Airwindows Consolidated: Free Mac/Windows/Linux CLAP/VST3/AU/LV2!
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- Опубліковано 5 тра 2024
- github.com/baconpaul/airwin2r...
For many years, I've built up a library of DSP effects, executed in a stripped-down, retro-friendly format that is impossibly light and efficient compared to how plugins usually are. It's also completely overwhelming at nearly 400 plugins all with their own names (or iterations like Channel6, Channel7, Console8, Console9 and so on) and stuck on older formats like VST2, because for years I insisted that Steinberg might try to take away the legal right to put out VST2 plugins and I wasn't going to risk that, being committed to supporting all possible machines.
Airwindows Consolidated fixes all those things, at a stroke. It's just become the one true way for a lot of people to use the Airwindows plugin ecosystem, and it will be fully supported going forward as a format for all new plugins (at least, all new plugins that aren't themselves a giant leap forward, more on that later). What do you get?
Airwindows Consolidated is CLAP native, and gives you all the things special to that format (as seen in the Manual, running as a CLAP plugin in Bitwig!) A lot of us feel this is the format of the future. Now it's got all of Airwindows, native, and will continue to have the new plugins added.
Airwindows Consolidated is also VST3 native, so this is for the Cubase users and other folks who can't get on with VST2 for whatever reason. It's also for folks who can't handle the 'slider only' minimalist look: there's knobs! (the Rack version has knobs, jacks, and attentuators, because it's a Rack module!). It's also AU. It's also LV2. Lots of native formats!
There's also theming: it reads dark mode or light mode off your system setting, AND you can override that if you want. No more bright gray rectangles if you don't like them. At a stroke, a lot of known issues are just gone. You can type in values in a text box (heck, I can't even do that with my own VST2s in Reaper, only with the AUs).
Doesn't stop there: Airwindows Consolidated has screen reader support. Why, I ask you, shouldn't visually impaired musicians make AUDIO music? Airwindows Consolidated works with screen readers to properly read out all the text. So what's this 'all the text', how hard could that be?
Airwindows Consolidated contains the entire Airwindopedia. Every plugin shows the entire Chris explanation given on release, in a sidebar. That's close to a hundred and fifty thousand words, built in! And because you're not going to read a hundred and fifty thousand words just to get started…
Airwindows Consolidated contains a whole menu system, which defaults to 'Recommended'. That shows basically Airwindows' Greatest Hits, the ones you'll want to look at first. It's a much smaller list, and isn't always the most recent plugin in a series. For instance, Galactic2 is more specialized than the Recommended original Galactic. There's also 'Basic', which is a set of plugins that are easily understood and used when you're just getting started with mixing and music making, and 'Recent', which is just the newest stuff. And when you're ready, there's 'All Plugins', which opens up the menus to everything. (If you save a mix and then change the menus, it won't take away your plugin just because the new menu setting isn't listing it: you're safe there)
This is all you need. It might be the only Airwindows plugin you ever download, because there'll be a new build of it every week every time a new Airwindows plugin drops. Just re-download it and re-install. It has installers to make it easy for you to do that, and it's an open source project so it's hosted by Microsoft at their expense, not me and Paul. Downloading it costs us nothing, so go give it a try.
And who do you have to thank for this? Well, yes, it's all nearly-400 Airwindows plugins. If those didn't exist, neither would Airwindows Consolidated. But I wouldn't have been able to do this on my own, even as an open source developer. So this is thanks to the inspired work of Baconpaul, of the Surge XT synthesizer project, who also made my VCV Rack module be a thing (and it is essentially the same as this: it should have all the same features and all the new plugins, each week). The whole Surge XT project deserves your attention and support, and there's more than just Paul involved: for instance, EvilDragon has had lots of influence on the menu system, actively helped develop the categories, and at his request the entire Airwindows website now uses those same categories to help find stuff.
Airwindows Consolidated is out, and it's gonna be at the top of my list of ways to download my plugins. This is a big deal. I hope you like how much easier this has made the whole world of Airwindows :)
Paul says, "Alright chris, here's the last 36 hours:
Support double precision processing if your host does, not just float, using the plugin processDoubleReplacing branch
Move the settings menu from the bottom of the filter menu to a "cog" settings menu in the lower left
In the settings menu, add an option to show or hide the documentation which is sticky
Make the 'Airwindows' footer text no longer a link which surprisingly would open a browser; move the visit airwindows link to the settings/about menu
Adjust to a particular use of the VST3/AU API in Renoise which caused AW Consolidated to deadlock/crash"
Renoise just had a bugfix release with fixes related to vst3's, does it still crash in the latest Renoise, if so please report in the bugforum.
