- intro
- install with fluidsynth
- presets, soundfonts
- state save/restore
- parameters
- release history
- known issues
- see also
- devinstall
- implementation notes
- buyer beware
- license
FluidSynth.clap is a simple, open source, "headless" (no GUI) bridge to
the fluidsynth soundfont synthesizer in the
form of a CLAP plugin.
In our github releases you can find a .zip or .dmg file that includes both the fluidsynth.clap plugin and the fluidsynth runtime components. Download, then unpack the file into one of these standard CLAP plugin locations.
| platform | type | typical path |
|---|---|---|
| Windows | system | c:/Program Files/Common Files/CLAP |
| Windows | user | $LOCALAPPDATA/Programs/CLAP |
| MacOS | system | /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/CLAP |
| MacOS | user | $HOME/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/CLAP |
| Linux | system | /usr/lib/clap |
| Linux | user | $HOME/.clap |
If you already have a fluidsynth installation or wish to build your own plugin see below.
To make any sound using fluidsynth you must load a soundfont file.
A default soundfont may not be available on your system but soundfont
files can easily be found on the internet. The go-to starter soundfont
is FluidR3_GM.sf2. fluidsynth.clap looks for a default soundfont
according to these platform-specific conventions:
| platform | type | location |
|---|---|---|
| Windows | system | C:/Program Files/Common Files/Sounds/Banks/default.sf2 |
| Windows | user | $LOCALAPPDATA/Sounds/Banks/default.sf2 |
| MacOS | system | /Library/Audio/Sounds/Banks/default.sf2 |
| MacOS | user | $HOME/Library/Audio/Sounds/Banks/default.sf2 |
| Linux | system | /usr/share/sounds/sf2/default.sf2 |
| Linux | custom | /usr/local/share/sounds/sf2/default.sf2 |
| Linux | user | $HOME/Documents/sounds/sf2/default.sf2 |
To override these defaults, we employ CLAP's preset extension to allow you
to request an alternate soundfont file. In other words, .sf2 files are
the preset files compatible with this plugin. To load a soundfont you should
be able to request a preset load via your favorite CLAP host application.
Here are a few sources for free soundfonts:
We support the clap.state extension but since the state includes
the filepath to the active soundfont, state files may not be
perfectly portable.
In typical usage, fluidsynth exposes a large collection of "canned" instrument
sounds that are selected by the instrument index. Thus, very little user-interface
is required. Just select instrument/bank indices in your sound font. Most CLAP
hosts offer a stripped-down parameter editing interface which should suffice to
select different gain and program settings.
The General Midi standard
defines a standard mapping between an index and an instrument. Soundfonts
with GM in their name purport to follow this convention.
Here are the exposed/supported fluidsynth parameters and their ids.
| id range | description | value range | default |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | gain | 0-10 | 0.2 |
| 1 | reverb | 0,1 | 1 |
| 2 | roomsize | 0-1.2 | 0.2 |
| 3 | damping | 0-1 | 0.0 |
| 4 | width | 0-100 | .5 |
| 5 | reverblevel | 0-1 | 0.9 |
| 6 | chorus | 0,1 | 1 |
| 7 | chorusNR | 0-99 | 3 |
| 8 | choruslevel | 0-10 | 2 |
| 9 | chorusspeed | 0-1 | .3 |
| 10 | chorusdepth | 0-256 | 8 |
| 11 | chorusmod | 0,1 | 1 |
| 32-47 | program associated with midi chans 0-15 | 0-127 | 0 |
| 48-63 | bank associated with midi chans 0-15 | 0-127 | 0 |
More details on these settings can be found in the fluidsynth docs.
- 0.1.0 - windows only (crashed clap-host)
- 0.2.0 - three platforms (crashed clap-host)
- 0.2.1 - fixed crashing issues with clap-host (7/8/2023)
- clap-host doesn't deliver/implement all the MIDI events esp:
- program change
- pitch-wheel
- doesn't handle transitive dlls on windows
- our plugin needs external dlls to access fluidsynth functions.
Some CLAP hosts handle this, others don't. Developers of Clap Hosts
should consider adding a call to
SetDllDirectory(..dir that contains dlls...). Otherwise you might experiment with including this dir in your PATH or even launching the host from within the FluidSynth.clap directory.
soundfont wikipedia | CLAP plugins | fluidsynth | juicysfplugin (VST, VST3, Au)
This plugin has dependencies on the dlls that implement fluidsynth,
obtaining them depends upon the platform (OS plus architecture).
Our intention is to make the entire collection of .clap and .dll/.so files
available via our releases tags. This means that in order to use this
plugin you need only download the latest .zip file and decompress it
into a standard CLAP location (system or user).
Depending on your CLAP host and platform security settings, you may still need
to add the location of FluidSynth.clap to PATH, and/or LD_LIBRARY_PATH.
If you wish to build or download fluidsynth yourself, please proceed to the platform-specific instructions that follow.
Windows users can download a pre-compiled collection of fluidsynth
runtime components here.
The .zip file is organized in linux fashion with bin, lib and include
directories. In order for FluidSynth.clap to find the .dll files you may
need to add the install location to your PATH.
Another approach is to install vcpkg and then build fluidsynth yourself.
git clone https://github/microsoft/vcpkg (etc)
vcpkg install fluidsynth`Linux users have the easiest job because fluidsynth is widely available as a linux package. For example on debian:
sudo apt-get install fluidsynth fluid-soundfont-gmAnd to obtain the compile/API support:
sudo apt-get install libfluidsynth-devThat said, we employ fluidsynth API version 2.3.X. If your linux distro is conservative, it's possible you won't be able to compile without upgrading your libfluidsynth package(s).
MacOS users either obtain the fluidsynth runtime with this fluidsynth plugin distribution (statically linked) or build/install them following the developer procedure below. If you take the second road, the result may only run on your own development machine due to MacOS security and external DLL dependencies.
This requires that you install homebrew.
brew install fluidsynth`FluidsynthPlugin derives from clap/helpers/plugin.hh which
provides methods/routes for common extensions. Since we
provide a single plugin, factory functions are implemented
in dllMain.cpp. This is where the primary dll entrypoint,
clap_plugin_entry is found.
We currently rely on a home-grown build system, jsmk, to compile and link our plugin code. This includes per-platform logic for locating the required fluidsynth libraries. Since there are so few files in our implementation it should be straightforward to build using your favorite build system.
-
implement an appropriately simple GUI.
-
implement more CCs following the pattern implemented in juicysfplugin.
-
Most fluidsynth effects parameter changes are thread-safe but may cause glitches when performed during audio processing. Value changes could (should?) trigger a reactivate request.
We offer no warranties, guarantees or commitments. Watch out for sharp edges, this is not a toy, though it may appear so.
Sourcecode provided herein is subject to the MIT license.
Binaries provided via releases may include components with different licenses.
Fluidsynth is GPL2, license found here. Fluidsynth relies on other components subject to their own licenses.
The Clap plugin API is MIT licensed, licenses found here and here.