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OpenAudio

A list of open source VST/audio plugin projects. Please contribute more links or open source your own plugins.

Open-Source Audio Plugins & Apps

A list of open-source VST (and other format) plugin/app projects. The intention of this list is to catalog open-source plugins or apps which are either fully featured or are useful examples which have non-trivial features.

https://openaudio.webprofusion.com

Table of Contents
Contributing links Our site and README are generated from the lists defined in code. **Links are no longer edited directly in the README.** To contribute links you will need to modify the collection you want to update and submit that to us with a new GitHub Pull Request (PR). You can do that directly on GitHub by clicking the *Edit* button on the top right of the page when viewing any of the collection files: _Do not edit any other files as updating a generated file will cause your changes to be lost._ Choose the collection to edit:

Audio Plugins

Plugin Description Type Framework
8ridgelite 8 string guitar virtual instrument Instrument JUCE
ADLplug FM Chip Synthesizer — OPL & OPN Instrument JUCE
Airwindows Various small and experimental effect plugins Effect N/A
ampli-Fe Cross-platform VST2 plugin written in Rust Effect Rust VST
amsynth Analog-modelling (virtual analog) synthesizer Instrument GTK
andes Sound synthesiser plugin based on Perlin noise Instrument JUCE
Argotlunar Real-time delay-line granulator Effect JUCE
Audible Planets An expressive, quasi-Ptolemaic semi-modular synthesizer Instrument JUCE
Audio Effects Plugins implemented from the explanations in the book “Audio Effects: Theory, Implementation and Application” Effect JUCE
Bespoke Node-based modular synth with live coding Instrument JUCE
BinAural VST Mono-to-stereo plugin that positions sound in a 3D space using Head-Related Transfer Functions Effect JUCE
BlackBird Analog-inspired software synth with its own voice Instrument JUCE
blocks Polyphonic modular synth Instrument JUCE
C1Bitcrusher Experimental and accurate bit reduction Effect N/A
Calf Studio Gear Many LV2 and Jack audio plug-ins Effect GTK
Cardinal Virtual modular synthesizer plugin Instrument DPF
CHOW Maximally truculent distortion effect Effect JUCE
Cloud Seed Algorithmic reverb for emulating huge, endless spaces and modulated echoes Effect N/A
Cocoa Delay Warm and lively delay Effect WDL-OL
Convolver Impulse-response reverb Effect JUCE, VSTGUI
cStop Tape stop Effect JUCE
Dexed DX7 FM plugin synth Instrument JUCE
Digits Phase-distortion synth inspired by Casio CZ series Instrument VSTGUI
Distrho glBars OpenGL bars visualization plugin (as seen in XMMS and XBMC/Kodi) adapted from jack_glbars Effect DPF
Distrho Juice Plugins   Misc DPF
Distrho Kars Simple karplus-strong plucked string synth based on the karplong DSSI example synth Instrument DPF
Distrho Mini-Series Collection of small plugins based on LOSER-Dev Plugins Effect DPF
Distrho MVerb DPF-based version of MVerb Effect DPF
Distrho ndc Plugs DPF-based versions of some of ndc Plugs Effect DPF
Distrho Nekobi Simple single-oscillator synth based on Roland TB-303 Instrument DPF
Distrho ProM Music-visualizer plugin based on projectM Effect DPF
Dragonfly Reverb Hall-style reverb based on Freeverb3 algorithms Effect DPF
Drops Single file audio player Instrument DPF
Element Advanced Audio Plugin Host Misc JUCE
Eurorack Diverse set of physical modeling sources, organic processors, wavetable oscillators, waveshapers, granular synths, and utility modules Misc N/A
Flutterbird Simple pitch fluctuation Effect iPlug2
Fusion Additive Synth Instrument JUCE
GainPlugin (Experimental) VST/AU audio plugin example based on JUCE with React-JUCE for UI. Misc JUCE, React-JUCE
Gverb/Gigaverb Reverb Effect VSTGUI
Helm Polyphonic synth with lots of modulation Instrument JUCE
hexter Yamaha DX7 modeling FM synth for DSSI Instrument DPF
HiLoFilter Simple hipass/lopass filter controlled with a single knob Effect JUCE
Hue Mixes various noise types into the audio signal Effect Rust VST
jc303 A Free Roland TB-303 Plugin for Windows, MacOS and Linux: VST2, VST3, LV2 and AU. A JUCE port of Open303 engine Instrument JUCE
JuceOPLVSTi FM synth based on Yamaha OPL2/3 emulation from DOSBox Instrument JUCE
