Sonic TALK Special: New CLAP Plug-in Format

US We chat with the developers      18/06/22

Last week u-he and Bitwig announced their new open format CLAP plug-in (CLever Audio Plug-in API) which is a new standard aimed at cleaning up the somewhat variable standards found in many plug-in formats and introducing new, modern standards to take advantage of more current computing power and automation requirements.

Its a bold move but have been in development for almost 8 years through an initial idea from coder Alexandre Bique. Standards are hard to make stick but Bitwig and u-he have implemented CLAP within Bitwig 4.3 (coming imminently) and with u-he's range of plug-ins - also coming imminently. They've done the legwork to show the way forward.

We had a chat with Urs Heckmann (u-he), Placidus Schelbert (Bitwig) and Alexandre Bique (Bitwiig) about the why and wherefore of such a massive undertaking.

We also get an insight into what kind of capabilities CLAP will bring: preset interchange, collect and and save (excellent for samples). microtuning support, common browser, polyphonic modulation/automation, 50% increase in efficiency (Apple Silicon) and lots more besides.

For more information on the plug-in format:
https://github.com/free-audio/clap
Bitwig Public 4.3 Beta (CLAP support) - You need an account
https://www.bitwig.com/
The SURGE open source- CLAP ready instrument
https://surge-synthesizer.github.io/
A few videos demoing CLAP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqiQyg1uOWc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UktuhuADRuA

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