154 lines
7.5 KiB
Markdown
154 lines
7.5 KiB
Markdown
# NIH-plug
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[](https://github.com/robbert-vdh/nih-plug/actions/workflows/test.yml?query=branch%3Amaster)
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This is a work in progress API-agnostic audio plugin framework written in Rust
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to do some experiments with, as well as a small collection of plugins. The idea
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is to have a statefull but simple plugin API that gets rid of as much
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unnecessary ceremony wherever possible, while also keeping the amount of magic
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to minimum. Since this is not quite meant for general use just yet, the plugin
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API surface is currently limited to the functionality that I either needed
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myself or that was requested by others. See the [current
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features](#current-features) section for more information on the project's
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current status.
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Come join us on the [Rust Audio Discord](https://discord.gg/ykxU3rt4Cb).
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### Table of contents
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- [Plugins](#plugins)
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- [Framework](#framework)
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- [Current features](#current-features)
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- [Building](#building)
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- [Plugin formats](#plugin-formats)
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- [Example plugins](#example-plugins)
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- [Licensing](#licensing)
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## Plugins
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Check each plugin's readme for more details on what the plugin actually does and
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for download links.
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- [**Crisp**](plugins/crisp) adds a bright crispy top end to any low bass sound.
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Inspired by Polarity's [Fake Distortion](https://youtu.be/MKfFn4L1zeg) video.
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- [**Diopser**](plugins/diopser) is a totally original phase rotation plugin.
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Useful for oomphing up kickdrums and basses, transforming synths into their
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evil phase-y cousin, and making everything sound like a cheap Sci-Fi laser
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beam.
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- [**Puberty Simulator**](plugins/puberty_simulator) is that patent pending One
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Weird Plugin that simulates the male voice change during puberty! If it was
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not already obvious from that sentence, this plugin is a joke, but it might
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actually be useful (or at least interesting) in some situations. This plugin
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pitches the signal down an octave, but it also has the side effect of causing
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things to sound like a cracking voice or to make them sound slightly out of
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tune.
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## Framework
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### Current features
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- Supports both VST3 and [CLAP](https://github.com/free-audio/clap) by simply
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adding the corresponding `nih_export_<api>!(Foo)` macro to your plugin's
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library.
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- Declarative parameter handling without any boilerplate.
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- Define parameters for your plugin by adding `FloatParam`, `IntParam`,
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`BoolParam`, and `EnumParam<T>` fields to your parameter struct, assign
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stable IDs to them with the `#[id = "foobar"]`, and a `#[derive(Params)]`
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does all of the boring work for you.
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- Parameters can have complex value distributions and the parameter objects
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come with built-in smoothers and callbacks.
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- Use simple enums deriving the `Enum` trait with the `EnumParam<T>` parameter
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type for parameters that allow the user to choose between multiple discrete
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options. That way you can use regular Rust pattern matching when working
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with these values without having to do any conversions yourself.
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- Store additional non-parameter state for your plugin by adding any field
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that can be serialized with [Serde](https://serde.rs/) to your plugin's
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`Params` object and annotating them with `#[persist = "key"]`.
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- Group your parameters into logical groups by nesting `Params` objects using
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the `#[nested = "Group Name"]`attribute.
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- Stateful. Behaves mostly like JUCE, just without all of the boilerplate.
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- Does not make any assumptions on how you want to process audio, but does come
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with utilities and adapters to help with common access patterns.
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- Efficiently iterate over an audio buffer either per-sample per-channel,
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per-block per-channel, or even per-block per-sample-per-channel with the
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option to manually index the buffer or get access to a channel slice at any
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time.
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- Easily leverage per-channel SIMD using the SIMD adapters on the buffer and
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block iterators.
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- Comes with bring-your-own-FFT adapters for common (inverse) short-time
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Fourier Transform operations. More to come.
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- Optional sample accurate automation support for VST3 and CLAP that can be
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enabled by setting the `Plugin::SAMPLE_ACCURATE_AUTOMATION` constant to
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`true`.
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- Comes with adapters for popular Rust GUI frameworks as well as some basic
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widgets for them that integrate with NIH-plug's parameter system. Currently
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there's support for [egui](nih_plug_egui) and [iced](nih_plug_iced).
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- Basic note/MIDI support. MIDI CC handling and note output is currently not
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implemented. Let me know if you need this.
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- A plugin bundler accessible through the
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`cargo xtask bundle <package> <build_arguments>` command that detects
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automatically detects which plugin targets your plugin exposes and creates the
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correct plugin bundles for your target platform, with cross-compilation
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support. The cargo subcommand can easily be added to [your own
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project](https://github.com/robbert-vdh/nih-plug/tree/master/nih_plug_xtask)
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as an alias or
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[globally](https://github.com/robbert-vdh/nih-plug/tree/master/cargo_nih_plug)
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as a regular cargo subcommand.
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- Tested on Linux, Windows, with limited testing on macOS. Windows support has
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mostly been tested through Wine with
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[yabridge](https://github.com/robbert-vdh/yabridge).
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- See the [`Plugin`](src/plugin.rs) trait's documentation for an incomplete list
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of the functionlaity that has currently not yet been implemented.
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### Building
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NIH-plug works with the latest stable Rust compiler.
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After installing [Rust](https://rustup.rs/), you can compile any of the plugins
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in the `plugins` directory in the following way, replacing `gain` with the name
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of the plugin:
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```shell
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cargo xtask bundle gain --release
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```
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### Plugin formats
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NIH-plug can currently export VST3 and
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[CLAP](https://github.com/free-audio/clap) plugins. Exporting a specific plugin
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format for a plugin is as simple as calling the `nih_export_<format>!(Foo);`
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macro. The `cargo xtask bundle` commane will detect which plugin formats your
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plugin supports and create the appropriate bundles accordingly, even when cross
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compiling.
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### Example plugins
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The best way to get an idea for what the API looks like is to look at the
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examples.
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- [**gain**](plugins/examples/gain) is a simple smoothed gain plugin that shows
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off a couple other parts of the API, like support for storing arbitrary
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serializable state.
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- [**gain-gui**](plugins/examples/gain-gui) is the same plugin as gain, but with
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a GUI to control the parameter and a digital peak meter.
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- [**sine**](plugins/examples/sine) is a simple test tone generator plugin with
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frequency smoothing that can also make use of MIDI input instead of generating
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a static signal based on the plugin's parameters.
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- [**stft**](plugins/examples/stft) shows off some of NIH-plug's other optional
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higher level helper features, such as an adapter to process audio with a
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short-term Fourier transform using the overlap-add method, all using the
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compositional `Buffer` interfaces.
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## Licensing
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The framework, its libraries, and the example plugins in `plugins/examples/` are
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all licensed under the [ISC license](https://www.isc.org/licenses/). However,
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the [VST3 bindings](https://github.com/RustAudio/vst3-sys) used by
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`nih_export_vst3!()` are licensed under the GPLv3 license. This means that
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unless you replace these bindings with your own bindings made from scratch, any
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VST3 plugins built with NIH-plug need to be able to comply with the terms of the
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GPLv3 license.
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The other plugins in the `plugins/` directory may be licensed under the GPLv3
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license. Check the plugin's `Cargo.toml` file for more information.
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