This is revolutionary and shows the beauty of open source. The included documentation and the various ways to sort, filter and search are great solutions to allow effective sifting through your enormous library of plugins. Big fan of the "chris order" as a sort order.
Huge thanks to baconpaul, surge xt and you for making this possible
I'm glad you like Chris Order :) I lobbied for that one, because I felt some people would find it a lot more helpful than alphabetical order. Some folks really like alphabetical order, and if you know the names of the plugins and what they do, it's great. But, well, um, er :D the whole point of Chris Order is for ALL the people who have no idea what anything is. If you're just exploring, use that and go from top down :) then you can even use All Plugins, sort of! You can also affect Chris Order, Basic, and Recommended. Ask me to change them and they can be changed by popular demand without Paul having to recode anything.
@@airwindowsi love the chris order! It was always a challenge to pick the right aw plugin for me.. Ive been dreaming and requesting such guidence for some time now. Hope we get an analog emulation subgrouo witha chris order. Greetings and all the best
As a screen reader user, I thank you for collaborating with the Surge Synth Team not only to make this happen, but to make it accessible to our assistive technology. Even simply flipping through with the next preset button is enough to spark interest in certain AirWindows plugins I hadn't previously used. Just being able to do that, and make the association in my brain for later refinement is big enough, but to then be able to read the commentary within the plugin itself is huge.
Paul's told me this: "so maybe tomorrow at start of day you want to do a post or comment on the various socials about what we found and fixed day 1. That list is
All systems:
Add mousewheel support on the knobs. How could we have forgotten!
Further fix the problems involving the plugin not switching when audio processing wasnt running
Windows UI:
Menu follows HDPI status of the plugin and isn't tiny
Fixed a problem with font metrics which made all windows fonts too small, and low DPI ones unreadable
Linux:
Move the setting sfile from ~/AirwindowsConsolidated to ~/.config/AirwindowsConsolidated"
So there you go, that's the first day. We are agreed that Consolidated isn't going to become a multi-effects unit, and that we can't change the plugin name as shown in the DAW. Still, not bad for the first day of existence! Re-download it from the links at Github if any of these above problems seem like they'd be good to have fixed, because work is underway and often already done :)
as someone who recently discovered airwindows and was simultaneously very excited and very intimidated by the sheer quantity - i'm really looking forward to exploring with the help of AWC. thanks to all involved!
THIS IS HUGE! If anyone is overwhelmed by just how many tools Chris makes, THIS is your ticket to Airwindows instant gratification. It's not just all-plugins-packaged-together etc, it's how quickly/smoothly you can fly though so many different 'flavors' of the same category (& I definitely appreciate Chris' recommendations lists :)
Also, if you're using a midi controller (for instance to control Ableton's Device Parameters) each time you click a new Airwindows tool here, the Parameters update on your controller as well.
Considering the plugin size I thought it would be just a cool browser that scans airwindows plugs I already have... But no it's ALL OF THEM. This gives me a whole new appreciation to how lightweight those little effects are.
Yup! And it will continue to get all future plugins that will fit in it, which is where the Newest option comes in handy, you can get a new version after some time away, and find if anything you care about got an update of some sort :)
this is so fucking amazing. my struggle with your plugins was mostly knowing what they were right away without having to look it up which often broke the creative flow, and sometimes it was overwhelming to have 300+ plugins of yours and not using most of them. this is amazing, it's the piece that was missing. Thank you for your contribution to music, Chris, and thank you baconpaul for putting this together.
Awesome. Finally, a one-plugin all algorithms thing. Not gonna lie, keeping up with all the stuff manually was a major PITA, especially when everything has vague or numeric iterations as naming schemes. Now I can just pull up the master Airwindows plugin and get to work using sound rather than load ten different things to see what'll work on the current project. Good on ya mate
Also glad to hear screen readers mentioned. Honestly, Surge is amazing in that area too. Paul and co did a lotta work so blindos can use this stuff too rather than endlessly faff about with poorly labeled automation parameters that only have half the parameters available in a synth plugin. So in other words, what a time to be alive.
Thx Chris and Paul and everyone.
Who better to be able to hear properly? :) I'm proud to be able to call on the expertise the Surge folks have brought to bear here. The instant I heard about it I was like 'wait, you can do THAT? Do it do it do iiittt!' :D As for the one-plugin part: that is why it now goes to the TOP of my list along with its Rack counterpart. I couldn't put it as first call when I made plugins and it was only for Rack, but now it's the go-to option. I will continue to make stuff as individual plugins for retro purposes and smaller machines :)
Monumental news! Also this opens a new speedrun category: airwindows%, where the runner must install airwindows and launch the plugin in a DAW to stop the timer.
