cat-plugin-player

A lightweight app for easily playing audio plugins. It utilizes UAPMD and is written in Rust.

Previous Challenges and What This App Solves

• Audio plugin timbres are amazing!
• To play them, it often requires launching a DAW and performing preliminary setup for playback.
• Lightweight apps for easy playback sometimes require account registration to obtain, or their operation felt “not for me.”
• Nowadays, if you have a desired UX, you can achieve it through “vibe coding.”
• So, I decided to do just that.

Features

• Detection
  • Upon launch, it automatically detects installed plugins.
• Playback
  • Pressing the Load button automatically starts playback after the plugin is loaded.
• GUI
  • You can display the plugin’s GUI by pressing the Show UI button.
• Sound
  • To change the sound/timbre, use the plugin’s GUI.

Features (Detailed additions by AI. Will revise later as it’s a bit hard to read)

• Playback
  • The last played plugin instance is saved to %LOCALAPPDATA%\cat-plugin-player\config.toml and regenerated for automatic playback on the next launch.
  • It remembers when Load is successful, when Sequence is turned on, or when a Test note is played. The memory persists even after stopping or Remove.
  • Saved items include the plugin’s format, ID, name, vendor, and file location. This does not include saving timbre or parameters changed within the plugin.
  • On startup, it directly loads the previous plugin and starts playback, then initializes the GUI and scans the list in the background.
  • If direct loading is not possible due to old history or file relocation, it is restored from the scan results after GUI display. Old history is updated once played.
  • Refer to docs/startup-timing.md for startup time measurement methods and results.

Build & Test Procedures

• Prerequisite: First, build UAPMD. Please refer to its documentation for procedures. On Windows, it’s easy if you have Microsoft C++ Build Tools installed! If not, it’s easy to install by asking AI! The general idea is that AI makes everything easy!
• Next prerequisite: If Rust is not installed, it’s easy to install by asking AI!
• As mentioned, confirm that ../uapmd is already built.
• Confirm that an audio plugin (instrument) like Surge XT is installed. For example, confirm that Surge XT plays sound in REAPER.
• Run cargo run (the app will be debug-built).
• Confirm that the window opens.
• Confirm that Surge XT, etc., are listed on the screen.
• Click the Load button.
• Confirm that it loads and produces sound.

Future Brainstorming

• May change depending on my mood.
• Plugin compatibility
  • Many plugins that cmrt can detect are not detected by this app.
    • CLAP plugins are an example; only about 2 out of 10 are detected.
• Effect routing
  • Start small. First one. Then serial. cmrt already achieves this.
• Extend the unique strength of supporting VST3 and GUI, which cmrt lacks.
  • Screenshots
    • Save screenshots of opened GUIs to the config directory, and the plugin launcher displays them, allowing visual selection.
      • Previous challenge: choosing plugins based on text makes the eyes glaze over.
        • With images, selection can be intuitive. It might prevent the eyes from glazing over. Worth testing.
    • Consider: cmrt’s method of selecting plugins across the board by filtering patch names is also good in its own way. The plan is to verify both approaches concurrently.
  • Automatic GUI operation?
    • Log GUI operations and reproduce snappy operations in cmrt’s TUI? As a hint for plugin-specific adaptations?
  • Play around with egui
    • Keyboard display?
    • Waveform display?
    • Grid sequencer?
  • Snapshot, state save
    • Recall a favorite timbre with a preferred type of shimmer reverb inserted, with a single shortcut key.
• Utilize various cmrt crates for various functionalities.
  • This also refines the crates, and we benefit from using them, so it’s a win-win.
  • Patch selector
    • Can detect preset patches for CLAP audio plugins.
  • CLI import / export
    • The cmrt keyboard screen can play a sound with one command from the CLI, specifying patch, effect, arpeggio, etc. Make the same possible (to the level where changing cmrt to cat-plugin-player is all it takes to play).
      • Frequent destructive changes are acceptable. Manual migration is possible later. It’s better than fearing changes, becoming stuck, and halting progress.

Concept, What It Aims For

• Instrument
  • For example, a synthesizer with a MIDI keyboard plays a sound when you power it on and press a key.
    • We aim for that level of ease of use.
      • Minimize operations required to produce sound.
• Sound Production
  • We aim to maintain, as much as possible, “that it plays in the author’s environment.”
• Instant Playback
  • Perceived 0.2 seconds from app launch to sound. Playback is optimized for maximum speed.
    • Processing like GUI display preparation is also done after the sound.
      • Sound playing before the GUI appears might be considered a sound version of a splash screen.
    • You need to run the release-built .exe directly (running via cargo involves timestamp checks, and debug builds include debug code, both of which add to startup time).
• Educational Use
  • It is oriented more towards educational use than commercial use.
• Experimentation, Exploration, Personal Use
  • Frequent destructive changes will be made.

Casual Thoughts Corner

• Related to the concept
• I like the preset sounds of audio plugins.
  • Because they are reproducible.
  • Because they are shared freely, everyone can benefit.
• I want to provide an instrument UX.
  • I want to provide an instrument UX, not a DAW UX.
• What is an instrument?
  • It is the sum of each layer from audio plugins to PC keyboards.
    • There is an intermediate layer.
      • That is the plugin host, the playback UI.
        • This is a layer that can be “vibe-coded.”
        • By creating this, UX can be improved.
• For whom is this instrument?
  • Cats, babies
    • In other words, the target range is broadened towards beginners, even including cats and and babies (e.g., on Android tablets).
  • This is merely a metaphor. Whether it actually runs on Android tablets is unconfirmed. The likelihood of effort being made to make it work on Android if it doesn’t is also low.

Out of Scope, Not Aimed For

• Robustness
  • Absolutely no bugs, no app crashes, no matter what.
  • Full compatibility. Loads and operates with all past settings and data.
• Features
  • Equipped with all conceivable features. Usable for all purposes.
• Convenience
  • Pursuing convenience and ease of use to the extreme.
• Performance
  • High-speed operation with no CPU load in any environment. Sound will never drop out.
• User Requests
  • Immediately responding to all user requests.

License

• MIT