Juno 6 Roland Juno 6/60 Synthesizer Instrument N/A
K-Meter Implementation of a K-System meter according to Bob Katz’ specifications Effect JUCE
keithhearne/VSTPlugins Collection of VST plugins Effect JUCE
Key Repeat Beat repeat sampler Instrument JUCE
KickMaker Synth specifically to create kick-drum sounds Instrument VSTGUI
LameVST LameMP3 as an effect Effect N/A
Magical8bitPlug 2 Old 8bit game console style synth Instrument JUCE
mda FX and virtual instruments for PC and Mac Misc N/A
mda-plugins-juce JUCE implementations of the classic MDA audio plug-ins Misc JUCE
MidiChords Detect chord names from a MIDI track and display them in a scrolling window during track playback Misc JUCE
Mika Micro Simple subtractive synth Instrument WDL-OL
modEQ EQ with modulation (VST3, AU) Effect JUCE
MultiMeter A comprehensive set of AU/VST audio analysis tools (level meters, histograms, spectrogram analyzer, goniometer, correlation meter) Effect JUCE
MVerb Studio-quality reverb using the Dattorro’s figure-of-eight reverb structure Effect VSTGUI
ndc Plugs VST plugins for Windows and OSX Misc N/A
Neural Amp Modeler LV2 Neural amplifier modeler, LV2 version of Steven Atkinson’s NAM plugin Effect N/A
Ninjas 2 Sample slicer, rewrite of Ninjas Instrument DPF
NotNotchFilter Performance-oriented filter designed to replace the mid-EQ found in a standard 3-band DJ mixer Effect JUCE
OB-Xd Based on the Oberheim OB-X Instrument JUCE
OctaSine VST2 frequency modulation synthesizer written in Rust Instrument Rust VST
Odin2 Polyphonic Synth Instrument JUCE
OwlBass Additive bass synth Instrument JUCE
Oxe FM Synth Multitimbral 8-operator FM synth (VST 2.4; Windows, Linux, macOS) Instrument VSTGUI
Pulp Fiction Multi-effects rack plugin Effect JUCE
PulseDelay Timed delay effect Effect N/A
QtVST VST plugins with a Qt interface Effect Qt
REACH Extraterrestrial Reverb for Electronic Music Effect JUCE
Regrader Degenerative delay Effect VSTGUI
Roth-AIR Mixing tool for easily adding airy, crispy presence to audio Effect JUCE
Schrammel OJD Model of a modern classic guitar distortion pedal Effect JUCE
ScorchCrafter Guitar FX Audio DSP FX and plugins, mostly for guitar (amp sim) and other FX Effect VSTGUI
sfizz SFZ parser library and instrument plugins Instrument VSTGUI
ShoutVST VST for streaming sound into Icecast/Shoutcast directly from VST hosts Effect VSTGUI, FLUID
SmartGuitarAmp Guitar amplifier-style plugin, that uses machine learning for emulating real world hardware Instrument JUCE
SmartGuitarPedal Guitar pedal-style plugin, that uses machine learning for emulating real world hardware Effect JUCE
Sound Analyser Real-time audio analysis to allow anyone to quickly set up and experiment with different algorithms Effect JUCE
Sound of Music Multiband bitcrusher Effect JUCE
SPARTA Spatial audio focused plug-in suite (Ambisonics encoders/decoders, 3-D panners/spatialisers, etc.) Effect SAF, JUCE
Squeezer Compressor with side-chain, several detection modes and filters, etc Effect JUCE
Surge Subtractive wavetable synth Instrument VSTGUI
Synister Subtractive synth Instrument JUCE
Syntage VST 2.4 .Net Study Synth Instrument N/A
Temper Digital distortion targeting VST, VST3, and AU for OS X and Windows Effect Faust, JUCE
traKmeter Loudness meter for correctly setting up tracking and mixing levels Effect JUCE
Tunefish VST virtual analog synthesizer Instrument JUCE
Vaporizer2 Hybrid wavetable additive / subtractive VST / AU / AAX synthesizer / sampler workstation plugin Instrument JUCE
VCV Rack Virtual modular synth Misc RtAudio
Vital Spectral warping wavetable synthesizer Instrument JUCE
VST2413 FM synth based on emulator of YM2413 (OPLL) chip used in Sega Master System and FM-PAC MSX expansion Instrument N/A
VSTSID SID synthesizer instrument Instrument N/A
Wavetable A 2 oscillator wavetable synth with flexible modulation options Instrument JUCE
WebCZ101 Virtual CZ101 synth in a browser Instrument WAM
WebDX7 Virtual Yamaha DX7 synth in a browser Instrument WAM
Wolf Shaper Waveshaper plugin with spline-based graph editor Effect DPF
YK Chorus Chorus audio effect plugin based on DSP code by TAL Effect DPF
zam-plugins LADSPA/LV2/VST/JACK audio plugins for high-quality processing Effect DPF
zynaddsubfx Additive/Subtractive AM/FM synthesizer with effects Instrument FLTK

