CLAP - Open Source Plugin Format

[Jac459]

The problem might be that you, and every other DEV, end up having to do CLAP in addition to VST3 rathe than instead of it.

Is anyone else really annoyed enough to have to select which of like 5 different plugins you have to install/upgrade when installing a plugin? What's one more to that list!?!?

Well if claps give me per note variation I would not mind at all clicking clap. How come is it annoying?

[DJMaytag]

The hope is that this new standard becomes so popular that it eclipses the others and then it's the others that get booted out of the list...

I would hope so! To conserve disk space, I always opt out of installing AU and AAX. I would LOVE to only install CLAP in favor of VST2/VST3 someday.

[DJMaytag]

Well if claps give me per note variation I would not mind at all clicking clap. How come is it annoying?

AU installs account for 1.76 Gb of wasted disk space. It's arguably just as annoying as the ones that DON'T give you the option, and require you to have the AU versions on your computer, since the standalone apps require the AU file.

[DaveyG]

I would LOVE to only install CLAP in favor of VST2/VST3 someday.

We'd all love to get to a point where there is only one plugin format but it takes so long for something like that to get established that someone else will announces their all-new "PLAC" format that is so much better than CLAP.

And in the meantime there will still be people using VST3, VST2, 32-bit wrappers etc etc.

We run and we run to catch up with the sun but....

[joeyluck]

Not to mention, if Reason Studios bases their decision the same as they did VST3, it's gonna be a very long time. There will need to many more devs making plugins in the format...and maybe only in the format to justify it. And we don't even have MPE support yet.

[DJMaytag]

We'd all love to get to a point where there is only one plugin format but it takes so long for something like that to get established that someone else will announces their all-new "PLAC" format that is so much better than CLAP.

And in the meantime there will still be people using VST3, VST2, 32-bit wrappers etc etc.

We run and we run to catch up with the sun but....

I don't really care so much about what Apple and Avid are doing, and I've not heard much grumbling about their proprietary formats... but there's a LOT of issues with VST2 -> VST3 and what Steinberg is doing with their SDK & licensing agreements. It's almost as if they don't want anyone else making VST's, or at least they don't want anyone else to make them work well in other hosts besides Cubase & Nuendo.

That said, there's been a lot of stuff about the creation of MIDI that's come up since Dave Smith recently passed away. Like plugin formats today, no one wanted to come up with a single standard for device to device communication protocols, and the major American manufacturers couldn't agree on anything, and it took Dave Smith of Sequential Circuits collaborating with some of the Japanese manufacturers like Yamaha & Roland to develop what became MIDI... something we're still using nearly 40 years later.

If there's any one dev that could be the Dave Smith of plugin formats, it could be Ableton. If Live supports CLAP along with a bunch of other smaller DAW's, it could be a dam that breaks that makes CLAP a major new format to be reckoned with. What dev would rather jump through Steinberg's hoops when they could code for CLAP, which might be easier than VST? I'm not a dev, so I can't speak to that, other than what's been said about the CLAP code base.

[DJMaytag]

Not to mention, if Reason Studios bases their decision the same as they did VST3, it's gonna be a very long time. There will need to many more devs making plugins in the format...and maybe only in the format to justify it. And we don't even have MPE support yet.

It sounds like CLAP would be a better way to go to get MPE support than dealing with VST3. I wonder if Steinberg is making it quite difficult for RS to implement VST3 support? Steinberg seems to have a bit of a conflict of interest here, as pushing VST3 over VST2 and creating a ton of problems in that process could be a way to cripple other DAW's and attempt to make Cubase look better? As someone who ditched Cubase in favor of Reason, I could see Steinberg trying to do whatever they can to maintain their market share.

I also wonder if the potential enhancements available in CLAP could make RRP better in other DAW's?

[Jac459]

We'd all love to get to a point where there is only one plugin format but it takes so long for something like that to get established that someone else will announces their all-new "PLAC" format that is so much better than CLAP.

And in the meantime there will still be people using VST3, VST2, 32-bit wrappers etc etc.

We run and we run to catch up with the sun but....

I don't really care so much about what Apple and Avid are doing, and I've not heard much grumbling about their proprietary formats... but there's a LOT of issues with VST2 -> VST3 and what Steinberg is doing with their SDK & licensing agreements. It's almost as if they don't want anyone else making VST's, or at least they don't want anyone else to make them work well in other hosts besides Cubase & Nuendo.

That said, there's been a lot of stuff about the creation of MIDI that's come up since Dave Smith recently passed away. Like plugin formats today, no one wanted to come up with a single standard for device to device communication protocols, and the major American manufacturers couldn't agree on anything, and it took Dave Smith of Sequential Circuits collaborating with some of the Japanese manufacturers like Yamaha & Roland to develop what became MIDI... something we're still using nearly 40 years later.

If there's any one dev that could be the Dave Smith of plugin formats, it could be Ableton. If Live supports CLAP along with a bunch of other smaller DAW's, it could be a dam that breaks that makes CLAP a major new format to be reckoned with. What dev would rather jump through Steinberg's hoops when they could code for CLAP, which might be easier than VST? I'm not a dev, so I can't speak to that, other than what's been said about the CLAP code base.

I agree with you, Ableton could do something. But today the innovation is on Bitwig side... On many aspects... Vst3, MPE support, M1 native, are so "old stories" for them... And the voice stacking, variations concepts they have are so modern and genius... I am not surprised they are the first to push the format...
And I also agree with you on frustrations with VSTs... At the end the move to CLAP could be a significant improvement, like moving from textos to WhatsApp .

[joeyluck]

I dunno. Maybe if they come up with a better name, more people will get on board?

And at the same time, if they wanted it to take off, they would've involved more DAW devs through the process.