Summary

NIH-plug is an audio plugin framework written in Rust, supporting VST3 and CLAP plugin formats, along with a small set of audio plugins. It aims to provide a simple, stateful API minimizing unnecessary complexity and "magic," facilitating experimentation with plugin development.

Features

• Supports VST3 and CLAP plugin formats via simple macros.
• Ability to build standalone binaries with CLI configuration and JACK audio, MIDI, and transport support.
• Declarative parameter system with FloatParam, IntParam, BoolParam, and EnumParam types, with automatic boilerplate code generation through derives.
• Stable parameter IDs and support for complex value distributions, parameter smoothing, and callbacks.
• Use of Rust enums for discrete options in parameters, enabling native pattern matching without conversions.
• Persistence of plugin state using Serde serialization, with support for state migrations.
• Logical grouping of parameters with nested Params objects and multiple copies via arrays or fields.

Plugins Included

• Buffr Glitch: MIDI-triggered buffer repeat plugin creating glitch or synthesizer-like sounds.
• Crisp: Adds a bright top end to low bass sounds, inspired by Polarity's Fake Distortion.
• Crossover: Splits signals into multiple bands with algorithms including linear-phase option, for multiband processing.
• Diopser: Phase rotation effect useful for enhancing drums or synths.
• Loudness War Winner: A humorous plugin simulating loudness war dominance.
• Puberty Simulator: Joke plugin simulating male voice change by pitching signal an octave down with cracking voice effect.
• Safety Limiter: Prevents ear damage by limiting peaks and playing SOS in Morse code when threshold exceeded.
• Soft Vacuum: Port of Airwindows' Hard Vacuum distortion with parameter smoothing and up to 16x oversampling.
• Spectral Compressor: Complex compressor with many bands and dynamic spectral matching effects.

Status

The plugin framework is currently in maintenance mode. A community fork is recommended for ongoing framework development.