computer music Computer music is the application of computing technology in music composition, to help human composers create new music or to have computers independently create music, such as with algorithmic composition programs. It includes the theory and ...

and

professional audio Professional audio, abbreviated as pro audio, refers to both an activity and a category of high quality, studio-grade audio equipment. Typically it encompasses sound recording, sound reinforcement system setup and audio mixing, and studio mu ...

creation, a DirectX plugin is a software processing component that can be loaded as a plugin into ''host applications'' to allow real-time processing, audio effects, mixing audio or act as virtual synthesizers. DirectX plugins allow the replacement of traditional recording studio hardware and rack units used in professional studios with software-based counterparts that can be connected together in a modular way. This allows host manufacturers to focus on the conviviality and efficiency of their products while specialized manufacturers can focus on the digital signal processing aspect. For example, there are plugins for effects boxes, such as reverbs and

delays Delays are an English indie band formed in Southampton, which consisted of brothers Greg and Aaron Gilbert, Colin Fox and Rowly until Greg Gilbert's death in 2021. The band's sound combines guitar and synths and featured Greg Gilbert's distinc ...

effects pedals An effects unit or effects pedal is an electronic device that alters the sound of a musical instrument or other audio source through audio signal processing. Common effects include distortion/overdrive, often used with electric guitar in ele ...

, like

guitar distortion Distortion and overdrive are forms of audio signal processing used to alter the sound of amplified electric musical instruments, usually by increasing their gain, producing a "fuzzy", "growling", or "gritty" tone. Distortion is most commonly ...

flange A flange is a protruded ridge, lip or rim, either external or internal, that serves to increase strength (as the flange of an iron beam such as an I-beam or a T-beam); for easy attachment/transfer of contact force with another object (as the f ...

and chorus, and for mixing and mastering processors such as compressors, limiters, exciters, sub bass enhancers, stereo imagers and many more.

Overview

Similar to

Virtual Studio Technology Virtual Studio Technology (VST) is an audio plug-in software interface that integrates software synthesizers and effects units into digital audio workstations. VST and similar technologies use digital signal processing to simulate traditional r ...

and later, Audio Units in Apple

Mac OS X macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and la ...

, DirectX plugins have an open standard architecture for connecting audio synthesizers and effect plugins to audio editors and hard-disk recording systems. DirectX plug-ins are based on Microsoft's Component Object Model (COM) which allows plugins to be recognised and used by other applications via common interfaces. Plugins connect to applications and other plugins with pins via which they can pass and processes buffered streams of audio (or video) data. Architecturally, DirectX plugins are

DirectShow DirectShow (sometimes abbreviated as DS or DShow), codename Quartz, is a multimedia framework and API produced by Microsoft for software developers to perform various operations with media files or streams. It is the replacement for Microsoft's ea ...

filters.

Types and compatibility

DirectX plugins are also of two types, ''DirectX effect plugins (DX)'' and ''DirectX Instrument plugins (DXi)''. Effect plugins are used to generate, process, receive, or otherwise manipulate streams of audio. Instrument plugins are

MIDI MIDI (; Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a technical standard that describes a communications protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, computers, and ...

controllable DirectX plugins, generally used to synthesize sound or playback sampled audio using virtual synthesizers, samplers or drum machines. DirectX effect plugins were developed by Microsoft as part of DirectShow. DirectX instruments were developed by

Cakewalk The cakewalk was a dance developed from the "prize walks" (dance contests with a cake awarded as the prize) held in the mid-19th century, generally at get-togethers on Black slave plantations before and after emancipation in the Southern Uni ...

in co-operation with Microsoft and are available on Windows. Several ''wrapper'' plugins are available so that DirectX plugins can be used in applications which only support VST and vice versa. Others such as ''chainer'' plugins are also available which allow chaining multiple plugins together.

Programmability

DirectX plugins can be developed in C++ using Microsoft's DirectX SDK, Sony's Audio Plug-In Development Kit or Cakewalk's DirectX Wizard. There is also a Delphi SDK available.

DirectX plugin hosts

ACID Pro Acid Pro (often stylized ACID) is a professional digital audio workstation (DAW) software program currently developed by Magix Software. It was originally called Acid pH1 and published by Sonic Foundry, later by Sony Creative Software as Acid P ...

(version 3.0 or later) *

Adobe Audition Adobe Audition is a digital audio workstation developed by Adobe Inc. featuring both a multitrack, non-destructive mix/edit environment and a destructive-approach waveform editing view. Origins Syntrillium Software was founded in the early 19 ...

(Formerly Cool Edit 2000 and Cool Edit Pro 1.0, 2.0) * Cakewalk Sonar (version 2.0 or later) * MAGIX Samplitude *

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 ...

Sony Vegas Vegas Pro (stylized as VEGAS Pro, colloquially called ''Sony Vegas'') is a video editing software package for non-linear editing (NLE). The first release of Vegas Beta was on June 11, 1999. The software runs on Windows operating systems. Origin ...

Sony's Audio Plug-In Development Kit
/ref> *

Sound Forge Sound Forge (formerly known as Sonic Foundry Sound Forge, and later as Sony Sound Forge) is a digital audio editing suite by Magix Software GmbH, which is aimed at the professional and semi-professional markets. There are two versions of Sound F ...

Steinberg Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH (trading as Steinberg) is a German musical software and hardware company based in Hamburg. It develops music writing, recording, arranging, and editing software, most notably Cubase, Nuendo, and Dorico. It als ...

Wavelab WaveLab is a digital audio editor and recording computer software application for Windows and macOS, created by Steinberg. WaveLab was started in 1995 and it is mainly the work of one programmer, Philippe Goutier. Audio can be edited as a sin ...

* Steinberg Nuendo * Steinberg Cubase *

OpenMPT OpenMPT is an open-source audio module tracker for Windows (with an intended Wine-functionality for UNIX and Linux x86-systems). It was previously called ModPlug Tracker, and was first released by Olivier Lapicque in September 1997. ''Compu ...

Future

DirectX plugins are superseded by DMO-based signal processing filters and more recently, by Media Foundation Transforms.

References

External links

All types of audio plugins, effects and instruments

Hitsquad Musician Network: Collection of DirectX plugins

{{DEFAULTSORT:Directx plugin Plugin DirectX plugin Microsoft application programming interfaces Music software plugin architectures