Collections

Audio Apps

Software Source Description
ADSR satelllte/adsr Simple web-based ADSR synth
Ardour Ardour/ardour DAW
ASIO2WASAPI levmin/ASIO2WASAPI Universal ASIO driver for Windows
Audacity audacity/audacity Audio editor
AudioKit Synth One AudioKit/AudioKitSynthOne Open-Source iOS Synthesizer App
Bosca Ceoil TerryCavanagh/boscaceoil Fun stand-alone beginner synthesiser
butterDAWg Jaybee18/butterDAWg DAW (WIP)
Carla falkTX/Carla GNU/Linux Plugin Host
ChucK ccrma/chuck Strongly-timed, Concurrent, and On-the-fly Music Programming Language
Coincident Spectra bgins/coincident-spectra A spectral-microtuning additive synthesizer
Element Kushview/Element Advanced Audio Plugin Host
Elementary Grid teetow/elementary_grid A tonegrid synth made with Elementary Audio and React
FlexASIO dechamps/FlexASIO Universal ASIO driver for Windows
Giada monocasual/giada Loop machine
Guitarix SourceForge → guitarix GNU/Linux Virtual Amplifier
Harmonoid harmonoid/harmonoid Cross-platform music player (Mobile & Desktop) written in Flutter
Helio Workstation helio-fm/helio-workstation Sequencer
HISE christophhart/HISE Cross-platform framework/application for building sample-based virtual instruments (VST, AU, AAX)
Hydrogen hydrogen-music/hydrogen Drum machine
JSS-01 michaelkolesidis/javascript-software-synthesizer JavaScript Software Synthesizer
LMMS LMMS/lmms DAW
Musescore musescore/Musescore A notation and sheet music app
Musical garden ejarzo/musical-garden A web instrument that allows you to make music by tending to a virtual garden
NewMixer jatinchowdhury18/NewMixer Mixing Software
OpenMPT OpenMPT/openmpt Popular tracker (formerly ModPlug Tracker) for Windows with support for IT, XM, S3M, MOD modules, VST plugins and ASIO
OpenUtau stakira/OpenUtau Singing synthesis platform for Windows, Mac and Linux that support UTAU voicebanks and machine learning voicebanks.
orDrumbox SourceForge → ordrumbox Drum machine
ossia score ossia/score Cross-platform intermedia sequencer
OwlPlug DropSnorz/OwlPlug Audio plugin manager
Patchcab spectrome/patchcab Modular Eurorack style synthesizer made with Web Audio
Psycle SourceForge → psycle Modular music tracker
SampleScanner psobot/SampleScanner Tool for auto-sampling hardware instruments
SFZ to HISE converter anderseklov/SFZ-to-HISE-converter JavaScript app that translates SFZ instrument files into HISE samplemaps and JSON data objects. Runs in a modern web browser. MIT license.
Shape Your Music ejarzo/Shape-Your-Music A web application for drawing music
Sonic Pi sonic-pi-net/sonic-pi Code-based music creation and performance tool
Soundshed soundshed/soundshed-app Browse and manage favourite tones, control your smart amp/fx (Spark Amp etc), jam to video backing tracks, learn chords and scales.
Stargate DAW stargatedaw/stargate Cross-platform, all-in-one DAW and plugin suite
StudioRack studiorack/studiorack Audio plugin manager
SuperCollider supercollider/supercollider SuperCollider is a platform for audio synthesis and algorithmic composition, used by musicians, artists, and researchers working with sound.
VCV Rack VCVRack/Rack Modular synth
yabridge robbert-vdh/yabridge Linux bridge for Windows VSTs
Zrythm zrythm/zrythm DAW

