Even Quicker than MiDi 2.0


Bitwig and u-he are excited to announce CLAP (“CLever Audio Plug-in API”), the new open standard for audio plug-ins and hosts. CLAP offers modern features, innate stability, and rapid support for plug-in and host developers. And since it's open source and liberally licensed, CLAP is a safe bet for the future.

More After the Jump

Not 6 months ago it was just some ideas (on KvR)
But they move quickly, i like it!

 

Last edited: Jun 15, 2022

An Invitation to Collaborate and Explore
CLAP does not only exist on paper; there are several ways you can try it out now. See the links below for projects from u-he, Bitwig, and others. Several other industry players are currently evaluating the CLAP standard.

Available From Bitwig, u-he and Others Today:

• Bitwig Studio 4.3 latest beta: https://www.bitwig.com/whats-new/
• u-he CLAP beta versions: https://u-he.com/fwd/clap-downloads
• Chowdhury DSP: https://chowdsp.com/
• MultitrackStudio: https://www.multitrackstudio.com/
• Surge Synth Team: https://surge-synthesizer.github.io/

Open Source Projects Using CLAP:

• Avendish project: https://github.com/celtera/avendish/
• CLAP JUCE Extensions project: https://github.com/free-audio/clap-juce-extensions/
• Dexed: https://asb2m10.github.io/dexed/
• MIP2 framework: https://github.com/skei/MIP2/
• nih-plug framework: https://github.com/robbert-vdh/nih-plug/
• TheWaveWarden (Odin2): https://www.thewavewarden.com/

Companies and Projects to Watch Out For
Following companies and projects are already evaluating CLAP for their host and plug-in software:

• Arturia: https://www.arturia.com/
• Avid: https://www.avid.com/
• BespokeSynth: https://www.bespokesynth.com/
• cableguys: https://cableguys.com/
• Cockos: https://www.reaper.fm/
• Cytomic: https://cytomic.com/
• DMGAudio: https://dmgaudio.com/
• Epic Games (Unreal Engine): https://www.unrealengine.com/
• Expressive E: https://www.expressivee.com/
• FabFilter: https://www.fabfilter.com/
• Image-Line: https://www.image-line.com/
• iPlug2 framework: https://iplug2.github.io/
• LHI Audio: https://lhiaudio.com/
• Node Audio (Etonal Studio): https://www.node-audio.com/
• Oddsound: https://oddsound.com/
• Presonus: https://www.presonus.com/
• Plogue: https://plogue.com/
• Qtractor: https://qtractor.org/
• Togu Audioline: https://tal-software.com/
• ValhallaDSP: https://valhalladsp.com/
• VCV: https://vcvrack.com/
• Vital Audio: https://vital.audio/
• Xfer Records: https://xferrecords.com/

Source: https://u-he.com/community/clap/

 

I hope Reaper will add support for it soon and that developers start releasing their plug-ins in CLAP format. Would be good to finally get rid of VST!

 

Sweet!

 

SCHWA is hard at work developing & testing!

 

There's already a thread for this. Steinberg won't mind using CLAP itself, given how shittily VST3 gets treated

 

I wonder what BlueCatAudio will call their Wrapper now.

 

Well let's see. They didn't even use ffmpeg for the video engine.
That would have been a no-brainer IMHO.
They're not into open source somehow.

 

So... a CLAP API. We're all gonna be 'APPI CLAPpers, are we..? ;)

 

So getting the CLAP is a good thing now?!?

 

I hope for Ableton will not add a support for CLAP in the next Live’s version. Because when I hope for adding new features eg. ARA they don’t do it
Please, don’t do it…

 

Could be this clap
Or this or this clap

clap >..

 

If you use Logic, this thing isn't as Catchy.

What would they call the Virus Control plugin in this new format?

If it does end up in Ableton, will it know you have been secretly using Cubase now?

 

Competition is actually good. But I'm always skeptical about things like this, because especially small companies / lone wolves often don't have the resources to offer their plug-ins in every available format. If now another format is added, it certainly doesn't make it easier for such providers.

Which leads to Nuendo having pretty crappy compatibility with video and container formats.
In Sequoia, I can just load an MKV file with (almost) any content. Or I can load an elementary stream directly (e.g. AVC/H264). In Nuendo, such a thing is unthinkable. Even if I put an AVC file (H264) into the desired MP4 container, there is no guarantee that Nuendo will play the video satisfactorily. (As a bonus, there's the problem that Nuendo can't generate thumbnails. Despite numerous tips on the net, I still have the "missing thumbnail cache" problem).

For a software explicitly aimed at customers in ADR / content creators (authoring), this is pretty embarrassing.

 

CLAP already has VST3 interop which means a DAW can use it as a VST3 without even being aware that the plugin got a clap inside

 

^I don't understand this statement. Are you saying that Cubase 12, or any DAW, can read CLAP plugins?

 

No, it would see the plugin as VST3, without knowing that it's a VST3 wrapper around an internal CLAP plugin.

 

I think CLAP provides a wrapper for VST2 as well

 

@Edna_Uebel: MKV, just as H264 and AVC are playout formats. Not meant to work on. This is because they're processor and memory-heavy.
In a DAW, you like to favor resources to other tasks. That's why there's no support in Nuendo. Same as with thumbnails, that's a consumer feature.