Linux Studio Plugins Project / News: Recent posts

LSP Plugins 1.1.28 available!

Today we celebrate 5 year since the 1.0.0 release. That's hard to imagine but the huge amount of work has been done.

For these 5 years LSP Plugins became one of the top audio plugins used in Linux music production. Among this period new requirements came to the project and we tried to fulfill them all while caring for the quality, stability and performance of the software.... read more

New version of LSP Plugins 1.1.26 is available!

• Implemented Crossover Plugin series.
• Fixed phase mismatch between channels in the oversampling mode of limiter (contributed by Hector Martin).
• Fixed bug in convolver module which could perform improper tail convolution (reported by Robin Gareus).
• Affected plugins: Impulse Responses, Impulse Reverb, Room Builder.
• Fixed small memory leakage in multiband plugins (Compressor, Gate, Expander) related to usage of
• Inline Display feature.
• Added support of pg:mainInput and pg:mainOutput LV2 properties in TTL files for all plugins.
• Updated all C++ heades and source files to match the LGPL3+ license headers.... read more

New release of LSP Plugins is available with the following changes:

• Implemented Loudness Compensator plugin series (Mono and Stereo).
• Implemented Surge Filter plugin series (Mono and Stereo) for protecting audio chain from possible pops on playback start/stop events.
• Significant changes the Limiter Plugin series, may be partially incompatible with hosts/wrappers:
• Removed 'Classic' and 'Mixed' modes since these modes do not give effective results.
• Introduced Automatic Level Regulation (ALR) feature enabled by default.
• Added possibility to dump internal state of plugin to file.
• Several plugins now support dumping of internal state.
• Added support of loading Hydrogen drumkits by the Multisampler plugin series.
• Added 'Squared Cosine' and 'Cubic Hermite Spline' windows to Spectrum Analyzer.
• Fixed bug that caused Spectrum Analyzer to ignore window selection.
• Fixed bug in AVX-optimized sidechaining funcion that could cause invalid behaviour of plugins that use external/internal sidechain for processing.
• Implemented back-buffering of the window surface, all UI controls now don't glitch on edit.
• Refactored and simplified LV2 parameter transport between UI and plugin code.
• VST plugins now provide possibility to save and load presets and do not crash Host.
• Added support of lv2:StateChanged extension which properly works with Ardour 6.0.145 and higher.
• Fixed improper behaviour of VST controls under REAPER host (and possible other VST hosts).
• Updated metadata for dynamic processors to better match the UI.
• Now all lv2:Atom ports that do not provide MIDI message transfer are marked as lv2:connectionOptional.
• Exported plugin configuration now contains information about original package version.

• Implemented Multiband Gate plugin series.
• Added sidechain low-pass and high-pass filters for Compressor plugin series.
• Added sidechain low-pass and high-pass filters for Expander plugin series.
• Added sidechain low-pass and high-pass filters for Gate plugin series.
• Added sidechain low-pass and high-pass filters for Dynamic Processor plugin series.
• Added sidechain low-pass and high-pass filters for Trigger plugin series.
• Fixed VST2 identifiers for Multiband Expander plugin series.
• Fixed graph issues related to dot editing.
• Added spanish translation of the UI (contributed by Ignotus - ignotus666 at github.com).
• Compressor, Expander, Gate and Dynamic Processor plugins now report latency for the lookahead knob.
• Fixed mapping of some numpad keys that could cause problems when entering manual value in the UI.
• VERSION build variable replaced with LSP_VERSION build variable (contributed by Bruno Vernay).

LSP Plugins are currently moving towards 1.2.0 release but that requires huge core updates which are now in progress. This is basically set of minor fixes to the current source tree.

• Fixed UI synchronization issue on plugin state restore for VST plugin format.
• Fixed improper work of default Attack and Release time parameters for
  Dynamic Processor plugin series.
• Fixed build broken by recent LV2 header updates.
• Some french translation fixes (contributed by Olivier Humbert).

• Updated XDG desktop application integration.
• Refactoring of sse::fft functions for better portability between different compilation options.
• Fixed bug in asimd::hdotp functions for AArch64 that caused invalid result output.
• LV2 UI and standalone JACK plugins are now resizable.
• Fixed plugin sizing issues on certain new Linux distributions.
• Refactoring and several fixes of decoding and encoding of MIDI protocol messages.
• Fixed silent MIDI output for JACK plugins.
• Profile binaries are now excluded from release build.

