[Feature Request] CLAP support and per-voice modulation

Software Instruments Pigments
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#1

I’d like to request CLAP plugin format support for pigments (and other v collection synths) in a future update. A few reasons why this would be nice:

  1. Improved performance. Pigments I believe is already multicore capable, but with clap in theory this can be better negotiated between the host and the daw which has the possibility to provide better performance. One of my main issues with pigments currently is it’s CPU requirements unfortunately which limits the number of simultaneous instances possible.

  2. Pigments already does well with the basic MPE support, but it would be fantastic to extend this to have per-note automation/modulation implemented as well (as well as non-destructive modulation).

  3. Arturia Preset management shared with the DAW, being able to choose whether to use the daw browser to load arturia presets or the inbuilt arturia browser would be nice, and have the two remain in sync

Right now reaper and bitwig seem to be the main daws that support clap, but it seems like other large daws like FL and presonus are considering or working on it, so I imagine this will expand over time.

5 Likes
#2

Hey @pike welcome to our Sound Explorers community!

Thanks for sharing your ideas of improvements for Pigments, we really appreciate our community’s feedback.

We will mark this topic as a feature request to let our team know about it.

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Let’s keep exploring :zap:

#3

Hi,

I believe Arturia was one of the first to begin evaluating CLAP.

It sound like a great format, that could become a common standard.
Lets see if Steinberg and Apple will join.

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#4

Fair point. Would be really interested in the insights from that evaluation.
After all, Arturia has been among the most active adopters of MTS-ESP and MPE is still making its way across the software lineup.
(Speaking of which… the company would be ideally positioned to lead the way in adopting MIDI 2.0 in both software and hardware. I love Polyphonic Expression and microtuning so much that I’m beyond ready to explore the innovations promised by the M2WG before the pandemic.)

Which means that the team isn’t averse to adopting stopgap (MPE) and emerging (MTS-ESP) innovations from outside the company.

So, what Arturia devs think about CLAP is quite relevant. As @pike says, there are some interesting connections with Arturia technology, especially in the case of Pigments.

It’s hard to assess Apple’s dedication to Audio Unit. Because, Apple. It wouldn’t be extremely surprising if it made it easier to adopt CLAP. A “totally amazing outcome” would be if CLAP could make its way to iPadOS. Stranger things have happened.
In Steinberg’s case, the fact that CLAP development is a direct answer to issues with VST3 adoption (and VST2 licensing) makes for an interesting situation. The company’s leadership may eventually understand the depth of those problems and adapt their ways to shifts in the industry. What’s more likely to happen, though, is that the company’s position will become increasingly entrenched.

As for standards, there were mentions of xkcd927 when u-he and Bitwig put CLAP on the map. Thing is, the proliferation of plugin formats is a symptom of something deeper and the standardization process is remarkably complex. CLAP doesn’t need to “win” for plugins released in that format to remain useful to us.

Of course, a big part of the issue has to do with tooling and technological debt. Which becomes an exercise in cost/benefit analysis. It wouldn’t be surprising if Arturia had CLAP prototypes “in its pocket” as a risk mitigation strategy. Yet I wouldn’t be surprised if the company’s priorities and tactics didn’t align with CLAP adoption.

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#5

I did’nt make a point. Just informed about what i know about Arturias CLAP status.

I don’t think we shall exspect Arturia will say anything before it’s a fact they will go CLAP, if it will be a fact.

We must exspect they are eveluating and testing allready. Interest from users might help. I think developers like Arturia are interested and will use the format, if it both make technical and economical sense for them.

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