As a visually impaired daw-user the screen reader support is more than welcome - it's a game changer. Thnx guys.
You are an incredibly unique, generous, talented and fascinating individual! 🥹What a pleasure to exist at the same time as a genius like yourself! 🙌 This looks amazing! 🤩My personal brand of ADHD would otherwise have me drown in disarray, were I to pursue all of your plugins in standalone format! 😵💫 I look forward to arming myself with these ✨weapons of mass production✨, which you’ve so expertly crafted and cleverly consolidated for us! 😅 I salute you Chris, Paul & co.! 🫡
This is massive! Love the work you, SurgeXT and other people are doing!
This will be something to use in every project going forward
This is also where you can ask me to change Chris Order, or the Basic menu, or especially the Recommended menu. I can do that without Paul having to recode anything. So if you have suggestions for how those should go, make them or upvote them here and get more people to upvote the thing you're suggesting, because these are sort of community things, especially Recommended. It can include whatever you think is best! Let me know what should go there, if it's not there already :)
Hey hey! First of all, this is A-MA-ZING! I've been dreaming of this! Your plugins are awesome, but the sheer number of them - plus the individualitites of each one- made it cumbersome to explore! Having them collected all in one place WITH your descriptions is killer!
As for the menus... I think the concept of the orders looks cool as is, I'll definitely see as I work with Consolidated. How would you feel for a ''User'' menu though? A big part of the charm of airwindows is the ''mix-and-match-what-suits-you'' thing you can do with 400+ plugins.
I may need a couple of compressors, reverbs, utilites, etc for everyday use, and a dedicated user adjustable menu/collection (or multiple, user-named ones - though more far-fetched) would be very cool!
for me this looks good as it is and is amazing. since you make very specific vsts, its great to have all in a dropdown selector. i think for me the real next improvement would be, if i could select myself whats included when building the thing but i would expect that this is a big problem and out of scope.
@@LaymensLament Even just being able to hide certain plugins would work as space isn't much of a concern.
Interesting update!
Is it possible to add a button to enable or disable descriptions in plugins to save screen space? Something like [?] button. May be useful
This would require new programming to implement, I'm sure... But it would be really cool, eventually, to have the ability to make our own list of most used Airwindows plugins....
And especially in that mode, it would be really cool to also be able to go into small UI mode, once the plug-in is selected... With just the controls, no text (of course with the ability to enter search mode again and return to the larger GUI with a click)
This way of using airwindows plugs is a gamechanger! So much fun. Thanks Chris for your never ending input to the music world. If there is one thing that would make this experience even more special is if you can make little chains of effects within Consolidated. Just an idea. Keep up the good work & thanks!
this is amazing! Hats of to you both! this really makes the airwindows library user friendly - especially for people new to your plugins or mixing. Also i don't have 400 individual Plugins cluttering my search (as if i hadn't 1000s of other Plugins lol). Next step could be a Soundtoys Effects-Rack style plugin and online preset sharing.
This might answer all of the issues I had with really giving Airwindows plugs a fair shot. I really appreciate the decision to include the information about the plugins, and most importantly the KNOBS! the sliders in reaper were killing me
Thank you for all the work you do. I realize a comment might not fully convey proper appreciation, but for what it's worth, a genuine thank you for giving tools to folks who want to make music that might not be financially able to afford much.
And a personal thank you in return… for also caring :)
"One small step for a man... one Giant Leap for AirWindows!" - So glad to see this happening. This is in one word: AWESOMENESS! (pretty sure that's a word)
I would suggest adding ability to save presets to individual plugins, so that a 100 plugins wouldn't have to share the same list of presets
What stops you doing that now? The preset contains the sub plugin identity so if you just use your daw preset librarian it should all work. I exposed the default setting of each effect as a factory preset
@@baconpaul5772 I am using Reaper 7 on windows 10 x64. I am not a very advanced user. I don’t know if I am doing it wrong and there is a better way to organize presets. What I am seeing is a long list of default presets for VST3 version and an empty list for CLAP version. Anyway, if I want to save my own presets, they are stored in the same common list, in order of there creation, regardless of the plugin they belong to. Unless I manually order the presets, they are making a huge mess.
Also, there is a bug in CLAP version: I can’t switch between presets that I saved. It’s locked on the first preset that I ever saved and doesn’t switch to any other. I still can navigate via plugin menu, but preset menu isn’t working. VST3 version works properly.
SO generous, thanks mate.