This release solves some additional problems found since 1.1.14 and 1.1.15 release.
The full list of changes:

• Desktop integration icons are now more properly following the XDG standard.
• Fixed Lanczos resampling kernel formula for oversampling operations.
• Fixed improper display of units in the UI.
• Added French translation of the UI (contributed by Olivier Humbert).
• Added Italian translation of the UI (contributed by Stefano Tronci).
• Fixed non-working right sidechain channel for stereo version of
  Compressor, Dynamic Processor, Expander and Gate plugins.
• Added WM_NAME, WM_CLASS and WM_WINDOW_NAME support for the X11 protocol.

This release mostly fixes problems found in the 1.1.14 release.

The overall list of changes:

• Fixed improper TTL file generation for several plugins.
• Restored missing SVG files, implemented proper icon installation.
• Added better desktop entry categorization (contributed by Dennis Braun).
• Added protection from NaNs, Inf's and denormal floating point values passed to plugins' audio
  inputs, all considered to be invalid values are replaced with zeros.
• Added '-fvisibility=hidden' compilation option to avoid conflict between builtin resources of
  shared objects that contain implementation of different plugin formats.

• Implemented Multiband expander plugin series.
• Additional DSP optimizations of code with AVX, AVX2 and FMA3 instruction set or i586 and x86_64 architectures.
• Additional DSP optimizations for AArch64 architecture.
• Reworked and additionally optimized structure of all filter chains.
• Refactored and optimized dynamic filter processing.
• Updated behaviour of limiter in classic mode.
• Implemented multilingual interface support.
• Implemented workaround for Drag&Drop support initiated by GTK-based applications.
• Added russian translations of the user interface.
• Added desktop menu for standalone JACK plugins (contributed by David Runge).
• Added scalable vector graphics (SVG) logo (contributed by Sergey Tkach http://tkach.de/).
• Added 4.5 dB/octave envelope compensation for spectrum analyzer, renamed purple noise to violet noise in UI.
• Bypass button now supports LV2:enabled designation, that makes plugin to work more smooth with the host.
• Bypass button now handles effSetBypass VST event, that makes plugin to work more smooth with the host.
• Now LV2 and VST plugins can be compiled without the UI support.
• Removed strict requirement to build UI for LADSPA version of plugins.
• Implemented support of LV2 state:mapPath extension.
• Denied use of -ffast-math compiler option since it may provide incorrect behaviour of standard C
  library functions like isnan() and isinf().
• Fixed upward compressor behaviour: now upward compressor has additional compensation knee that prevents from
  infinite gain boost on low-level input signals.
• Fixed bug in trigger that caused notes to be immediately cancelled.
• Fixed bug in Profiler plugin that caused crash on saving files to WAV format.
• Fixed bug with producing NaNs by dynamic processors in some cases when knee has zero length.
• Fixed stack corruption bug when working with UI styles and colors.
• Fixed problem with matched Z transform caused by filter characteristics optimizations.
• Fixed bug with pop-up menus in parameter's editing popup window that caused user interface to lock.
• Added SIGPIPE signal blocking for JACK plugin format at startup.

This is mostly hotfix release aimed to fix problems on processors that provide AVX instruction set but do not provide AVX2 instruction set. Short list of changes:

• Fixed improper utilization of AVX2 instruction when the CPU provides only AVX instruction set.
• Fixed some unit tests.
• Removed strict RPATH dependency in build scripts.

This release is published exactly 4 years after the 1.0.0 release of LSP Plugins and is aimed to close many core and UI technical debts. All these changes make LSP Project much better in the UI experience and much faster from the DSP perspective.

That's because support of additional features like drag&drop, bookmarks and some other neat features were added to the graphical toolkit.

From the other side, low-level DSP code is additionally optimized with AVX and AVX2 instruction sets which allow to gain additional performance benefits on processors which have fast AVX implementation (All Intel Core 6 generation processors and above, AMD Zen generation processors and above). There was improved support of AArch64 architecture, and some part of DSP code already has been ported to this architecture. The DSP code for ARMv7 architecture also has been additionally refactored and optimized.... read more

The development of 1.1.10 version took the longest cycle in contrast to previous releases.
All the changes were planned since January 2019 but many supplementary problems should be solved first.
This release contains a lot of internal plugin framework changes, implementation of new UI widgets and, probably, a killer toy: LSP Room Builder plugin series. This plugin allows to simulate impulse response of ANY room (and not only room). You just need to model it first in a 3D editor/designer and export as a Wavefont (OBJ) file.... read more

This is mostly a hot-fix release for regressions occurred in a 1.1.7 release. Anyway, there are also some couple of new changes:

• Added experimental support of AArch64 architecture (DSP code is not optimized yet).
• Fixed regression in VST and Standalone plugin formats that caused offline tasks to
  not to be launched.
• Improved build system to make source code possible to build for KXStudio repository.
  Distribution builders should ensure that the GNU C++ compiler is selected at the build
  stage.
• Additional I/O improvements for better WindowsNT support.

