173 lines
8.9 KiB
Markdown
173 lines
8.9 KiB
Markdown
# NIH-plug
|
|
|
|
[](https://github.com/robbert-vdh/nih-plug/actions/workflows/build.yml?query=branch%3Amaster)
|
|
[](https://github.com/robbert-vdh/nih-plug/actions/workflows/test.yml?query=branch%3Amaster)
|
|
[](https://robbert-vdh.github.io/nih-plug)
|
|
|
|
This is a work in progress API-agnostic audio plugin framework written in Rust
|
|
to do some experiments with, as well as a small collection of plugins. The idea
|
|
is to have a statefull but simple plugin API that gets rid of as much
|
|
unnecessary ceremony wherever possible, while also keeping the amount of magic
|
|
to minimum. Since this is not quite meant for general use just yet, the plugin
|
|
API surface is currently limited to the functionality that I either needed
|
|
myself or that was requested by others. See the [current
|
|
features](#current-features) section for more information on the project's
|
|
current status.
|
|
|
|
Come join us on the [Rust Audio Discord](https://discord.gg/ykxU3rt4Cb), or
|
|
check out the [documentation](https://robbert-vdh.github.io/nih-plug) (work in
|
|
progress).
|
|
|
|
### 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 for more details on what the plugin actually does and
|
|
for download links.
|
|
|
|
- [**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.
|
|
- [**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.
|
|
- [**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.
|
|
|
|
## Framework
|
|
|
|
### Current features
|
|
|
|
- Supports both VST3 and [CLAP](https://github.com/free-audio/clap) by simply
|
|
adding the corresponding `nih_export_<api>!(Foo)` macro to your plugin's
|
|
library.
|
|
- Standalone binaries can be made by calling `nih_export_standalone(Foo)` from
|
|
your `main()` function.
|
|
- Declarative parameter handling without any boilerplate.
|
|
- Define parameters for your plugin by adding `FloatParam`, `IntParam`,
|
|
`BoolParam`, and `EnumParam<T>` 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<T>` 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"]`.
|
|
- Group your parameters into logical groups by nesting `Params` objects using
|
|
the `#[nested = "Group Name"]`attribute.
|
|
- When needed, you can also provide your own implementation for the `Params`
|
|
trait to enable dynamically generated parameters and arrays of if mostly
|
|
identical parameter objects.
|
|
- Stateful. Behaves mostly like JUCE, just without all of the boilerplate.
|
|
- 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`.
|
|
- 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.
|
|
- A plugin bundler accessible through the
|
|
`cargo xtask bundle <package> <build_arguments>` 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 functionlaity 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_<format>!(Foo);`
|
|
macro. The `cargo xtask bundle` commane 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.
|
|
- [**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.
|
|
|
|
## 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.
|