This is so useful! Over the past month or so, I've been focused on organizing everything in my physical and digital space to make it easier to spend more time doing the things I enjoy. I even started a list to try to keep track of new plugins for music production and mixing since. This will make keeping track of all the airwindows plugins so much easier! I don't use screen readers myself, but it's so wonderful that people who do now have that option. Everyone should be doing this!
I'm from Brazil and forgive my terrible English.
Congratulations on your extraordinary work in sharing it for free with everyone. God bless you!
Wow what a beautiful evolution of airwindows technology for the people !! Thanks Chris and Paul and everyone involved!!
thanks Chris and everyone involved, I've already found a couple new favorites thanks to consolidated :)
Hi Chris, you really are the Great Wizard of music FXs, the Master Jedi of VSTs. How can you find so many incredible ideas for such original and inspiring FXs,? And you give them to us so generously. ( I love TapeDelay 1 & 2, Galactic, slewsonic ...) . They are so well thought, and subtly designed. Your VSTs are a gold mind to find a new sound. This Airwindows Consolidated is a fantastic idea. It works very well. Thank you very much Chris, and. take care.
This needed to be done for a while. I cannot keep track of the 100s of airwindows releases so much that I don't have them in my workflow anymore which is a shame because I know they offer so much potential. From a user POV it makes total sense that there is a suite version of plugins eg. Distortion suite which has all of the main distortions in there. Console suite, with all of those models. As artists and creators we need less options not more, having plugins that do more means we don’t need to know the ins and outs of 1000s of plugins and we can just do our jobs and focus again on making music instead of the technicals. But thats just one persons opinion of course! :-)
THE multi effect
Ahhh. I've been intrigued by Airwindows for a long time, but I've felt completely lost with it as I'm trying to learn things. This will certainly make it a lot easier to utilize the tools. Thank you!
This is amazing! Thank you Chris and Baconpaul!
Absolutely brilliant. This really simplifies the stuff that you've put out.
Well done Chris. Well done Paul and the Surge XT team.
Omgggg this is game changing!!! 😮😮😮😮😮😮 I just wanted this so much 👏👏👏👏 thank you soooo much
this is genuinely amazing. thank you and baconpaul for this
It's something really well thought out. Simple but very genius! Just as a suggestion, being able to chain some plugins in the same instance is a very natural path to follow, even if more in the future. Thanks again for that!
Just thank god for people like you truly enamored by the beauty driven to create. Thank you good sir 🙏🏾
Huge thanks to Paul for doing this.
The audio (-plugin) world is still benefiting far too little from the Open Source mindset in software, while demand as well as creativity are super high. Good to see that more and more audio technicians jump on the train. By open sourcing your content, you are not giving away anything for free (you can even sell open source software for money). Instead, you are exposing that stuff within an organized structure, that allows others to contribute to your craft, enabling them to improve it or to pull it into directions the author never even thought about, possibly emerging new craft ultimately. Which in turn you may or may not integrate within your craft. Its a winwin for everybody like in this case. Good job!
I will download it just because of Chris Order! :)
Thanks! It's very handy. I know and use many of your plugins, but I can't remember everything I read about all the stuff you did. So classification and description in a plugin is great idea!
Speaking of plugin format and compatibility.
I hope that one day plugins like BassAmp and DeBess will work on Windows ;)
This makes your plugins so much more accessible, this is amazing! I'd love a built in updater or version checker so I know when theres a new version
The answer is “new version every week” but I’ll think about how we could safely do a version checker.
congratulations on the milestone chris. i hope that many new people will be enjoying the AW experience in the next few weeks and months.
Thank you for your(everyone involved) work here!
I literally thought of an AI assistant that could help with airwindows plugins and describing them, and then lo and behold you drop this a few weeks later. I am so happy.
Baconpaul is my hero.
I'm not sure I've ever been so excited for something. This is so awesome. Thank you, Chris and anyone else that worked on this.
OMG, consolidated Airwindows is awesome. Dream comes true! Forget all the tons of other effect plugins with nice GUI's and weaker results, Airwindows covers really most of our needs!
This is fantastic! The commentary helps so much. Thank you!
The definition of "Multi-Effect". 😎
Thanks a ton for this! Also M1 compatibility is amazing!
For native M1 compatibility from the individual plugins that are found here, download the Signed disk images of either AUs or VST2s, and those have been Apple Silicon (and signed code) for some time :)
This is some remarkable stuff from audio engineering history right here.
A total gamechanger, thank you Chris
This is amazing! Glad to see others coming in & consolidating your work in a way that makes it less daunting for new people to start to try using it. Thank you to Surge XT!
