin actually

does. You can download the development binaries for Linux, Windows and macOS

from the [automated

builds](https://github.com/robbert-vdh/nih-plug/actions/workflows/build.yml?query=branch%3Amaster)

page. Or if you're not signed in on GitHub, then you can also find the latest

nightly build

[here](https://nightly.link/robbert-vdh/nih-plug/workflows/build/master). You

may need to [disable Gatekeeper](https://disable-gatekeeper.github.io/) on macOS to be able to use

the plugins.



Scroll down for more information on the underlying plugin framework.



- [**Buffr Glitch**](plugins/buffr_glitch) is the plugin for you if you enjoy

  the sound of a CD player skipping This plugin is essentially a MIDI triggered

  buffer repeat plugin. When you play a note, the plugin will sample the period

  corresponding to that note's frequency and use that as a single waveform

  cycle. This can end up sounding like an in-tune glitch when used sparingly, or

  like a weird synthesizer when used less subtly.

- [**Crisp**](plugins/crisp) adds a bright crispy top end to any low bass sound.

  Inspired by Polarity's [Fake Distortion](https://youtu.be/MKfFn4L1zeg) video.

- [**Crossover**](plugins/crossover) is as boring as it sounds. It cleanly

  splits the signal into two to five bands using a variety of algorithms. Those

  bands are then sent to auxiliary outputs so they can be accessed and processed

  individually. Meant as an alternative to Bitwig's Multiband FX devices but

  with cleaner crossovers and a linear-phase option.

- [**Diopser**](plugins/diopser) is a totally original phase rotation plugin.

  Useful for oomphing up kickdrums and basses, transforming synths into their

  evil phase-y cousin, and making everything sound like a cheap Sci-Fi laser

  beam.

- [**Loudness War Winner**](plugins/loudness_war_winner) does what it says on

  the tin. Have you ever wanted to show off your dominance by winning the

  loudness war? Neither have I. Dissatisfaction guaranteed.

- [**Puberty Simulator**](plugins/puberty_simulator) is that patent pending One

  Weird Plugin that simulates the male voice change during puberty! If it was

  not already obvious from that sentence, this plugin is a joke, but it might

  actually be useful (or at least interesting) in some situations. This plugin

  pitches the signal down an octave, but it also has the side effect of causing

  things to sound like a cracking voice or to make them sound slightly out of

  tune.

- [**Safety Limiter**](plugins/safety_limiter) is a simple tool to prevent ear

  damage. As soon as there is a peak above 0 dBFS or the specified threshold,

  the plugin will cut over to playing SOS in Morse code, gradually fading out

  again when the input returns back to safe levels. Made for personal use during

  plugin development and intense sound design sessions, but maybe you'll find it

  useful too!

- [**Soft Vacuum**](plugins/soft_vacuum) is a straightforward port of

  Airwindows' [Hard Vacuum](https://www.airwindows.com/hard-vacuum-vst/) plugin

  with parameter smoothing and up to 16x linear-phase oversampling, because I

  liked the distortion and just wished it had oversampling. All credit goes to

  Chris from Airwindows. I just wanted to share this in case anyone else finds

  it useful.

- [**Spectral Compressor**](plugins/spectral_compressor) can squash anything

  into pink noise, apply simultaneous upwards and downwards compressor to

  dynamically match the sidechain signal's spectrum and morph one sound into

  another, and lots more. Have you ever wondered what a 16384 band OTT would

  sound like? Neither have I.



## Framework



### Current features



- Supports both VST3 and [CLAP](https://github.com/free-audio/clap) by simply

  adding the corresponding `nih_export_!(Foo)` macro to your plugin's

  library.

- Standalone binaries can be made by calling `nih_export_standalone(Foo)` from

  your `main()` function. Standalones come with a CLI for configuration and full

  JACK audio, MIDI, and transport support.

- Rich declarative parameter system without any boilerplate.

  - Define parameters for your plugin by adding `FloatParam`, `IntParam`,

    `BoolParam`, and `EnumParam` fields to your parameter struct, assign

    stable IDs to them with the `#[id = "foobar"]`, and a `#[derive(Params)]`

    does all of the boring work for you.

  - Parameters can have complex value distributions and the parameter objects

    come with built-in smoothers and callbacks.

  - Use simple enums deriving the `Enum` trait with the `EnumParam` parameter

    type for parameters that allow the user to choose between multiple discrete

    options. That way you can use regular Rust pattern matching when working

    with these values without having to do any conversions yourself.

  - Store additional non-parameter state for your plugin by adding any field

    that can be serialized with [Serde](https://serde.rs/) to your plugin's

    `Params` object and annotating them with `#[persist = "key"]`.

  - Optional support for state migrations, for handling breaking changes in

    plugin parameters.

  - Group your parameters into logical groups by nesting `Params` objects using

    the `#[nested(group = "...")]`attribute.

  - The `#[nested]` attribute also enables you to use multiple copies of the

    same parameter, either as regular object fields or through arrays.

  - When needed, you can also provide your own implementation for the `Params`

    trait to enable compile time generated parameters and other bespoke

    functionality.

- Stateful. Behaves mostly like JUCE, just without all of the boilerplate.

- Comes with a simple yet powerful way to asynchronously run background tasks

  from a plugin that's both type-safe and realtime-safe.