We care about the quality of provided plugin bundle and release new bug-fix release that contains the following changes:

• Implemented fully compatible with EqualizerAPO software digital filters that are
  now part of the Parametric Equalizer plugin series.
• Fixed issue that caused VST plugins not to load from cusom user-defined path.
• Some code parts rewritten for better compatibility with WindowsNT platform.
• Fixed file listing in the file dialog that caused improper reading of remote directories
  mounted on the local file system.
• Changed implementation of LV2 MIDI transport so now plugins utilize only one
  LV2:Atom input port and one LV2:Atom output port.
• Fixed bug in host<->UI time and position synchronization for VST plugin format.
• Fixed AVX+FMA3 implementation of dynamic biquadratic filters that caused improper
  behaviour of the Multi-band compressor plugin on machines that support AVX and FMA3
  instruction set.
• Multiband compressor now properly handles the 'Bypass' button.
• Fixed return of improper extension pointers when requested extension is different to
  the ui:idleInterface.
• Fixed bug in dynamic processor plugin that could issue invalid metering values.
• Fixed UI size issue for VST plugins in Cockos Reaper.
• Fixed numerous memory leakage issues in UI components.
• Fixed spontaneous crashes when destroying the Profiler Mono/Stereo plugin.
• Fixed embedded resource generation tool that had invalid behaviour for several file systems.
• Reimplemented I/O subsystem.

We publish new 1.1.5 release with many improvements exactly three years after the 1.0.0 release!
Merry Christmas and Happy new Year!

• Implemented stereo version of Profiler plugin.
• Added 'Spectralizer' and 'Mastering' modes to the Spectrum Analyzer plugin series.
• All SIMD-optimized DSP code now ported to ARMv7A architecture and optimized using ARM NEON instruction set.
• Added Frame Buffer primitive support by plugins and widgets.
• Implemented RGBA and HSLA color manipulation routines for point array rendering optimizations.
• Extended unit and performance test coverage.
• Enabled RELRO and PIE option for binaries, simplified build system.
• Implemented optimized DSP functions for minimum and maximum search.
• Implemented optimized DSP functions for static biquad processing, dynamic biquad processing,
  dynamic bilinear transformation.
• Extended DSP code with different set of software rendering functions that enhance visual effects.
• Added support of FreeBSD operating system (plugins are available for building in FreeBSD ports).
• Improved build process, added possibility to specify PREFIX variable for
  installing into specified path instead of /usr/local.
• Fixed building issues under Ubuntu Linux related to compiler and linker
  flags reordering.
• Fixed system character set detection on certain systems that caused disappearing of text labels in the UI.
• Fixed window decorating issue under the i3 window manager.
• Fixed biquad filter processing routines that could cause memory corruption and/or invalid behaviour
  in certain circumstances.
• Fixed serious memory corruption in SSE implementation of fast convolution routines that could cause
  spontaneous crashes of convolvers.
• Fixed buffer underflow in Convolver module that could cause memory corruption and spontaneous crashes
  of host.

Release 1.1.4 is coming out with a lot of new changes!

First of all, LSP Plugins became completely open source and are licensed under terms of GNU LGPL v3 license!

Additionally, experimental support of ARMv7-A architecture added, basicly for Raspberry Pi 3B/3B+ devices.

The overall list of changes is listed below:

• Changed licensing to GNU Lesser General Public License version 3 (GNU LGPL v3).
• Moved code repository to GitHub while keeping release history.
• Implemented linear impulse response profiler plugin.
• Added basic Raspberry Pi 3B/3B+ (ARMv7A) support (experimental).
• Implemented unit testing subsystem.
• Implemented performance testing subsystem.
• Implemented manual testing subsystem.
• Fixed and optimized convolution algorithm for convolver module that produced invalid output.
• Added LSPC file format implementation.
• Added LSPC file format support to convolver plugins.
• Huge refactoring: DSP code moved from core to separate subtree.
• Partially implemented NEON SIMD instruction support for some DSP assembly functions for ARMv7A architecture.
• Fixed bugs in some DSP oversampling routines.
• Optimized complex multiplication functions.
• Implemented additional complex number routines.
• Implemented additional functions to DSP core.
• Fixed compilation warnings and errors emitted by the GCC 8 compiler.
• Updated development documentation.

