dplug 6.0.6

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Dplug <a href="https://code.dlang.org/packages/dplug" title="Go to dplug"><img src="https://img.shields.io/dub/v/dplug.svg" alt="Dub version"></a>

Dplug is a library for creating audio plug-ins as simply as possible. Come talk with us! if you want to learn more.

Current features

• Creating VST 2.4 plug-ins for Windows, macOS, and Linux, for 32-bit and 64-bit
• Creating Audio Unit v2 plug-ins for Mac OS X, 32-bit and 64-bit
• Comes with basic music DSP algorithms
• Comes with a number of tools to make plug-in authoring faster (bundling, color correction, regression tests, performance tests)
• Dplug is using rendering to keep installers small: http://www.auburnsounds.com/blog/2016-09-16_PBR-for-Audio-Software-Interfaces.html though you're not forced to use it.

Products made with Dplug

• Entropy by Cut Through Recordings
• Graillon by Auburn Sounds
• M4 Multiband Compressor by Cut Through Recordings
• Panagement by Auburn Sounds

Release notes

Read about major changes here: https://github.com/AuburnSounds/dplug/wiki/Release-notes

Tutorials

• https://github.com/AuburnSounds/dplug/wiki/Getting-Started
• https://auburnsounds.com/blog/2016-02-08_Making-a-Windows-VST-plugin-with-D.html (outdated)

How to build plug-ins

For Windows:

• Install DMD or LDC.
• (optional) Install DUB, the D package manager: http://code.dlang.org/download
• Go into an example directory
• Type dub --compiler=dmd or dub --compiler=ldc2 depending on the desired compiler.

For OS X:

• Install DMD or LDC.
• (optional) Install DUB, the D package manager: http://code.dlang.org/download
• Build and use the release tool which is in the tools/release/ directory.
• sudo ln -s /path/to/Dplug/tools/release/release /usr/local/bin/release
• Go into an example directory
• Type release --compiler dmd or release --compiler ldc depending on the desired compiler.

FAQ

• Does Dplug support the creation of synthesizer plug-ins?

Yes. See simple-mono-synth example.

• Am I forced to use the PBR graphics system?

No. There are people making plug-ins with Dplug without using PBR. How it works is that the physical channel is just filled with 0. Doing that requires a set of custom widgets, which you can find in dplug:flat-widgets.

• How do I build plugins for OS X?

You need to use the release program in the toolsdirectory. This tool create a bundle and Universal Binaries as needed. Like most D programs, you can build it by typing dub.

• What is the oldest supported Windows version?

Windows Vista. Users report plugins made with both DMD and LDC work on Windows XP. But XP isn't officially supported by D compilers.

• What is the oldest supported OS X version?

OS X 10.8+.

• What D compiler can possibly be used?

See .travis.yml for supported compilers. The latest DMD or LDC should do.

• What D compilers are recommended?

For both macOS and Windows it is recommended that you use LDC 1.2 or later.

• Is Dplug stable?

Starting with v5 we'll have issue major or minor version tag for breaking changes. If you don't want breaking change, you can pin Dplug to a specific version in your dub.json. Breaking commits are marked with BREAKING in the commit backlog. They are always discussed on Discord before-hand.

• Will you add feature X?

You have to understand that Dplug is a part-time operation, from people who spend much more time working on and releasing plug-ins.

Dplug is there to support existing products and building companies around them, not to be beta software. Being stable and bug-free is much more important to us than implementing every possible feature.

If you have money to sponsor some sanctionned feature it can definately help though.

• Where do I start?

Be sure to read the Wiki in depth.

Comparison vs IPlug

Pros:

• No dispatcher-wide mutex lock. All locks are of a short duration, to avoid blocking the audio thread.
• Buffer splitting: ensure your plugin never receive a buffer larger than N samples, and the corresponding MIDI input. This helps with memory consumption for the largest buffer sizes.
• Plugin parameters implement the Observer pattern.
• Float parameters can have user-defined mapping.
• PBR-style rendering lets you have a good visual quality with less disk space.
• No need to deal with resource compilers: D can import("filename.ext") them.
• No need to maintain IDE project files, they are generated by DUB. eg: dub generate visuald or dub generate sublimetext
• No need to make Info.plist files, they are generated instead.
• No need to use Xcode whatsoever.
• No need to use a macOS SDK.
• Easy to install: DUB will download the library itself when building, a <= 2mb archive.
• 10x less lines of code than the next larger alternative.

Cons:

• AAX and VST3 not yet implemented
• No resizeable UI
• No HDPI support
• No modal windows

Licenses

Dplug has three different licenses depending on the part you need. For an audio plugin, you would typically need all three. I recommend that you check individual source files for license information.

Plugin format wrapping

Plugin wrapping is inspired by the WDL library (best represented here: https://github.com/olilarkin/wdl-ol).

Some files falls under the Cockos WDL license.

Important contributors to WDL include:

• Cockos: http://www.cockos.com/
• Oliver Larkin: http://www.olilarkin.co.uk/

However Dplug is far from a translation of WDL (see FAQ).

VST SDK translation

This sub-package falls under the Steinberg VST license.

VST is a trademark of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. Please register the SDK via the 3rd party developper license on Steinberg site.

Before you make VST plugins with Dplug, you need to read and agree with the license for the VST3 SDK by Steinberg. If you don't agree with the VST SDK license, don't make plugins with Dplug. Find the VST3 SDK there: http://www.steinberg.net/en/company/developers.html

Misc

Other source files fall under the Boost 1.0 license.

Contents of the tree

dplug:client

• Abstract plugin client interface. Currently implemented for VST and AU.

dplug:host

• Abstract plugin host interface. Basic support for VST hosting.

dplug:vst

• VST 2.4 plugin client implementation

dplug:au

• Audio Unit v2 plugin client implementation

dplug:window

• implements windowing for Win32, X11, Cocoa and Carbon

dplug:gui

• Needed for plugins that do have an UI
• Toolkit includes common widgets (knob, slider, switch, logo, level, label...)
• Physically Based Renderer for a fully procedural UI

dplug:dsp

• Basic support for audio processing:
  • Real and Complex FFT, windowing functions (STFT with overlap and zero-phase windowing)
  • FIR, 1st order IIR filters and RBJ biquads
  • mipmapped wavetables for antialiased oscillators
  • noise generation including white/pink/demo noise
  • various kinds of smoothers and envelopes
  • delay-line and interpolation

dplug:derelict-nogc

• Enables dynamic library loading without using the D runtime

dplug:carbon

• Dynamic Carbon bindings

dplug:cocoa

• Dynamic Cocoa bindings

dplug:x11

• Static X11 bindings