This is *amazing* man, thank you so much!
glad people have a streamlined way of using airwindows now
big step for airwindows! thanks chris and baconpaul, and congrats!
woww, again !! and always !! crazy work you re doing!! 💥
This is just amazing. Superb work, long live open source!
Son of a bit shift!
Next time you're late, I won't worry!
So now Airwindows plugins have a graphic UI .A.N.D. a spoken one. You went from no UI to what the future of UIs should be: focused on accessibility and freedom (screen reader, search engine, dark mode, user manual always visible [I had the same idea for my JSFX plugins, yay!], no Steinberg, no Apple...).
Thank you Paul (for Surge and for this) and, as usual, thank you Chris.
P.S.: Drowning amongst hundreds of plugins and fighting my way through them was part of the fun of discovering Airwindows. Plus it made me learn a lot about both mixing and coding.
So I wanna say to new comers (and I already hear the crowd running to this new appealing free stuff with thousands of sliders): just because you got given a swimming suit doesn't mean you don't have to swim anymore, it only means you don't have to drown either.
Simply amazing. Oh, and generous too. I would encourage all of us to be generous in return!!!
I have no words for your work... Absolutely wonderful. Thank you!! 🙏🏽❤
So wonderful to see all the excitement! And great video Chris!
Surge xt is incredible and so is this. Truly appreciate your efforts.
Great work Chris. Thank you.
I'm out of words and getting chills. Wow! How absolutely delightful! Thank you!
That's awesome Chris and a big thank you to Baconpaul! I use your plugins actively and I know there's no bypass button but this is the first time I've ever needed one. Other daw's have a bypass button somewhere in the plugin but in ableton you always have to move the mouse to the bottom. I know the solution is simple but a tiny bypass button in this beauty with all your plugins can save time and would be great for ableton users like me :)
In Ableton there are container devices with bypass button AFAIK. Couldn't you just put airwindows inside one of those?
Awesome, thanks! Extra thanks for the screen reader support!
You Sir, are a redwood among mere sprouts.
oh wow. ive had these plugins in my list for so long but the sheer amount of them was so overwhelming i didnt really even know where to start
Thank you so much Chris, Paul and all the other contributors! Amazing work and it will definitely make it easier for beginners and pros alike to use the wide range of Airwindows plugins. Love it! 🙏💯❤️
Rack ui now in daw🙂 Great for exploration. Thanks Chris and Paul. TTS is something new i hope more developers make such great things
A very worthwhile effort for the Airwindows project that I'm sure will help folk use it better. Kudos for accessibility work.
Chris, great job! The only one thing I wanted to ask you - to add oversampling to all plugins (x2 x8 x8 x16) PLEASE!!!
Bravo Chris! Thank you so much for your hard work.
Amazing - super cool! Excited to try this out.
waiting for this for long 😊❤
Giving it a try for sure, downloading now !
This is AMAZING!
(I would, ofc, love to be able to create chains/racks (like waves studiorack) and i assume (?) that i can hide the text, but otherwise (or even still)... absolutely brilliant! Super excited to d/l.)
Excellent work !!!
Makes your marvellous creations so much more accessible 👍
I love the channel colour coding btw ...
Old soldering-iron jockey here. 😉
Just moved to M2, clean install. You saved me, ty!
Love this! Will be a go to for me in all future projects
Bravo Chris and all involved. Effing BRAVO!
Stunning - thank you so much.
AWESOME work! Thank you very much for this GREAT "plugin" of plugins!
this is an amazing update and will heavily improve my workflow!
Wowwww now I can use AirWindows inside Izotope RX this is huge!
Main this was so needed! Thank you sooooo much!! Working great in Logic
greatest plugin of all time hell yeah
WOW, thats amazing! Thank you 🌻
Please make an extra grouping of plugins that all try to replicate\emulate the analog chain\sound.. This was always a challenge for me, how too pick the correct plugins to get this desired effect that lots of your plugins try to achieve. I need an AW cook book of some kind : ). Great idea btw, like everything you do. Cheers
Thank you, bacon man!!! ❤
very good improvement, i will re-install it, before that there were too many : it bloated the plugins list, and it was time consuming to go through it...thanks
Fantastic! Thank you!
Amazing!! The best plugins housed in the best plugin.
Thank you for this!
Outstanding!
Holy shit!!! This is so good
Amazing ! 🧡
Amazing. Thanks a zillion!
Nice! It would be also nice if there's a way to stack effects as well in one plugin :D
I had those wallpapers. They are dynamic.
Also: great! Thanks!
this is great!
My favorite nerd