Expand the studio

[gogins]

I will expand my studio with additional, external software. This is all about making pieces, so this can include commercial software, and/or software that runs only on macOS. I have already found that (no surprise) Sean Costello's ValhallaShimmer VST3 plugin, for which I paid, is significantly better than the reverbsc opcode in Csound.

• Create a Reaper project template that starts with a MIDI file or files from my algorithmic compositions. The external resources will be plugins that I can send my score to.
• See if scores can be generated algorithmically in Reaper. Looks like it, trying to learn more. API docs are local to Reaper but the API includes facilities to add MIDI events. Can audio from Csound get into Reaper? I think it can be copied from Csound's output buffer to the Reaper current block buffer. Note: Reaper has a C++ API.
• Search for plugins. Ongoing...
• Search for Ambisonics plugins for Csound and/or for DAWs.
• Search for Atmos rendering plugins for Csound and/or for DAWs.
• Is there a VST plugin version of VCV Rack? Yes, Cardinal. It's fantastic!! Works like a charm.
• Is there a VST plugin version of Pure Data? Yes, plugdata.

Below I will list the plugins etc. that I have tried.

[gogins]

• Valhalla reverbs. Better than anything in Csound.
• Surge XT. Works fine, looks useful.
• Pendulate. Very interesting, could take some time to grok.
• Cardinal (both VST3 and WASM), contains VCV Rack. Looks extremely useful.
• Suite of Uuhyou plugins. Some are musically useful, some perhaps not. Everything built out of the box, and everything I tried in Reaper worked.
• plugdata, potentially very useful as it does not sugar-coat and thus obscure the internals, only one of the sample instrument .pd files that I tried actually worked.

[gogins]

Reaper has ReaScript which can use:

EEL2

A language developed in-house (but open source) which has some similarities to C and JavaScript. EEL is also used to write JSFX plug-ins, OSCII-bot scripts, and video processing effects in REAPER. EEL offers high run-time performance. It supports basic UI management (dedicated script window, docking, context menus, mouse input, etc) and graphics manipulation (drawing primitives, loading image files, etc). EEL is embedded within REAPER and requires no additional downloads or settings.

Lua (v5.4)

A popular scripting language. Lua is probably easier to learn and use than EEL or Python, and offers good performance. It supports the same UI and graphic features as EEL. As a general-use scripting language, Lua also benefits from third-party resources, libraries, tutorials, and code examples. Lua is embedded within REAPER and requires no additional downloads or settings. Note that REAPER v6.x and earlier used Lua v5.3.

Python (v2.7-v3.x)

Another popular scripting language. Python must be downloaded and installed separately (see requirements) and as such, will never be as portable between users as EEL or Lua. Within REAPER, Python performance is not as good as EEL or Lua, and does not offer any UI or graphic features. However, Python does benefit from a vast number of third-party resources, libraries, tutorials, and code examples.

[gogins]

The question arises whether I need to active the VST3 plugin UIs. I think this might be inadvisable as Csound would not store presets in pieces.

Correction, the VST3 opcodes can at least load presets, and can probably save them.

[gogins]

For C++ development of Reaper plugins:

• Reaper SDK
• SWS

[gogins]

Given activity with CsoundUnity and MetaCsounds I am not pursuing this.