Home

Introduction

I had an idea for innovative VST audio plugins: Wouldn't it be great if the individual plugin instances were able to exchange data during runtime? Then they could for instance react to each other and adjust to whatever is going on in all tracks of the entire mix...

When I was looking for the right technology for the implementation, I found that also Java is a possibility for VST development. This choice offered me several advantages: Java is platform independent, my C++ knowledge is poor compared to my Java skills (and unfortunately I must admit that I'm no guru here either) and to see JavaVST in action is interesting as such (as it was also a project for my Master's).

And that's where the name came from: "Intra-Actively Communicating Java VST".

Now - as the project is stable to a greater or lesser extent - I want to know what other people think of the idea. End-users could try the example effects and come up with further ideas, programmers can use the framework to develop new plugins right away. Anyway, any feedback is more than welcome!

Java for VST Plugins?

IC.J.VST builds upon the great jVSTwRapper, which simplifies VST development in Java significantly! Please have a direct look at that project to learn the basics of JavaVST, as I don't want to cover everything again.

Possibilities and Advantages of IC.J.VST

To sum up, IC.J.VST plugins are like extended VST plugins and:

• completely platform independent
• able to use everything Java offers (also things like Java Swing GUIs, etc...)
• able to exchange any data during runtime (be it any kind of control data or even audio streams)
• not place bound and limited to only one computer, data exchange is also possible over any network (also the Internet)

So a lot of exciting things are possible now:

• innovative audio plugins
• streaming of audio:
  • from one track to another within any VST capable sequencer (and therefore things like sidechaining)
  • from one application to another and therefore:
    • the use of several different applications simultaneously
    • the use of several soundcards simultaneously
• extended DSP power by computing the effects on any remote computer