An audio plug-in, in computer software, is a plug-in that can add or enhance audio-related functionality in a

computer program A computer program is a sequence or set of instructions in a programming language for a computer to execute. Computer programs are one component of software, which also includes documentation and other intangible components. A computer program ...

. Such functionality may include digital signal processing or

sound synthesis A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and f ...

. Audio plug-ins usually provide their own

user interface In the industrial design field of human–computer interaction, a user interface (UI) is the space where interactions between humans and machines occur. The goal of this interaction is to allow effective operation and control of the machine f ...

, which often contains GUI widgets that can be used to control and visualise the plug-in's audio parameters.

Types

There are three broad classes of audio plug-in: those which transform existing

audio samples In sound and music, sampling is the reuse of a portion (or sample) of a sound recording in another recording. Samples may comprise elements such as rhythm, melody, speech, sounds or entire bars of music, and may be layered, equalized, sped up or ...

, those which generate new audio samples through

and those which analyze existing

. Although all plug-in types can technically perform audio analysis, only specific formats provide a mechanism for analysis data to be returned to the host.

Instances

The program used to dynamically load audio plug-ins is called a plug-in host. Example hosts include Bidule, Gig Performer, Mainstage,

REAPER A reaper is a farm implement or person that reaps (cuts and often also gathers) crops at harvest when they are ripe. Usually the crop involved is a cereal grass. The first documented reaping machines were Gallic reapers that were used in Roma ...

and Sonic Visualiser. Plug-ins can also be used to host other plug-ins. Communication between host and plug-in(s) is determined by a plug-in API. The API declares functions and data structures that the plug-in must define in order to be usable by a plug-in host. Additionally, a

functional specification A functional specification (also, ''functional spec'', ''specs'', ''functional specifications document (FSD)'', ''functional requirements specification'') in systems engineering and software development is a document that specifies the functions ...

may be provided, which defines how the plug-in should respond to function calls, and how the host should expect to handle function calls to the plug-in. The specification may also include documentation about the meaning of variables and data structures declared in the API. The API

header file Many programming languages and other computer files have a directive, often called include (sometimes copy or import), that causes the contents of the specified file to be inserted into the original file. These included files are called copybooks ...

s, specification, shared libraries, license and documentation are sometimes bundled together in an SDK.Reason Studios Rack Extension SDK
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List of plug-in architectures

References

{{reflist Software add-ons

Types

Instances

List of plug-in architectures

See also

References