Published LSP Plugins version 1.1.3 with many improvements.

• Updated File saving widget to support different kinds of file types.
• Added support of latency report by JACK version of plugins.
• Added support of playback position report (BPM, etc) by JACK transport for JACK plugin format.
• Added support of playback position report (BPM, etc) by host for LV2 plugin format.
• Added support of playback position report (BPM, etc) by host for VST plugin format.
• Added emulation of playback position report for LADSPA wrapper.
• Implemented Fraction widget for editing time signature.
• Implemented Tempo tap widget for manually adjusting tempo.
• Added possibility to configure Slap-Back delay plugin series using BPM-related time units.
• All grid lines are made more 'darken' in the UI.
• Added delay ramping (interpolation) option for Compensation Delay plugin series. This feature
  allows to apply soft delay change when applying automation in DAW.
• Added delay ramping (interpolation) option for Slap-Back Delay plugin series. This feature
  allows to apply soft delay change when applying automation in DAW.
• Added modules for reading text files.
• Re-implemented parameter serializing and deserializing interface for more flexible and safe usage.
• Added possibility to copy samples and impulse response files between different AudioFile widgets.
• Fixed GUI crash when pasting data from clipboard.
• Added ability to move the split bars on the Multiband Compressor's graph with the mouse.

After hard work, new release of LSP Plugins, version 1.1.2, is ready!

The main list of changes is following:

• Implemented Muliband Compressor plugin series.
• Added possibility to mute playback by triggering the 'note off' MIDI event in sampler plugin series.
• Implemented ComboGroup wiget for dynamically switching internal contents of the group.
• Fixed error in filter processing algorithms that could yield to invalid results when source and destination buffers differ.
• Additionally tuned SSE code of static filters.
• Refactored CPU identification routines and optimized assembly routines selection.
• Small fixes in UI grid cell allocation and rendering.
• Improved design of markers: added gradient highliting.
• Fixed some UI issues related to switched port values.
• Removed support of some plugins by LADSPA that can not be supported by LADSPA.
• Optimized calculations related to logarithmic axis.
• Fixed bug in UI expression language that incorrectly interpreted 'not' operation.
• Added power mathematical operator to UI expression language.

LSP Plugins release 1.1.1 available. Some bugs related to the new UI were fixed.
Also some improvements of already existing plugins were done. Here is the complete list of changes:

• Plugins have been tested under QTractor 0.9.5 and it seems that they are working well.
• Fixed UI resize issue in Carla host.
• Fixed UI redraw issue that didn't show widgets for several cases.
• Optimized spectrum analysis modules by changing code so it now uses more cache-friendly FFT routines.
• Added graph amplitude scaling to Graphic and Parametric equalizers.
• Added graph amplitude scaling to Spectrum Analyzer plugin.
• Fixed possible memory corruption while redrawing the inline display image of parametric equalizer.
• Fixed possible memory corruption in the Dynamic Processor plugin.
• Fixed latency report for equalizer plugins.
• Updated wrapper to make plugins properly supported by Bitwig Studio that doesn't know anything about kVstParameterUsesIntStep and kVstParameterUsesIntegerMinMax flags.
• Refactored event handling mechanism for widgets: added 'sender' parameter to indicate the widget that initiated slot execution.
• UI now stores last used path when loading samples, impulse response files and configuration files in the global configuration file.
• Fixed problem with UI update in cases when window size does not change. Now works properly.
• Added Mid/Side adjustment knobs for Mid/Side versions of equalizer plugins.
• Reorganized core modules into more comfortable source code tree.
• Added support of UI:updateRate parameter reported by the LV2 host to the UI.
• Added multiple-channel (up to 8 channels) audio file support to Impulse Reverb plugin.
• Updated documentation related to the Limiter plugin.
• Added possibility to equalize the processed signal in convolution plugins.
• JACK version of plugins now automatically handles JACK startup/shutdown and does not require to restart plugin.

Happy New 2018 Year!

Accurately to this date we've gathered donations for new Source Code Release - SCR 1.0.4!

The changelog is, as usual, simple:

• Published source code for the LSP Spektrumanalysator - Spectrum analyzer plugin.

After a long delay, the new 1.1.0 release hase been made!

Today we also celebrate the second year of project lifetime since the 1.0.0 release!

