CLAP for preset building and interchange

General discussion
1

You guys read about CLAP?

This CLAP sounds promising. It doesn’t change the heart of the virtual synth’s processing, but the way it interchanges its parameters with its host and the OS… see where I’m heading:

  • could ŵe find a way with CLAP to bidirectionally interface any parameter of the VST, regardless of the host, and in endless quantities?
  • Could there be a way we can request or send a program dump, in a way similar to SysEx, so the VST gets visualized on the E1?
  • Could there be a default program format message, that the synth could send to an empty preset, where the VST tells you about all the parameters it has: its name, section it belongs to, range, selection list, init value,…

Building an initial preset would be a matter of minutes instead of hours.

1 Like
2

I don’ think CLAP changes much with regards to your questions (vs, e.g. VST, VST3)

the issue for using the E1, is that plugins are (generally) controlled via the host (your daw).
so the issue is not so much the plugin, but communicating with the host.

e.g.
I could write a host, that loaded vst/clap (whatever), and queried all parameters to populate an E1 preset.
but the issue is, to use that preset with a daw, I still then need to midi map all the those parameters.

k, we could get fancy here, with thing like:

  • creating daw extensions, that integrate E1-> daw → plugin
    this has to be done for every different daw, and can be fiddly

  • wrap plugins (basically host within a host) so that E1 talks to an internal plugin host, and daw hosts that plugin host…
    Ive done something similar before, but it does get a bit messy.

anyway, I think Ive already talked about this before with VST, as the issue is the same…e.g. here
the issue is not building the preset, but then how you communicate to the plugin via the daw.

of course, one could argue that even building the preset, without the midi mapping could save some time…

ultimately, I think the daw extension/controller script - as the push2 dos is the best approach, since it works regardless of plugin type (and also works with built in modules) - but its a pretty big task to do properly, and you need to do for your particular daw.

anyway, as I say, as far as Ive seen so far, clap doesn’t help (nor hinder) this.