amsynth (DPF implementation)

amsynth is an analog modelling (a.k.a virtual analog) software synthesizer.

This branch of amsynth is a reimplementation on DPF, aka. DISTRHO Plugin Framework. With help of DPF, it can generate several formats of plugins in one codebase, and it would be easier to maintain.

Features of amsynth

• Dual oscillators (sine / saw / square / noise) with hard sync
• 12/24 dB/oct resonant filter (low-pass / high-pass / band-pass / notch)
• Mono / poly / legato keyboard modes
• Dual ADSR envelope generators (filter & amplitude)
• LFO which can modulate the oscillators, filter, and amplitude
• Distortion and reverb
• Hundreds of presets

Improvements of this branch

• Full DSP part (without UI) implementation. Already for use with generic UI
• Embed factory banks into plugin binary
• Full factory program support (VST2/VST3/LV2)

Versions

There are currently several different ways to run amsynth, with :

• VST2 Plug-in
• VST3 Plug-in
• LV2 Plug-in
• CLAP Plug-in
• Standalone application with JACK support (very limited features)

Preset bank management

The factory banks are embedded into the plug-in binaries.

By default, all banks reside in <PROJECT_DIR>/data/banks will be converted into C++ code, then compiled as a part of plug-in.

Loading banks from external directories (upstream's behavior) is not yet implemented.

How to build

Prerequisites

Install build essentials via your environment's package manager:

# On Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt install build-essentials cmake ninja

# On Arch Linux
sudo pacman -S gcc cmake ninja make
sudo pacman -S clang                    # If you prefer Clang

# On Msys2
pacman -S mingw-w64-gcc mingw-w64-cmake mingw-w64-ninja make
pacman -S mingw-w64-clang               # If you prefer Clang

Clone this project first

# Clone this project
git clone https://github.com/anclark/amsynth.git -b dpf-implementation --recursive amsynth-dpf

# If you have already cloned, remember to update
# I frequently rebase my commits, so don't forget the --rebase argument!
cd amsynth-dpf
git pull origin dpf-implementation --rebase

Common build

# Configure
# Ninja is the recommended generator. You can also use GNU make instead.
cd amsynth-dpf
cmake -S . -B build -GNinja    # Build with Ninja
cmake -S . -B build            # Omit -G parameter to use GNU make

# Build
cmake --build build

NOTICE:

On Msys2, please operate in MINGW64 shell.

Otherwise, if you run those commands in Msys shell, it will prefer Msys's POSIX compatibility toolchains, which is incompatible with native environment!

Cross-build on Linux for Windows

Wine is required for executing resource generators. Remember to install it.

# Configure
cd amsynth-dpf
cmake -S . -B build-win32 -GNinja -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=windows-cross-build.cmake

# Build
cmake --build build

NOTICE: Win32 version of SDL2 is not yet provided, so the standalone version will not build, but it does not affect plug-in versions.

Use Clang instead of GCC

# Configure
cd amsynth-dpf
cmake -S . -B build-clang -GNinja -DCMAKE_C_COMPILER=clang -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=clang++

# Build
cmake --build build-clang

Where are built files?

Built files reside in <CMAKE_BUILD_DIRECTORY>/bin, for example, build/bin.

What about those Autotools files?

Autotools files are not parts of DPF implementation. But you can still build the classic GTK2 standalone application and plug-in once you need.

Notice

This project uses AnClark's own fork of DPF, which has features that upstream does not present (e.g. DISTRHO::Plugin::getParameterDisplay(), VST2 program implementations).

TO-DO lists

• [✅] Basic implemention
• [✅] Embedded factory program support
• [✅] VST2 effGetParamDisplay support
• [✅] Dear ImGui UI implementation
• [✅] Switch factory preset within plug-in UI
• [ ] External bank support
• [ ] MSVC-compatible