Software Development Libraries & APIs

Library Source Description
AudioKit AudioKit/AudioKit Swift audio synthesis, processing, & analysis platform for iOS, macOS and tvOS
AudioPlugSharp mikeoliphant/AudioPlugSharp Easily create VST (VST3) audio plugins in C# .NET
Avendish celtera/avendish C++20 framework for any sort of audio / video / midi media objects
Cabbage rorywalsh/cabbage Framework for developing audio plugins and standalone instruments with Csound
Clap free-audio/clap CLAP stands for CLever Audio Plugin. It is an audio plugin ABI which defines a standard for Digital Audio Workstations and audio plugins (synthesizers, audio effects, …) to work together.
Cmajor SoundStacks/cmajor Cmajor is a programming language for writing fast, portable audio software.
Csound csound/csound Programming language for sound and music synthesis
DawDreamer DBraun/DawDreamer Audio-processing Python framework supporting core DAW features written with JUCE
DPF DISTRHO/DPF C++ framework for creating cross-platform audio plugins. DPF can build for LADSPA, DSSI, LV2, and VST formats.
Dplug AuburnSounds/Dplug Dplug lets you create audio plug-ins with unmatched simplicity and speed, using the D language.
Elementary elemaudio/elementary JavaScript runtime for writing native audio applications, as well as a library and framework for composing audio signal processes.
Faust grame-cncm/faust Functional programming language for real-time signal processing
FluidSynth FluidSynth/fluidsynth Real-time synth based on the SoundFont 2 specifications
Heavy Wasted-Audio/hvcc The heavy hvcc compiler for Pure Data patches. With generators for Bela, Fabric, js, pdext, Unity, Daisy, DPF, and Wwise frameworks.
iPlug 2 iPlug2/iPlug2 Simple-to-use C++ framework for developing cross-platform audio plugins/apps
JUCE juce-framework/JUCE Cross-platform C++ framework for developing desktop and mobile apps and audio plugins
jVSTwRapper SourceForge → jvstwrapper Wrapper to write audio plugins in Java (VST 2.4, AU, LADSPA; Windows, Linux, macOS)
libopenmpt OpenMPT/openmpt Cross-platform C/C++ module-playback library based on OpenMPT
libspatialaudio videolabs/libspatialaudio Cross-platform C++ library for Ambisonic encoding and decoding, filtering and binaural rendering
NIH-plug robbert-vdh/nih-plug Rust VST3 and CLAP plugin framework and plugins
PortAudio Assembla → portaudio Cross-platform audio I/O library
Qubx PasqualeMainolfi/Qubx Rust library for queue-based multithreaded real-time parallel audio streams processing and management
r-audio bbc/r-audio A library of React components for building Web Audio graphs.
React-JUCE JoshMarler/react-juce React-JUCE (formerly named Blueprint) is a hybrid JavaScript/C++ framework that enables a React.js frontend for a JUCE application or plugin.
RtAudio thestk/rtaudio C++ classes for cross-platform real-time audio I/O
rust-vst rust-dsp/rust-vst VST 2.4 API implementation in the Rust language
RustAudio rustaudio/ Collection of audio processing and plugin libraries for the Rust language
SAF leomccormack/Spatial_Audio_Framework Cross-platform framework for developing spatial audio related algorithms and software in C/C++
SOUL soul-lang/SOUL SOUL (SOUnd Language) is an attempt to modernise and optimise the way high-performance, low-latency audio code is written and executed.
Soundpipe PaulBatchelor/Soundpipe Lightweight music DSP library written in C; over 100 modules, many ported from Csound
Tone.js Tonejs/Tone.js A Web Audio framework for making interactive music in the browser.
tracktion_engine Tracktion/tracktion_engine Tracktion Engine module. You can build anything from a simple file-player or sequencer to a full blown DAW.
VSTGUI steinbergmedia/vstgui User-interface toolkit mainly for audio plugins
WDL-OL olilarkin/wdl-ol Simple-to-use C++ framework for developing cross-platform audio plugins (superseded by iPlug 2)
Web Audio API WebAudio/web-audio-api The Web Audio API provides a powerful and versatile system for controlling audio on the Web, allowing developers to choose audio sources, add effects to audio, create audio visualizations, apply spatial effects (such as panning) and much more.
WebAudioModules webaudiomodules/api WAM (WebAudioModules) — synthesizers and audio effects processors for web browsers
WEBMIDI.js djipco/webmidi WEBMIDI.js makes it easy to interact with MIDI instruments directly from a web browser or from Node.js

Code Samples

Open Data Resources