- Does not make any assumptions on how you want to process audio, but does come

  with utilities and adapters to help with common access patterns.

  - Efficiently iterate over an audio buffer either per-sample per-channel,

    per-block per-channel, or even per-block per-sample-per-channel with the

    option to manually index the buffer or get access to a channel slice at any

    time.

  - Easily leverage per-channel SIMD using the SIMD adapters on the buffer and

    block iterators.

  - Comes with bring-your-own-FFT adapters for common (inverse) short-time

    Fourier Transform operations. More to come.

- Optional sample accurate automation support for VST3 and CLAP that can be

  enabled by setting the `Plugin::SAMPLE_ACCURATE_AUTOMATION` constant to

  `true`.

- Optional support for compressing the human readable JSON state files using

  [Zstandard](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zstd).

- Comes with adapters for popular Rust GUI frameworks as well as some basic

  widgets for them that integrate with NIH-plug's parameter system. Currently

  there's support for [egui](nih_plug_egui), [iced](nih_plug_iced) and

  [VIZIA](nih_plug_vizia).

  - A simple and safe API for state saving and restoring from the editor is

    provided by the framework if you want to do your own internal preset

    management.

- Full support for receiving and outputting both modern polyphonic note

  expression events as well as MIDI CCs, channel pressure, and pitch bend for

  CLAP and VST3.

  - MIDI SysEx is also supported. Plugins can define their own structs or sum

    types to wrap around those messages so they don't need to interact with raw

    byte buffers in the process function.

- Support for flexible dynamic buffer configurations, including variable numbers

  of input and output ports.

- First-class support several more exotic CLAP features:

  - Both monophonic and polyphonic parameter modulation are supported.

  - Plugins can declaratively define pages of remote controls that DAWs can bind

    to hardware controllers.

- A plugin bundler accessible through the

  `cargo xtask bundle  ` command that automatically

  detects which plugin targets your plugin exposes and creates the correct

  plugin bundles for your target operating system and architecture, with

  cross-compilation support. The cargo subcommand can easily be added to [your

  own project](https://github.com/robbert-vdh/nih-plug/tree/master/nih_plug_xtask)

  as an alias or [globally](https://github.com/robbert-vdh/nih-plug/tree/master/cargo_nih_plug)

  as a regular cargo subcommand.

- Tested on Linux and Windows, with limited testing on macOS. Windows support

  has mostly been tested through Wine with

  [yabridge](https://github.com/robbert-vdh/yabridge).

- See the [`Plugin`](src/plugin.rs) trait's documentation for an incomplete list

  of the functionality that has currently not yet been implemented.



### Building



NIH-plug works with the latest stable Rust compiler.



After installing [Rust](https://rustup.rs/), you can compile any of the plugins

in the `plugins` directory in the following way, replacing `gain` with the name

of the plugin:



```shell

cargo xtask bundle gain --release

```



### Plugin formats



NIH-plug can currently export VST3 and

[CLAP](https://github.com/free-audio/clap) plugins. Exporting a specific plugin

format for a plugin is as simple as calling the `nih_export_!(Foo);`

macro. The `cargo xtask bundle` command will detect which plugin formats your

plugin supports and create the appropriate bundles accordingly, even when cross

compiling.



### Example plugins



The best way to get an idea for what the API looks like is to look at the

examples.



- [**gain**](plugins/examples/gain) is a simple smoothed gain plugin that shows

  off a couple other parts of the API, like support for storing arbitrary

  serializable state.

- **gain-gui** is the same plugin as gain, but with a GUI to control the

  parameter and a digital peak meter. Comes in three exciting flavors:

  [egui](plugins/examples/gain_gui_egui),

  [iced](plugins/examples/gain_gui_iced), and

  [VIZIA](plugins/examples/gain_gui_vizia).

- [**midi_inverter**](plugins/examples/midi_inverter) takes note/MIDI events and

  flips around the note, channel, expression, pressure, and CC values. This

  example demonstrates how to receive and output those events.

- [**poly_mod_synth**](plugins/examples/poly_mod_synth) is a simple polyphonic

  synthesizer with support for polyphonic modulation in supported CLAP hosts.

  This demonstrates how polyphonic modulation can be used in NIH-plug.

- [**sine**](plugins/examples/sine) is a simple test tone generator plugin with

  frequency smoothing that can also make use of MIDI input instead of generating

  a static signal based on the plugin's parameters.

- [**stft**](plugins/examples/stft) shows off some of NIH-plug's other optional

  higher level helper features, such as an adapter to process audio with a

  short-term Fourier transform using the overlap-add method, all using the

  compositional `Buffer` interfaces.

- [**sysex**](plugins/examples/sysex) is a simple example of how to send and

  receive SysEx messages by defining custom message types.



## Licensing



The framework, its libraries, and the example plugins in `plugins/examples/` are

all licensed under the [ISC license](https://www.isc.org/licenses/). However,

the [VST3 bindings](https://github.com/RustAudio/vst3-sys) used by

`nih_export_vst3!()` are licensed under the GPLv3 license. This means that

unless you replace these bindings with your own bindings made from scratch, any

VST3 plugins built with NIH-plug need to be able to comply with the terms of the

GPLv3 license.



The other plugins in the `plugins/` directory may be licensed under the GPLv3

license. Check the plugin's `Cargo.toml` file for more information.