The release slogan can be pronounced as: "Farewall to GTK!", that's why this release includes a lot of HUGE UI changes, so please try it carefully before using on your projects!

https://youtu.be/MXWgPCmXLD0

The overall changelist is the following:

• Ported all widgets from GTK+ 2.x to raw X11 + cairo
• Ardour DAW is supported by the UI as before
• Mixbus DAW is supported by the UI as before
• JUCE-based hosts are now supported by UI
• Tracktion DAWs are now supported by UI
• Renoise DAW is now supported by UI
• Bitwig Studio DAW is now supported by UI
• REAPER native linux version is now supported by UI
• Updated JACK plugin wrapper to support new UIs
• Updated VST pluign wrapper to support new UIs
• Updated LV2 plugin wrapper to support new UIs
• Implemented LV2:Instance support feature for optimizing LV2 DSP <-> UI transfers
• Official Steinberg VST 2.4 SDK is not required more for building VST plugins
• Added version check for JACK core libraries to prevent multiple installations conflict
• Requirements of naming JACK core library were reduced to only contain 'lsp-plugins' substring
• Added version check for VST core libraries to prevent multiple installations conflict
• Requirements of naming VST core library were reduced to only contain 'lsp-plugins' substring
• Ported Gtk2Box widget to X11UI widgets
• Ported Gtk2Button widget to X11UI widgets
• Ported Gtk2Cell widget to X11UI widgets
• Ported Gtk2Grid widget to X11UI widgets
• Ported Gtk2Indicator widget to X11UI widgets
• Ported Gtk2Label widget to X11UI widgets
• Ported Gtk2Led widget to X11UI widgets
• Ported Gtk2Separator widget to X11UI widgets
• Ported Gtk2Switch widget to X11UI widgets
• Ported Gtk2Knob widget to X11UI widgets
• Ported Gtk2Meter widget to X11UI widgets
• Ported Gtk2Group widget to X11UI widgets
• Ported Gtk2Align widget to X11UI widgets
• Ported Center widget to X11UI widgets
• Ported Axis widget to X11UI widgets
• Ported Marker widget to X11UI widgets
• Ported Basis widget to X11UI widgets
• Ported PortAlias widget to X11UI widgets
• Ported Text widget to X11UI widgets
• Ported Mesh widget to X11UI widgets
• Ported Dot widget to X11UI widgets
• Ported IGraph widget to X11UI widgets
• Ported Gtk2Graph widget to X11UI widgets
• Ported Gtk2ComboBox widget to X11UI widgets
• Ported Gtk2Window widget to X11UI widgets
• Ported Gtk2File widget to X11UI widgets
• Ported Gtk2Body widget to X11UI widgets
• Ported Gtk2MountStud widget to X11UI widgets
• Implemented ScrollBar widget
• Implemented Edit widget
• Implemented ListBox widget
• Implemented Menu widget
• Implemented File Save/Open dialog
• Implemented Hyperlink widget
• Implemented Fader widget
• Implemented File saving widget
• Implemented basic clipboard support
• Code clean up and project tree refactoring
• Fixed inline display drawing issue related to GCC 6 optimization specifics (thanks to Robin Gareus)
• Changed maximum sample length of the Schlagzeug plugin up to 64 seconds
• Changed maximum sample length of the Triggersensor plugin up to 64 seconds

New release 1.0.26 available.

• Implemented Latenzmessgerät - Latency Meter plugin.
• Fixed horizontal meter widget rendering.

Source Code Release (SCR) Version 1.0.2 of plugins now available!

The donation goal of $300 for the Phase Detector plugin has been reached some days ago thanks to your donations.

• Published source code for the LSP Phasendetektor - Phase detector plugin.
• Updated core modules up to 1.0.24 version.

Source code release 1.0.2 is accessible from SVN repository at SourceForge.net... read more

The new release of LSP Plugins is available! This release does not contain huge impreovements but we have another good news: Stefano Tronci aka Crocoduck has joined to LSP Project team and provided his first plugin!

The complete set of changes:

• Implemented Oszillator - Oscillator utility plugin.
• Fixed CPUID bug that caused Segfault on 32-bit systems.
• Added version to the name of the VST core library to prevent possible conflicts with previous installations.
• Added version to the name of the JACK core library to prevent possible conflicts with previous installations.
• Updated debugging engine that allows to write trace file into /tmp.
• Fixed UI hangup when showing plugin's UI related to gtk_dialog_run() issue.

New release 1.0.23 available. Mostly it's a bug-fix release.

• Fixed buffer overflow in Slap-back Delay plugin series happening with frame size larger than 512 samples.
• Updated expression language for the UI: added literal expressions that are more friendly with XML syntax.
• DSP core functions re-engineering and DSP core interface refactoring.
• Covered many of SSE DSP functions with unit tests.